There's going to be hand-span oneupmanship any minute now...
I knew that was going to turn into a joke. Actually, I should recheck. I'm pretty sure it's 8", because I used to use it to measure stuff, but I haven't done it for a while and I may be off an inch.
Of course, handspan isn't the issue, it's the width of your fingers, but I'm hoping it correlates well enough to help people.
So are you going to send Ari some cookies now?
Does the screen resolution bother you? If you're reading unfogged, for example, how many people's comments on the sidebar can you see while still seeing the banner?
Thanks. I'm about to order one. By the way, where are my cookies?
7: New York, if you stop by for them.
6: None. When I scroll down, the first link to a comment shows up just as the banner disappears from the top of the screen. You end up scrolling a lot.
9: Thanks. You're a better woman than me, Gunga Breath. That would drive me nuts. (I'm not that strong a scroller.)
Take it as a challenge, Tim. Powerful scrolling isn't learned in one day. LB's mastery of scrolling is the fruit of hundreds of hours of hard work.
I have very narrow fingers but large hands (8.5'' by the LB measure.) And I type very, very quickly.
Arg. Thing is, I haven't had a chance to play with one, so I'm not sure if the keyboard driving me nuts would be worse than lugging my 8lb laptop around.
Do you have to side scroll at all for basic word processing? (That would be a deal breaker for me.)
so I'm not sure if the keyboard driving me nuts would be worse than lugging my 8lb laptop around.
I guess that's the sort of thing you'd have to test out. But I can say that I used to have an eight pounder (maybe even a little more) and then switched to a lighter computer. The difference was just unreal.
I was surprised at how heavy my laptop was, and I found myself walking much, much less when I had it with me.
12: No, and that would be unacceptable for me, too. The vertical scrolling isn't a problem, but if I was going side to side every line I'd have sent it back.
Long fingers shouldn't be a problem, I don't think, just wide fingers. I'd bet the keyboard wouldn't bother you much at all. (The first hour was hunt and peck, but after that I was back to my normal slowish typing.)
The weight is a huge deal. I don't mind lugging stuff for a purpose, but I would not carry around most laptops I've ever met as a matter of course, This thing is going to live in my bag.
That's where it would live for me, too. I like my current laptop, but if it's rainy or cold or nasty out, it becomes very good motivation not to go out to do work. Or if I have two or three places to walk before I go into school. I can work at home, but I do better mentally if I leave the house.
I guess I could look it up. Maybe I'll just go outside and look at the flowers.
18
Looks like they are running $500-550.
Depends on the model. The most basic one is $299.
Huh. That's actually quite tempting. I have heard it said that my current computer is a piece of shit embarrassment.
A separate keyboard with a USB cable doesn't cost much, I don't think, even if you have a tight budget.
23: Don't worry, maybe you can special order one with Windows ME.
Talk to someone techy before thinking it's going to be your only computer. Mine has only 8G of memory; if you have a music collection you care about and manage on your computer, that wouldn't work.
And Shearer got the price right.
It's not really intended to be an only computer, from what I've read.
That's be my take on it. And my, ogged, what big hands you have.
27: You can only be young once but you can be immature forever.
my, ogged, what big hands you have
Aww, you're a sweetheart.
That's be my take on it
I blame the technology.
12"
That was supposedly Rachmaninoff's hand span.
All that matters is whether the thumb and pinky can form a 180 degree angle. (Ahem, not that this has anything to do with the size of computer keyboard you might want. It was just a ... thing ... about playing piano. The ability to span an octave, preferably more.)
34: I could reach a tenth when I was younger. Not that I could play well.
We can't all be Rachmaninoff. We can at least work on our hand muscles.
(This is so embarrassing, but I was peculiarly proud when I achieved this. I had an ongoing brag/demonstration contest with a friend, Patrick, who thought his so-called 'hitchhiker's thumb' was something to be proud of, pianistically. Pfft.)
35: I don't remember now how far I could get. 9, possibly 10? 10 was hard work, without leaping the fingers in any way, and still having some angle left to the fingertips to actually strike the keys with some reasonable attack and control rather than just pinging them. I haven't thought about this in years, but I seem to be pining for my piano still up in Mass.
I was such a terrible piano student, my teacher, after a couple of years, asked my parents if I could please stop. I could reach an octave, and almost reach but not so I could play it properly a ninth.
asked my parents if I could please stop
Ha ha! Piano was the one thing my parents insisted I stick with, for something like 9 years. I've never attacked something the way I did that. Discipline! Fury, tears, on occasion, when I could not get a piece.
Being asked to please stop was more like: tap (good lord, just terrible). Or just refusing to try: golf. Please. I will practice putting, okay?
LB, if you happen to check back, why did you go with an 8G rather than a 4?
I tried to use one of those things but I kept missing the keys and my fingers would get stuck in the gap between.
I played piano for 12 years, even taught lessons for five years. But I never was great at it, and then I ripped some tendons in my right hand doing something stupid and was never really able to play after that with any sensitivity. Now it's been ten years since I stopped and I'm truly terrible, an absolute baby again.
re: 34
Yeah, I play the guitar, and I can do a full 180 degree angle on the left hand but only about 170 on the right as there's no need to have stretched the right.* For guitar players the stretch between the four fingers [rather than thumb and finger] is even more important.
So, while my hand span -- little finger to thumb -- is 9.5 - 10 inches, the little finger to forefinger stretch is nearly 7. Which translates to about the interval of a 5th along one string [in the middle of the neck].
I'd imagine that relative degree of stretch between the fingers is quite specific to certain instruments. Viola, cello, guitar, etc.
* my left hand fingers are also physically longer than the right, which is another product of guitar playing.
41: I tried to use one of those things but I kept missing the keys and my fingers would get stuck in the gap between.
Yeah, piano's not for everyone.
re: 44
Scissor hands just aren't piano-playin' hands ...
It might be worth waiting for the HP mininote, which has a slightly larger keyboard and screen, I believe, for slightly more money.
Why did I get the 8G? No real reason -- I found it surprisingly easy to fill up an 8G iPod, and figured I'd feel dumb if having less memory turned into a problem down the road.
I've got the smallest hands of anyone I know of my age - 6" extended span. This laptop might be perfect for me.
IPHONE IPHONE IPHONE!
Whoah, that was weird. I must have a tic.
Seriously, though, if mobile unfogged commenting is the target application, it's pretty swell.
43: For guitar players the stretch between the four fingers [rather than thumb and finger] is even more important.
Interesting, and makes sense. I've tried a few times to learn guitar and gave up almost instantly because I felt like my fingers (fret-board fingers) just wouldn't do that. Cramping. It seemed unnatural to be bunching your fingers so closely together like that, almost like the opposite of piano. I just wound up sort of childishly pouting, "I don't like this at all!" Silly. I should try again, but there's no guitar around now.
42: Now it's been ten years since I stopped and I'm truly terrible
Yeah, me too. It would come back, right? Right?
49:How does that work? When the screen's the keyboard, how can you see while you type? Or are you typing on half of the little slab, with what you write showing up on the top half?
I never got used to texting, so typing with my thumbs is out of the question. But I suppose the iPhone might work if that worked for you.
Or are you typing on half of the little slab, with what you write showing up on the top half?
Exactly. And when you're in Safari you can type with it in the horizontal orientation, which makes the keyboard wider. I have no problem typing relatively quickly, although obviously not as quickly as I can type on a full size keyboard.
The only problem, commenting-wise -- and it is a big problem, something I hope they fix soon -- is lack of copy and paste.
But you've got to be typing with your thumbs -- no one could actually type on something that little, right?
53: yep. You can get pretty fucking fast with your thumbs when you're practiced.
If anyone cares -- Cala? -- Costco online sells the newest version of the Eee for the right price. Costco also lets you return merch purchased online at their brick-and-mortar stores. Which means that you can take the Eee back for 3 months with no questions asked. I just bought one and will let you know what I think when it arrives. Oh, it also comes with xp loaded and the stripped-down version of Office.