Just got a new keyboard, as the old one was struggling to capitalize. Picked something fairly cheap but with good reviews on Amazon. Now I plug it in, and it works fine, except…both my previous keyboard and this one have little raised lines to help orient your fingers on the home keys. This is very helpful to me, as I often type in the dark.
But the old keyboard had the lines on the F and the J. This one has them on the F and the K. :smack: What. The. Actual. Fuck? Whyyyy? That’s not even symmetrical! (I think I could get used to D/K faster than F/K.) It’s *really *hard to get adjusted to. So many of my sentences start out like (and here I’m going to type the classic “quick brown fox” sentence with my fingers where they naturally settle):
You can replace the keycaps on most better quality keyboards. (For sure on any of the really high quality mechanical ones with Cherry brand keys.) And most laptop keyboards, too. So you might be able to replace the J & K keytops with ones that have the tactile mrker on the correct key.
Tell us the specific model keyboard, and somebody can probably give you specific sources for replacement keycaps.
It makes it easier to orient your hands for efficient swearing online. What were you going to type before, “fooj you”?
Seriously though, f and k are more symmetrical that f and j, at least on my keyboard. There are 3 small keys and 1 long one on either side. If you have it on j then the quote key is by its lonesome.
It may be more symmetrical, but most touch typists put their index fingers on the F and J. Which is where the bumps should be. I can’t even being to imagine how annoyed I’d be if somebody randomly moved my keyboard bumps.
I put a little self adhesive foam dot on my shift key, which I use a lot for my music notation program. Maybe something like that? Self adhesive felt, maybe?
I’d vote for manufacturing defect, down to the level of “ship those instead… no one will notice.”
I once spent two weeks testing HP keyboards for squeaks. They had gotten complaints, so they put umpty thousand of the keyboards in a big room, and four of us spent two utterly mindlessly grueling weeks taking them from the boxes, tapping every key to see if there was a squeak, and sorting them into reject/ship boxes on the other side of the room. I shudder just recalling it.
Not infrequent comment: “Was that your squeak or mine”?
Yeah, it’s one of those things you just completely take for granted, and it’s really disruptive (though not in that cool, Silicon Valley way) when it’s changed.
Some good suggestions from people–thanks! I like the idea of moving the keys (swapping J and K), as long as it won’t break the keyboard obviously. Otherwise, one of the other jury-rigged solutions might work.
The keyboard is an HP K1500, according to Amazon (all I see on the keyboard itself is just “hp” in a circle).
ETA: LOL at “Your squeak or mine?” That does sound like a maddening job.
That does sound familiar, but since owning Apples (starting around 2006), all of my keyboards, whether on desktop or laptop, have the usual bumps on “f” and “j.” But that does seem to ring a bell for me when I used them at the computer lab in college. At any rate, D&K or F&J make sense, since it’s just a matter of whether you’re aligning the bumps with your index finger or your middle finger. F&K is just bizarre as it’s index in your left hand and middle finger in your right. I can’t imagine this was intentional. Must be a manufacturing defect of some sort.
I didn’t know this, but it sure makes sense. This (for a touch typist) is almost like switching around just a couple keys but not going full Dvorak (to answer a question from upthread, this is definitely a regular, English-language QWERTY keyboard in all other respects). Like a prank or something.
Yeah, looking at pictures of old Apple IIe-s and IIgs-es, they were on G&D. Digging into it, it looks like Apple moved them with the PowerBook G3 series, which would be late 1997.
Update: due to all the talk about how it must be a manufacturing error (rather than just shitty design, as I had assumed), I contacted Amazon customer service. I really didn’t want to call anyone on the phone or deal with shipping it back, and I didn’t have to do either. I did a web chat, and took their offer of an 80% discount with the tradeoff being that I keep the keyboard and will just have to get used to it. So I’m still very open to any feedback about if and how I can swap keys without ending up with a broken keyboard. Otherwise I may do the little dot of superglue on the J, and file down the bump on the K if that isn’t sufficient (though I think it might be).
Wait, what? **G **and D? Is that a typo? If not, it makes even less sense than what I have.
**G **and D? Is that a typo? If not, it makes even less sense than what I have.