Re: Starving people refuse to eat food aid
Robert Carnegie: Fnord: cc talk-origins@moderators.isc.org
> On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:47:11 -0500, Mike Ash <mi...@mikeash.com> wrote:
>
> >A lot of the counterexamples in this thread seem to involve children.
> >That does not surprise me. Language acquisition is considerably
> >different as you get older.
>
> There's also huge individual variation. I have a Hungarian
> brother-in-law who came to America with his parents and brothers in
> 1956, and out of the family of five, my brother-in-law, who was eight
> at the time and is the middle brother of three, is the only one who
> still has a Hungarian accent. Both his brothers just have New Jersey
> accents.
This may be slightly relevant: Learning PDA 'Grafitti' script leaked
into my handwriting, so I started writing A as a bottom-left top
bottom-right arc with no cross-through. However, learning the Fitaly
PDA stylus keyboard[*] didn't interfere with touch-typing. (But now I
have some kind of keyboard RSI and I can only use Fitaly, which I'm
doing now - at l!a out half my tys!ping speed.)
One was about using the same muscles and skills to write two different
ways, one is at least a different set of muscles, but in at least one
of the same limbs.
[*] It's pretty cute. Common letters in the centre, unlike QWERTY
which is designed for two hands and also to slow you down.
z v c h w k
f i t a l y
space n e space
g d o r s b
q j u m p x
Numbers, caps, and punctuation on a separate side board, or by shift
keys, or by hitting a letter key and stroking in various directions
and distances... which I think I designed myself and didn't ever get
around to sharing with other users.
Alexey Romanov
> [*] It's pretty cute. Common letters in the centre, unlike QWERTY
> which is designed for two hands and also to slow you down.
No, it wasn't (to slow you down, that is):
<http://www.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/keys1.html>
--
Alexey Romanov
Robert Carnegie
Now I forgot where I was! But, well, I think I may have read that
piece already and gotten the idea that Dvorak benefits were
exaggerated at best - but I've also used a manual typewriter without
full touch-typing and still had keys stick. And, as I say (did I
say?), I now suffer pain after I use a QWERTY keyboard for only a few
minutes. I think it's about human capability overcoming a mechanical
obstacle, and sometimes the obstacle wins in the end.
Indeed perhaps only now could a text input system be built to take
greatest advantage of the flexibility of human hands - just in time to
be overtaken by speech recognition, however.
Keith F. Lynch
> Indeed perhaps only now could a text input system be built to take
> greatest advantage of the flexibility of human hands - just in time
> to be overtaken by speech recognition, however.
I can't see why speech recognition would be desirable, except in niche
markets such as people with crippled or missing hands. Everything you
"type" would be overheard by others, who could also "type" on your
machine against your will. There would be no easy way to specify
just how to punctuate and format the text, or to spell unusual or
homophonic words; you'd spend much of the time speaking letters,
punctuation marks, and editing commands.
And if you're anything like me, your voice would give out long before
your hands.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.
Robert Carnegie: Fnord: cc talk-origins@moderators.isc.org
> Robert Carnegie <rja.carne...@excite.com> wrote:
> > Indeed perhaps only now could a text input system be built to take
> > greatest advantage of the flexibility of human hands - just in time
> > to be overtaken by speech recognition, however.
>
> I can't see why speech recognition would be desirable, except in niche
> markets such as people with crippled or missing hands. Everything you
> "type" would be overheard by others, who could also "type" on your
> machine against your will. There would be no easy way to specify
> just how to punctuate and format the text, or to spell unusual or
> homophonic words; you'd spend much of the time speaking letters,
> punctuation marks, and editing commands.
>
> And if you're anything like me, your voice would give out long before
> your hands.
I'm not, since my hands already gave out. Well, my forearms mainly.
And it's mainly typing that I can't do.
The issues that you mention aren't insignificant, but are resolvable
and/or apply equally to keyboard use or handwriting. Speaking is a
lot faster than typing, and becomes easier to do at length with
practice. With a webcam on every laptop now to look at yourself from
an unflattering angle (for me... on reflection, maybe laptop designers
are fascinated by breasts, but, hey, who isn't), lipreading becomes
possible. Also air-quotes, and the whole Victor Borge symbol set.
Or, the PC has an accelerometer inside, and you wave the whole thing
around like an orchestra conductor's baton while you talk. Rotate
left for open-quote, rotate right for close-quote?
Keith F. Lynch
> Or, the PC has an accelerometer inside, and you wave the whole thing
> around like an orchestra conductor's baton while you talk. Rotate
> left for open-quote, rotate right for close-quote?
If the PC is one of those tiny hand-held devices, wave it up and down
like a Morse code key to spell out your text in Morse.
Or, unless you live upstairs from me, get one of those inflatable pads
like are used with Dance Dance Revolution, only larger, and with a
keyboard on it. Step or jump from one key to the next to type, like
archy. Great exercise, and you won't wear out your hands or wrists.
cryptoguy
> Robert Carnegie: Fnord: cc talk-orig...@moderators.isc. or\255g <rja.carne...@excite.com> wrote:
>
> > Or, the PC has an accelerometer inside, and you wave the whole thing
> > around like an orchestra conductor's baton while you talk. Rotate
> > left for open-quote, rotate right for close-quote?
>
> If the PC is one of those tiny hand-held devices, wave it up and down
> like a Morse code key to spell out your text in Morse.
>
> Or, unless you live upstairs from me, get one of those inflatable pads
> like are used with Dance Dance Revolution, only larger, and with a
> keyboard on it. Step or jump from one key to the next to type, like
> archy. Great exercise, and you won't wear out your hands or wrists.
Keith knows of what he speaks. He posts by waving refrigerator magnets
near his phone line :-)
pt