JUST MY TYPE
BY DAN MILLER
October 6, 2006
The old theorem says, put a million monkeys in front of a million typewriters, and eventually they'll pound out something worthy of Shakespeare.
I just don't believe it.
Those monkeys could pound the keys for a million years and, I believe, they'd still get nothing more than stuff like this... jfkfrhe[h'ase fkwier[qugjvajrvg argopjurg0'vpak jgjgladj';lajdf;ljasdf jf; -- with an occasional word here and there.
That is, UNLESS, you let the monkeys use a computer's automatic "spell-check."
That's what I do..... and, it works for me!
Like most people, I took typing courses in high school because it was considered a fairly easy elective -- and a way to, perhaps, meet girls.
I never suspected how typing skills would come in so handy -- far in the future -- when computers and word processors rendered typewriters obsolete.
I was never a really good typist until I took a mandatory course while in the Army.
After that, I could reach maybe 35 to 40 words-per-minute.
But remember, on the old typewriters every word had to be perfect, or you'd spend the next 15 minutes with Liquid Paper or Wite-Out.
It could take even longer if you needed to fix several carbon copies.
Nowadays, all you do is hit "spell-check", and every mistake can be made perfect in 30 seconds or so.
For that reason, it is unfair to compare someone's w.p.m (words per minute) today with the results back in the days of typewriters.
These days, everyone can type at lightning speed, and correct it all later.
Last night, I decided to take a typing speed test.
It indicated that I was racing along at a rate of about 65 w.p.m....
But then it factored out my errors.
My final score....... 14 w.p.m. Humbling!
In this age of computers, typing skills have become quite useful.
Years ago, only would-be secretaries or journalists worried much about learning to type.
Now, most everybody eventually sits down to a computer keyboard.
Out of curiosity, I took a poll of my fellow workers here at Channel 4, to see how they learned to type, and why.
The results were interesting.
Of the 35 people who responded to my survey, 6 were self-taught, only 1 learned in college, and 28 learned in high school.
Among the claims made during my survey:
Veteran (behind the scenes) newsman Jim East claimed that, after hunting and pecking for 45 years, he can type 85 words per minute, mistake-free, USING ONLY 2 FINGERS!
Producer Carlos Johnson claimed that after studying typing for just a few weeks in high school, he could -- all of a sudden -- type 90 w.p.m.
Reporter Marc Stewart -- while responding to the survey -- said he almost failed typing in high school, but then -- defiantly, like something out of the old west, challenged me -- or anyone else -- to a typing contest, insisting he's the fastest around.
Demetria Kalodimos claims (unsubstantiated) that she taught herself to type in the 3rd grade!
Engineer Doug Smith told how his mother made him take a typing class during the summer while he was in high school.... and that he was unhappy with her at the time, but today, "I'd say rather *grateful* is more like it", he says.
Doug also pointed out something that no one else mentioned to me.... how he makes extensive use of the "bumps" molded into the home keys on computers.
(Look closely at the letters "f" and "j" and you'll see them)
And then there's producer Molly Day, who responded to my survey, "Is this a trick question?"
She then explained how she's become a pretty good typist because of, "having to meet deadlines with bosses breathing down my neck!"
By the way, if you want to test yourself on typing speed, there's a test you can take at TYPINGTEST.COM
It's fun, and can be quite humbling if you think you're really fast.
I hope Marc Stewart takes the test before he gets himself in real trouble with some wild west gunslinging fast typer!
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