You will encounter this man at work.
They will ask for your help with something on their workstation, and it would be faster for you to drive with them watching over your shoulder, but this cryptic thing is their keyboard.
Instead, you will be forced to sit behind them like Patrick Swayze guiding Demi Moore at a throwing wheel. You will eventually take your shirt off, launch Unchained Melody in Spotify, then slowly guide them through a system setting panel.
You will notice how soft their hands feel. The hyper-ergonomic keyboard has allowed their fingers to move with minimal effort, allowing the skin to remain supple, smooth - almost unused.
You will ask yourself, “Is he right?” How could a keyboard be so aggressive and wrong, and yet, support something so gentile.
You try to deny the feeling. Your friends and family will mock you like your uncle Dvorak. Maybe you start with a trackball and see if being naughty feels right.
Ergorotic literature.
I thought that was rowing machine porn.
This is coiling my cable just thinking about it.
Imagine having a keyboard like this, and still needing to be guided through a system settings menu.
This is just ads with extra steps
Sawme here! Honmestly I dom"t thinkl I coukd ever go vack tp a mormal keyboard ¶¶¶¶
That’s ok, insanity comes in many forms.
When I was a kid, I got my hands on a PS/2 Y-adapter and so typed on two keyboards - left hand on one on my desk, right hand on one on a keyboard tray. I don’t know what my typing speed and accuracy were then, but a few years back an entire office of people tried to beat me in a typing test and couldn’t. Since then I’ve taken a typing test on a laptop while sitting in a hotel bed and gotten a score of 158 with, IIRC, 98.2% accuracy. (This was my best score but even since then all of my typing evaluations have gone well.)
I also use a trackball as exclusively as my environment allows, including while gaming (other than Minecraft). I’m not remotely a pro, but among my peers I tend to score highly in, for example, FPS’.
I’m not trying to brag; there are many better than I in both categories. The reason I bring these up is to demonstrate that something being the convention doesn’t automatically make it better and something being unfit for your preferences doesn’t make it inferior.
edit: AFAIK, I only have one left hand.
Which trackball? I was looking at them the other day but couldn’t decide
My favorite has always been the Kensington Orbit. Probably a lot of people - even those who like Trackballs - would disagree, but I’ve been happily using these for around 25 years. Except in Minecraft.
Why are you so vehemently opposed to the use of trackballs in minecraft?
I wouldn’t characterize it as vehemence, but rather a combination of consistency and honesty. People are fairly consistently surprised at my enthusiasm for gaming with trackballs, as though it’s automatically a detriment; I don’t find it to be so, except in Minecraft, so I don’t want to represent it as other than it is.
With the style of trackball I use - ball in the middle, left and right click on their respective sides of the ball - and the way I use it - thumb on left click, index and middle finger on the ball, ring and pinky on right click - right clicking can be a stressor. This isn’t a problem when tapping once or holding, such as when engaging a scope; but when repeatedly right clicking, it tires whatever muscles and tendons run between the outside of my hand and my shoulder, which already has its own problems.
Minecraft is the only game I play that requires me to repeatedly right click. (I know that now you can right click and drag to place lots of blocks, but that hasn’t always been true and doesn’t really allow for precision in my experience.) Therefore, it is the only game to which I feel my trackball is not well suited.
Have you considered remapping that control away from right click?
My mouse has five inputs: left click, right click, scroll wheel (not including clicking), ball movement and emulated middle clicking by simultaneously clicking left and right.
I can’t see any of those being better than right clicking and neither a keyboard nor a controller seem preferable.
edit: correct a word.
So is this the new trend after 60% mechanical keyboards, ultrawide monitors or immutable distros ?
Maybe it would improve my typing speed, but I’ve been using a conventional keyboard layout for so long now, I’m fine with where I’m at. Almost thirty years of muscular memory made it “hard coded” in my hands.
it seems to be perfect for people who are not working on a desk
Can you recommend a cheap split keyboard? I’m not sinking 300$ to discover I hate it
Keychron has a cheap one
180£ isn’t cheap
180 for a keyboard - not cheap
180 for a split mechanical keyboard - relatively cheapI’m not aware of any other split keyboard that’s cheaper.
I think one of my favorite keyboards ever was a Microsoft “Natural” keyboard. I think they were available in the mid ’90s or so. Not quite a real split keyboard, but the ergonomics were great. I think I gave it away…it was great for typing, but I wanted a simpler keyboard for gaming.
Here’s what I want: tiny, one handed bluetooth chord keyboard.
For typing on my phone. Can someone make one?
Aren’t there hundreds? Like this one? Or maybe I don’t know what you mean by “chord” keyboard, or you want more tiny?
Split keyboard + a tiling window manager made my life better
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Sway
I’ve used plenty of ergo keyboards and fancy layouts, but as soon as I try to use a regular keyboard I have to re-learn how to type and it really halts any productivity.
This sort of thing may be nice if you only ever use one computer or you’re willing to pack around your keyboard.
Even still, I never liked ergo boards enough to think it’s worth the effort, especially considering being useless on other keyboards once I’m used to ergo.
Now I just stick to a 75% or TKL. Keeps me versatile.
I don’t have this experience, I am briefly confused for a second and then it’s fine, are you sure this lasts more than like 30 seconds?
There’s a dude developing out a neat split keyboard that’s ergo but you are typing in like chunks of words or something.
Looks like your fast af once used to it.
Each finger goes up down left right i believe. Can’t remember the name!
It’s quite refined looking.
Do you mean the CharaChorder? I thought about getting one in the past bit it looks like a super steep learn curve and I’m not sure if I’m willing to subject myself to it.
YES, thank you.
My brain was stuck on chroma, which made no sense, lol.
I thought the exact same thing, but the thing is, i switched to a trackball mouse and I will never go back…
So some times it’s worth it.
I grew up with trackballs because my dad preferred them to the old mice with a ball underneath. So for office work I still use one too. But it’s still just a pointing device so I’d say it would be similar to learn using a split keyboard or a dvorak layout or something. You’d still press one key after antother.
The CharaChorder is so different in the way your “typing” multiple keys at once. I feel like it has such a steep learning curve because you have to not only learn another button layout but the whole way your thinking about typing and writing in general. I’m afraid I’d just get frustrated and never use it, even though I thinks it’s extremely cool.
Where’s the rest of the keys? Also these things give off Nintendo Power Glove vibes.
It uses layers, the same way a phone keyboard has a separate layer for numbers and symbols. Holding down one of the three thumb keys on either side activates a new layer. Since you can use your thumb and fingers at the same time, there’s no lose in typing speed. Indeed, the layout puts numbers and symbols closer to the home row on a layer than using a physical number number.
For all symbols, you would have needed a shift-modifier to access those before. With this design, the symbols are closer but use a layer switch key instead of a shift key to access them.
Everyone who uses a phone keyboard has learned a new compact keyboard layout. It’s not so hard.
Imagine playing Dwarf Fortress in a recliner with a pair of these.
Hmmm… I see a balding fat dude wearing a lot of Cheeto dust on his shirt
