Who needs software? I am typing this message on this keyboard, which is reminiscent of typing on old DEC VT-100 terminal keyboard. It’s similar to the Northgate Omnikey, for anyone who remembers those.
But I have my own office, so I don’t have to listen to any complaints from neighbors.
Maybe she was slapping the monitor for the Carriage Return.
My work keyboard may have had almost touch sensitive keys when I got it lo, those many years ago, but now I have to bang the hell out of it if I want my typing to register. Stupid replacement schedules and refusal of people to buy me new stuff. I have been hearing that I’ll get a new system “next year” for 3 years now.
Also, I am an angry keyboarder, especially if I’m dealing with the twunt and her ongoing requests for stupid stuff. I type the twunt’s name so loud I’m sure she knows when she’s getting an email just from hearing the banging from my keyboard.
Maybe I should put up a sign that says Don’t Type Angry!
I remember back in my old Macintosh OS 9 days have a system extension that would make my keyboard sound like a typewrite keyboard (sound came through the computer speakers), including a “ding!” everytime I pressed the Return key. Good times. I wonder if there is such a thing for Windows? My neighbours woud thank me, I’m sure. (off to Google)
Guilty as charged. I never had a typing class, so I used the Religious Method* when I first started. As my speed grew faster, I noticed that I was a rather loud two-fingered** typist.
I’ll try to type slower, and keep the noise down.
Goddamn it.
*Seek and Ye Shall Find.
**Left index finger; right middle finger only.
I would just like to apologise in advance of ever meeting you. While I do not conciously hammer at the keys – I know I do it. I have tried to train myself to type more softly, but the truth is, it only slows me down. Some of us just type hard. If it is that distracting, have you considered asking to be moved further away from this person?
rhythmonly – funny way of putting it. I did take typing class, but due to being extremely dyslexic (my worst outward sign being a tendency to always swap initial c for initial s and vice versa), I use the religious method too. I actually use 4 fingers though (left index, right index, middle and thumb) but I type around 140-150 wpm.
I’m 23 and a confessed key-pounder. I learned on the venerable IBM Model M (I even went out and bought my own).
Of course, the M sounds like you’re pounding on it even if you’re making a conscious effort to be gentle.
Maybe he’s like me?
Did it occur to you that some keyboards are just noisier than others? I have three different keyboards at home, and of course the keyboard at work.
My typing sounds different on each one. Embarrassingly, the loudest keyboard is at work. It sounds like I’m beating the crap out of it, but I’m not.
One of my home keyboards is so quiet, you can barely hear any noise while I’m typing on it. The other two are slightly louder.
Listen, it’s been a rough implementation and I’m sick to death of users complaining. And I haven’t had a vacation since Christmas. I’m on my last nerve. And I don’t care if I keep making the same mistake, I still get angry each time Excel tells me itcan’tcutandpastebecausethecopyareaandthepasteareaarenotthesamesizeandshape
and I just can’t help but slam down on the Enter key.
Sorry.
The one you recall would be TappyType. 
There’s a modern incarnation for OS X called KeyClick.
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I have found when I am extremely pissed off, I will bang the keys a little harder than normal.
I then take a deep breath, delete the e-mail I was going to fire off, and reach for a piece of emergency chocolate.
Because it had to be said, and because I’m feeling particularly unoriginal:
“Ahhh, it’s a 1930’s style keyboard.”
a-thankyou.
Bring a real hammer and block of wood (optional) to work. When your cow-orker starts typing, start hammering on your desktop.
You may insert the block of wood between your hammer and your desktop to protect the desk surface.
Just wanted to say that they will get my IBM Model M keyboard only when they pry it from my cold, dead hands. Even if they take it, I still have a bunch stockpiled away.
You wouldn’t - but it might be fun to watch if it happened to someone else.
The Model M is indirectly responsible for my husband and I switching from linux to OS X.
Y’see, my sweet natured, gentle, lovely, pacifist husband DESTROYED one of those after something went wrong with whatever version of linux he had installed on our home server at the time. I’ve never seen anything like it. You wouldn’t think it possible. With his bare hands.
Shortly thereafter we switched operating systems and he’s been much calmer. But I still like to blame the Model M. Maybe if he’d been typing away on something whisper soft and quiet he wouldn’t have gone all Godzilla on it.
You know what’s really bad? When one the aforementioned clackers do so while on a conference call via speakerphone.
One of the managers at my company is notorious for this. He gets an IM from me every time, “dude, keys.”
I have very strong fingernails, even though I keep them fairly short they clack on a normal keyboard. I have to be really careful using anyone else’s keyboard that I don’t accidentally scratch the lettering off.
That’s why I use this keyboard at home, got tired of everyone complaining about the tap-tapping noise. Maybe get the coworker one?
The harder you press the keys the quicker the trons flow.
I had a co-worker that clacked the hell out of the keyboard at what sounded like 130 words per minutes. I mean she was fast. So my other co-worker and I decided that she must be typing with her fingers on the home keys, cause no one could hunt and peck that quickly.
The thing is, when I attempt to type fast, with my fingers on the home keys, I find it impossible to pound. I must use a light touch, if I want to type quickly. So it is a mystery to me how she was able to make such a quick racket.
