For Science: WhichShiftButton.com

#1

Post by nbertram » Tue, May 31, 2011, 4:38 PM UTC

A friend and I made a website that asks you one of the most useless questions ever... for science.

For Science: WhichShiftButton.com
whichshiftbutton.com

Re: For Science: WhichShiftButton.com

#2

Post by eqdw » Tue, May 31, 2011, 4:46 PM UTC

Idea: Instead of asking for someone's vote, have them type out a paragraph and measure which shift they use

Re: For Science: WhichShiftButton.com

#3

Post by mumrah » Tue, May 31, 2011, 5:00 PM UTC

I'm guessing the I use left shift since several of my passwords have capital letters on the LHS of the keyboard.

Re: For Science: WhichShiftButton.com

#4

Post by pavel_lishin » Tue, May 31, 2011, 5:02 PM UTC

eqdw wrote: post #2

Idea: Instead of asking for someone's vote, have them type out a paragraph and measure which shift they use

Does javascript differentiate between left and right shift?

edit: Looks like it doesn't care. Interesting fact, if you bind an "keydown" event to something, it will fire when you hit caps lock to turn it on, but not to turn it off.

Re: For Science: WhichShiftButton.com

#5

Post by stevelosh » Tue, May 31, 2011, 5:06 PM UTC

If you use a Mac and want to force yourself to use the correct shift keys, I threw together a KeyRemap4Macbook config that will disable letters typed with the wrong shift: http://forr.st/~LXx

Re: For Science: WhichShiftButton.com

#6

Post by T-hawk » Tue, May 31, 2011, 5:07 PM UTC

I've got a slightly unusual pattern; for letters I use exclusively left shift, but will use right shift for the punctuation symbols on numbers 1-5, function keys on the left side, and the home/end/arrow navigation keys. So I answered both, though it's 90% left.

Re: For Science: WhichShiftButton.com

#7

Post by noodle » Tue, May 31, 2011, 5:08 PM UTC

I use the right shift button but space with my left hand. I don't know if I was taught to do it that way or if its just more naturally comfortable for me. Just out of curiosity, I'd like to see something process some text to determine the most commonly capitalized letters to see which side actually is better to use from an efficiency standpoint.

Re: For Science: WhichShiftButton.com

#8

Post by burke » Tue, May 31, 2011, 5:09 PM UTC

I thought I used both, but after paying attention to it for a few minutes, I seem to use the right shift well over 90% of the time. It's really too bad there's no way to actually detect which shift key is being pressed using JS or even Flash.

Re: For Science: WhichShiftButton.com

#9

Post by pavel_lishin » Tue, May 31, 2011, 5:10 PM UTC

stevelosh wrote: post #5

If you use a Mac and want to force yourself to use the correct shift keys, I threw together a KeyRemap4Macbook config that will disable letters typed with the wrong shift: http://forr.st/~LXx

Pray tell, which ones are the "correct" ones?

Re: For Science: WhichShiftButton.com

#10

Post by skizm » Tue, May 31, 2011, 5:11 PM UTC

Left shift is only used for gaming, anything else is right shift. A lot of times I will even hold right shift for an ENTIRE SENTENCE IN CAPS because I am just so damn used to holding right shift for caps.

EDIT: I suspect most people use left shift because that allows them to type w/o removing their hand from the mouse (most people use the mouse w/ their right hand).