My Opera is closing 1st of March
photo of Espen André Øverdahl

I read blogs for a living

And I think I like it

Keys of hate

, , ,

Keys on the keyboard I hate:

  • Insert (key of death)
  • Scroll lock (what does it do... it does not "lock" scroll)
  • Caps Lock (wtf)
  • Windows key (the logo)
  • Pause|Break (again... when/what does it do?)
  • Print Scrn|SysRq (not so much hate, but I don't get the "SysRq")

There are more, but this is it for now. I'm thinking of grabbing a knife and removing them completely.

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Comments

Angelikiellinidata Wednesday, October 15, 2008 8:23:44 PM

lol

a knife will be a fast solution,
till then I will take my time with a glass of wine and I will wish you "good luck" with removing them!!!

smile

CharlieBAMAToNE Wednesday, October 15, 2008 9:03:01 PM

Ha! The Windows key is quite useful for shortcuts... if you run Windows.

The rest can all diaf. (Except Print Screen. I'd die without that one since I take so many screenshots.)

HenryAOTEAROAnz Wednesday, October 15, 2008 9:07:20 PM

lol
chef knight
lol
Great description of these pointless keys.lol
I hit print screen when gaming but can never track the image down it seems to disappear into oblivian. SysRq...would love to know it's purpose!

Uncle MickMickeyjoe-Irl Wednesday, October 15, 2008 9:24:50 PM

The SysRq / Print screen commands often share the same key. SysRq was used in earlier computers as a "panic" button to recover from crashes. The Print screen command typically captures the entire screen and sends it to the printer.

The Break/Pause key no longer has a well-defined purpose. Its origins go back to teletype users, who wanted a key that would temporarily interrupt the communications line. The Break key can be used by software in several different ways, such as to switch between multiple login sessions, to terminate a program, or to interrupt a modem connection. In programming, especially old DOS-style BASIC, Pascal and C, Break is used (in conjunction with Ctrl) to stop program execution. In addition to this, Linux and variants, as well as many DOS programs, treat this combination the same as Ctrl+C. On modern keyboards, the break key is usually labeled Pause/Break. In most Windows environments, the key combination Windows key+Pause brings up the system properties.

- from Wikipedia

Uncle MickMickeyjoe-Irl Wednesday, October 15, 2008 9:27:39 PM

The scroll lock key is a remnant from the original IBM PC keyboard. In the original design, scroll lock was intended to modify the behavior of the arrow keys. When the scroll lock mode was on, the arrow keys would scroll the contents of a text window instead of moving the cursor. In this usage, scroll lock is a modifier key like Alt and Shift (which modify the function of other keys) and, more specifically, a toggling lock key like Num Lock or Caps Lock, which have a state that persists after the key is released. Today, this particular use of scroll lock is rare. Only a few modern programs still honor this behavior, such as Microsoft Excel (in the behavior of arrows — when scroll lock is on, the selection does not move), Lotus Notes and Forté Agent. In modern GUI environments, scrolling is usually accomplished using means such as scrollbars or scroll wheels. Therefore scroll lock can be regarded as a defunct feature in almost all modern programs and operating systems; some keyboards lack scroll lock altogether.

Scroll lock has fallen into such extremely infrequent use that some of the lighter-weight Linux desktop environments, such as Xfce, don't support it at all.

- also Wikipedia

Uncle MickMickeyjoe-Irl Wednesday, October 15, 2008 9:30:14 PM

And I'm surprised you didn't know this Espen

In the Opera web browser the scroll lock key plays an important role in voice recognition.

- you guessed it, Wikipedia

HenryAOTEAROAnz Wednesday, October 15, 2008 9:32:31 PM

faint

Robert Jacobsenrobertj Wednesday, October 15, 2008 9:42:08 PM

Caps Lock is my Ventrilo button. I used a registry key change to remove its annoying normal function. p

beavidal Thursday, October 16, 2008 1:58:53 AM

lol I hate all of them too!!!!


Oh, and the small backspace some keyboards have too! p

Tamil Thursday, October 16, 2008 5:34:01 AM

You can use AutoHotkey to modify function of any keys.

The following AutoHotkey script will launch or switch to Opera when you hit Caps Lock.
#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
#SingleInstance force
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.

Capslock::
SetTitleMatchMode, 2
IfWinExist, Opera
{
    WinActivate
    WinWaitActive
}
else
    Run %programfiles%\Opera\opera.exe
return

+Capslock::Capslock

HenryAOTEAROAnz Thursday, October 16, 2008 6:01:32 AM

cool

Espen André ØverdahlEspenAO Thursday, October 16, 2008 8:10:55 AM

BAMAToNE: The Windows key is horrible. I much rather prefer CTRL+ESC if I need the start menu. I also do a lot of "Print Scrn", but it was the SysRq thing that makes it useless.

Mickeyjoe_irl: hehe, thanks for the wikipedia quotes! I'm too lazy to look for answers. Also, I'm 25 years old. I'm too old to learn any new computer tricks. I don't use voice recg. in Opera, so I was not aware of its feature.

Tamil: Thanks for nerding it up! bigsmile

thobi Thursday, October 16, 2008 9:45:11 AM

lol - well, what i hate are those keyboards which have the print/scroll-lock/pause-buttons right next to the insert/pos1/page-up buttons because of the standby/shutdown...-keys on their original position instead sad

i hate those standby/shutdown...-keys. i oftenly push them by mistake sad

but i use the windows-key often. win+e -> explorer, win+pause -> system menu, win+l -> lock windows, win+f -> search wink

Tamil Thursday, October 16, 2008 10:03:12 AM

Originally posted by EspenAO:

I'm too old to learn any new computer tricks.

rolleyes

Øyvind ØstlundNoteMe Thursday, October 16, 2008 10:23:00 AM

BAMAToNE: The Windows key is horrible. I much rather prefer CTRL+ESC if I need the start menu. I also do a lot of "Print Scrn", but it was the SysRq thing that makes it useless.





So what do you do instead of Winkey+M or WinKey+Pause?


- ØØ -

Espen André ØverdahlEspenAO Thursday, October 16, 2008 10:30:30 AM

So what do you do instead of Winkey+M or WinKey+Pause?


Nothing. I don't use them. BTW: You suck in spacing. There are always at least 3-4 breaks when you write a comment.

Øyvind ØstlundNoteMe Thursday, October 16, 2008 11:47:31 AM

You suck in spacing


That's because MyOpera ads extra spacing p I never watch my comment go through really, and you are not going to make me change my behaviour pp


- pp -

Tamil Thursday, October 16, 2008 11:52:05 AM

Originally posted by NoteMe:

MyOpera ads extra spacing

http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Hit.gif -

Øyvind ØstlundNoteMe Thursday, October 16, 2008 12:28:31 PM

sad

Dan DeVilledmfalmeida Thursday, October 16, 2008 1:24:05 PM

If you choose to remove them from your keyboard, I'm sure they won't be missed.
Unless you change their functions... wink

CharlieBAMAToNE Thursday, October 16, 2008 2:36:07 PM

WinKey+R, WinKey+D, WinKey+E. Those are three nice ones off the top of my head. bigsmile

I'm not making fun of you, though! I still use Ctrl+L to highlight the address bar instead of.. what, F8?

thobi Thursday, October 16, 2008 3:03:28 PM

@tamil
had to read this twice to see what you're pointing ad wink
bigsmile

walterbugscout Thursday, October 16, 2008 3:19:59 PM

Hi,

>The Break/Pause key no longer has a well-defined purpose.

This key will stop the startscreen, before the windows logo
appears, for people that like to read the messages.

Regards

Uncle MickMickeyjoe-Irl Thursday, October 16, 2008 4:07:31 PM

Originally posted by Espen:

Also, I'm 25 years old. I'm too old to learn any new computer tricks.


I just turned 38, and I'm still learning. p

Knut Remi "DrLaunch" Løvlidrlaunch Thursday, October 16, 2008 5:21:30 PM

The Pause key is quite nice on Linux computers. It'll pause the gameplay in a lot of games. Insert is also used in several terminal emulators.

Oh. And I'm so lucky to not have a single trace of Windows on my computer (Eee). Even the Windows key is gone in favor of a home key.

Charles SchlossChas4 Thursday, October 16, 2008 7:59:07 PM

Could you take the Windows key (the logo) and change it to an Opera key (the logo)? whistle or you could rename the keys

Matt Coxcoxy Sunday, October 19, 2008 8:22:15 PM

The Insert key is the killer for me - I always accidently press it instead of 'home' and then start typing. sad

Ice ArdorIceArdor Thursday, October 30, 2008 2:31:03 AM

SysRq dates back to the days of mainframes, or thereabouts. Basically useless for the past two decades.

Pause/Break is implemented in some games, though is a just one of those keys that they added to make the keyboard sound more sophisticated (A: "oooh... my keyboard has 104 keys." --- B: "Not fair! Mine only has 103!")

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