Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 24

<sarcastic joke>
I think that people should have to qualify to use the caps-lock key when writing messages. y'know, like, you fill out a form on the internet, send it to the government, and after approval your capslock key will be activated for a short time! Har har! No more annoying capatalized massages!!
</sarcastic joke>

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

Is the Caps Lock key even needed this day and age? It was invented way back when for the typwriter, when you had lowercase, uppercase, and underline.

I think it should just be removed from the keyboard. Put something else there. (Hmm...what could we replace it with...?)

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Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Texan in Calgary for a while
Posts: 1361

quote:

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Originally posted by homer
I think it should just be removed from the keyboard. Put something else there. (Hmm...what could we replace it with...?)

---

How about a HotSync key?

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James Hromadka
Old Friend

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Dallas-area, Texas
Posts: 82

quote:

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Originally posted by Fagan
I think that people should have to qualify to use the caps-lock key when writing messages...

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Tim
<A HREF="http://vbq1.tripod.com/"></A>

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 24

Well the caps lock key is not without uses, when typing capatalized titles and such for reports, it is easier to engage caps lock and then type rather than cut my speed down just to use the Shifts a lot. Still, in the age of the internet, it has only been used to annoy

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

Fagan:

You shouldn't be ALL CAPPING titles. The proper style is typically italicizing. Using ALL CAPS for titles and such is an old hold-over from the days of typewriters, when that was about all you could do. Along those lines, you are supposed to put ONE space after a period (not two, although that is an accepted style in some cases) and you are NOT supposed to underline anything (that's what bolding is for). It's an hold habit that dies hard. My younger brother two years ago was still being taught to underline and ALL CAP book titles and such ON THE COMPUTER!

as for not using any caps, i don't find that as annoying. it's much easier to read words set in lower case as opposed to ALL CAPS.

now if the person didnt use capitals and decided to omit punctuation well that would be pretty annoying



[Edited by homer on 12-12-2000 at 11:04 PM]

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Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 289

ithinkthatshiftscapslockspunctuationspacebarandanyothernonalphanumerickeyshouldberemovedfromthekeybo
ardasitjustconfusespeopleandeatsupneedlessbandwidthjoe

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 24

homer--
of course you are right. I am a sophomore in highschool and taking keyboarding right now. I agree, its pathetic what they teach us. Our book was written in the 80s, and a few weeks ago I learned handy info such as how to CENTER ON A TYPEWRITER! amazing! i'll use that skill a lot. Also, on of the 'reports' we had to key today, the subject was something along the lines of "Typewriters will not become obsolete because of the computer." har har. Perhaps you are right, but there are SOME uses for Caps-lock, such as the all caps phrase I used in this reply. capslock was easier and faster than using shifts. Still, keyboarding at my school MUST be updated...its pathetic.
-Fagan

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Atop a wandering buffalo hunting aardvaarks
Posts: 148

quote:

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I am a sophomore in highschool and taking keyboarding right now.

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Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

Learning to use a typwewriter is an OK skill to have. But teachers should be clearly pointing out the differences and not teaching typewriter habits on a computer.

One of the best books on this is The Macintosh is Not a Typewriter which is basically an updated style guide for those that use computers. Get one for your teacher!

Then again, if they are going to teach us how to use typewriters, they might as well have classes on using carbon paper, white out, carrier pigeons, and switchboards.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Pleasanton, CA
Posts: 253

One more useless skill...

quote:

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Originally posted by homer
Then again, if they are going to teach us how to use typewriters, they might as well have classes on using carbon paper, white out, carrier pigeons, and switchboards.

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As long as they're teaching outmoded skills, they should add how to program computers using "punch cards". I still have some from my college days and am thinking of bringing them to the next "Antiques Roadshow" for appraisal.

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Queen of Parts

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Atop a wandering buffalo hunting aardvaarks
Posts: 148

Punch cards make great holiday gifts as bookmarks. (Best to gift-wrap them with a box of chocolates, though. )

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Monroe, Michigan, USA
Posts: 244

I keypunched for Western Michigan U back in 1980-81 as a work-study student. I thought they were advanced because their card reader could braap! through a six-inch stack of cards in just a few seconds, whereas the old IBM antique at my high school read cards like flap, flap, flap, flap...the hard drives at Western's computer center used platters the size of LP records (what are those, you say?), and they still used magnetic tape drives just like in the old sci-fi movies. Also, whereas the terminals for the computer at the high school were Teletype machines with paper rolls and paper tape punchers/readers (and the old Honeywell 600 supported a whoppin' 13 of them), Western's dual Digital DEC-10 system could handle dot-matrix printer terminals all over campus. We had a geek on my dorm floor who had a Commodore VIC-20 and a modem (1600 baud--that's 1.6K--I think) so he could do his computer lab assignments in his room. Those were the days...and the phones had dials on them.

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Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

Ahh...the Vic-20...what a machine...

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We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Atop a wandering buffalo hunting aardvaarks
Posts: 148

Anybody program PDP-8E's in assembly? Far more fun than a college student should enjoy.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Monroe, Michigan, USA
Posts: 244

We thought we were cool because we could write a program that would sort a list of names or numbers into alphabetical or numerical order. In BASIC. Using cBasPad, I could do the same with my Visor, but it speaks volumes about how far we have come that to program in BASIC, which was the default mode for anything from a Commodore PET or Timex-Sinclair ZX81 to an Apple IIe, you have to get an add-on program!

Never programmed in assembly, but we did some Fortran in high school...with the flap, flap, flap, flap card reader!

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"Yeah, he can talk. It's gettin' him to shut up that's the trick!"
-Shrek

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Aberdeen, SD
Posts: 2531

Geez, you guys are OLD! My first computer was a Tandy "laptop" that was bigger than any desktop today. It ran at 4mhz, but could be overclocked up to 7!! WOOOO HOOOO!!!! Now THAT'S computing power! I played rogue on that machine constantly. Now I play it on my visor.

We were taught to program on an Apple IIe in high school ('93-'94 school year) and in that same class we were taught typing. Everything from two spaces after sentences to centering on a typewriter to caps locking titles, etc. It's good to see our schools embracing the future. Mine only improved after I left (I wonder if that was a coincidence).

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-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 35

Back in '91 I have learning BASIC on an Atari 800 at my high school. LOL. Then in '92 I got to learn FORTRAN in college. Never used BASIC or FORTRAN since.

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 19

Slide rules anyone!!!!! I still have several and the manuals for them!!!!

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GreyWolf

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Atop a wandering buffalo hunting aardvaarks
Posts: 148

Used slide-rules throughout high school, as the very first calculators were deemed cheats -- not conducive to actually learning anything. "Anyone can push buttons," the instructors said, "and it's best to learn manual methods."

Met a few in college that had circular rules, and my dad, who worked at Wisconsin Telephone for 42 years as an electronics engineer, still has his power log exponential.

If you have an old one and can't remember how to use it, instructions can be found here.

[Edited by Fishscaler on 12-16-2000 at 05:52 PM]