GOOGLE LAPTOPS TO REMOVE CAPS LOCK KEY

[aaaaaaasd]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/ ... ou-miss-it

Quote:Losing the spinning hard drive from its Chrome OS laptops is one thing, but the news that Google would jettison the caps-lock key from its upcoming notebooks REALLY got the tech world in a twist.

"We expect this will improve the quality of comments across the Web," joked Chrome project head Sundar Pichai during Tuesday's unveiling, provoking some gasps, a few titters, and even a cheer or two. (Oh, and the function keys are getting thrown out with the bathwater, too.)

I admit that the news caught me a little off-guard. No caps-lock key? How would I live without it? Then again … when was the last time I really used the caps lock — besides the times I've hit the key by accident? Would I — or anyone — really miss it?

The caps-lock key has been standard-issue on PC keyboards for decades. All too often, though, it's been used to write BLARING E-MAILS AND COMMENTS that look LIKE SOMEONE'S SHOUTING.

All-caps shouting isn't restricted to blogs, of course. Newbies and trolls have been yelling (intentionally or not) in e-mail and in Usenet forums (remember those?) well before the Web.

There are even a couple of Web-based campaigns against the caps-lock key (CAPSoff and anticAPSLOCK) as well as a contrarian, somewhat tongue-in-cheek site (PROCAPSLOCK) that argues in favor of the widely hated key. And in case you missed it, International Caps Lock Day was observed just a few weeks ago. (HURRAY!)

CAPSoff traces the history of the caps-lock key back to the first IBM PC keyboards in the early 1980s, with the key relegated to a relatively out-of-the-way spot to the right of the space bar, below the shift key.

By 1986, however, IBM rolled out an "enhanced" keyboard, which moved the caps-lock key to its more prominent, now-standard position, directly below the tab key.

Before the caps-lock key, of course, was the "shift-lock" key, which dates back all the way to the era of manual typewriters. Heck, I remember using shift-lock on my old manual typewriter when I was a kid: You had to mash it down to lift (or shift, hence the "shift" key) the array of metal character strikers (a.k.a., the typebars) into their secondary position for capital letters, symbols and so on.

The shift-lock key came in handy on manual typewriters and other pre-PostScript relics, when adding italics wasn't an option. It also worked well for the titles of my grade-school book reports. Come to think of it, even the daisy-wheel printers I used with my dad's Apple II back in the early '80s (yes, I'm dating myself here) couldn't do italics.

Nowadays, of course, writing in italics is a piece of cake, which means the all-caps key is only needed for … uh, what's it needed for again, besides yelling in blog comments and punching in your Microsoft Office registration code? (I'm all ears, seriously — please don't yell TOO LOUD, though.)

Anyway, I ask you, netizens: Would you miss the caps-lock key?

DAMNIT GOOGLE

Y U TAEK MAH KAPS LOK KCEY AWAI

[SaintVicious]

FUCK YOU GOOGLE I LOVE ME CAPSLOCK FUFUFUFUFUUFUFUFUFUFUFUFUFUFUFUFUFU
google must be trollin'

[monkey]

Finally.

[Thade]

monkey Wrote:Finally.

[AWOL]

I use caps lock all the time, and 95% of that time isn't spent 'shouting'. It's honestly a useful feature and I'd hate to see it go.

[Rebelnerd]

BUT HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO HONOR THE MEMORY OF BILL MAYS????

[Pieman]

HI I'M BILLY MAYS AND I DISAPPROVE OF THIS MESSAGE. I USE THE CAPS LOCK KEY EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY LIFE. EVERY SINGLE SECOND.

[Prince Rilian]

I use capslock key when i want to capitalize a whole word and it is more than 3 letters long or so. Yeah, I'm pretty sure three letters is the cut-off. And capitalization is good for emphasis in thingies where you can't italicize or bold or whatever.

[The Desert Fox]

So don't buy one of these laptops. Problem solved. Google is big enough as it is.

[aaaaaaasd]

But that's not the problem. The problem is that it's becoming a common feature for manafacturers to drop design features they don't like to "streamline" something. Many of you also didn't notice that these laptops won't have function keys either. It will get to the point where it will be so simple it will be to difficult to do anything other than view Facebook or Youtube. I like my MANY OPTIONS. I like my YES SIR, DONE SIR style of computing. No bullshit, just get me to the goddamn point. If they are busy removing all the keys, it will be a necessity to hold down 4/5/6 whatever number of keys to do what I want when I could have just held one down.

Damn you, modern times

[AWOL]

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

They're getting rid of F5 too?

[aaaaaaasd]

F5 is a function key, so yes.

[AWOL]

... This means war.

[CrayolaColours]

Pieman Wrote:HI I'M BILLY MAYS AND I DISAPPROVE OF THIS MESSAGE. I USE THE CAPS LOCK KEY EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY LIFE. EVERY SINGLE SECOND.

HOLY SHIT IT'S BILLY MAYS!

lol, mixed feelings about this. I want to applaud whoever decided this, but it really is useful. (And italicizing IS a little more work. I, as a lazy American, do not like extra trouble.) If they added in an italicize key, it would be all good.

Wait, WE NEED CAPS LOCK TO PLAY MORROWIND/OBLIVION DDDD:<<

[Cilaos]

Wait wait wait, we need caps lock for oblivion, since when (remaps controls)?
It just randomly minimizes my screen when I accidentally hit it.

[CrayolaColours]

Weird. I have it set to caps lock being auto run. It's kinda fitting.

[Cilaos]

Yeah, I set auto-run and walk/run toggle way over to M and N since I don't really use them all that much.