Friday, March 23, 2012

QWERTY

A   L   O   H   A  !

Click on the photos, Yo
Sand replenishment in Waikiki doesn't stop the surfers (or stand-up paddlers)


" Long lives aren't natural.
 We forget that senior citizens 
are as much an invention 
as toasters 
or penicillin.  "

Doug Coupland












 " No amount of skillful invention
 can replace the essential element 
of imagination.  "

Edward Hopper










An invention has to make sense
 in the world it finishes in, 
not in the world
 it started.  "

Tim O'Reilly



 >< } } ( ° >



  "QWERTY?"
Doesn't ring the bell?

Look down-

It's the first six letters
 in the top alphabet row
 of your keyboard!
[ just below the numbers ]

This so-called
 "Universal" Keyboard
  was invented by C. L. Sholes,
 who developed prototypes 
of the first commercial typewriter
 in a Milwaukee machine shop 
all the way back 
in the 1860's.

  A study of letter-pair frequency
 was conducted by educator
 Amos Densmore,
 [who just happened to be brother 
of James Densmore,
  Sholes' chief financial backer.]

So QWERTY it was!


The intention of the layout
was speed-
based on the frequency 
with which each letter is used-
and preventing problems
in the mechanical action
of those early machines.


The QWERTY keyboard arrangement
 was considered important enough
 to be included on Sholes' patent 
granted in 1878.


Sholes and Densmore
 took their machine to
 arms manufacturer
REMINGTON,
 and the first
 Type-Writer
 was sold to the public
 in 1874.


 The Remington No. 2
 of 1878
 included a major modification
 producing the keyboard
  we know today:


 The familiar upper
 and lower case
 letters!

Enter the shift key.

 Originally, it was called a "shift"
 because the machine physically
"shifted" 


Yes,
other keyboard layouts 
have come
and gone,
but  a U.S. government study
 published in 1953 
 found that keyboard layout
 really didn't matter;

If you are a quick typist,
you will type fast.

Thus QWERTY lives on!


We know
that challenging your brain
by learning new competencies
builds new mental capabilities.


Suddenly,
just over 100 years ago,
many, many of us
learned to "type"
or as we call it today:
"keyboarding."

All that time spent
 in that dextrous activity
may have prepared us
for the detail-work,
partnership
 with personal machines,
and mechanical-interface
that led to the developments
of the 20th Century.

Today we use QWERTY
to create
Bits & Bites
of information.

Lead Type
is consigned to the past,
[and special
limited editions.]


What are we using today
that will be common
-but used a whole new way-
a hundred years from now?
Join us in Comments!



Thanks for hanging out here with us!

                                   Warmly, cloudia





 




 

20 comments:

roughterrain crane said...

aloha
Thanks for sharing fascinating photos.

Shrinky said...

Interesting background info! I am so grateful the school my children attended had the foresight to teach them to touch type at age 7 - now they effortlessly test at 80wpm, thus enabling my eldest to (and the others, in time) pick up temp assignments as he works his way through university.

Magia da Inês said...

Fotografias maravilhosas...
Adorei o hibisco rosa.
Um lindo dia para você.
Beijinhos.
Brasil
°º♫
°º
•*• ♫° ·.

Dave King said...

Penicillin wasn't an invention, of course. It was a discovery.
And the QWERTY keyboard was designed for speed, but to reduce it, to slow the typist, so that the arms carrying the characters didn't collide and jam.

I thought this one of your finest posts. I was totally absorbed by it. Congrats.

the walking man said...

"What are we using todaythat will be common-but used a whole new way- a hundred years from now?"

The Djin is out of the bottle now...the future FOOD will no longer look, taste or act with the body the way it does today.

Daryl said...

fascinating ...

icedgurl said...

trekking your blog!!!
nice photos there. :-)

cheers!
..TREK..

mermaid gallery said...

I had to quit typing in school because when people talked to me, I would type out what they said in my head....drove me crazy!...or crazier anyways....(i still do it sometimes.....)

Teresa said...

Thanks for sharing all this interesting info!! Love the pictures, too.

Joop Zand said...

Good photo's Cloudia.

warm greetings from Holland, Joop

Commander Zaius said...

My daughter saw an old fashioned typewriter in a museum and was flabbergasted. She literally wanted to know where the screen hooked up to the keyboard.

Full-On-Forward said...

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

we are on the same KEY aren't we!

Hugs Sis!

J

Anonymous said...

I still "type." Keyboarding sounds like something to do on the water like a wakeboard. I have a new Vivitar real bamboo keyboard and mouse. Not only does it look sexy, it has a very light touch. (Now I have to press a little harder on the multi-user crummy keyboards at work.)
In the future, I thing everyone will wear a phone like my hearing aid; or have it embedded in their head.
DrumMajor

Lori Skoog said...

News to me! Thanks for the education.
Wow. Great post.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

This was fascinating! My mother insisted over my objections that I take touch typing at a secretarial school one summer when I was in high school, and I will be forever grateful.

Kavita Saharia said...

Loved this post Cloudia.Interesting.The information is new to me .Aloha.

Cloudia said...

SO glad you liked this!

Yes, Dave, it was also about keeping the "type bars" (with the letters) from striking each other also. Thanks for completing the picture.

I still maintain though, that the QWERTY was also supposed to be more "intuitive" and easier to learn/use.

Thanks EVERYONE!

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Very interesting Cloudia, it brought back lots of memories of learning to type to the tune of the William Tell Overture, with our hands covered so we couldn't see the keyboard. I vaguely remember about Querty, but it was fun to read about the details!

Balachandran V said...

Was watching 'The Descendants' the other day - Hawaii - and i thought of you. Beautiful country!

SandyCarlson said...

You make me glad I took typing class. This is a fascinating post. As I sit here touch typing, I marvel at the minds that made this keyboard happen! (Perhaps this is why I am not much up for the touch screen keyboard.)