Interesting speed test

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Sorry I have not posted in the last week but it was an exciting one. Just to add a little note about QWERTY. My wife was given an award by Olivetti/Underwood when she graduated for achieving 115 WPM for 15 minutes without error. For those of you older guys who remember the original IBM Selectric Typewriters, she would burn one up in about 3 months of work as a legal secretary. And to add insult to injury, that work was transcribing shorthand to finger stroke for a final printed copy. That takes even more concentration than CW to pencil. The firm eventually went to electronic typing to tape (predecessor to modern computers for text) and that machine was able to keep up with her speed without breaking.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by boomergeek

The world record is a gimmick because the Guinness World Record requires a 12 key keypad. Anyone serious about fast cellphone texting for at least the past 8 years uses a full keyboard: basically cloned from blackberries which was the real portable emailer of the 1990s.

If you're using a full keyboard, you aren't "texting", you're typing.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

For those of you older guys who remember the original IBM Selectric Typewriters

ha!

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by squirrel

ha!

I thought that might get your attention!

[Team 135]

Was there ever a net during the nationals? I was so busy when I left that I ended up not grabbing my radio to listen in.

[boomergeek]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

If you're using a full keyboard, you aren't "texting", you're typing.

By "full keyboard", I really meant an approximately 44 key keypad, not necessarily "full" as in full-sized 44+ keyboard. (Sorry for my sloppy phrasing).

The definitions of texting, chatting, emailing are fairly well accepted: if you receive the message as a phone system text on your cellphone (commonly referred to as SMS or short message service), then the sender was "texting": even if the sender was scribbling the text in with Graffiti). If you are using a window to see a continuous text dialog, typically over the Internet, then you are "chatting".

If you receive the message on an email account without going through an SMS service, then the sender emailed you.

The definitions of the terms "typing" and "keying" may have to do with the number of keys involved or the number of digits used: is someone that uses with one finger on a full sized keyboard, typing or keying?

I usually think of "typing" as something one does at a full-sized 44+ key keyboard using all (or at least most) of the fingers on both hands. Someone that does not use all the fingers on both hands or needs to look at the keys to find them is usually characterized as not knowing how to type. I.e., someone whom would be flunked by a typing class is actually keying and not typing.

[MrForbes]

At our house, texting is when you write a note on a scrap of paper and leave it laying on the kitchen table.

Typing is done on a typewriter. Manual, electric, standard, portable, doesn't matter.

Pretty much everything else is considered to be using a computer. It could be one of the modern ones, or maybe a Zenith SuperSport, or a Kaypro, or whatever (there are about a hundred to chose from).

I wonder if all robotics homes are this strange?

[boomergeek]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

If you're using a full keyboard, you aren't "texting", you're typing.

New gimmicks on texting and a new world record...

http://www.textually.org/textually/a.../03/025670.htm

Want to try to beat this challenge with Morse Code?

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by boomergeek

New gimmicks on texting and a new world record...

http://www.textually.org/textually/a.../03/025670.htm

Want to try to beat this challenge with Morse Code?

Page typed in a 26-word phrase in 35.54 seconds, beating the previous top speed of 41.4 seconds.

With my decades-rusty Morse skills and a virtual "straight key", it took me 95 seconds. That's about 16 WPM (exactly the speed I practiced at when I was a teen). The winning texter was about 45 WPM. I never practiced with an iambic keyer, but for those who use them, 50 WPM does not seem like a stretch.

[boomergeek]

Proper capitalization and punctuation is a necessary part of the phone texting challenge. Did you consider that in your 95 seconds trial or your 50 WPM estimate?

I thought that typical Morse Code did not include lower case letters nor punctuation.(?)

[dcherba]

Team 3234 is all most all hams

Mentors WZ8T, WW8WW, AA8JR
CW rocks.

[dcherba]

With Rockwell Collins as a sponsor we should be able to get a special event station at the Championship.

How many of you are going to do the VHF contest or field day?

WZ8T

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by boomergeek

I thought that typical Morse Code did not include lower case letters nor punctuation.(?)

Partly correct, the International (Morse) Code does not allow for character case but punctuation is no problem.

Edit: Punctuation is included in Morse Code (Thanks Al)

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Partly correct, the International (Morse) Code does not allow for character case but punctuation is no problem.

Don meant that punctuation is included in Morse Code.