t0dd.net

Dvorak, the lie told ’round the world

by todd on 24/03/09 at 8:22 pm

So here’s another of the interesting conversations I’ve had in with John. The background is this: John is left handed, uses a trackball (which sits on the left), types using the dvorak layout on a Kinesis keyboard.

aside: If you want to know what a Kinesis is like put a bunch of keyboard keys in two cereal bowls in front of you and imagine typing with your hands in these bowls. They are amazingly comfortable to type on once you get used to it and once you do it will completely ruin you for any other keyboard. I use one too (minus the dvorak insanity) and I think that they’re what typing in heaven must be like.

For years we’ve laughed at him because all of this together makes his computer completely useless for anyone else to sit at and attempt to use. It’s kind of like a weird security measure.

Another fun bit of background is that John is the kind of guy that picks up some toy or game of skill (ie: juggling, yo-yos, poker) and 10 minutes after you’ve taught him how to use it, he’s beating you at it. His wife said it best when I commented on this phenomena shortly after we had met “Oh, now you get to play the ‘John’s good at everything’ game too”. He wins at everything

On with the story…He hipped me to this big conspiracy recently about his beloved dvorak keyboard layout. That’s a good article but it’s really long. I’ll summarize it thusly: Dvorak was a big fat liar and duped people in a big way with falsified evidence of how great his keyboard layout was. After reading this article John says that he’s thinking of switching back to Qwerty. Learning to touch type sucks. Un-learning and then re-learning how to touch type in a totally different way is madness. I’m sure he’s going to document the process more fully. I just tell you all of that to show you the following conversation in context.

Hawkins: I was going to say you pick a date and a Words Per Minute count and I’ll see if I can reach that goal by the time that date comes around.
Hawkins: With lunch on the line or something like that.
Hawkins: Lunch is always such a great thing to wager.
toddh: I wonder how fast I can type now? I haven’t tested since I got the Kinesis but that was before I was as good as I am now
Hawkins: Yeah, me neither.
Hawkins: http://www.typeonline.co.uk/typingspeed.php
Hawkins: let’s both do this.
toddh: k

…8 minutes pass as we both type furiously…

Hawkins: 64 words per minute with 4 mistakes. holy crap, that’s way faster than I would have expected…
toddh: 70wpm with 4 mistakes.
toddh: boom, I win!!
toddh: I -never- win!
toddh: Holy crap, is this how you feel -all the time- ?!
Hawkins: LOL!!!!
Hawkins: I’m retaking the test. lol
Hawkins: wow, is this how -you- feel all the time?
toddh: LOFL
Hawkins: you are going to print and frame this conversation, aren’t you?
toddh: Yup

Maybe I’m not framing it but I’m doing the next best thing and putting it on the Internet for all to behold. I played a game against John Hawkins and I won.