Almost 6 months with Colemak

davkol · 20-Apr-2012 22:26:28

keyhero.com: average 60 wpm @ 98.85 % accuracy (on a Lenovo ThinkPad Keyboard with Trackpoint)

If I bottom out on Cherry ML, I can reach speeds near 60 wpm. But these switches/keys are sticky if not hit in the middle, which makes "rolling" (like in "first") almost impossible when not bottoming out. I hope to get Cherry MX keyboard soon.

pafkata90 · 21-Apr-2012 17:37:37

I like ThinkPad's keyboards. My Dell has a similar one, which is way better than many full sized keyboards I've used.

davkol · 23-Apr-2012 23:51:44

Yeah, these are mostly the best rubber domes around (Topres are not around -_-). The problem is that the keys are rather mushy and what's worse, the ABS key caps become shiny really fast and feel terrible when touched with sweaty fingers.

BTW my average still fluctuates between 56.6 and 60.3 wpm. Did 64 wpm with little to none mistakes and the graph at keyhero.com showed short peak at more than 70 wpm. There's some hope for me...

Last edited by davkol (25-Apr-2012 22:27:59)

pafkata90 · 24-Apr-2012 18:46:12

Yeah, mine are a bit "shiny" now, after 3 years of usage, but it hasn't bothered me yet. Well it would've been better if they weren't of course... But I don't think my fingers get sweaty when I'm typing. Maybe that's why I haven't found it uncomfortable.

Congrats on the speeds. With persistence you'll reach your goals, and even more.

pinkyache · 25-Apr-2012 12:13:59

Interesting. I have a black Alps full sized keyboard, a Thinkpad, and Cherry ML keyboard.

The Thinkpad is a little mushy, the ML is a little sticky and the Black Alps are a bit stiff. Out of them all though the Alps is probably the lightest to type on.

I'm speediest on the Alps. But have hit 80WPM on and off on the other two. Probably average at 55WPM on the Thinkpad. I don't think I particularly enjoy any of them! I've certainly experienced worse. My attitude changes also from day to day. Sometimes I prefer one over the other.

I'd probably be better off with Cherry MX switches from what I can gather. The Thinkpad keyboards differ, my partner has a modern Thinkpad - and it feels better than mine - though from what I've read mine's quite a well respected keyboard.

Last edited by pinkyache (25-Apr-2012 12:18:43)

davkol · 01-May-2012 18:34:39

I've that external keyboard and a thinkpad edge. The first one is classical thinkpad keyboard, the second one is chicklet and more tactile. I like the chicklet one better, but I think it'll become too stiff soon.

Anyway, just made an account at 10fastfingers.com and scored 63 wpm (one/no wrong word). SteelSeries 6Gv2 (Cherry MX Black) with high-quality, sort of low-profile keycaps taken from Cherry G81-3000HAU (loud as hell when bottoming out).

pinkyache · 02-May-2012 10:18:28

Just tried out fastfingers and peaked at 81WPM on the Thinkpad with a T60 style keyboard. But the tests there are quite easy: easy spellings and no punctuation.

Never too sure what to make of the chicklet style, I had someone behind me on the train the other day with a macbook pro, and it sounded like he was hammering a piece of wood - horrible thing to hear.

Tony_VN · 02-May-2012 19:54:17

I use a Filco brown at work and a Compaq MX 11800 brown at home. I think my speed is 5-10wpm faster when I use such keyboards.

The typing feel is also great and I am happy to type longer sentences and to be more productive at work.

Trouble is now I visit Typeracer so many times during work time.

davkol · 03-May-2012 20:11:43

pinkyache wrote:

Just tried out fastfingers and peaked at 81WPM on the Thinkpad with a T60 style keyboard. But the tests there are quite easy: easy spellings and no punctuation.
Never too sure what to make of the chicklet style, I had someone behind me on the train the other day with a macbook pro, and it sounded like he was hammering a piece of wood - horrible thing to hear.

It's because of the aluminium plate (at least on the Apple (Mini) Aluminium Keyboard) and it makes my fingers hurt. The chicklet style... if keys aren't profiled, it's quite useful for orientation on the keyboard.

davkol · 24-May-2012 15:10:24

I sometimes hit about 68 wpm on 10FastFingers. Long time average (on both keyhero and 10fastfingers) is about 58 wpm. Next week, I'll be using Colemak for 9 months.

edit: My current average on keyhero is 63.7 wpm @ 98.76 accuracy and best speed is 72.6 wpm (with one typo). I guess it will drop back to 58 wpm, but I can see some progress after weeks or even months of stagnation (more or less).

Last edited by davkol (25-May-2012 23:30:21)

davkol · 27-Aug-2012 23:08:09

I've been training quite rarely since the last post. My long-time average is 63 wpm at 10fastfingers, and about 61 (+/- 2) wpm at keyhero.

5-minute-test @ hi-games … 55 wpm (I'm fairly new to the Cherry MX Red switches, and still learning how to type on a cloud of boobs.)

I've recently bought a TypeMatrix 2020, and quite liked its layout. Now, I'm waiting for the latest generation of TypeMatrix… and some POS mechanical matrix keyboard (fully programmable).

edit: grammar

Last edited by davkol (29-Aug-2012 13:37:26)

DreymaR · 28-Aug-2012 09:59:15

Your description of the Cherry Red almost led to a beverage incident over here...! :D

davkol · 29-Aug-2012 11:39:57

You didn't know this one? o.O

5-minute-test @ hi-games … 60 wpm (still loads of typos)

pinkyache · 29-Aug-2012 12:14:08

Oh you sick little keyboard perv! And there I thought it was some nipple metaphor. How are the Cherry Reds to type on? I want to upgrade to a Filco, but am uncertain as to which switches I should go for (I was thinking Browns, so I could drag it along to work with me.) I'm currently used to linear Black Alps - though they are a little too stiff for my liking.

Last edited by pinkyache (30-Aug-2012 12:14:52)

davkol · 29-Aug-2012 13:46:14

Awesome. I sometimes miss the bump of browns, so I might get another board with browns, but most of the time, I really appreciate smooth linear action. It's considerably lighter than blacks, but not too light as some people say. However, it's matter of personal preference at the end of the day.

DreymaR · 30-Aug-2012 07:40:13

Nope, didn't know that one. Thanks for yet another good larf! :)

davkol · 30-Aug-2012 22:47:30

5-minute-test @ hi-games … 60 wpm

few English tests @ 10fastfingers … 65-69 wpm

davkol · 06-Sep-2012 09:47:44

5-minute-test @ hi-games … 59 wpm

My current average at 10fastfingers is 64 wpm now. BTW yesterday it was exactly one year since I went cold turkey.

davkol · 15-Dec-2012 19:09:17

Little to none training recently (again/still). My record at 10FastFingers is 71 wpm, average remains 64 wpm, and actual speed & accuracy depend on my mood, part of the day, keyboard and you name it. I miss motivation I had a year ago, ca. 60 wpm is usually enough to get things done for me.

Taking notes in LaTeX is a pain, so I guess I should work on my layout modification to stabilize placement of special symbols around home row on an extra layer. I can't wait to put my hands on something like the ErgoDox, Kinesis Advantage or even that modified POS keyboard (don't have time to mess with it though) — because of thumb modifiers, of course.

Last edited by davkol (15-Dec-2012 19:10:21)

DreymaR · 15-Dec-2012 23:20:09

In the meantime, why not use my special symbols layout (Extend mappings)? Implemented for Win/PKL and Linux, and at least in the Linux version it should be fully modular with XKB so you shouldn't have any trouble using it with your layout and other mods of choice.

davkol · 15-Dec-2012 23:59:26

I'd rather adopt shalmu's extension. As mentioned elsewhere, I need accessible parenthesis because of Lisp.

DreymaR · 16-Dec-2012 00:08:51

There's no conflict there. Shalmu uses lv3-4, I use lv5-8. You could use both at the same time if you wish to although you might not.

And as I believe I've mentioned before, there are no arrows and suchlike in those lv3-4 mappings. I think I read your post to mean that you wanted these. In the meantime... ;)

Last edited by DreymaR (16-Dec-2012 00:11:37)

davkol · 16-Jan-2013 00:20:55

I'm attacking 70 wpm (with one or two corrected typos) almost every time I try at 10fastfingers.com. In the meantime, I just hope the ongoing ErgoDox group buy will be successful.

vaskozl · 17-Jan-2013 18:56:37

I don't like 10fastfingers and I wouldn't recomend it to anyone. That is so because
1. Hard words and punctuation is non existent there
2. It's a bunch of randomly generated words that make no sense whatsoever

Typeracer is much better since it:

a) forces you to use punctuation and capitalization properly.
b) allows you to race against others, which always pushes me higher
c) you read brilliant excerpts and quotes that you wouldn't've otherwise read.
d) keeps a flow of a sentences in your brain improving your typing speed.

davkol · 18-Jan-2013 17:59:46

10fastfingers is a great way to build muscle memory for some common words. IMHO, it serves different purpose than most other tests.

Most of stuff I type is either code, or text in language other than English, hence most of these tests actually don't say much about my real-life typing speed.

Colemak forum

#26 20-Apr-2012 22:26:28

Re: Almost 6 months with Colemak

#27 21-Apr-2012 17:37:37

Re: Almost 6 months with Colemak

#28 23-Apr-2012 23:51:44

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#29 24-Apr-2012 18:46:12

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#30 25-Apr-2012 12:13:59

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#35 24-May-2012 15:10:24

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#36 27-Aug-2012 23:08:09

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#38 29-Aug-2012 11:39:57

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#39 29-Aug-2012 12:14:08

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