{"id":730,"date":"2012-01-25T20:16:13","date_gmt":"2012-01-25T20:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tankhughes.com\/?p=730"},"modified":"2012-01-25T20:17:17","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T20:17:17","slug":"tiny-dissertation-1-omg-qwerty-wtf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tankhughes.com\/?p=730","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Dissertation 1: OMG QWERTY WTF"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disclaimer: This post is about the process, not the result. You may be wasting your time by reading it.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Premise:<\/strong> I am left-handed (and proud!) The QWERTY keyboard is preferential to the left-hand. 56% of keystrokes happen on the left-side. More than 3000 English words can be written with the left hand alone (i.e. reverberates), while only 450 are possible with the right hand (i.e. lollipop<\/a>). There are various models of \u00a0letter frequency in English, one order from most used to least is:\u00a0ETA<\/strong>ON R<\/strong>IS<\/strong>HD<\/strong> LFC<\/strong>MU G<\/strong>YPWB<\/strong> V<\/strong>KX<\/strong>JQ Z <\/strong>with the left-hand letters in bold.<\/p>\n

Question:<\/strong> Do internet acronyms follow the pattern of 56% left-handed frequency? What is the letter frequency for the most used internet acronyms?<\/p>\n

Hypothesis:<\/strong> The top 2 vowels are on the left-side, and I think it’s mostly the vowels that creates this imbalance. Most words are not vowel-initial, so their frequency should go down in a study of acronyms. This means that the top consonants TRSDF would need to appear more frequently to maintain this ratio. I think overall, left-handed frequency should go down in acronyms.<\/p>\n

Sample Data:<\/strong> Taking the longer version of internet acronyms (LMFAO not LMAO, IMHO not IMO) I will list 26 acronyms I personally deem popular and relevant, trying to avoid acronyms which originated long before the internet, mostly from the military (MIA, FYI, POW, SOL, FUBAR, ASAP, AWOL). PWN and THX are not acronyms, but they’re very common and I thinkthey should \u00a0be included. I will then record the hand placement of the 26 acronyms, and come up with some data regarding the total keystrokes vs. left-handed frequency, as well as the number of acronyms which only require one hand.<\/p>\n

AFK llr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 away from keyboard
\nBBL llr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 be back later
\nBRB lll<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0be right back
\nBTW lll<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0by the way
\nFML lrr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0f* my life
\nFTW lll<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0for the win!
\nGTFO lllr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0get the f* out
\nIDK rlr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 i don’t know
\nIMHO rrrr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0in my humble opinion
\nILY rrr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0i love you
\nIRL rlr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0in real life
\nJK rr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 just kidding
\nLMFAO rrllr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 laughing my f* a* off
\nLOL rrr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0laugh out loud
\nNP rr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0no problem
\nNSFW rlll<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0not safe for work
\nOMG rrr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0oh my god
\nPWN rlr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 pwned! (owned)
\nROTFL lrllr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 rolling on the floor laughing
\nRTFM lllr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 read the f* manual
\nSTFU lllr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0shut the f* up
\nTHX lrl<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 thanks
\nTMI lrr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 too much information
\nTTYL llrr<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0talk to you later
\nWB ll<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 welcome back
\nWTF lll<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0what the f*<\/p>\n

Total characters in 26 acronyms:<\/em>\u00a085 characters.<\/p>\n

\n

Left hand Total:<\/em>\u00a044\/85
\nRight hand Total:<\/em>\u00a041\/85<\/p>\n

Just left-hand:<\/em>\u00a05 – brb btw ftw wb wtf
\nJust right-hand:<\/em>\u00a06 – imho ily jk lol np omg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Results:<\/strong>\u00a0The left-hand types 51% of the time, which is below the normal hand frequency for QWERTY keyboard but still above even. I was correct that the percentage went down. The letter total and frequency for these 26 acronyms is: T<\/strong>(11) F<\/strong>(10) L(9)\u00a0B<\/strong>MO(6)\u00a0W<\/strong>I(5)\u00a0R<\/strong>(4)\u00a0N(3)\u00a0AG<\/strong>HKPS<\/strong>Y(2)\u00a0D<\/strong>JUX<\/strong>(1) CEQVZ<\/strong>(o) with the left-hand side in bolded letters. I predicted that TRSDF would need to be more frequent to keep the left-handed bias of QWERTY, and T & F were, but surprisingly B & W lept up the most. The bottom 6 letters are on the left side.\u00a0There are no E’s at all, a complete reversal from its normal frequency. No words like email and e-commerce are represented, in fact only ‘keyboard’ shows up from tech vocabulary. PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair)<\/em> has an E, and could be on the list. More acronyms can be spelled with the right-hand only than with the left, but only wins by one word, 6 to 5.<\/p>\n

Discussion:<\/strong>\u00a0QWERTY is not a perfect typing system, apparently the kinds of strains people get from sitting at computers is due in part to the finger stretching one must do to hit the keys which are mostly above home row. 5 of the 10 most frequent keys are in the top row. It doesn’t appear that internet acronyms have been intentionally designed to flip between hands, or favor the right hand, or use home row. The acronyms just use the real letters from common phrases used online. \u00a0Fun Fact: L is on the right side of a QWERTY keyboard, and R is on the left.<\/p>\n

Conclusion:<\/strong> I’m glad I did this experiment, but it doesn’t pass the SO WHAT?<\/em> test that all dissertation proposals must pass to commit to spending more than one morning thinking about and researching. Oh well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disclaimer: This post is about the process, not the result. You may be wasting your time by reading it.\u00a0 Premise: I am left-handed (and proud!) The QWERTY keyboard is preferential to the left-hand. 56% of keystrokes happen on the left-side. More than 3000 English words can be written with the left hand alone (i.e. reverberates), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,480,567,540,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alphabet","category-computers","category-dissertation","category-university-of-york","category-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tankhughes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tankhughes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tankhughes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tankhughes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tankhughes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tankhughes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tankhughes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tankhughes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tankhughes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}