Re: Food Prices

On 5/31/2025 5:07 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Sat, 31 May 2025 20:42:31 -0000 (UTC), Beej Jorgensen
<beej@beej.us> wrote:
 

In article <ma12kgF4l8nU1@mid.individual.net>,
Roger Merriman  <roger@sarlet.com> wrote:

Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:

- What are the first few letters on the bottom row of a QWERTY
keyboard?

>
Despite being trained as touch typists that escaped me!

>
I think being so-trained or well-practiced makes this a more
difficult question. I could get you the answer, but I'd have to imagine
typing every letter of the alphabet and keep track of which were on the
bottom row. :)

 Actually, it can be easily done and demonstrated.  Find a line drawing
of a typical QWERTY keyboard that does NOT have the characters and
functions.
<https://www.google.com/search?q=qwerty%20keyboard%20without%20labels&udm=2>
This should work:
<https://www.learnbydestroying.com/jeffl/crud/keyboard-blank.jpg>
Print it on paper as close to actual size as possible.
 Then, go through the alphabet A -> Z while pressing the corresponding
letter on the paper keyboard.  Watch which key you hit.  Every time
you hit something in the bottom row, scribble it down somewhere.  I
just tried it and it works (for me).
 My desk usually has one (or more) keyboards buried under a pile of
paper.  I use it every day for many hours.  One might expect looking
at the keyboard and using the keyboard would imprint an image of the
keycaps on my caffeine saturated brain.  Nope.  My blank mind is an
uncluttered mind.

FWIW, I missed the keyboard question and the $10 bill questions. The rest were not hard, mostly because of quirks: I've got a repair project pending on my side porch steps; I had to align my reflecting ceiling sundial with due north-south, and learned my house is precisely oriented that way... etc.
About the blank keyboard, I dimly remember reading about some sort of experiment where users learned an internet password entirely by touch, so they "knew" it but could generally not say what the letters were.
--
- Frank Krygowski