Is the Dvorak keyboard layout faster than QWERTY?

January 31, 2006 by 59 Comments

When I started on computers, one of the requirements my parent set upon me was that I learn how to type. We had an old Smith Corona typewriter in the home and an old “learn how to type” book from the 1970’s that I used to practice with. Fortunately, that small gesture paid off: today, I touch-type a solid 90-120 WPM with 95% or better accuracy. Considering that I probably spend a good 12-14 hours a day in front of a keyboard, it’s come in very useful.

My friend, [info]packardgoose, knowing my typing speed, asked:

What’s your opinion of the Dvorak layout? I’ve been thinking of switching just to frustrate anyone else who sits at my keyboard, but also because I have trouble getting upwards of 80 WPM, which as I understand is part of the design behind the QWERTY layout (time for the mechanical arms to strike and reset).

Here’s my response:

Dvorak doesn’t allow you to type faster; I’m convinced that’s purely urban legend. I’m pretty convinced that QWERTY is actually the most optimal layout for speed because it was designed to alternate strokes between hands evenly to optimize typing speed for mechanical typewriters. There are actually three Dvorak layouts: left-handed, right-handed and two-handed. For a two-handed typist, the left- and right-handed Dvorak layouts can’t possibly be faster than QWERTY, because there’s not enough alternation between hands. So, compare the two-handed Dvorak layout to QWERTY and I’m still betting that QWERTY is marginally faster at the upper end.

The gating factor for typing speed, I’m guessing, is greatly determined by the frequency of letters in the words being typed. Notice how the “e” and “i” in the QWERTY layout aren’t on the home row: the middle finger tends to be longer than the other fingers, so while hands are resting in the home row the middle fingers are naturally inclined to rest on the “e” and “i” — in English, those are pretty high-frequency letters. Two-handed Dvorak, on the other hand, places those letters where the “d” and “g” keys are — both on the same hand, and it puts the “e” in the home row under the middle finger, which isn’t the natural resting place for the finger!

Of course, my “natural resting position” in the home row is “awef-jio;”, not “asdf-jkl;”. Perhaps this is why I can achieve speeds of 120 WPM? I also shift predominantly with my right pinky and I spacebar mostly with my right thumb, but then, I’m right-handed.

I wonder if it’s actually possible to prove that one layout will ultimately be faster than the other when mastered? I wonder what the upper limit is in terms of typing speed for the QWERTY layout; I’ve been “stuck” at 120 WPM as my best speed for years now.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Filed Under: Geeking out 59 Comments

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January 30, 2006 by Leave a Comment

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Anonymous comments are back!

January 25, 2006 by 2 Comments

Just a quick update, but anonymous comments are back! I’ve implemented simple comment screening, so you can now leave comments anonymously and I can moderate them — to keep out the blog comment spammers.

If you create a dossy.org account or log in using your TypeKey account, the comments should appear on the blog immediately. Only anonymous comments are held for moderation — for now. You can also see that I’ve tentatively added support for OpenID, which means once I get that working, you’ll be able to log in with your LiveJournal account or any other identity server that supports OpenID.

You’ll also notice I added a live comment preview below the input area. Pretty neat, right? It’s a feature I’ve seen on other blogs and thought it might be useful enough to have on mine, too. What do you think? I tested it on Firefox 1.5 and MSIE 6.0 and it seems to work for me. If it doesn’t work for you, let me know.

One thing I need to do is some more input sanitizing — right now, the comment text can contain any arbitrary text (including HTML) — I need to solve the lack of TagSoup for Tcl problem so I can ensure the text only contains markup that is safe. Hopefully, none of you will go abusing this until I get to fix it. :-)

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January 23, 2006 by Leave a Comment

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Specificity is an engineer’s delight

January 20, 2006 by 2 Comments

Once in a while, I have to go into NYC to work out of our offices there. I take the bus in to Port Authority, then take the subway. I take the 7 train from Times Square to Bryant Park, then walk along the corridor to get to the F/V trains to Rockefeller Plaza. Walking the corridor is always a treat because of it’s “human zoo” quality: you get to see all sorts of people in there, some performing various instruments, others pan-handling with little cardboard signs, sometimes they even try to sell what look like shady pirated DVDs. Well, yesterday, I had an encounter that just made me chuckle and smile.

There was a lady standing in the corridor asking people passing her by, “Do you have a quarter?” Well, marveling at this woman’s curiousity, I felt compelled to give her an answer. I stopped, reached into my pocket, pulled out what loose change I had, identified a quarter and held it up with with my other hand and answered, “Yes, I do.” I then proceeded to put it back in my pocket, smiled at the lady and then resumed walking towards the other end of the corridor.

I realize that there was an implied question of “can I have a quarter,” but if you’re not going to ask the question, I don’t see why you’ve earned the quarter. She asked a simple question I felt I could answer, I answered it and went about my business. She got exactly what she asked for.

Specificity is an engineer’s delight. When you can give someone exactly what they asked for, you try to do it. Yesterday was a good day. :-)

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I thought Massachusetts stopped hunting witches in the 17th century?

January 18, 2006 by 1 Comment

Police are apparently accusing Barbara Asher of a bunch of things:

  • being a dominatrix by the name of Mistress Lauren M
  • having a 53-year-old man by the name of Michael Lord as a slave
  • Asher only changing into her outfit after Lord was already naked and bound
  • Michael Lord having a heart attack in her dungeon
  • having a boyfriend by the name of Miguel Ferreria
  • dismembering Lord’s corpse with a hacksaw
  • fitting the dismembered corpse of a 280-pound man into eight trash bags
  • doing all this without leaving DNA evidence of the butchery, or evidence of cleaning agents

Suppose for a moment that the part about Asher being a dominatrix is true and that Lord was her slave. Lets assume that she’s a pro, because allegedly she was “worried the police would find out about her operation” — I don’t think they mean the sex-change kind, here. The implication is that she was doing this for money or she was afraid because kinky sex between consenting adults was illegal back in July 2000, years before Justice Anthony Kennedy and Lawrence v. Texas (2003) said otherwise. So, if I were a paying customer of Asher’s services for kinky roleplay, I’d certainly expect her to be in her outfit from the start, not after I’m already naked and bound. Otherwise, you’re just not getting your money’s worth, right?

How can they prove that Michael Lord died of a heart attack, if they never recovered his corpse? I know I’m no forensics expert, but I imagine determining cause of death minimally requires observing the corpse, maybe even an autopsy, right? Maybe the police consulted an expert psychic and contacted Michael Lord’s spirit to find out what happened to him? Maybe they just watched the wrong episode of Crossing Jordan and got carried away?

Regardless of all this, lets pretend he really did die in her dungeon. Is your first instinct to call someone like your boyfriend and tell them about it, or to deal with it by yourself and leave no living witnesses? Okay, maybe you are the type to call someone for help — fine. Now you and your boyfriend are trying to figure out how to dispose of this 280-pound corpse. Damn, can’t sell it on eBay. Don’t suppose she’s got some starved pigs in her condominium, either. What’s a girl to do? Oh, duh — pick up the hacksaw and start carvin’ like it’s Thanksgiving! But, then what? Well, it’s 170 miles to Augusta, she’s got a full tank of gas, eight 35-pound bags each full of Lord’s parts, it’s dark and she’s wearing shades. They find Alice’s restaurant and dump their trash and head on home. Right? Because, you know, if someone just died in my freaky sex dungeon in my own private home, this is exactly what I’d do, wouldn’t you?

Sounds like witch hunting is alive and well in Massachusetts. I thought they gave that up in the 17th century. Guess old habits die hard.

(via grigoricennui)

Filed Under: Believe it, or not 1 Comment

How was my day? It was Unbelieva-Bill! I mean, we went to Unbelieva-Bills.

January 17, 2006 by 2 Comments

Yesterday, the kids had off from school and I had off of work. (Thanks, Martin Luther King, Jr.) We got together with some friends and decided to take the kids out for a play-date. In the winter, it’s typical to go to indoor playgrounds to let the kids run around, since it’s too unfriendly to do play outdoors after a wind and ice storm like we had this past Sunday. Our friends had recently been to a new place we’d never been to called Unbelieva-Bills, so we wanted to try it out. I can’t figure out when they opened for business, but based on what little information I could find, it looks like they’ve been open since mid-2004. The owner, William (Bill) Dubiel has been Unbelieva-Bill for some 25 years as a professional magician, though. I’m surprised that it took a year and a half for us to even find out about this place — needs some better marketing, perhaps? The website has the necessary information but the presentation could definitely use some work.

The entrance to Unbelieva-Bills in Waldwick, NJ.

The picture to the right shows the innocuous little entrance to the gi-normous yellow cinderblock building. I mean, the building is huge, some 21,000 sq. ft. large and two stories tall! What’s strange is that I expected to see “Unbelieva-Bills” above the blue awning, or at least some kind of signage saying what this monstrous building was to the casual passer-by, but there wasn’t one. Luckily, we knew that the place was at 140 Hopper Ave., in Waldwick, NJ, off Wyckoff Ave. next to the Waldwick middle and high schools.

The Enchanted Kingdom play area at Unbelieva-Bills in Waldwick, NJ.

Once inside the place, you see the Enchanted Kingdom playset (see picture to the right). There’s an admission fee for hildren to play on it: the “Kingdom Pass Only” cost us $9.95 per child regardless of age, so we paid for both our five year old and our two year old. They do have a special discounted “Infant/Parent” pass but it’s not clear what age qualifies as an infant. Needless to say, this place isn’t cheap. They do entertainment shows, temporary tattoos, kiddie bowling and a sports simulation video game, and Laser Tag, but all of these things are extra costs on top of the $9.95 Kingdom Pass, unless you buy one of the more expensive admission passes. I’m sorry, for a 5 and a 2 year old, $10 had better buy enough entertainment for three hours. Sorry, Bill.

I would, however, like to take the kids there to see one of the live show performances, though. But, again, $6 per child for the 20 minute Wizardo’s Workshop Magic Show is steep. I’ll probably give it a try once to see if it’s worth the money, at least. Considering Bill’s long experience as a professional performer, I suspect the show’s going to be excellent. I really like live entertainment for the kids, especially if it’s interactive. Of course, you can’t really tell much about the show from the website, unfortunately.

One nice thing about the place is I believe I saw Bill walking around, helping out in the Hocus Pocus Pantry area where we sat and ate lunch. It’s a good sign that the owner’s around, watching what’s going on and personally involved in the business’s success. Maybe I’ll say “hi” and introduce myself next time I’m there with the kids — that wouldn’t be too strange, would it? Oh, and speaking of the food, it was better than I would have expected for fast food at a children’s indoor entertainment place. I had two grilled cheese sandwiches, my wife had a cheeseburger, my older daughter had chicken fingers, my younger daughter had a grilled cheese sandwich and we all shared some nachos with cheese. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the healthiest of meals but the food was fast, hot and tasty. The price for food wasn’t outrageous, either, which really surprised me. I definitely won’t mind taking the kids there to play at lunch time, that’s for sure.

Oh, another nice consideration: the bathrooms have step-stools at the sinks for the kids to step up on! You can’t believe the number of times I have to pick each of them up and hold them hovering by the sink so they can wash their hands after using the bathroom when I take them out to places. Argh! Well, at Unbelieva-Bills, they’ve done the right thing and solved that problems. Thank you!

Unbelieva-Bills

Facility Hours:
Monday-Thursday: 10am – 6pm
Friday-Saturday: 10am – 8pm
Sunday: 10am – 5pm.

Telephone Number:
(201) 824-5891

Street Address:
140 Hopper Avenue
Waldwick, NJ 07463

If you have any questions, leave them here in the comments or email me. If you’ve been to Unbelieva-Bills and want to share your experience, leave a comment here or email me, too.

Filed Under: Family 2 Comments

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January 16, 2006 by 3 Comments

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Can the Eye Toy Kinetic really make you sweat? I couldn’t believe it!

January 14, 2006 by 11 Comments

We’ve had a PlayStation 2 for a while, and last year we got an Eye Toy camera for it. The game titles that use it are actually pretty cool: Antigrav, the hoverboard game; Play, the amusing little set of fun mini-games; Groove, the rhythmic hand-movement game just like Dance Dance Revolution is for the feet. The kids especially like Play, either playing Wishi Washi (or however it’s spelled) where you wipe soap suds off windows, or the Playroom where you can dance around with special effects being applied or be chased by bees — great fun to watch the kids run and hide behind the couch. So, as far as gaming console accessories go, I think this one’s got lots of potential. Great family fun, for sure.

Now, any full-body interactive game will cause you to physically exert yourself and tire you out and possibly even make you sweat. Sure beats sitting on the couch mashing buttons with your thumbs, right? But, if someone said, “Hey, you can actually get a real work-out, with the right software …” and you’re a skeptic like me, you’d laugh incredulously and think, “Yeah. Suuuuuuure.” Boy, was I wrong.

Well, this past Christmas, we got the EyeToy: Kinetic for PS2. It’s essentially a virtual personal trainer in a box, or so the marketing fluff claims. Well, it’s not as fluff as I thought. Into my third week of workouts, which it schedules and keeps track for you three times a week, I have to say, this is the real deal. If you take it seriously, you can get a real aerobic workout and perform toning and strenghtening exercises that will leave you sore the next day or two. The workouts last close to 30 minutes and include a warm up, a good mix of workout routines, and a cool-down stretch. The background music is even pretty tolerable, as far as modern electronic-beat pop goes. When you create your profile, it even records your height, weight and age, and will tell you how many calories you’re burning while you’re working out. As you progress, it adjusts and adapts the difficulty of your routine throughout the 12-week program it creates for you.

Kinetic comes bundled with what seems to be the next generation Eye Toy camera — this one’s silver, with a heavier base and a special wide-angle lens adapter, while the older camera we have is black and much lighter which makes it harder to position in a stable fashion. The one challenge with the camera is lighting: even on the “dim room” setting, it has a hard time with our cheap pair of lamps and the amount of light (and shadows!) they provide. But, overall, it’s more than adequate to get a decent work-out and play some games, as long as you don’t get frustrated when the camera mis-reads your motions now and again. We need to figure out a better lighting solution — we’re thinking about installing some track lighting. Maybe that’ll help.

The folks at Nike Motionworks have done a superb job for a first attempt at a “game” like this (if you can really call it a game). I’m definitely not the kind of person to go out to a gym regularly, and being able to do my routine in the evening, in my own home, makes it so easy I don’t find myself trying to make excuses not to do it! I think if more folks see real results with Kinetic and spread the word, this could be a real disruptive technology — in the near future, I can imagine some gyms setting up private rooms with a PS2 set up with an Eye Toy and Kinetic for people to come in and use. Could be a great business to start, once word gets out that it really works.

So, feel free to leave me questions you have, or if you’ve got a Kinetic, share your own story about it in the comments below!

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Filed Under: Product placement 11 Comments

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January 9, 2006 by Leave a Comment

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