Keyboards all over the world

Random wiki-ing brought me to a page which collected the images of all of the possible keyboard layouts all over the world. FYI, I use the US-International layout, the typical QWERTY one, if you will, than can also produce some basic international characters [which made spelling Räikkönen easier since I'd just use " then a or o rather than the Alt+0228/Alt+0246 if I were using a standard US keyboard with Windows].

Anyways, I know this sounds random and a bit geeky but it's nice to know, doesn't it? And you might also need to know that there are QWERTZ and AZERTY keyboards too. The characters from these keyboard layouts are swapped from the usual position on the QWERTY keyboard. Let's get to know them, shall we?

First, there's this 'Five Scripts layout' QWERTY keyboard that can enable the user to input characters in Latin, Greek, Cyrillic [Russian language writing], Hebrew and the International Phonetic Alphabet characters. The letters (other than the 26 basic letters of the Latin alphabet) are engraved in a specific pattern in the lower left quadrant of the letter keys. Weird, huh? Here's a pic for you to get the, um, picture:

Next, a QWERTZ keyboard. Like I told you it's got the Y and Z positions swapped. It's used in the Czech Republic [which actually uses this along with QWERTY], Hungary, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Bosnia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. To give an example, here's a pic of the QWERTZ keyboard used in the former Yugoslavia:

An AZERTY keyboard, meanwhile, has A and Q as well as Z and W swapped, M moved to the right of L (where colon/semicolon is on a US keyboard),and the digits 0 to 9 on the same keys, but for them to be typed the shift key must be pressed. The unshifted positions are used for accented characters. They are used mostly in France, Belgium and French-speaking African countries. They look like this:

I give you examples of Arabic and Russian keyboards. The Arabic keyboard in the picture is adapted from the AZERTY layout and is commonly used in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

This Russian keyboard is called the Russian Standard Layout and it has only Cyrillic characters. Whoa.

If you want to look at more keyboard layouts, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout. I really am running out of ideas...

Have fun at the German GP

icegirl

P.S. Most of the pix have red lines 'cause I used the Windows Vista Snipping Tool. :D

Half-blood madness

Oh, you know what I'm talking about. The wizard in the glasses is back! Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince the movie is going to be in cinemas starting 15th July! I can't wait to see it! And by the way, if you listen to hitz.fm, you can get 4 tickets to watch the Malaysian premiere of the movie the day before [aka next Tuesday - 14th July] at GSC Mid Valley Megamall. All you've got to do is send TIX [your name] to 32111 when it's the cue to SMS. First one through gets the tickets.

OK, so now back to HP. Half-Blood Prince is based on the book published in 2005, which I got for my 11th birthday, where Dumbledore tells Harry more on Voldemort's past to help him destroy the Dark Lord. How, you ask? If you hate spoilers, please leave out this sentence: Dumbledore has been tapping memories from random people [well, maybe not so random] to get the dirt on hot such a talented Tom Riddle became the most feared wizard ever by using some kind of memory-tapping and replaying them on the Pensieve.

Well, you can watch the many trailers on YouTube, including this one, which is also on the HP official site, http://www.harrypotter.com/. Have fun with the trailers, I'm at a loss at hot to get to the Mid Valley Megamall [note: I live in Kuantan] on a school night...

Twitting like crazy. :P
icegirl

RIP Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

Yes, I'm over a week too late. But since people are still talking about it, the icegirl from Kimi's Hollow is writing about it. I've been out of time for days now - too busy with school stuff. Sometimes I say to myself that I hate 2009. Figures, since I'm sitting for a quite a major examination in October.

Now, back to MJ, or Jacko, or whatever you want to call him. He was born on 29th August 1958 in Gary, Indiana, the seventh of nine children. He was one of the original members of the Jackson 5, who were formed in 1968. 11 yeard later he released his first solo studio album, Off the Wall. His following albums were Thriller, Bad, Dangerous, HIStory and Invincible. Anyways I'm here to show you the videos he did, showing his vocal abilities and amazing dance moves in the process.

First up: Smooth Criminal. This song was covered by Alien Ant Farm, who gave it a very rockin' twist.

Second, Thriller. The video I found [a 13-min one, which is strange considering YouTube had a 10-min video limit] had embedding disabled, so here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOj5H5W9zYo

Third, Beat It. This one was covered by Fall Out Boy and John Mayer. I've got the cover version on my iPod, if you want to know.

Fourth, Bad. This one also had embedding disabled by request. The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACPsfcsg4ZE

Fifth, Billie Jean. Note that I haven't listened to this song or watched the video before this blog is posted. I remember a guy did a beatbox version of this song on French reality TV show Nouvelle Star [or something like that].

Sixth, Earth Song. I remember watching this one when I was in Form One [7th grade if you're in the US, I think]. Did I watch it? I think I did.

Well, er, six videos are just a bit of a summary of what he did. I hope you enjoyed it, and may Michael [aka Mikaeel] rest in peace.

Again, RIP MJ
icegirl