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A comment on Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine. Parent comment

Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by Yaggo on Friday October 20, 2017 @03:59AM (#15514221)
> Also, as much as I would like a 15” screen, the off center keyboard is a deal-breaker. It’s just asking for RSI.

Agree. Is entering numbers with a numpad so common use case that it justifies the inclusion of mini-numpad at the cost of off-centering the main keyboard?

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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by kbart on Friday October 20, 2017 @04:24AM (#15514302)
"Is entering numbers with a numpad so common use case that it justifies the inclusion of mini-numpad at the cost of off-centering the main keyboard?"

At least for me - definitely yes. I won't even look at the laptop that doesn't have dedicated numpad. I guess it's a matter of taste and use case.

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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by Yaggo on Friday October 20, 2017 @04:29AM (#15514323)
Just out of curiosity, what kind of work do you do?
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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by kbart on Friday October 20, 2017 @04:34AM (#15514335)
(Embedded) System engineer, so lot's of hex typing and editing. It's a pain without full numpad.
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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by letsgetphysITal on Friday October 20, 2017 @05:08AM (#15514458)
How about a USB numberpad with all 16 hex characters?

http://www.ipv6buddy.com/

I am in no way affiliated, I just searched "USB hex numberpad"

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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by toyg on Friday October 20, 2017 @05:43AM (#15514588)
That website cannot be real. The sarcasm is so thick you need a machete to cut through it.
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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by hawski on Friday October 20, 2017 @08:07AM (#15515090)
From http://www.ipv6buddy.com/faq/ :

> Is this a joke?

> No, this is in fact a real IPv6 keypad that will actually be delivered to your door if you buy one!

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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by kbart on Friday October 20, 2017 @05:14AM (#15514485)
I've tried regular USB numpad, but it's just not the same as having everything in a single keyboard. You need table or stable base for that and typing is slower when you have to reach for it, especially if it's not fixed and moves constantly. Still better than nothing though.
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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by jaclaz on Friday October 20, 2017 @06:17AM (#15514694)
>How about a USB numberpad with all 16 hex characters?

Thanks for posting that, I had no idea that such a USB numpad existed, though I have no "real" use for it, it seems to me like a really nice idea.

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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by driverdan on Friday October 20, 2017 @09:09AM (#15515440)
Here you go: https://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=topre_keyboards,...

Yes, it's expensive but it'll be the nicest numpad you've ever used. Topre switches are the best.

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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by Drdrdrq on Friday October 20, 2017 @04:28PM (#15518901)
Are they any quieter than Cherry brown? I bought a Das keyboard and it is driving me nuts. I appreciate the tactile feel, but noise not so much.
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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by askvictor on Friday October 20, 2017 @06:38AM (#15514759)
How do you go about entering a-f in hex? Genuine question, I find I quite annoying when I need to do it, even with a number pad
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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by kbart on Friday October 20, 2017 @06:58AM (#15514819)
I guess practice is what matters most, it happens naturally now -- right hand enters digits, while left inserts a-f, x when needed.
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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by mi100hael on Friday October 20, 2017 @03:54PM (#15518695)
Why not just use the row of numbers along the top? It's way faster anyway once you learn them.
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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by kbart on Monday October 23, 2017 @01:46AM (#15530986)
When using non-English keyboard layout, top row numbers are often converted to the locale characters, so you have to switch back and forth between languages to use them.
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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by ionised on Friday October 20, 2017 @06:01AM (#15514637)
I never want to do without my numpad.

I'm using a 2017 MacBook Pro in work right now and I ended up investing in a separate keyboard and mouse, partly due to lacking the numpad but also because the keyboard on this thing just feels horrible to use.

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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by skocznymroczny on Friday October 20, 2017 @07:36AM (#15514937)
It's useful in 3D programs like Blender for navigating around the 3D space.
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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by eih on Saturday October 21, 2017 @01:04AM (#15520767)
Absolutely. As a multimedia producer, I can not use a keyboard without numpad, not only with blender, but with many other open source or proprietary software.

Especially Adobe products are terrible with keyboard shortcuts, where in some cases you can not edit (AE) or can not map properly in non US layouts.

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Re:Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Manageme... by Tade0 on Friday October 20, 2017 @05:15AM (#15514495)
Not exactly numbers, but unicode characters - yes. It's easier to memorize some codes if you have a numpad. Also it helps to have dedicated keys for basic arithmetic operations.
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