The Mystery Of The Jumping T

Several years back, a user complained to me that they had a “jumping T” on their new overpriced $5,000 notebook. As they described it, when they were typing, whenever they would type a T, it would appear at a random point in the document each time.

After not being able to get to the bottom of the issue over the phone, I went over to their office to observe them replicating the issue.

They were typing and all appeared normal, and then, when they went to type T, they violently twisted and slammed their left hand down, also clicking on the trackpad. There was nothing wrong with the T; they were simply clicking the trackpad and the T was then being inserted wherever the cursor was.

The user did not accept that explanation and was very insistent that I replace the internal keyboard. I politely refused but offered them an external keyboard that was identical to the internal one. They declined. The user also used an external mouse, so I offered to simply disable the trackpad and showed them how to toggle it on and off. They also declined that.

Every time that user saw me for the next few months, they would ask me if I was going to fix their T and I would explain to them that we had already identified the cause and would again offer them an external keyboard, which they would refuse.