I'm editing my third paperback that is over 100K words. It occurred to me that a keyboard takes quite a pounding over the course of writing a book! It's not so much the number of words, as it seems to be the number of *spaces* that are in the book. Every word is followed by one. Three books means that I have hit the space bar over 300,000 times, just for the books! That doesn't even count forum posts and putting the smackdown on flamers and the ever-present Facebook updates. I appreciate the durability of something that I take for granted. All of the keys are worn smooth, but the poor space bar....
The spacebar on my keyboard doesn't work unless you press it exactly in the middle. But that's mostly from playing games rather than writing. :/ Maybe our servants deserve some rest? A spa-weekend to relax, maybe?
I actually took my keyboard apart, when it was brand new. I snipped out the little contact that activates the [caps lock] button. Who put the least used button right next to the [shift] key? Put that thing on the under side of the keyboard or something! I know (because I'm that old) that the [caps lock] used to be a mechanical little button that activated a latch that held the [shift] button down; but really? Now it is only used for shouting which I don't do. I figured the world would be a better place without the [caps lock].
Agreed. I hate it every time I miss-click and have to erase a sentence because I missed that I had caps-lock activated! Lately, however, I've been writing without looking down from the screen and thus I notice caps earlier so the problem is almost eliminated. There are also times when I actually use it ( ), though I can't remember the circumstances, and it rarely happens. I still find it to be an annoying button, though, but I think it would be even more annoying for the caps-users to need to hold shift down continuously while writing compared to erasing a couple of letters and rewriting them. Holding a key like shift greatly limits the reach of the hands and obstruct in the usage of the keyboard.
I have an IBM model M. I made such a mess of it. Spilled coffee on it, crumbs, etc. I took it apart, cleaned it out and it looks like new. It doesn't have all the amenities (window key, etc), but it's rock solid. I could probably beat a bull to death with it.
