Out of the Blue [Dec 07, 2004, 09:56 am ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
I just need to vent a little here. I ruined a keyboard with a coffee spill
yesterday, and contrary to the logic that might suggest a cheap replacement was
in order for an item that had suffered such a carelessness-related demise, I
picked up a fancy Microsoft wireless desktop as a replacement. Now I am
suffering with a couple of inconveniences using it, because they have decided
that the small array of keys above the arrow keys (home, insert, etc.) needed
rearranging. Specifically, the six keys are now five, and instead of being two
rows and three columns, the keys are now in two columns, with the insert key
removed from the mix and placed on the top row to share a key with PrtScrn and
SysRq (talk about marginalized -- I guess some folks find accidentally hitting
Insert as welcome as the Caps Lock). This all completely messes with my
instinctive use of all these keys, and why? Because they decided the delete key
needed to be twice as tall as it was for some reason. Also, the 12 function keys
that are traditionally laid out in three groups of four are now four groups of
three. WTF?
Nothing like a little change for change's sake. Too bad, because the keyboard
has the nicest action I've ever used... but I still may have to return this. We
shall see.
I guess today marks the true start of the holiday season, as the Festival of
Lights begins tonight at sundown. Happy Chanukah!
| Links of the Day: | Seinfeld Dictionary. Yada yada yada. |
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Mother of the Matrix Victorious.
Thanks Brandon. Nativity Plays Boosting Tea Towel Sales. Scientists Seek Limit on Shark Killings. |
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NASA Seeks Methods to Repair Shuttles in Flight.
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Yiddish with Dick
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Am I the only person on the planet that has never accidentally hit the Windows key while playing a game?
I mean, really... I've never even once had this problem. Maybe it's because I've been touch typing for over 20 years. Dunno.
Well, while it's impressive to have repelled the forces of darkness for so long, Z, it only needs to happen once when you haven't recently saved the game it causes to crash before you come to know it as the most evil button on Earth (and possibly in space -- not sure)!
While it's evil but rare, perhaps THE MOST annoying problem I've had with games and keys--isn't really the keyboard's fault at all.
I'll be playing a game, say UT2k4, and have SHIFT as the crouch key. Now I'm ducking out somewhere, covertly waiting to launch an airstrike against an enemy powernode. I occasionally un-crouch (is that a word?) to check the situation, then re-crouch. Unfortunately, if you do this 2 or 3 times in a row, Windows automatically engages some accessibility feature called "sticky keys". It interrupts the game, puts the computer into some fucked up mode that prevents you from using the keyboard/mouse normally even after you quit the game, and even though you can disable it, it keeps re-enabling itself. Anyone know how to fix permanently?
Jim
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