Proving yet again that people can get their knickers in a knot over the silliest things (and that the Internet enables them to share their pet peeves with a far vaster audience than they probably deserve), I see that a guy named Pieter Hintjens has launched a campaign to rid the world’s keyboards of that pesky CAPS LOCK key. From his blog manifesto:
The CAPS key is an abomination. We all know that. It’s a huge key, stuck right there where the Ctrl used to be, and as far as I know, it’s only used by 419 scammers and Fortran programmers.
Now, I can understand that the keyboard producers of the world don’t really appreciate the problem. For them, one key is as good as another, and no-one’s complained, so why change a perfectly good model?
Obviously the keyboard producers have been so indoctrinated that they don’t even inspect their own products any longer. Listen, dudes: no-one wants that crummy CAPS key. It’s history. It dates back to the times when bold meant going back and typing the same text twice.
And so I have launched CAPSoff, a campaign to change the world, one key at a time. We’re going to start with the CAPS LOCK key, which is fat and useless and has no friends, so should be an easy target. Maybe after that we can gang up on the SysRq key.
Um, okay. Now, I’m no fan of the CAPS LOCK key, or of any button on my PC really, except the bright red one marked “Do not push,” but this is the height of self-absorbed frivolity as far as I’m concerned. A campaign to change the world one key at a time? Good lord, why not devote that energy to something that actually matters, like getting real sugar back into Coca-Cola instead of that damned corn syrup?
But maybe this isn’t really about changing anything. Maybe this is simply about is getting some attention. And he’s already accomplished that, hasn’t he?
You’re right and he’s wrong anyway. I use caps lock all the time. He’s concerned about it taking up space on the keyboard? Sounds like he’s taking up space on the planet.
HOWEVER, I would join a campaign to get rid of the Insert key. One slip off the backspace key, and you’re typing over the text next to the thing that you just tried to correct. Then you try to fix that mistake in the normal way and you’ve made it worse. It’s as if the laws of physics have suddenly been replaced by something close, but disasterously wrong.
Typers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your dignity.
Um, I need the CAPSlock key. In the ancient Advantage system I use at work, eveything is done in CAPS. It would make my day pure HELL if I didn’t have that key.
I dislike the NumLock key myself, or at least of the one on my keyboard at work. The damn thing should be on all the time, shouldn’t it? But it’s not… I reach over to the 10-key pad to input some numbers and the next thing I know my cursor is zapping all over the screen. And why do they have directional controls on the number pad anyhow, when there’s another set of up-down-left-right arrows right next to it?
. . . and the function keys, the Fn key, the alt key, the ctrl key, the scroll key, the pause key, the print screen key, the sys rq key, the OTHER alt key, and the OTHER ctrl key. And this dude’s complaining about caps lock?
The real question, I guess, is whether you prefer the external mouse, the touchpad, or the red button. I use an external mouse and work and a touchpad at home. The red button feels a bit awkward at first, but it’s probably the best of all three in terms of saving your joints.
I’ve not had a lot of experience with laptops, so on the rare occasion I use one, I find the touchpad incredibly awkward and strange. I can’t seem to make that silly pointer go where I want using only my finger; I find it far quicker and more accurate to use a mouse.
I assume that when you say “red button” you’re referring to a trackball type controller. I, of course, means something like this:
http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=9644
Oh, that is an EVIL red button. I just wasted 10 minutes on it…
You were warned not to push it…
I’m guessing Robert means the red button mouse device built into most IBM laptops. Not sure of any others that use it at this point. I know Sony, HP and Apple don’t. I have owned all three.
I like the touchpad, very used to it unless I have to to fine detail work and need a mouse…
As for the CAPS ON – how about we invent the “CAPPER” – I can already hear jingle.. “Caps on… Caps off… Caps on, Caps off… The Capper!”
Catchy, eh?
Cheno, do you mean that little joystick doohickey that looks like a pencil eraser? I’m not too keen on those either… but then I’m a grumpy old fart, too. As my dad always says, they just need to put a knob and a toggle switch on the bloody things…
Yes, it’s the pencil eraser doohicky.
Now, in revenge for the Red Button website, I give you . . . Virtual Bubble Wrap!!!!
http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/popnow.shtml
Oh, you blasphemous bastard, you! That is truly, truly an Eeeeeee-vil website! (Sure is fun, though!)
Actually, he is against people typing in ALL CAPS.
It’s SHOUTING!
but no caps doesn’t bother him