A Baffler....

at least to me it is…

Why does the keyboard on my computer, and on my Ten-Key calculator, and my hand-held calculator all have 7-8-9 on top row, 4-5-6 in the middle row, and 1-2-3 on the bottom row.

My touch-tone phone has 1-2-3 on the top row, 4-5-6 in the middle row, and 7-8-9 on the bottom row.

Of course, I am ignoring the zero, it is on the very bottom row on all the keyboards.

Is the a Ma-Bell conspiracy? I think the 10-Key calculator pre-dated the touch-tone phone while the hand-held calculator and touch-tone came around approximately the same time.

Try http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=12707

(God, this was a year and a half ago!)

I figured there was a thread on this. I certainly am not the first to notice the non-conformity. And Yes, I think the phone keys make more sense than the calculator keys.

You had to go back a year and a half? I only had to go back a day and a half. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=84011

notfrommensa, please try to chose more descriptive thread titles in the future. We generally like to have a clue about the contents, and “A Baffler” isn’t very descriptive.

Since this has been covered so recently, I’ll just close this thread.

bibliophage,
moderator, GQ