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Crazy idea: Make a Colemak T-shirt?

  • Started by DreymaR
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  • From: Köln, Germany
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No, KBS is keyboard samurai.... I think by now, I am aware of the fact that we're talking about keyboards!! And I think we should make something a bit more mature-looking than whizzy 'blur cum skew' keyboards.

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  • From: Viken, Norway
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Ah, my bad then about your abbreviations. I never accused you of not knowing what we're talking about though; maybe you misread me too?

If you want to make something mature-looking, no problem. My idea is to make a T-shirt that anyone can buy separately by specifying an image file, so it shouldn't bother you what I'm making and vice versa (I still hope someone will help me discuss/make a design that suits my taste and hopefully some other peoples' too). It's not as if this "we" of which you speak are preparing to order a number of shirts from a company, afaik.

I think a chrome flash or colorful globe/flag/whatever might suit me just fine; I'm looking for a cheerful attention-getter for myself. If I want to be tasteful a T-shirt won't be my choice apparel anyway.  :)

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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Is it just me, or does everyone seem a little grouchy? I don't think anyone meant to insult anyone else. You also have to remember that there is a bit of a language barrier for some.

I also don't want you guys to think that the globe that I put up was what I was going to do for the Colemak T-Shirt. That was for something unrelated, I just wanted to show you that I am capable of doing almost anything you can suggest. Just be sure to make it clear what you want. I haven't done anything yet because I've been busy with school.

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  • From: Houston, Texas
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and all this time I have been holding my breath for a fantastic tasteless colemak keyboard globe on a black background.    may be even glow in the dark!

oh well, I guess I will breathe now. 

:-)
KBS

Last edited by keyboard samurai (17-May-2007 07:28:33)
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NeoMenlo: Kudos for trying to keep the grouches apart.  :)  But as far as I can see, nothing here is bad - just clearing up a few points. Internet communication always carries the risk of misinterpretations and it can easily take a wrong turn but I'm aware of that and not looking for a fight so I hope everything's peachy.

In a more interesting vein: I saw your globe, and never expected that to be your entry in the "contest".  ;)  You said what it was in your post, clearly - so no worries as far as I'm concerned at least.

I really think that you should make your own thing, not what "we" want. Feel free to use any of my little ideas (and I'd think, anyone else's too - certainly as long as they're in this thread) but do your own thing. That'll produce the most inspired results, and allow you to work with what you like the most and do the best. Make a couple of designs if you feel up to it, like I've tried to. Then we can marvel at your mastery of all things refractory and based on your results discuss exactly what's wrong with knowing too much or too little biophysics and other fun things.  :D

To the poster hitherto abbreviated as KBS: Oo, glow-in-the-dark! Squeee! Hang on, can we have a stereovision version of that? *stops breathing*

Last edited by DreymaR (19-May-2007 08:34:38)

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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  • From: Köln, Germany
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Sorry, Dreymar, I wasn't attacking you or anything, i was just kidding! Sorry if I didn't make myself clear. I'm still really busy, so I don't have much time at the moment (thats why I didn't reply for so long.) I will be free again in a few weeks or so, but right now exams are coming up, so you guys can have a break of my pesky comments and stuff! xD
By the way: the wikipedia article in german is nearly finished, but I will probably only manage to complete it by some time in June.

Last edited by vilem (20-May-2007 21:52:19)
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There you go, I managed to get the new logo to work on a pc.. kind of at least.
colemakbluebigvh3.png
I think i still need to work on this though... any suggestions for improvement??

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how about just like this but the reflection be QWERTY ?

   
     colemak
     c;ukman


okay just a hair brain thought...

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Oo, nice Vilem! And fun idea, Samurai. It might just work!  :)

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
*** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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Yeah, that's actually a really good idea, kbs, i'll try it. However, i think most people wouldn't get it.. maybe?
Or perhaps I'm just underestimating the average cave man!

Last edited by vilem (22-May-2007 16:13:10)
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Never mind the cavemen, here's the Sexy Colemaks! (Uh, I don't expect many to get that reference really.)

Please do try it out - I'm intrigued at the thought.

I don't think it matters a lot whether the uninitiated understand it. They may get curious at least, and then we're there to explain it to them. Also, if it's done on a front+back shirt for instance, the other side of the shirt could be more obvious (I'm thinking it could show the layout - maybe in the same color palette for consistency - maybe with that shiny finish I was thinking about, if Menlo wants to make that? - maybe as a sphere or motion blur thingy then?).

I'll ignore the fact that with the application of sufficient imagination "cukman" could remind of something rude in my language.  :D

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
*** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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Here's my idea...

colemak_t.png

So when an average computer-savvy person sees the front, they'll recognize the pattern and notice the arrow and question mark. It'll set them thinking, "Yeah, what is semicolon doing there?" The Colemak domain is easy enough to remember and is prominently displayed on the back of the shirt. I think it would work better with darker colors: black or dark pastels with white text.

Actually, now that I think about it, a tagline of "Which one doesn't belong?" or "Spot the unlike one." might be more effective.

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maybe we should also add the other letters in light grey though so you see what is meant right away.

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I am more than averagely computer-savvy, and I swear I have no idea whatsoever as to what you're trying to say with that design. All I see is an ugly QWERTY home row that ends in a semicolon with a question mark that tells me nothing at all (bar the fact that the US QWERTY home row has a comma). Sorry.

Why focus on the semicolon? It's the least important character on that row, together with J maybe. And what happened to the lovely blue reflection (with Colemak)? By the way, instead of reflecting "Colemak" there could also be "ARSTD HNEIO" vs. "ASDFG HJKL;" on the front and "colemak.com" vs. "c;ukmak.c;m" on the back?

If I failed utterly to understand your point at first attempt, don't expect it to be very intuitively easy for others maybe? Or maybe I'm ignorant of some vital piece of common knowledge.  :)

Last edited by DreymaR (07-Jun-2007 13:24:29)

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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Well, I'm new in this topic, but I would like to seesomething like "The most used letters: arstdhneio. And why are asdfghjkl there in the home row" or something like that.

—R2D2! // Ilhuıtemoc δ

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kalixiri said:

Here's my idea...

Actually, now that I think about it, a tagline of "Which one doesn't belong?" or "Spot the unlike one." might be more effective.

I don't know if I would get it just seeing it but when when you explained it I thought it was pretty funny.

What would be more funny is instead of just the question mark you have

" WTF ? "


because that is my reaction now.   :-)

I'll get one!

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Although nobody has yet explained it to me, kalixiri's design seems to attempt to say "why is the ';' in the home row?" which is a pretty pointless thing to say in my opinion. Consider the fact that having the semicolon on the weakly and otherwise overworked pinky is much less of a problem than having the J on a prime home row position! Not to mention the disaster of the E which must be the single biggest mistake of QWERTY.

If that isn't what it's trying to say, then I'm really without a clue here.

Last edited by DreymaR (09-Jun-2007 09:08:30)

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
*** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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DreymaR said:

Although nobody has yet explained it to me, kalixiri's design seems to attempt to say "why is the ';' in the home row?" which is a pretty pointless thing to say in my opinion. Consider the fact that having the semicolon on the weakly and otherwise overworked pinky is much less of a problem than having the J on a prime home row position! Not to mention the disaster of the E which must be the single biggest mistake of QWERTY.

If that isn't what it's trying to say, then I'm really without a clue here.

A message on a shirt needs to be succinct and easy to comprehend at a glance. I can see that my design is pretty ambiguous, so I'll try thinking of others. I agree it doesn't work well, but I think my goals differ from yours.

I think you'd like a Colemak shirt as a sort of trophy, a novelty item or cool, quirky thing to wear. My reason for wanting to wear a Colemak shirt would be to convert others to this great layout: I'm trying to sell this idea to those around me. I need propaganda.

Most people don't look at their keyboards--they don't know the keys sitting right in front of them for their entire life. So it's quite jarring when I point out the semicolon on the home row, so infrequent most don't know its grammatical function. It gets their attention. Most will say, "Yeah, that's pretty weird. I never thought of that." They will go on with their day and never think of it again.

But there are a few that will continue this line of thought. "I wonder why it was placed there. Who invented this arrangement, anyway?" Then you can tell them about CapsLock: "Yeah, such a goofy function doesn't belong in a location that useful."

That's when you hit them with the letter frequency-statistics, 'E' on the top row, 'J' below your index finger, etc. Tell this to someone who happens to walk by while you're clacking away on your Colemak'd keyboard, unprepared and out of the blue, and they'll probably give you a weird look, shuffle away, and avoid you like the plague.

Our biggest challenge is lack of awareness. When enough people realize they've been using an input system unchanged in 130 years, that's when we'll see some real changes. (and maybe a Wikipedia article :P)

Last edited by kalixiri (10-Jun-2007 02:46:18)
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Your OS is five years old.  Your office suite is three years old.  Your favorite font is one year old.  The picture on your desktop was taken last month.  You updated your anti-virus last week.  I would say that you're decently up to date, if you weren't using a keyboard layout from before your great grandpa was born. 
Colemak.  Get with it.
www.colemak.com

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lol, that's a bit too long, but definintely going in the right direction! However, I have the concern that people think we are physically making a new keyboard which we would need to stress on the website. Oh yeah, for coolness purposes: colemak.com !! (As some of you might have noticed, there is a fashion of leaving out he "www." bit of a url.)

Last edited by vilem (11-Jun-2007 21:59:30)
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The QWERTY keyboard layout was made a while back by a man named Christopher Latham Sholes.  A century later, the first computer was invented.  What?  You're still using it?  Wow...  Whoa, wait a minute!- what's with this newspaper of yours?  Is "secessionists", like, slang for "insurgents" or something?

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Oh, wow.  I didn't expect you to reply that fast.  I was looking at the post above and thinking "wait- I didn't type that..."

So, how about something like:

Remember how hard it was to learn to type?  It wasn't your fault.  Some guy's typewriter wouldn't work 130 years ago.  Tell me why that should be your problem.

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With all of my suggestions, of course, you'd include the colemak website URL.

Here's another one. 

The fastest typist known to have ever lived didn't use qwerty.  Type a lot?  You shouldn't either.  colemak.com

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Use colemak, and you'll see why 2015 won't be like 1885.

Ok, sorry.  That was a bit lame.  If you have any general ideas that need polishing, though, I can do it for you.  I'm running a little dry on original stuff right now...

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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: n. 1. Fatigue of tissue in the wrists due to the use of the 130 year old qwerty keyboard layout.  Often referred to as "that thing colemak took care of".

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