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May 2, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Dell keyboard ad

BkeyboardRon Chen points us to this Dell ad. Ron adds, "Note the keyboard and the phrase 'Easy as Dell'."

Look closely...

Comments:

Oh, that's good.

Posted by: James Kew at May 2, 2005 02:00 AM

What? That's obviously a left-handed keyboard. :)

Posted by: Alden Bates at May 2, 2005 02:15 AM

ahaha, someone mirrored the image for the ad without thinking.

Posted by: Dragon at May 2, 2005 02:59 AM

I'm glad you said that Dragon else I'd have been here all day.

Posted by: Johnny2Shoes at May 2, 2005 05:44 AM

FINALLY,

I get some attention. I am tired of being oppressed. Everything is made for right-handed people. You see adds that feature many diverse people, but never anything for us left-handed people!

Thank-you Dell!

JLC

Posted by: josephc4 at May 2, 2005 08:01 AM

What did I miss about "the phrase 'Easy as Dell'" that Ron mentioned?

Posted by: noname at May 2, 2005 08:04 AM

oh c'mon Joeseph C4, i'm left handed, and i use a normal keyboard, scissors etc. of course, i just write with my left hand, i'm not that dominant. Anyway, do they even make mirror keyboards like that?

and anyway, most people are right-handed, so why would you make stuff for a smalll minority?

Posted by: Bob at May 2, 2005 08:11 AM

Bob...it's sarcasm, dude. A left handed keyboard makes no sense since you type with both hands (well, most of the time I type with both hands).

Posted by: Manni at May 2, 2005 09:18 AM

For my own curiosity I called Dell and they, in fact, do NOT make a lefty keyboard. There is a company that does, however it is not Dell! FALSE ADVERTISING!!!

Posted by: Chaos at May 2, 2005 09:18 AM

A left handed keyboard makes perfect sense if you use the number pad. I am a righty and I know if the key pad were on the left it would make my job much more painful.

Posted by: Chaos at May 2, 2005 09:20 AM

lol

by the way a person types most of his words with his left hands

Posted by: glatzer at May 2, 2005 10:00 AM

You guys are very observant. I stared at this thing for about 10 minutes but couldn't figure out what was wrong. Now I see the keyboard being mirrored. What I still don't understand is why the, "easy as Dell" was pointed out. I'm looking at my Dell computer right now and the 'e' slants that way as well. Or is it a joke that went over my head?

Posted by: Faolan at May 2, 2005 01:46 PM

Easy as Dell was pointed out because it would not be easy for most of us to use a keyboard with the number pad on the left.

I thought that was pretty obvious, but some of you must have a hard time getting jokes too.

Posted by: Shad at May 2, 2005 02:28 PM

OK, well Ron's said 'look at this keyboard, see if you can spot the error' and then said 'now look at this phrase'. Seesm to me the instructions are actually unambiguous - yet incorrect.

Ron's broken.

Posted by: DaveC426913 at May 2, 2005 03:22 PM

It's quite impressive someone noticed something wrong with the picture without it being pointed out at all.

Posted by: Ilan at May 2, 2005 04:18 PM

I am right handed, but my computer is set up for left-handed use, with the mouse on the left and the buttons swapped. For me, a keyboard with the numeric pad on the left hand side wouldn't be a big deal. I'd just key number with my left hand.

Posted by: Carlos Gomez at May 2, 2005 04:41 PM

So, wait a minute... Why is the keyboard backwards but the tower not?

Posted by: lka1988 at May 2, 2005 05:29 PM

Maybe they flipped the keyboard and monitor but not the tower.

Posted by: Fuzzy at May 2, 2005 05:44 PM

I agree with Fuzzy. I think they use this keyboard and monitor as a generic image layer, and stick each model of tower behind them. The problem is that they didn't shoot two pictures of the monitor/keyboard: one for each orientation.

Posted by: anitsirK at May 2, 2005 06:18 PM

The XPS is a powerhouse, but it also needs its own "desktop dynamo" to power it

Posted by: unknown at May 2, 2005 07:42 PM

It's actually not just the num pad but the whole keyboard.For instance the p key would be on the left, as well as the esc key being on the right.

Posted by: will at May 2, 2005 09:24 PM

It's one of those new POIUYT keyboards that are all the rage. QWERTY is so 00's

Posted by: Joshua Wood at May 2, 2005 09:46 PM

i have seen stickers that say "easy as hell"

Posted by: random pete at May 2, 2005 10:50 PM

The E in Dell reminds me of Enron, but that could simply be a conicidence. Did anyone notice the pentlum 4 processer? The screen is the right way around, the power button is on the right, strange.

Posted by: General Dump at May 2, 2005 10:50 PM

For some reason I have read every comment on this page about this stupid keyboard and feel that I have dropped IQ points because of it! Does any one of you have any life at all? I asure you Dell didnt spend as much time on the ad as you morons did looking at the picture!!

Posted by: magickman66 at May 2, 2005 11:23 PM

Thank you magicman! My sentiments exactly, after reading the whole thread myself...

Posted by: Tim at May 2, 2005 11:56 PM

I enjoyed everyone's comments. I do have a question though, Where is the "Dude you're getting a Dell guy?"

Posted by: preacher at May 3, 2005 12:36 AM

he got busted for pot possession.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/delldude1.html

Posted by: ambrocked at May 3, 2005 01:08 AM

Typical advertising.

The standard that I learned years ago was advertising will stair-step down from the outside in. Images that can will be faced so they guide the eye from the edge towards the binding. (This can be seen in most every newspaper and magazine in the Western World)

Obviously, the agency that created the ad mirrored the keyboard and monitor's image for a right hand page, but forgot to take into account the image was reversed, and would be noticeable.

Broken, yes. Unusual, no.

Posted by: Michael Jones at May 3, 2005 01:32 AM

magick & tim:

"Everyone's comments are stupid, and so is mine. You are wasting you time and so am I."

How can you complain and make more useless comments than those you are reading?

Do you expect everything you read on the net to be 100% quality? Learn to filter through the junk and NOT complain about it.

I think some of the jokes are funny. And I enjoy considering the behind-the-scenes of image manipulation. If you don't enjoy these things, go outside and find something you do enjoy.

Posted by: noname at May 3, 2005 03:19 AM

> What did I miss about "the phrase 'Easy as Dell'" that Ron mentioned?

He meant, it was ironic that there was the phrase 'Easy as Dell' when there was a broken keyboard shown. Obviously the keyboard isn't easy to use, hence the irony.

Irony is funny, laugh. You know...like, "haha".

Posted by: Explained@com.com at May 3, 2005 03:57 AM

HAHA!! ok there ya go

Posted by: butch at May 3, 2005 03:44 PM

rtfgdgdgbfgvcgfytgfhbgdfgbc gfdgfrvh gftfhgrdffgtfhgfdghnfghfvhgdfg

Posted by: noname at May 3, 2005 05:23 PM

Noname,

Didn't mean to complain so much, just thought everyone knew why the picture was like it is.

For the record I do know how to filter thru the "junk" and I too think some of the jokes are funny else I wouldn't have read the full page. Guess I shouldn't have said what I said, Sorry everyone! didn't mean to upset anyone!

Posted by: magickman66 at May 3, 2005 07:45 PM

any of you ever work in the print industry? the image is reversed, not the real keyboard.it happens when idiots don't QC their work. no wonder why they call you computer 'geeks'.

Posted by: dr. bobo at May 5, 2005 12:46 PM

wow. to go really far back, Manni, i guess my sense of humor was broken @ the time.

Lo siento.

Posted by: Bob at May 5, 2005 05:21 PM

wow. to go really far back, Manni, i guess my sense of humor was broken @ the time.

Lo siento.

Posted by: Bob at May 5, 2005 05:21 PM

dang! double post!

Posted by: Bob at May 5, 2005 05:22 PM

Ugrl rl pg;u ; qwlu owtsk seed srdi ev ug;u doybe;ikzd

TRANSLATION: This is what a post would look like on that keyboard.

Posted by: Seikohpathic at May 9, 2005 12:27 PM

interesting, psychopath. how did you do that? (just find the corresponding letters or what?)

Posted by: Bob at May 11, 2005 07:54 AM

No thanks

Posted by: Heywood Jablome at June 6, 2005 01:04 PM

this isn't really very funny.

Posted by: billy joe bob at June 23, 2005 07:24 PM

>Bob...it's sarcasm, dude. A left handed keyboard makes no sense since you type with both hands (well, most of the time I type with both hands).

Posted by: Manni at May 2, 2005 09:18 AM

I agree.

Typing: both hands

Mouse control: dominant hand

I'm right-handed, and I wish for keyboard with numeric keys mirrored on the left:

letters - both, numbers - left, mouse right hand. The numeric keypad must be mirrored. I have seen keyboards with numeric pad moved to left - it's horrible - left little finger must write 1, 4, 7 and index finger high keys + and ENTER. The problem is, the "mirrored" keypad is 10times more expensive than standard!

Right hand people with stnadard keyboard:

right hand - 1/2letters, numbers, mouse, pen writting (4 activities)

left hand - 1/2letters (1 activity).

So the standard keyboard is designed for left-hand minority! :-)

Posted by: Honza at July 10, 2005 08:01 AM

that'd be one helluva hard keyboard to type on.

Posted by: Rodj at July 12, 2005 02:47 PM

ummmm.... about all the southpaw comments. I don't really think that keyboards are designed to favour one hand or the other, i mean, you have to use both anyways, right?

maybe the number pad thing would be easier, but i think that they just mirrored the image because it looked better like that, but, didn't realize that the keyboard looked screwed up.

Posted by: Jacob at April 1, 2006 12:47 PM

mite i also ad that the computer is called xps not the keyboard if you look at the top corner of the computer box

Posted by: THE MAN at April 19, 2006 03:32 AM

I think maybe Ron pointed out the "Easy as Dell" for a reason not yet mentioned (unless I missed it in my skimming). This reason is that typing on a mirrored keyboard would be difficult, and dealing with Dell (i.e. customer support, hardware/software errors) can be really difficult as well.

Posted by: Niki at July 3, 2006 09:39 PM

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