Word Shoot posted way back in lifehacker isn't too bad either. Passes the time at work :)
[lifehacker.com]

jabber

While it may not be visually pretty, TypeSpeed [tobias.eyedacor.org] is avaliable for most platforms and has a fun online head to head mode for competing with friends.

jameyc

I 2nd Summerblink's comment.

Typershark is seriously the best typing game out there.

strategy + typing is mad fun.

AKthe47

I've actually used TypingWeb for a while and found it to be the best [www.typingweb.com] It's not free but it runs from FireFox or IE (or any maybe)

corndog8

My favorite typing practice game is "Typing of the Dead". It's an update of Sega's popular House of the Dead arcade gun game that replaces the gun with your keyboard. The words and phrases you have to type to kill the zombies are funny, and in the later levels the difficulty ramps up so that you have to be a pretty good typist to win.

burnmp3s

Is there an OS X alternative?

nathan2480

Site's dead, here's a direct link for download: [www.download.com]

dachande663

TyperShark for the win!!!

[www.popcap.com]

summerblink

If this screenshot is typical, then this is a waste of time.

You don't learn to type or improve your typing by being forced to hit letters at random. You learn to type by typing words or word fragments.

Even an accomplished typist may have trouble hitting random keys because ultimatly it is sequences of keys and entire words that become second nature, not the individual keystrokes (a side effect could even be better spelling when typing than when handwriting).

If you want to type better, just type more and more often. If you can't type and want to learn, this is not the way to do it.

Personally I recommend Typequick.

CascadeHush

NO! Why get a typing program like this when you download the best typing game of all time for free from gametap, THE TYPING OF THE DEAD, seriously, check it out.

Swizzler121

this program, after two stings of letters, is personally HORRIBLE. i can see someone actually thinking their goign to get faster by using this often, but in all actuality, their going to give them selves carpal tunnel from such repedative movements. i had to type "ded" at least 10 times, by the time i was done with the second string, my hands hurt worse than when i do a one handed Rubik's cube solve.

mistercow.pnoy

I suppose these programs are good for people who want to learn to type using the typical fingers-on-"asdfjkl;" combination.

Me, I learnt to type in a non-conventional approach mostly because of never having any initial typing training. I type without looking at the keyboard, using each hand's 3 fingers and thumb hovering comfortably over the keyboard, and fingers flying from one end of the keyboard to the other. And I get a 73 wpm.

Aliz

I just heard about a new type of keyboard layout alternative to QWERTY called Dvorak. Apparently it's designed to type faster instead of trying to "keep early typewriters from jamming." Here's the website I got it from [www.theworldofstuff.com]
p.s. Anybody use this format? Is it any good?

runiteking1

It's not that new.

wiki entry on Dvorak keyboard

Jim C.

@runiteking1: I tried Dvorak for a few months until I could get a decent speed with it, and I have to admit, it was rather efficient and logical. The problem comes when you have to use a computer that doesn't/won't/takes too much time to let you use it, and you have to revert to QWERTY, thus breaking your momentum and screwing with your fingers, as it were.

After enough run-ins with going back and forth between layouts, I went back to QWERTY and never looked back to save myself the hassle.

Space Cowboy

Dvorak, which I'm using to type this, dates back to sometime before WW2 (don't feel like checking the wiki). Took me about a week of AIM conversations 4 years ago to transition from the QWERTY layout.

wutzu

I'm writing with Dvorak too. It's actually pretty simple, in both Windows and Mac, to change the keyboard input settings to Dvorak. I drive my friends crazy by forgetting to switch back after I've used their computers...

I think that now I'm as fast in dvorak as I was in qwerty, not sure. Truthfully, I haven't noticed many advantages, I kind of learned it as a measure of procrastination. On the other hand, I've heard it can make a big difference for people who have difficulties with repetitive stress injury, etc.

I used typershark and ims to get my dvorak up to speed!

Tfb

Hmm.. I was sorta hoping it will have some significant speed increase over QWERTY. Guess I'll have to wait (or maybe invent one myself...)

runiteking1

Reminds me of the game "letters" although it doesnt teach you much more than the location of letters on a keybard, rather than fragments of words for muscle memory.

It's still damn good fun though.

ilumos