On a recent trip to Trivandrum, India, I decided to try learning to touch-type in Dvorak (after decades of hunt-and-peck in QWERTY). Here I share some excerpts of my “Dvorak Diary”.
December Twenty-Fifth, Two Thousand Fourteen….
The airport here has two levels. Lower is a huge confusing mall like Heathrow; upper is one huge business class lounge with its own gates. Lower is a dystopian capitalist nightmare; powerless citizens oppressed by armed guards are blasted with ‘luxury’ images and stores. The more oppressed, powerless, and confused the human, the more vulnerable to advertising. The violence behind capitalism is apparent at airports. Armed guards at the periphery, armed guards at every step, and at the center: shopping. But the business class lounge is ad-free and store-free. ‘Luxury’ goods aren’t for the rich and powerful, they’re for the disempowered middle class. They are the only way to gain a sense of power where all other power has been stripped away.
I started typing that at the Dubai airport but finished it here on the plane. That’s how slow a typist I am.
For similar reasons I’ve learned Colemak keyboard some time ago. It took me about one month to remember all keys and type fluently. For me a good way to learn was to print the keys layout and hang it next to the screen.
2018 King Kong Blues – a novel that predicts that soon, only the rich and powerful will be able to afford inoculations against all the overwhelming advertisements in public spaces.
Yours truly, one of your fans since the days of SC Comic News, created a fun (but no-frills) typing tutor for Dvorak: ABCD: A Basic Course in Dvorak.
Once fast enough to use daily, learning Dvorak is rapid. After, it’s the secret language you talk to your computer in, the speed of which dumbfounds witnesses. Capitalism ain’t subtle.
These few words hit harder than any indictment of capitalism I’ve read as of late. Thank you.
do you like Dvorak so far? Are you still using it?