Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 113 posts

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#61

Post by danso »

rtkwe wrote: post #44
morgante wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any insider information which came with a Bloomberg terminal would be practically worthless. Every trader would have it. You're probably confusing the sharing of insider information via the IM feature, which definitely does happen. But blaming Bloomberg for that makes about as much sense as blaming Apple for terrorists using iPhones.

The accusation is that Bloomberg uses data from the people using the terminals to inform their own trades. It popped up a little while back but I can't find the original articles.

Back in 2013 (actually surprised it was that long ago):

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/may/10/bloomberg-goldm...

> The Guardian also understands that JP Morgan also has concerns about how Bloomberg used information from its terminals while pursuing stories about Bruno Iksil, the trader known as the London Whale, who was blamed for massive losses at the bank last year. Bloomberg said it had blocked journalists' access to client data within 24 hours of receiving a complaint from Goldman.

Interestingly, Goldman Sachs recently launched its own "Bloomberg Terminal killer", Symphony: http://qz.com/501783/the-goldman-sachs-backed-bloomberg-term...

Funny quote from the QZ article:

> At a cost of more than $20,000 per year per terminal, Bloomberg is an extremely expensive system for users mostly interested in its chat features.

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#62

Post by whatok »

coliveira wrote: post #54
omarish wrote: post #34

The majority of complaints here: - Ergonomics sucks! - I can't re-map caps lock to be escape, what trash! - This is so old! - Too expensive! - Dell makes cheaper monitors! - Fingerprint authentication can be hacked. But what everybody is not considering is: 1. You have to have a Bloomberg keyboard to work in finance. It's not even a question. It's a COGS for anybody who wants to work in finance or trading. 2. Bloombe…

Bloomberg software is certainly important because of the large ecosystem they created over the years. The keyboard and hardware around is not so. It's just Bloomberg way to advertise themselves using physical presence in every trading desk. It is a disrespect to customers, because if I had to pay I would require that a proper keyboard and hardware be used. By the way, I have used Bloomberg terminals before with a tra…

I agree with the sentiment in this post personally but I'd be willing to be good money that for the majority of terminal subscribers, adapting to a traditional keyboard would be a complete non-starter. They're kinda trapped but their own success and cannot do any immediate major changes that affect widespread use unfortunately.

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#63

Post by gohrt »

6stringmerc wrote: post #57
dontscale wrote: post #12

Talk about your SaaS. $24,000 a year for one of these babies. I think it's how he made most of his fortune. Edit: corrected for year https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...

Regarding the amount he makes from the terminals and service, I don't doubt that's the major haul of any given year, year after year. Not coincidentally, that's why I take his pontificating about finance and economics with a grain of salt - he was a tech savvy info delivery man who lucked into trapping people into a dog-shit ugly, expensive, and industry ubiquitous device. It's along the lines of "I'll view Google as…

You can't only consider the ads, you have to consider what makes the ads valuable, which includes whatever brings the eyeballs and walking fingers in.

For example: * Magazines provide content in their subject area. * Yahoo: provides content apps and content.

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#64

Post by jacobolus »

bullfightonmars wrote: post #25
jacobolus wrote: post #7

These keyboards are ergonomically awful: an undifferentiated mass of completely flat buttons, with crappy keyswitches. Makes them slow and error prone. You can tell no one involved in the design process spent any time thinking about human hand anatomy. On the upside, production costs should be pretty cheap. People making devices for “professionals” should take inspiration from keyboards produced in the 1970s–80s, whi…

> keyboards produced in the 1970s–80s, which are generally much nicer than anything on the market today. If you haven't picked up on it there has been a resurgence in engineering/design around mechanical keyboards. From switch design to keycaps and board layouts. * Boards like the KBC Pok3r, the Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional2 are readily available on Amazon. And novel designs like the Ergodox or The White Fox a…

Yes, I have been an active member of geekhack and deskthority for a few years and have way more ebay keyboard purchases than I need cluttering up my closet, have tried pretty much every ergonomic keyboard ever mass produced, have designed keycap legends for Massdrop and proofed various Signature Plastics designs, have prototyped a couple dozen novel ergonomic keyboards, am friends with the keyboard.io and input.club people, suggested some ideas to Matias about their ErgoPro before it shipped, etc.

The point remains though, the keyswitches and keycaps common in the 1970s are much nicer than Cherry MX or its clones, or anything easily available today. All the currently available keycap profiles are noticeably worse than e.g. the profile IBM used on Selectric typewriters or beam spring keyboards in the 1970s.

As far as keycaps are concerned, you might enjoy these little props I made last year: http://i.imgur.com/kFxqOm8.jpg http://i.imgur.com/M3tQybL.jpg

My own preferred fix to the Ergodox concept is something along the lines of http://i.imgur.com/puH1Ge4.jpg (ignore the legends; my keymap is unrelated)

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#65

Post by dontscale »

6stringmerc wrote: post #57
dontscale wrote: post #12

Talk about your SaaS. $24,000 a year for one of these babies. I think it's how he made most of his fortune. Edit: corrected for year https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...

Regarding the amount he makes from the terminals and service, I don't doubt that's the major haul of any given year, year after year. Not coincidentally, that's why I take his pontificating about finance and economics with a grain of salt - he was a tech savvy info delivery man who lucked into trapping people into a dog-shit ugly, expensive, and industry ubiquitous device. It's along the lines of "I'll view Google as…

In that case, you'd really enjoy Charlie Munger's parable about the Shoebutton Prince.

The story goes that one of Charlie's distant relatives had cornered some part of the 1920's shoebutton market. Back then, shoebuttons were smallish ornaments you put on your shoes.

The success entitled the prince to pontificate on any and all things in unlimited fashion--especially those outside the realm of shoebuttons.

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#66

Post by jacobolus »

beachy wrote: post #47
jacobolus wrote: post #7

These keyboards are ergonomically awful: an undifferentiated mass of completely flat buttons, with crappy keyswitches. Makes them slow and error prone. You can tell no one involved in the design process spent any time thinking about human hand anatomy. On the upside, production costs should be pretty cheap. People making devices for “professionals” should take inspiration from keyboards produced in the 1970s–80s, whi…

I believe the reason for those fantastic keyboards of the 70s and 80s is their lineage from technological marvels like the IBM Selectric typewriter. Back in those days people had jobs like"typist", and for a brief period innovation meant helping people type faster and more accurately.

Yes, that’s right. And those typewriters cost several thousand dollars in 1970. The nicer keyboards from the 70s–80s would be $400+, adjusted for inflation, whereas the keyboard part of these Bloomberg keyboards probably have a marginal cost of It’s just kind of sad how they call these “professional” products when the core typing/keyboarding experience sucks, and they try to differentiate their product based on gimmicks instead.

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#67

Post by Hansi »

davegauer wrote: post #24

I've often found it very peculiar that while many industries have specialized input hardware, it is still the norm for developers to type awkward key combinations* for common programming symbols such as (,),{,},[,],=, etc. which are be used in mass quantities all day, every day. I understand how we got where we are, but it's nevertheless surprising that something like a modernized space-cadet keyboard isn't standard…

Bloomberg developer accounts do not give you a BBG keyboard you just get the fingerprint thingy on it's own and use your own keyboard.

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#69

Post by JBReefer »

rodionos wrote: post #60

One-key functions is nice but there is more to be done: 1) Voice controls, e.g. Amazon Echo 2) Pluggable custom key extension sideboard decoupled for the main keyboard so that extension board can be easily customized.

You don't want to be speaking orders or audibly asking questions about securities in many, if not most, situations

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#70

Post by apaprocki »

thescriptkiddie wrote: post #55
lallysingh wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to actually run that keyboard to use the terminal. Edit: It's just a regular USB keyboard for windows apps. Remap away!

And the "terminal" is just software running on your existing PC. The same effect could be achieved by putting stickers on the keycaps of literally any keyboard.

And the "PC" doesn't have to be your PC. You can also log in via the website and run the software from OS X, Linux, or an iPad.
Post reply on HN