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SILICON
SILIC
CHIP
www.siliconchip.com.au
Publisher/Editor
Nicholas Vinen
Technical Editor
John Clarke – B.E.(Elec.)
Technical Staff
Jim Rowe – B.A., B.Sc.
Bao Smith – B.Sc.
Tim Blythman – B.E., B.Sc.
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Allan Linton-Smith
Dave Thompson
David Maddison – B.App.Sc. (Hons 1),
PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov.
Geoff Graham
Associate Professor Graham Parslow
Dr Hugo Holden – B.H.B, MB.ChB.,
FRANZCO
Ian Batty – M.Ed.
Phil Prosser – B.Sc., B.E.(Elec.)
Cartoonist
Louis Decrevel
loueee.com
Founding Editor (retired)
Leo Simpson – B.Bus., FAICD
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2
Silicon Chip
Editorial Viewpoint
Computer keyboards need an update
Standardisation is generally a good thing. In
primarily English-speaking countries, we mainly use
keyboards that mimic the IBM 104-key (Model M)
keyboard. There are variations, of course, but we all
have access to similar symbols and so on.
However, these keyboards are lacking when it comes
to fields like mathematics, physics, engineering or
other sciences. They make it really awkward to type
many symbols used frequently in these disciplines.
Even relatively common everyday symbols like degrees (°) are missing and
must be entered in a complex multi-step process.
For example, you can hold down the Windows key (if you have one), press
“.” (full stop) and then navigate the pop-up window to find a glyph. Still, that
takes a lot more time than just pressing a key on your keyboard.
Given that there are plenty of keys on our keyboards that we (almost)
never use, like scroll lock, pause/break, SYSREQ and so on, one should be
changed to a SYM key. The 36 letter and number keys on the keyboard can
then provide an extra 36 symbols (with legends under the letters or to the
right of the numbers) to make typing the following symbols much easier:
Mathematics: × (multiply), ÷ (divide), − (subtract [not hyphen]), ± (plus or
minus), √ (square root), 3√ (cube root), ≈ (approximately equal to), ≠ (not
equal to), ≤ (less than or equal to), ≥ (greater than or equal to)
Fractions: 1/2 (one half ), 1/3 (one third), 1/4 (one quarter), 1/5 (one fifth),
1/8 (one eighth), 2/3 (two thirds), ¾ (three quarters), 1/10 (one tenth)
Currencies etc: ¢ (cents), € (Euros), £ (pounds), ¥ (yen/yuan), ° (degrees),
– (en dash), — (em dash)
Greek letters: α (alpha), β (beta), γ (gamma), Δ (delta), θ (theta), λ (lambda),
μ (mu/micro), π (pi), φ (phi), Ω (omega/ohms), ω (lower case omega)
This could be difficult on keyboards used for other languages since they
already use a technique like this for typing accents, different letters etc. Still,
as US/UK/AU/NZ keyboards don’t currently need to produce a lot of extra
symbols, why not provide such a function? The cost of doing so is almost nil.
Australia Post wants to put prices up again!
According to the ACCC at siliconchip.au/link/abpu, “Australia Post is
proposing to increase its stamp prices by 25 per cent from January 2024”.
They already increased stamp prices by nearly 10% in January 2023, so
a 25% increase a year later seems excessive. The basic letter rate would go
from $1.10 at the end of last year to $1.50 at the start of next year, a 36% hike!
This proposed increase will also affect Print Post, meaning our cost of
mailing magazines to subscribers (a significant proportion of our subscription
cost) could go up by 25% as well.
I have already written a submission to the ACCC. I wrote that while an
increase in the letter rate is not totally unreasonable given the high inflation
we’ve experienced this year, 25% is too much in one go, especially so soon
after the last increase. I’ve suggested they make the increase smaller, perhaps
half of what they are asking for. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
This goes to show what a vicious cycle inflation causes. AusPost wants to
increase its rates, likely because its expenses are growing. That then causes
everyone else’s expenses to go up, so we must keep raising our prices to keep
up, causing even more inflation. It has to end somewhere unless we want to
wind up like Zimbabwe or Argentina.
There was an error in the Editorial Viewpoint column from the August 2023
issue: the new prices for the Australian print and combined subscriptions
(six months) should be $70 and $80 respectively, as listed in the September
2023 editorial.
Cover: https://unsplash.com/photos/red-and-black-artwork-ioJBsYQ-pPM
Australia's electronics magazine
by Nicholas Vinen
siliconchip.com.au
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