after years of slowly upgrading my typing technique from 2 finger pecking to 10 finger stare-at-the-keyboard pecking, i’ve been trying pretty hard all week to get to a stage where i’d be able to watch the screen while i type
this is very rewarding
i now get to see my typing errors AS THEY HAPPEN!
WOO HOO
i believe is the expression i’m looking for
i’m wondering what calibre of typists are unicyclists?
do u peck or touch type?
do u have any suggestions to help me conquer this fiddly beast?
I can just about wheelwalk, but I can’t touch type. I can, however, type faster than a lot of people who can. I seem to recall reading something about telling what people do from their typing… if they touch type very neatly they compute for work; if they type at speed but with hands randomly flying all over the keyboard, using whatever finger happens to be nearest to the key at the time, they compute for fun.
I fall into the latter category… I’ve never counted words per minute, but I don’t think it’s that slow. Maybe it should be called “freestyle typing” or something. Hmmmm…
At least, it’s faster than the chap behind me at work who types slowly using an IBM model M keyboard which is SO LOUD!!! 
Phil
yeah, sounds about right
my main issue still revolves around looking at the screen or the keyboard while u type?
My absolute record is 115 WPM at http://www.typera.net . I’ve only played once since they revamped their system, and I was a shade above 100 WPM. I tend to get better after a few runs, but I do consistently get >500 WPM.
Can’t even ride with one foot though.
Before College I couldnt touch type worth a damn. Now however I’m pritty good at it and my typing speed is deffenatlly way faster than it was before. I think it just takes lots of pratice, like wheel walking I guess.
As far as where to look at, I prefer the screen and that way can see when I mess up and fix it. I dont really care if I hit every key with the appropriate finger and often the keys in the middle like y, b, g, h, are up for grabs with what ever finger is closest to them at the time. I think more the hard part about touch typing is keeping all your fingers on the keyboard as you are typing instead of hovering above the keys ready to swoop in for that strike. But really do whatever works, if you can type relitivly fast with the hunt and peck thing than do it.
Good luck with the changeover.
Chex
I mostly peck, because my hands aren’t over the ‘home row’ or whatever it’s called. But I use all my fingers to type (actually, just my first finger and middle finger and thumb, but it seems like all my fingers). I can type fairly fast, probably around 40 WPM.
After I graduated college with a linguistics degree and no discernible skills, I immediately enrolled in one of those business/secretarial schools to take typing. I could at one time type about 65/wpm. I still touch type quite well but don’t worry too much about speed.
Funny story I was once told. Includes profanity, though so be forewarned.
A friends ex-girlfriend, this is back in the 70s mind you, had recently graduated law school and passed the bar. She interviewed at several firms and was asked at one if she touch typed. Her response was, “Yes, and I also f*ck, but not for a living.”
C’mon, if God didn’t love the angry feminist, She wouldn’t have given us Phyllis Schlafely.
I can’t wheel walk. 
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
DVORAK baby!
or like being a touch typist between glances at the keyboard?
I can’t wheelwalk, I can touch type.
Best advice GILD, is to just keep at it, it feels slow and unnatural at first, compared with the “hit the key with the nearest finger” approach, but it becomes easier.
And bah, I learned how to touch type because I thought it would be a laugh, not for any work related thingy 
I mostly touch type but I’m not too fast about 45 wpm in finnish and english is about 35 wpm. Maybe a little faster sometimes.
my first go at that typerA resulted in 33wpm not bad, i could type alot faster if i didnt have to keep looking up from the keyboard. 
iain
I would’ve had a much better time with the TyperA thing if it gave me actual sentences instead of incoherent ramblings…
First try got me a score of 512 keys per minute ~ 102 words per minute.
Second try got me a score of 515 keys per minute ~ 103 words per minute.
I guess I’m fairly consistent between runs.
And no, I can’t wheelwalk. Not until my knee heals over will I probably try.
I look at the screen exclusively (or the nearby scenery). Besides, my keycaps are QWERTY, and I touch-type in Dvorak, so there is little benefit looking at the keyboard – they letters printed on the keycaps don’t match the Dvorak layout anyway (except for A, M, the numbers, Enter, Shift, the heavily-used backspace key, etc.).
I love seeing the words flow onto the screen.
I was never good at typing the numbers. I look at the keyboard only when typing the numbers in the middle (5, 6, 7) and I use some random finger for them. But as a software developer, I shouldn’t be using too many numbers anyway – they should be a #define.
The word “the” comes out as a single sound, not three separate clicks, due to Dvorak’s clever layout of the keys.
Dave Lowell (uni57)
Well I’m typing this message pretty slowly with 6 fingers only looking at the screen. So far I’ve made 3 mistakes. I’m getting there.
Andrew
I haven’t heard too much about DVORAK keyboards but that may be because I mostly write in finnish. My keyboard has Scnadinavian mapping so it has some differences to the US version because of these funny letters öäå.
i stink at typing but id say its a good skill to have and wouldent mind getting good at it, yea and im an extreme pecker
Self taught touch typist: I thought it was a good thing to have back when I was transcribing games from code books in BASIC to an Apple II computer:).
A long, long, long way from learning to wheel walk.
Have you suffered some terrible MUni accident you haven’t told us about??? You are using all six fingers?
You should be using all nine fingers.
(I take it you are learning to touch type?)
Dave Lowell (uni57)