Friday, October 24, 2008 ♡~

Drop a simple yet complicated-to-answer question here:

Why are the letters on the keyboard nt in alphabetical order?

stunned?!
this is a question asked by a 3 yrs old kid who is learning to use a computer.

her question shocked all of us.
couldn't answer the question.
me and her mummy looked ard and stared at each other.
*speechless for a moment*

with no answer from anyone, i jokingly said, "coz the person who invented the keyboard din noe his "ABCs" as well as our lil gurl"
den she replied, "Mummy! REALLY?! Why is the person so stupid?"
everyone laughed and her mummy told her, "Nono, girl... no one is stupid. Gurl, it was only a joke. Mummy didn't tot of dat too. Why don't you ask the teacher when you go to playgroup? Maybe ur teacher noe the answer."
haha... as if the teacher in the playgroup knows.
but at least we din have to answer her question.

We did somehow returned back to the topic.
lil gurl: "Mummy, the keyboard very hard to press press. The ABCDEFG, all run ard. Mummy, tell me why why?"
Mummy: "Mummy dunno. Mummy not teacher. U ask jie jie."
*Bomb thrown to us o.O*
*Cold Stares*
Me: "do you see any words that the letters are spelled exactly like "ABCs"?"
"No rite?"
"And so for convenience sake, dey somehow random the words in a typical way for us to type easier."
"Erm... when u grow older, you will understand."
lil gurl: "Mummy when will i grow older?"
Mummy: "Erm, very long. Take at least another 18 years."
*Faints*

but at least she got quieter.
I think we shud pull kids away frm tv and computer.
=.=
Are the kids getting smarter or are we getting stupid?

Anw, when online to look for an answer, just in case she asked again.

A sample answer found online:

The QWERTY keyboard layout was designed so that successive keystrokes would alternate sides of the keyboard so as to avoid jams in manual typewriters. Is frequently said that the design was also created to make people type slower.
First designs of manual typewriters using keyboards with letters on alphabetical order could not keep up with the speed of fast typers and the QWERTY keyboard layout was designed to reduce jamming. See:

http://home.earthlink.net/~dcrehr/whyqwert.html

Later a layout called Dvorak was introduced to allow faster typing and reduce fatigue but has never got widespread use. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard

The QWERTY keyboard layout survived the era of electrical typewriters and the digital age because it was the first standard design. Being first counts.

Somehow in the older days, manual typewriters jams.
Christopher Sholes designed the QWERTY keyboard in such a way, so as to avoid jams in manual typewriters.

(ohhh! so nice of him.
why didnt u tot of passing dwn a manual on y u designed the keyboard in such a way.
Goodness!)

Geez...

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