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Previous: Comcast Internet automated help | Main | Next: Salad type
April 27, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Keyboard buttons
Hanan Cohen points out:
The power, wake and sleep keys are pretty important to access. Couldn't the product designers find a better placement for those keys?
If only those buttons worked on you. just gonna press the up arrow... whoops finger slipped ZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
Wow... now that IS broken. Try it now, "not broken" personnell! A much better place for those buttons(as well as internet, e-mail, etc.) buttons is above the function keys.
I have a keyboard similar to this where the arrow keys are right next to the "Close" button. On numerous occasions I have closed programs just because I was using the arrow keys to navigate them.
I've never used those keys, so they could be removed altogether, so far as I'm concerned!
On my keyboard, the 'Num Lock', 'Caps Lock' and 'Scroll Lock' lights are above the right-hand number keypad. The 'Sleep', 'Wake Up' and 'Power' keys are above the lights, and hence well away from any other keys.
Great design :-D The keyboard shipped with my HP Pavilion d1060.se had the sleep/power button above the ESC key. Guess how many times I pressed the wrong button before throwing that keyboard out....
Oh my goodness!!! That is the worst design I've ever seen. That keyboard would have been broken in half months ago.
I had a keyboard like that, but they were full-size normal keys in those locations. I think maybe you had to hold down a Fn key somewhere to access them, but I'm not sure.
Yes, definately broken.
This isn't a complete fix, and in no way negates how broken this is, but it will make the situation a bit easier:
Go into your Power Options control panel applet and under the Advanced tab set both "When I press the power button on my computer:" and "When I press the sleep button on my computer:" to "Ask me what to do." Then, at least your computer will ask you before shutting down/sleeping, so you have an opprotunity to cancel the action.
Thanks... I could never remember which letter was dobled, so I figured if I doubled both of them, I'd still be OK... (yay for people who are broken due to lack of sleep please?)
I am using a Compaq keyboard and it has the sleep button just above the ESC button. I use this keyboard at work with AutoCAD... needless to say, I often put my pc to sleep. But I did set up to ask me to verify that I want it to go to sleep. Bad Design all together.
The power, wake and sleep keys are pretty **important** to access. Couldn't the product designers find a better placement for those keys?
(emphasis mine)
Does the OP think these keys need to be in a *more* prominent position?
Surely not!
Yup, I once installed a keyboard with some similar buttons although not quite as bad. I told the guy that I wasn't installing the driver for the buttons, if he wanted to use them he should glue the sleep button first.
That's poor placement. I can see myself typing something, hitting enter, then my finger slipping. Goodbye document! I already hate how when I'm playing an FPS, I try hit Z (this happens so many times to me) and my finger slips and I hit the evil Windows key. For all you that don't know, the Windows key causes many games to screw up, sometimes even freezing Windows. I might just have to jam the key or something...
The only place worse woud be, say, put them below the space bar, or alongside the shift key. Ooops!, I just gave someone an idea.
Broken.
I like NRT's observation; also, some manufacturers just integrate the num lock, caps lock, scroll lock lights into the corresponding keys, freeing up their usual positions in the standard keyboard layout.
Mark? Hello? How many times will we need to point out that the "Continue reading..." links are broken?
This isn't the most annoying place for those buttons.
On far too many keyboards, they replace the PrintScreen / Scroll Lock / Pause set, and then there is a 3x3 block lower down where the keys have moved to.
This ensures:
1) Every time I try to take a screenshot, I turn the computer off
2) Any time I want to use PageUp/Down (for example), I have to work out which combination of mangling has been done to the 3x3 block.
The "above the key lights" position is better - harder to press accidentally - but seems to be a hotspot for cat typing. Cat typing is also responsible, at one point, for launching 57 calculators (or therabouts).
My feeling is, the correct position for these buttons is on the PC's case. I'm perfectly capable of going to the K Menu* if I want to shut my PC down, in any case, so I don't need these buttons.
* K as in the KDE desktop.
I uesed to have a keyboard that had the sleep button, but my computer would tell me that it couldn't sleep. Some problem, not sure what. Now my keyboard has no key for sleep. I don't miss it at all!
Broken.
I have a Mac Mini and use the Apple USB keyboard. It works great, and the only way you can turn off the computer with the keyboard is by pressing the control key along with the eject key (the eject key is in the upper right corner above the mumber pad). The closest control key is about a handspan away from the eject key, the other one being clear in the other corner of the keyboard. It is very effective, nver have I accentdently turned my Mac Mini off.
Heh heh...
Now that we have something inarguably broken, it's not "let's argue about whether or not this is broken" it's turned into "this is not broken enough." :P
Seriously though, are these new keys? I don't have any of those on my keyboard... just some volume controls... am I missing something?
Not that I'd ever use a power key... maybe just having one is broken! I know I'd never use it, as it's just as easy to push the power button on the computer.
yah haha my keyboard rite nowhas te button next to about the print screen, scroll lock, pause break place nd although it seemed okay at first, i pressed the power button on accident a few times wen i was reaching for the backsapce button, really a pain in the arse
Thank goodness, finally something truly broken. This is a horrible design. Could you post the name of the KB manufacturer? Definately something to look out for when purchasing, that I probably wouldn't have thought of before reading this. Thanks!!
I used to hav a keybored like that but i thrwe it away because when i would press end it would "power" and i didn't even press the power button on the keybored so i got mad, thoes keyboreds are STUPID.
I used to hav a keybored like that but i thrwe it away because when i would press end it would "power" and i didn't even press the power button on the keybored so i got mad, thoes keyboreds are STUPID.
uhhh... why hahve those keys anyway?
in mean, who cant just tap the Super key (Windows key) and select 'Shutdown'
and yes, i work in KDE and GNOME, so you can just tell it to pretty much ignore any key anyway.
no Sleep/Shutdown/etc keys = no chance of error.
remove them completely
assistant- if you make it to the computer and press up, we can save the world from being blown up
James bond- beep (oops, wrong key)
computer turns off
James bone- oh s**t.
The world blows up
Why do you need two buttons to control the sleep state? Thats like having two power buttons, one for on and one for off.
I had a keyboard like that once. After the third time I turned off my computer instead of deleting a file, I gave the keyboard away. I feel sorry for who ever has it now.
I had two keyboards like that had those keys. You dont have to throw your keyboard away just because of it. For windows user, there is a way to turn off by going to Power Option from control panel and changing the settings for power buttons under Advanced tab.
I have a keyboard like that, but mine is worse. On mine, the sleep/power/wake keys look like normal ones (not all rubber and small and stuff). Not only that, but the power key doesn't even work, it just puts it to sleep, and the wake key is useless because to wake it up you just move the mouse
38th!!!
ps I use linux too :)
Also, forgot to say, it has a "fn" (function) button you are supposed to hold when you press the "special" keys so you don't do it on accident, but it doesn't even work. You press the sleep key and it sleeps whether you have Fn on or not
It seems no one has mentioned that this is an excellent case to use AutoHotkey.
Yes AutoHokey — http://www.autohotkey.com/ — can detect the key code for media keys such as sleep and shut down, not just the common keys. It takes some reading of the help file and some manual scripting, but it should work brilliantly at disabling those keys.
(Hint: don't forget #UseHook and do use the key history window to get the key code...presumably after you change the power options so it won't actually shut down immediately) I hope that helps.
Hehe, I4ve got exactly this keyboard and it all went well until about a week ago, when I was working on some project of rather high importance in SketchUp.. Meant to delete an element, ended up shutting down the computer and losing a very complex element .. When the computer was already off, I took the screwdriver and broke the *$#@ key right off .. left the sleep and wake keys though :)
i have always done this simple step to avoid problems
i take a screwdriver
i open my keyboard up
i physically remove the power/sleep/standby/whatever buttons, problem solved
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Previous: Comcast Internet automated help | Main | Next: Salad type
There's nothing better than running around in your favorite FPS (hey, some people use the arrow keys!) and then hitting the sleep button by accident!
Posted by: James at April 27, 2006 12:21 AM