Wednesday 7 October 2020

mavis beacon

Via the always engrossing Things Magazine, we are introduced to a clever little keyboarding tutor that trains one’s skills—and we all tend to revert to strategies of hunting and pecking, buffering or thumbing especially when we move across different interfaces, notwithstanding the fact that hybrid methods can be as good as or out-perform standard training—and that makes the chore of practice a bit more entertaining (see previously) by having one exercise with the texts of literary classics. Not only does one have the chance to revisit old works or finally commit to reading a book one always meant to get to, the platform also gauges improvements in speed and accuracy and bookmarks one’s progress. There are even titles to check out languages other than English, though all for now seem to be from the Western canon. Give it a try and put it through the paces.