Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions • Hacker News Board

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#271

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 10:48 PM UTC

bastardoperator wrote: post #99

umvi wrote: post #7

The "500 WPM" video is a little suspect. He types literally one memorized sentence and extrapolates a WPM from that one 10 word sentence. I'd like to see him actually type 500 meaningful words in under 60 seconds. Anyway, this is cool but basically just a modern stenography device. Steno has a learning curve problem that makes it so most people won't use it.

I'd say it's a lot suspect. Couple this with the fact that he scored 267 WPM with 76% accuracy in another competition. Until we see more and it gets more accurate I'm not sure typing this fast is very meaningful if I'm going to have to fix 24% of what I just typed.

[deleted]

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#272

Post by megous » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 10:49 PM UTC

hannasanarion wrote: post #70

tambourine_man wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

QWERTY has a steep learning curve as well, it’s just that it’s so ubiquitous that most people don’t question or remember the work that was put into.

The learning curve for stenography is much higher. With a keyboard, the buttons do exactly what they say and that only. With a stenography machine, every possible combination of buttons does a different thing. When typing the word "Unprepared" on a keyboard, you just have to look at the buttons and find each of the ones with those labels, and hit them in sequence. To type the word "Unprepared" on a steno machine, you…

Keyboards that use multiplexed row/column electrical matrix will not allow you to detect more than two keys in any box pattern simultaneously. So pressing more than two keys on that virtual steno keyboard is impossible on a regular keyboard (for many key combinations).

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#273

Post by scoofy » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 10:59 PM UTC

When i switched to dvorak, i quickly realized that the main benefit i got was improved comfort, not a ton more speed. My point is only that one should focus on comfort with any keyboard, especially when you're using it multiple hours per day.

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#274

Post by sydthrowaway » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 11:02 PM UTC

In the far distant future, supertypers will use prescience to achieve 10000WPM, like guild navigators

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#275

Post by darau1 » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 11:03 PM UTC

It looks more comfortable to type on than a traditional keyboard. That to me is more important than the speed improvements.

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#276

Post by epolanski » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 11:05 PM UTC

westopheles wrote: post #268

epolanski wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, I'm a touch typist and regularly train on various websites. The biggest blocker after you start reaching high speeds isn't even the keyboard but the brain. You need to read far far ahead to write at 130+ wpm you basically are typing a word while you read the following sentence. 200+ requires writing even more ahead. A normal person can barely "mentally process" that many words per second.

A bit OT, but can you recommend/do you know of any touch typing training websites which include training for the numeric keypad, or even for the numbers/symbols row above the alphabetic symbols?

I learned touch typing on https://www.typingclub.com/

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#277

Post by dkersten » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 11:09 PM UTC

kragen wrote: post #266

dkersten wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I don't buy it either. I can type very quickly, but what brings my WPN down substantially is loading what I want to type next into my mind. Eg on typing speed tests, I can write the first sentence (if I can see it before the timer starts) much, much faster than the rest, because I can pre-memorize it. Later ones require me to multitask: read ahead while my fingers are still typing previous sentences, and this i…

I look forward to hearing your results. I think you'll reach the 140-190 wpm range that way, not 250 or 350, and definitely not 500.

If you watch some of his videos linked by others here, you can see that to get those high rates he has chords mapped to entire words. I can do that with the Kinesis Advantage too.

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#278

Post by notyourwork » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 11:13 PM UTC

Anecdotal: Growing up my school had various computer classes, starting in elementary all the way through high school. In high school we had a computer proficiency class which was basically "how to use a computer for dummies 101" type of class and one of the competencies the teacher had us work on was typing.

Well me, having grown up with computers, I was beyond proficient and in particular was quite a competent typist. Being an engineer at heart (lazy) I realized I could rig the system and be just fast enough each week to win but also faster than my classmates to remain on the leaderboard. The teach was thoroughly pleased with my weekly progress and applauded my efforts. All the while I was busy gaming (Nerf Arena, Quake) on a LAN with some others in the school who were "computer proficient".

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#279

Post by troupe » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 11:15 PM UTC

TulliusCicero wrote: post #134

> Keen also claimed that he’d won several online gaming competitions using the CharaChorder, which he says brings up an interesting ethical dilemma. “I’m not sure if there’s any restrictions on what keyboards you’re allowed to use,” he said over a video of him playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch, using his CharaChorder running through a XIM-style adapter. As someone who's somewhat familiar with…

Kings Quest I, Zork, or Adventure maybe. :)

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#280

Post by thanhhaimai » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 11:15 PM UTC

umvi wrote: post #7

The "500 WPM" video is a little suspect. He types literally one memorized sentence and extrapolates a WPM from that one 10 word sentence. I'd like to see him actually type 500 meaningful words in under 60 seconds. Anyway, this is cool but basically just a modern stenography device. Steno has a learning curve problem that makes it so most people won't use it.

> Monkeytpe won’t let Keen run up the leaderboard, but he did win another typing competition using the CharaChorder to hit 267 WPM with 76% accuracy.

IMHO, 76% accuracy is honestly low. If the person has to sacrifice so much accuracy to hit 267 I'm not sure it's worth it. For most typing, making a mistake actually interrupts your thought process. This speed is only achievable/useful when there are text on the screen that you blindly retype.

This reads like a PR article.