Is there a limit to the madness of IT? Apparently not.
Just like in English, Japanese has a saying for “the bigger the better,” “dai wa shou wo kaneru.” While this may be the case when it comes to reusable grocery bags or an inflatable bounce house for birthday parties, we decided a better metric for measuring the efficiency of this proverb was this oversized Enter key.
▼ Exhibit A
Purchased from Amazon for 1,460 yen (US$13.96), our Japanese-language reporter Masanuki Sunakoma stepped up to the batting plate to experiment. At first glance, the huge Enter key could be easily mistaken as a cushion or a wrist rest rather than an actual enter key. Masanuki estimated that the Amazon purchase was 1,700 times larger than your run-of-the-mill Enter key. Regardless of his initial impressions, there was an insistent nagging voice at the back of Masanuki’s head as he plugged it into his computer’s USB port: “You’ll regret this purchase forever.”
Cracking his knuckles, Masanuki went straight to work like usual, fervently clacking on the keyboard.
▼ So far so good…
▼ … and when the time came to skip a line…
▼ … BAM!!!
Masanuki had to admit that it felt good to punch the Enter key—perhaps it was a multi-purpose tool, encompassing the realms of word processing, cushion-rest, and stress-relief? But his good vibes were short-lived as the cursor kept going…
… and going.
Fumbling for a way to stop it, Masanuki realized in horror that the Enter key came with no instruction manual. Punching it again, pressing it, even employing the age-old method of blowing on it, Masanuki could do nothing to stop the typing cursor’s relentless journey through the word document. By pure, dumb luck, he lifted the Enter key… and the typing cursor halted.
With one button smash, the Enter key managed to move the typing cursor down by 25 pages. We did the math and with the standard one inch margin page, it would take 988 key strokes total to get the same result with your conventional Enter key.
▼ Needing a short intermission, Masanuki laid his head on the Enter key. But he realized his mistake when he remembered that he’d forgotten to disconnect the oversized Enter key from his computer…
In the case of this giant Enter key, the bigger was obviously not the better. If anything, Masanuki considered the product to be absolute trash as it couldn’t live up to his multi-tasking expectations, maybe having no higher purpose than acting as a stationary desk-punching bag. But if there is to be a silver lining to this experience, perhaps it was better this than himself, right?
Photos © RocketNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
[ Read in Japanese ]