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Typing
Apr 23, 2023 10:05:23 GMT -5
Post by k9krap on Apr 23, 2023 10:05:23 GMT -5
I’ve been watching dramas recently where some people (young women, mostly) type. I’m trying to figure out how they are able to get anything coherent to come out of their keyboard. They type as if they are playing the piano! Their fingers are straight. No way I can do this without my fingers hitting several keys at once (if I could straighten all my fingers, which I cannot). I learned to type on an actual typewriter, electric one in high school but a manual one at home (Mom had an old Royal that I used at times for reports, etc.). No way this “new” method of typing would be successful on a real typewriter. You really need to use your fingers to press down on the key, unlike a computer keyboard which depress with hardly any effort.
So, are they really typing or just pretending in a way that doesn’t harm their manicure?
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Typing
Apr 23, 2023 10:33:40 GMT -5
Post by Dave's Not Here Man on Apr 23, 2023 10:33:40 GMT -5
It's for real and it's a bit unsettling to think that a person can't figure out change for a cash transaction but can type a romance novel in 8 minutes.
I remember when the jobs listings used to indicate how many words per minute minimum an applicant had to type, without errors, as a qualification. IIRC 60 WPM was considered pretty standard. Of course that was with IBM Selectric typewriters which sped thing up but one typo could ruin your speed.
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Typing
Apr 23, 2023 11:11:57 GMT -5
Post by minx on Apr 23, 2023 11:11:57 GMT -5
In terms of change, it's something you have to think about and the skill only improves with lots of practice. I worked as a cashier in HS, and I got super good at calculating change automatically. By the time I graduated college, I had to take a minute to think, and now I have to stop and calculate. So I 100% not being able to automatically do that calculation if you've never had to.
In my GS troop, I made the girls manually calculate change - I didn't make them do it on prices - you knew that 2 boxes were $7, but from there I did make a chart so things could go faster. As 1st graders we did it for them - "Okay, so they have you $10 for two boxes, so you owe them $3 in change - give this to them". Then second grade and up, they did the calculations themselves. Third grade, they started taking over the money completely - wearing the money belt and handling the entire transaction. They were totally down to clown by the end of 4th grade. However, I'm not sure how many of them could calculate the prices that quickly now.
I think that like a lot of things, if you do it everyday it's easy. Once you stop doing that, it becomes a lot harder.
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Typing
Apr 23, 2023 11:15:38 GMT -5
Post by minx on Apr 23, 2023 11:15:38 GMT -5
Also, I was trained on manual typewriters as well, and spent many years as a temp going out on assignments to different places. So typing was a must!
Then when I started working at places like Blue Cross, you had to be able to listen to a customer calling about a claim and type their information in while talking.
So, while I still hunt and peck, I've gotten pretty fast at it, and also don't have to look at a keyboard as much when typing freehand. It's amazing at how many of my co-workers (who are younger and didn't grow up with a typewriter) don't have those skills - they need to look at the keyboard constantly when they type. I only have to if I'm using a laptop keyboard.
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Typing
Apr 23, 2023 11:47:33 GMT -5
Post by Dave's Not Here Man on Apr 23, 2023 11:47:33 GMT -5
Yeah I suppose, and yes my skills/jobs etc have pretty much required basic math and a handful of formulas. We had a manual cash register at the shoe store (first real job while still in high school) and from day 1 they were impressed that I didn't need a calculator. The machine did the adding but I/we would have to figure discounts, tax, and change. Easy peesy for meesy. Out there building this thing is still mathematically a piece of cake for not doing it in oh, 5+ years, or longer as far as using a measuring tape more like 10+ years. It's the physical part that is lost to time, for me.
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Typing
Apr 24, 2023 0:15:19 GMT -5
Post by k9krap on Apr 24, 2023 0:15:19 GMT -5
But how? Computer keyboards are basically flat now. How do they type like that without hitting every key under that outstretched finger? It boggles the mind.
I played piano, too. (Well, tried.) It’s a totally different movement.
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Typing
Apr 24, 2023 10:32:03 GMT -5
Post by k9krap on Apr 24, 2023 10:32:03 GMT -5
Speaking of giving change: I worked in banks around the Fredericksburg area for several years before getting a job at Dahlgren. It was my next job after Woolco. First it was part time - mostly drive through teller during the evening hours while I was in school (math/Econ major so figuring change wasn’t an issue. 🤣). Then I went full time, ending up at the college branch during the day and working the drive through a couple evenings a week. One day at the drive through, my drawer came up $100 short. I narrowed it down to the exact transaction but upon contacting them, they denied that I overpaid them. Of course.
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Typing
Apr 24, 2023 12:56:52 GMT -5
Post by minx on Apr 24, 2023 12:56:52 GMT -5
My third day alone as cashier, I did something that threw my totals completely off. Remember it because I stayed with another cashier, the assistant manager and the store manager for 2 hours after closing trying to find the damn error.
In the end, they threw it into a separate deposit bag and decided to let the corporate office figure it out.
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