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New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

bloomberg.com

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Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#31

Post by mapcars »

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…

btw, these WEY keyboards are still using typewriter's layout, which is really bad. Few choices are also here: truly ergonomic keyboard, typematrix and again, kinesis.

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#33

Post by vegabook »

Oh puhleeze.

I have been a subscriber to the Bloomberg terminal for a full 17 years, the keyboard has been changed literally 4 times in that period, and I have yet to see one that is not a regression from the one that went before. Today you get a plasticky, flexy, Asia-made, chicklets device with capacitor touches whereas the original was a monstrous, metallic, mechanical beast, IBM-style. It would have made the massdrop community swoon, with its retro vibe and indestructible build.

For the past 10 years I have not used a bb keyboard. They provide a separate finger sensor if desired (as they should - it costs 1800 dollars a month for subscription), and you can always use your b-unit.

The bloomberg keyboard is a dinosaur that dates back from the UI of Bloomberg's 1980s ethos -> the mainframe. It even has the command line in the top of the screen, old System/360 style. The colour coded keys are almost an embarrassment, reflecting the embarrassingly bad UI. Bloomberg is 10 000 different pieces of functionality of which the average user uses 1%. It's a catastrophically badly done taxonomy of (what is, underlying, awesome) functionality. That's why they have so many Bloomberg "reps" who come over constantly to show you new stuff. These poor guys are compensating for the fact that all the good stuff is extremely difficult to find.

Thanks Bloomberg for the new 80 dollar toy. That'll be about 5% of my monthly subscription price then. Doesn't hide the fact that your entire UI is prehistoric.

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#34

Post by omarish »

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. Bloomberg chat is Facebook messenger for finance people.

3. If your trading desk is bringing in $10M in profits/year, four Bloomberg terminals are a rounding error.

People who berate Bloomberg and it's tech need to have more empathy and ask why things are the way they are.

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#35

Post by xemdetia »

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…

Have you used them? I used one for a day of fairly intense work at their site and it was quite a good and comfortable keyboard.

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#36

Post by jseliger »

gherkin0 wrote: post #9
alva wrote: post #3

This keyboard has been out for ages, unless I am missing something here? On a side note, hated my B-unit, always took 5+ lengthy swipes to register.

> This keyboard has been out for ages, unless I am missing something here? Not everyone works in finance and/or is familiar with Bloomberg terminals (like me). I think this is pretty interesting since Bloomberg, unlike most application developers, has taken their UX to the point where they're building application-specific hardware (though I understand a lot of that is basically legacy inertia). Also, programmers seem…

I upvoted it for similar reasons, and my keyboard interest is... unusual and longstanding (see for example this 2008 report on a modern IBM Model M: https://jakeseliger.com/2008/05/07/product-review-unicomp-cu...).

I'm surprised, like many other commenters on this thread, that there isn't a more ergonomic version of this, and that there doesn't appear to be an option for better keyswitches, like Cherry MXes. The world of Bloomberg terminals is totally foreign to me, and that makes them interesting.

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#37

Post by davegauer »

lallysingh wrote: post #30
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…

There are layouts for this, like programmer's dvorak: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-http://www.kauf... A programmer's qwerty would be pretty handy, too. Edit: and there's plenty of programmable keyboards, like ergodox ( https://ergodox-ez.com/ , though I'm not sure if that's the canonical url).

Yes, we're actually in the midst of a new golden age of keyboard hardware (and hobbyist electronics in general). I've constructed a Planck from Ortholinear Keyboards and keep trying to find time to get it set up for my One True Programmer's Layout!

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#38

Post by whatok »

andy_ppp wrote: post #22
nsxwolf wrote: post #17

It may get a lot of negative comments but I think it's interesting something like this still exists, a custom piece of terminal hardware, that hasn't just been eaten by some iPad app or web app.

It's the data that is difficult or impossible to get. I'd love to see what people did with access to the data, but there is no reason for Bloomberg to give away their huge advantage.

A lot of data you get through Bloomberg is repackaged from other sources. As far as I know, I don't use any Bloomberg proprietary data but there is a lot of data that while is not proprietary, it is essentially locked into Bloomberg due to the messaging platform. Pricing data for fixed income securities is a good example.

Re: New Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

#39

Post by dontscale »

grenoire wrote: post #18
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...

What you pay for is not a mere data aggregater, it's practically everything you'll ever need in a single system. It wouldn't cost that much if it was just 'S,' it's something much more valuable.

I always suspected the cost was a function of the profits of the firms using them.

I think it is a smart move to force bundle the hardware and form the users' keystroke habits over a career. I imagine the switching costs are extreme.

I'm not a trader. I'm actually a programmer and just curious about a lot of things. One day, I contacted Thomson Reuters and asked to try their competing system, I think it was Elektron. It is a pure software system that I got bored with after a few days of exploring.

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