[Hip Priest]

From New Scientists Technology Blog.

There's no denying the caps lock key can be a pain. How often have you accidentally found yoUR TYPING ALL UPPER-CAse because you accidentally pressed it? Or been locked out of your computer because Caps Lock keeps messing with your password?

For Pieter Hintjens, CEO of Belgian software company iMatrix such annoyances have driven him too far. And now he's on a mission to get computer makers everywhere to remove the damned thing from keyboards altogether.

Hintjens announced his campaign to kill off Caps Lock on the nerd-herding site Slashdot yesterday: "Sure, there are more serious problems to solve but please, think of the children! How am I going to explain to my kids why some of the most valuable keyboard real estate is squatted by a large, useless key that above all you must not press!"

He has also launched a blog called cappsoff.blogspot.com and started a Capsoff Google Groups forum so that other Caps Locks-haters can add their support. The movement certainly seems to gathering momentum – there are nearly 300 members of the Capsoff Google Groups already, many of whom are similarly enraged by the apparent madness of current keyboard design.

Sure, Caps Lock can be annoying, but is a revolution entire necessary? As others point out, that there are alternatives, like downloading software to deactivate the key or even splashing out on a custom-made keyboard. Also, if the Caps locks goes, who's to say which key will next? Tab? PrtScn? The space bar for goodness sakes??!