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amish for qwerty
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Amish for QWERTY
(Originally published on the O’Reilly Network [
www.oreillynet.com
], 07/09/2003)
I learned to type before I learned to write. The QWERTY keyboard
layout is hard-wired to my brain, such that I can’t write anything
of significance without that I have a 101-key keyboard in front of
me. This has always been a badge of geek pride: unlike the creaking
pen-and-ink dinosaurs that I grew up reading, I’m well adapted
to the modern reality of technology. There’s a secret elitist pride
in touch-typing on a laptop while staring off into space, fingers
flourishing and caressing the keys.
But last week, my pride got pricked. I was brung low by a phone.
Some very nice people from Nokia loaned me a very latest-and-
greatest camera-phone, the kind of gadget I’ve described in my
science fiction stories. As I prodded at the little 12-key interface,
I felt like my father, a 60s-vintage computer scientist who can’t
get his wireless network to work, must feel. Like a creaking dino.
Like history was passing me by. I’m 31, and I’m obsolete. Or at
least Amish.
People think the Amish are technophobes. Far from it. They’re
ideologues. They have a concept of what right-living consists
of, and they’ll use any technology that serves that ideal — and
mercilessly eschew any technology that would subvert it. There’s
nothing wrong with driving the wagon to the next farm when you
want to hear from your son, so there’s no need to put a phone in
the kitchen. On the other hand, there’s nothing
right
about your
livestock dying for lack of care, so a cellphone that can call the
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