Keyboards Should Have a ¢ Sign

For reasons that escape me, there is no cent sign on the keyboard.

If you also share the love for the ¢, you will dig this tip. If you hold down Alt and then type 0162 (using the keypad, using the numbers at the top of the keyboard doesn't work for some reason), a ¢ will show up.

I think the ¢ sign should be added to the keyboard, but which symbol should it replace?

I am no fan of the @, but fortunately for @ lovers it astutely tied itself to email addresses and is now indispensable. It is not clear to me when you are supposed to use a | sign, but having a vertical line around is handy, so it can stick around.

I don't get why we need [] and {} and (). I mean, are there people who really need 3 different types of brackets? Are there cases where a straight line bracket or a curved bracket just won't work and you need a squiggly bracket? Any one of those would be a good candidate, but that would take out 2 symbols and I only need to get rid of one.

I would like to get rid of the Caps Lock key because a certain segment of the population believes that if you type things in all caps IT MAKES YOUR POINT STRONGER, when really it just makes you look desperate. But, such a large key comes with a lot of responsibility and I am not sure the ¢ symbol could handle it.

Then there is the "Pause/Break" key. I don't know if I have ever used it. Not clear to me exactly what breaks when I click it, and I am not sure I want to find out. This would be a good candidate, but it is over in no mans land, chilling with Scroll Lock and Print Screen. As much as I love the ¢, I am not sure I am willing to stretch my pinky finger that far.

Instead, I think we should get rid of the ` symbol. What? Don't you need that for words like don't? No, that is the ' key not the ` key. Confused? Exactly. That is why we need to get rid of it. There is no reason for two ' symbols. And that corner key is some prime real estate.

But this is all just my 2¢.