How come.

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 2:12 pm

sgtpepper wrote:Dvorak makes typing with your eyes closed easy! The keys are organized in an easier way!

right, until you have to use somebody elses 'normal' keyboard and then it's like speaking a foreign language backward.

I've spent over 20 years in front of a keyboard and I've done fine by touch since I was 12 or so. Of course now I'm in my mid-20's and it's looking like disability pay for my wrists when I leave this current job in a few months...

Post by **bicostp** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 2:14 pm

My completely random typing style revolves around the "whatever finger's closest to the key I want to press" and "press this sequence with this hand to make this word" methods. It's really hard to explain, impossible to teach, but after years of refinement I can get about 37 WPM on average, 45 peak, with a decent accuracy percentage. The left hand stays pretty much still while the right hand is flying all over the place to different parts of the keyboard.

If you want to test your typing, here's a pretty decent Javascript test:
http://www.typeonline.co.uk/typingspeed.php

And on the original topic, maybe you're looking at the keyboard more than you thought, or it could all be in your mind.

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 2:32 pm

thanks for the link. I've sped up a bit since my last typing class back in highschool, though I'm nowhere near 'record grade.' Of course back in highschool, I was also much happier with the performance of my hands when not typing.

Keyboarding is not a healthy sport. It *will* ruin your hands, it's just a matter of time. I've tried a variety of ergonomic solutions, which ease the trouble, but none have worked 100%.

It's gotten so bad that I cannot play any of the current gen handhelds (gp2x, ds or psp) for more than about 15 minutes before my hands begin to go numb, and a half hour or so in my fingers become noticably sluggish or stop moving altogether. For some reason, original GBA and Micro are okay on my hands, but SP is a killer.

I wouldn't mind seeing bicostp type someday. It sounds kind of like how I 1-hand (one hand on mouse, the other on keyboard) but it's hard to say. My speed suffers terribly when I do that, but it's probably because I'm mousing too.

Post by **Triton** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 2:37 pm

i average right around 50 wpm with a few mistakes (capitalization and a few typos mostly) according to bics little typing test there, i can type with my eyes close and in the dark but it IS harder in the dark. i know where the keys are but if i move my hands sometimes i lose the locations lol. i dont use home row and usually use like 4-6 fingers to type lol here is my result

two words with double capitals and one with transposed letters, not bad lol

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 2:44 pm

According to Bic's test, I type 74 WPM with 1 mistake, and that was going back and fixing 3 other typos! I use the 8-finger method, pointers on F and J, etc. etc. I remember when I was younger, in elementary school, I used to feel like crap because I was the slowest typer in the entire class, and the teacher said I would fail in the "real world" if it was a skill that I couldn't develop. Needless to say, by the end of the 5th grade, I was one of the fastest typists in my grade.

Reaperman@home wrote:Keyboarding is not a healthy sport. It *will* ruin your hands, it's just a matter of time. I've tried a variety of ergonomic solutions, which ease the trouble, but none have worked 100%.

It's gotten so bad that I cannot play any of the current gen handhelds (gp2x, ds or psp) for more than about 15 minutes before my hands begin to go numb, and a half hour or so in my fingers become noticably sluggish or stop moving altogether. For some reason, original GBA and Micro are okay on my hands, but SP is a killer.

Really? I consider myself a rather speedy typist, and I do it often. Should I be worried? I guess I never really thought about getting carpal tunnel so early!

CTFan

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 2:52 pm

CronoTriggerfan wrote: Really? I consider myself a rather speedy typist, and I do it often. Should I be worried? I guess I never really thought about getting carpal tunnel so early!
CTFan

You are quick, and I would worry about it early. Think of it this way, back in the 1980's your average retired typist had developed severe carpal tunnel problems after only 20-25 years, and had spent far less time on a keyboard per day than we do now. They'd type up a couple letters and spend the rest of the day answering phones--now we have entire jobs which revolve around data entry, not to mention our leisure time.

Granted keyboards back then weren't as comfortable as current ones, and the dangers of repetitive stress disorders weren't fully known, but all our modern gizmos do is buy a little more time. There are also still bad keyboards out there--on laptops especially. Avoid them.

I'd been on a keyboard daily since I was 3-4, and started showing symptoms in my last year of highschool. That's under 15 years. It just slid downhill from there--now I'm in the world of hand braces and special gaming controllers. The doc's talking about possible 25% disability for a problem usually associated with people at least twice my age.

When the internet generation gets close to retirement, our hands will be practically falling off. If somebody would just build something like a neural implant for data entry, I think I'd be the first in line.

Super Cameraman · Post by **Super Cameraman** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 3:15 pm

Shadeslayer wrote:You need to learn how to type with all 8 fingers. That will help with typing in the dark.

Normal people have 10 fingers.

bioniclebert · Post by **bioniclebert** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 3:36 pm

I learned to type from playing counterstrike and TFC. The faster I could type, the less often I'd get killed typing. It totally worked.

Though I don't type as properly as one should, I have an average (according to that test) of 40 WPM. The only reason I didn't like the test was because I couldn't necessarily type those strange words in a faster sequence than something I had already thought of in my head. Not to mention the use of obscure words, and places. (gave me names of cities)

I believe if one is typing their own words they could be typing at a much faster rate than typing what somebody else had written, and just copying it.

gamemasterAS · Post by **gamemasterAS** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 3:39 pm

I am kinda afriad I am gonna mess my hand up bad now.

Post by **Triton** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 3:50 pm

Normal people have 10 fingers.

thumbs =/= fingers, 99% of the time the thumbs are on the spacebar while typing anyway

wallydawg · Post by **wallydawg** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 3:51 pm

Super Cameraman wrote:
Shadeslayer wrote:You need to learn how to type with all 8 fingers. That will help with typing in the dark.
Normal people have 10 fingers.

you don't really use your thumbs for much though, just the space bar I guess.

The posted test I got 66 wpm, 2 mistakes as I said "MAdame" and put in an extra space in a super hyphened word. I slowed down a bit too when they had me spell two weird town names haha.

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 5:46 pm

Typing test wrote:Your speed was: 62wpm.

You made 1 mistake, your mistake is shown in bold text:

I think I could have done better, too! (though the spell check in firefox did alert me to an error or two)

Post by **Skyone** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 6:04 pm

I got an 82WPM with no mistakes. I was never taught to type properly, I think I just have muscle spasms.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 12:09 am

Reaperman@home wrote:I wouldn't mind seeing bicostp type someday. It sounds kind of like how I 1-hand (one hand on mouse, the other on keyboard) but it's hard to say. My speed suffers terribly when I do that, but it's probably because I'm mousing too.

That sounds like me, I have to look at the keyboard or else I'll hit every key around the one I want. I like it because my mouse is always ready, it makes it easier to type something and switch tabs or windows. Its slow for copying stuff, so I'm also ok at touch typing with both hands for when I need to, or for typing something long from my head. My left forearm gets tired after a while of intense typing, and within half an hour when playing an intense FPS.

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 12:13 am

"Your speed was: 42436wpm."

LOL @ Copy+paste