With Gavin's talk of his dying keyboards I've just examined my own. The keys are wearing away. There are slash marks across them where the years have seen my fingernails strike down so often they're leaving marks. The worst damaged keys are:
E - understandable. Most used letter in English.
A - understandable again. A vowel and a home key.
S - again - a commonly used letter and a home key.
N - Huh?!?
On the right hand side of the keyboard the only keys to suffer this fate are the full stop and the letter N. Why the letter N? I don't type that many words with Ns in them. It's not a home key. I don't have to pass it on the way to the space bar or anything. I really don't understand this.
Beyond the scrape marks (and I just noticed that the letter I has been affected slightly) there's the issue of the letters wearing off the tops. This doesn't matter as I touch type but I've lost the N, most of the M and the O. D is half there and H is fading. Despite the slashes A is mostly there, as is E. The numbers are fine and the F keys across the top of the board are used so rarely they have a layer of dust across them.
And this concludes Keyboard 101. Discuss.
Bah
In the past year I've destroyed two and am now on the third.
The first was very random and often would stop random characters working, finally the wire coming from the back of it would only work if I held it a 90 degree angle upwards (i.e. pull it tightly up) and if not then all I had left were a few keys - not much use.
The second packed up with the slightest of spillages on it, which I mostly attempt to dry off but to no avail. The top right of the 'main' keypad was deceased, with it dead from I, J & M across to the end of the backspace/return/shift keys.
For some reason, the # still worked.
And now I am only my latest (about 4 months old now) keyboard (a Mircrosoft one, which so far (touch wood) hasn't had any problems at all and is quite nice really.
I type with the flat of my fingers and so I don't scratch at all.
I ahve nothing more to add here :)
Second most common English consonant.
Near space bar when lazily slapping.
Hit N for next.
As for keyboards that last, I can only assume that it's because I touch type and don't put much pressure on the keys. This keyboard has lasted a good four or five years - I keep upgrading everything else but the keyboard never needs it. Never had any problem at work, either.
Of course, this is bound to lead to the imminent destruction of a keyboard as fate is unlikely to endure me being quite so cocky on the matter.
And, dunno the nettiquette, but how d'ya set up having a different pic for different comments?? Ta :)
Either way you start out the same - go to livejournal.com and log in then use the left hand menu to add a new image. (Clearly you can already do this as you keep swapping pics!) Then you just need to name them.
For comments, right above where you're typing there's a "picture to use" dropdown - just select the name you gave your image.
This is the same for when you update your journal but you have to make sure you update using "advanced options" or whatever they call it. In the left hand menu instead of clicking the "update journal" link click the little dots beside the words.
Re:
The most commonly used letters (and their frequnecy of use)
Rather surprised no one's pointed that out to you yet...
Re: The most commonly used letters (and their frequnecy of use)
No offense, but who are you? I don't mind people I don't know posting comments but it would be nice if I could attach a name or nick to you.
Re: The most commonly used letters (and their frequency of use)
Re: The most commonly used letters (and their frequency of use)
Max
In the space between our houses
(There are a million stories in the naked city, as they more-or-less used to say in the days of steam-powered black-and-white television (I remember it well). But how many millions more stories are there on the naked internet, and will anyone remember their authors when they're gone?)
J
Re: In the space between our houses