Why does the Insert key continue to exist on modern keyboards? I don't know anybody who still relies on Shift+Insert to paste, and I can't even imagine why anybody would ELECT to go into type-over mode in a word processor.

It has no virtues I can think of, but once every week or two, I hit it by accident and it causes me ten seconds of intense frustration. This averages out to FIVE MINUTES A YEAR of frustration.

And to those who say, "Just pop the key out": My keyboard looks awesome and I don't want to ugly it up by putting holes in it.

I hate Caps Lock just as much, but I acknowledge that some lazy people might have a use for it, so I can't in good conscience call for the genocide of its kind.

Unlike INS. Sorry, INS. Nobody loves you, and nobody would miss you.

Hurry up and die already, INS.

True - and its about time manufacturers added an 'any' key, just to shut that age-old Simpsons joke up!

And here I thought this would be a Spud rant about Immigration & Naturalization Services, because his illegal alien housekeeper got deported.  :lol:

Wow, you can paste with Shift-Ins?  I never knew that.  I'm a Ctrl-V person, myself.  Way quicker than mouse-clicking your way through it.  And I agree, type-over is pretty much useless when you can highlight the block of text you want to replace, much more quickly than you can type everything.  I have to wonder if there's some obscure editing history type of reason people might still use it.

If it upsets you that much (wow, five whole minutes a year....I feel your pain), pop out the key, and either remove the post/plunger/spring mechanism, and either glue it back in place, or go out & buy one of those novelty "Any" keys (fire engine red), and stick it in it's place.  Instant custom job.

Edit:  Here ya go.  I have a feeling you'll be using one of the two on the far left.  ;)

Quote from: Panther_Gunn on December 20, 2007, 12:17:00 PM
And here I thought this would be a Spud rant about Immigration & Naturalization Services, because his illegal alien housekeeper got deported.  :lol:

you mean I wasn't the only one who opened this thread thinking that. 

Anyway, I use the "Apple V" key prompt myself. 

Hmmm

*presses his Break key*

...

*presses his Pause key*

...

*activates Scroll Lock*

BAH!

my friend does tech support for several businesses.  he got a call from a health insurance company complaining that they insurance key was not working.  he arrived and discovered they had gotten a new keyboard, with the word 'insert' on the key, instead of 'ins' which they assumed meant insurance and was required for logging in.  true story.

If it annoys you so much, you can use this nifty little program to kill your insert key:
http://www.brainsystems.com/capsunlock/
It's called CapsUnlock, its primary feature is its ability to disable the Caps Lock key for people who keep hitting it accidentally, but it can also be used to disable the insert key.

If you're a glutton for punishment or want to geek it up a little, you can do it manually by fidding with your Windows registry (always back up your registry info before doing anything, of course):
http://www.wikihow.com/Disable-the-Insert-Key-on-a-Computer

If the insert key only bothers you in MS Word, you can do this:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article08-105
You can adapt the above strategy for any program where the insert key is an annoyance, provided that program allows you to write "do-nothing" macros that can be triggered by a single key-press.

And if none of those solutions do it for you, I heartily recommend doing this (make sure to aim at the proper key).

CAPS LOCK AND INSERTATEST KEYSEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forget the INS key there is still hot debate about whether we should still be using the QWERTY keyboard. PERIOD.  I would like to try the Dvorak (August Dvorak not John Dvorak of PC Magazine) system since you can supposedly bang out 400 wpm....The Chinese stroke system which just reformats the QWERTY lets them bang out about 400 characters a minute.  English is slow.

Quote from: thalaw2 on December 20, 2007, 06:55:04 PM
Forget the INS key there is still hot debate about whether we should still be using the QWERTY keyboard. PERIOD.  I would like to try the Dvorak (August Dvorak not John Dvorak of PC Magazine) system since you can supposedly bang out 400 wpm....The Chinese stroke system which just reformats the QWERTY lets them bang out about 400 characters a minute.  English is slow.

There are programs and overlays to do this.

Trivia: did you know the whole point of the QWERTY keyboard is to be slow and inefficient?  The first typewriters had much more efficiently laid out key boards and early typists could routinely type well over 100 wpm.  But these machines would regularly jam and break because the mechanism could not withstand the beating someone typing at these speeds could inflict.  Of course the solution was to make the typist slower (with the intentionally inefficient QWERTY keyboard) rather than the machines better. (Although in all honesty the state of the art limited how much they could change the machines.)

Quote from: Uncle Yuan on December 21, 2007, 06:38:38 AM

Quote from: thalaw2 on December 20, 2007, 06:55:04 PM
Forget the INS key there is still hot debate about whether we should still be using the QWERTY keyboard. PERIOD.  I would like to try the Dvorak (August Dvorak not John Dvorak of PC Magazine) system since you can supposedly bang out 400 wpm....The Chinese stroke system which just reformats the QWERTY lets them bang out about 400 characters a minute.  English is slow.

There are programs and overlays to do this.

Trivia: did you know the whole point of the QWERTY keyboard is to be slow and inefficient?  The first typewriters had much more efficiently laid out key boards and early typists could routinely type well over 100 wpm.  But these machines would regularly jam and break because the mechanism could not withstand the beating someone typing at these speeds could inflict.  Of course the solution was to make the typist slower (with the intentionally inefficient QWERTY keyboard) rather than the machines better. (Although in all honesty the state of the art limited how much they could change the machines.)

Actually, that's been disputed, and there are other theories about the origins of the QWERTY keyboard. The one I personally find most convincing is that it was designed specifically so the typerwriter salesman could wow his potential customers by quickly typing the word "typewriter", all teh letters of which happen to be in the top row...

I feel your pain, Spud.  I experience the same frustration with that darn key.
The only key in that set that I use is the Del key.
Other keys I don't use are Caps Lock, Scroll Lock, Pause/Break and Num Lock.
That Num Lock key is also frustrating because I'd be inputing a set of numbers only to find I've been moving my cursor all over the place instead.  (If I wanted to move the cursor, I'd use the arrows or my pointer, thanks.)

Anyway, put me down for supporting an Insert-free keyboard!

Hah! I hadn't even thought about using Shift-Insert to paste in years.  :D

I actually switch between insert and overwrite mode fairly often when editing binary files and hexing. But, I agree there needn't be specific key for that.

Caps Lock is far more of an annoyance for me because I hit it accidentally all the time when I mean to hit Tab. I have the widget tuned on where a little text box pops up in the corner to warn me when I hit it (or any of those Something Lock keys).

BTW, Num Lock is sort of a silly key to have on my laptop which doesn't have a real numeric keypad. (Though, I guess I could get a USB add-on if I had any use for one...)

When I read the title I thought you where getting deported...    :blink:

Quote from: lugaru on December 21, 2007, 04:46:03 PM
When I read the title I thought you where getting deported...    :blink:

nah, his home planet won't take him back

I thought it was a Kolchak thread...