Least Useful Key?
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Least Useful Key?
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 15289 votes
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 40 comments
obligatory simpsons quote. (Score:5, Funny)
Mike
We don't all use keys (Score:5, Funny)
Re:We don't all use keys (Score:3, Funny)
-calyxa
Re:We don't all use keys (Score:3, Funny)
Re:We don't all use keys IBM TTS Demo (Score:4, Informative)
Re:We don't all use keys IBM TTS Demo (Score:5, Funny)
(hey, this is
Nice link.
Re:We don't all use keys IBM TTS Demo (Score:4, Funny)
He must have spent time with your mother! Ba-dum-ching. I'll be here all the week. Try the veal. ;-)
Re:We don't all use keys (Scroll Lock Key) (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:We don't all use keys (Scroll Lock Key) (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:We don't all use keys (Scroll Lock Key) (Score:5, Informative)
SysReq has to be the most useful key ever if you enable the MagicSysRq key in the linux kernel. From it, you can sync your harddrive, unmount everything, reboot, reset the video, or the most useful: kill all tasks owned by current tty.
Because of it, I can recover from most 'frozen computer' states. Those that I can't I can atleast sync and unmount my harddrives to make the chance of dataloss much less.
more info [mtu.edu]
Re:Liar! SysReq is useless! (Score:5, Funny)
Try nVidia's drivers. They'll fix that annoying stability you've been experiencing.
The Any Key (Score:5, Funny)
I voted for the "pause/break" key, but I realize it is useful for people to take their 15 cigarette break; so that your computer will know that you are going away for the next several minutes.
Re:The Any Key (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The Any Key (Score:5, Informative)
Windows+Pause brings up the System Control Panel!
Re:The Any Key (Score:4, Informative)
If you are talking about the blank key between "Alt" and the "Spacebar", (well its not totally blank, it has a small diamond at upper left hand corner). This is the META key, on x86 style keyboards the META is the same as ALT , but its different on Solaris.
META key is infact quite useful , especially in bash shell, The shell has some very useful mappings with this meta key. e.g. META-/ completes the current word with a matching file-name.
Interestingly there is a totally blank key just above the escape button and to the left of F1. I am not sure what this is for.
But I ran xev and when i press this totally blank key I got
KeyPress event, serial 21, synthetic NO, window 0xa000001,
root 0x37, subw 0x0, time 1162900460, (10,-14), root:(445,44),
state 0x20, keycode 22 (keysym 0x0, NoSymbol), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 1 characters: ""
KeyRelease event, serial 21, synthetic NO, window 0xa000001,
root 0x37, subw 0x0, time 1162900522, (10,-14), root:(445,44),
state 0x20, keycode 22 (keysym 0x0, NoSymbol), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 1 characters: ""
Re:obligatory simpsons quote. (Score:3, Funny)
The Windows Key? (Score:5, Funny)
Which PID do I demolish today?
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:5, Funny)
- traskjd.
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:5, Informative)
Win+m minimizes all windows (useful for hiding the screen... heh)
Win+e opens Explorer (heavens no! explorer.exe, not iexplore.exe!)
Win+r opens Start|Run... dialog
Win+f opens the Find application (called 'Search Results' for some strange reason...)
Keyboard shorcuts are fun!
Alt+space,n
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:3, Informative)
Then you just hit the first letter of the app you want to start right after the Win key (you need to tap and release before pressing the letter key)
Win A = Autocad
Win W = Word
Win P = Photoshop
Win E = Excel
The only problem is when you have more than one shortcut with the same first letter, you have
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:4, Funny)
Wow! I just learned something useful to my job through reading Slashdot!
Thank you! I don't have to feel guilty any more!
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:5, Informative)
OK, let's look at perfmon (Score:4, Insightful)
It looks like minimizing 5 windows in succession throws about 100 pages/sec for about 4 or 5 seconds, typically. My paging file utilization increased about 1/10 of 1%. I looked at my disks queue length, and it stayed at 0 througout the spike. My processor utilization went from under 5% to about 12 or 15%, and my processor queue jumped from 2 or 3 up to around 7 to 10 -- but both spikes were for a fraction of a second, unlike the paging spike.
In other words, big deal.
Does this suggest that there's an inefficient use of resouces here? Probably. Does this justify "never, ever, minimize an individual window" or constitute "a huge waste of resources"? I don't think so.
Oh yeah, YMMV
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:5, Funny)
Win+(Pause/Break): System Properties.
Makes life easier when you're running around a field office switching all the computers to a new domain. Let's see... Win+Pause, right arrow, tab, tab, tab, spacebar, tab, tab, up, tab, type in domain name, enter, tab, enter, enter. Like clockwork.
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:5, Funny)
-Ab
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:4, Insightful)
Or you could just write a two line script using 'netdom'
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:4, Informative)
Applications generally catch signal 15 and do useful things, such as saving backup files (emacs and joe both do this). However, signal 9 cannot be captured and (I believe) is actually caught by the kernel to forcibly kill a process.
-9 is useful when an application is so dead that it can't even quit itself.
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:5, Funny)
binary pr0n!
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:4, Funny)
I wish someone had told me that before I took my first Solaris admin gig [I *TOLD* them I knew Linux and wanted to learn Solaris
All of a sudden my connection was kicked off, and I was running like mad for the server room, while being chased by developers who wanted to know why the server was down.
Well a quick reboot and all was well, but it scared the crap out of me!
ender
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:5, Funny)
Never again.
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:5, Funny)
(while
it was an older box so it'd usually take 8 or 9 minutes before whatever he was working on would crash. hey, his fault for potty with no shell lock.
Re:The Windows Key? (Score:5, Funny)
I just popped my win-start and win-menu keys off with a screw driver while writing this. Ironically, it is a Microsoft brand keyboard. Don't know why I didn't think of this simple solution before... Feel better already.
those "extra" keys (Score:5, Funny)
Re:those "extra" keys (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:those "extra" keys (Score:4, Funny)
But now that I stop quoting you, I think that nobody in truth has to hit that button twixt "w" and "r".
Ya, this post took way too long to word, but I did it. Sigs don't count.
Re:those "extra" keys (Score:4, Funny)
CAPS LOCK? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:CAPS LOCK? (Score:4, Informative)
The caps-lock on my compaq evo N600C is now a shift key in the perfect place under my left pinky.
Re:CAPS LOCK? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:CAPS LOCK? (Score:5, Funny)
I am a sysadmin, and sometimes users come in and complain about the difference in operation of caps lock between Windows and Linux and Solaris.. then I espouse on the evil of Caps lock and show them my keyboard without one.. most of the time they go very silent and back out of the room...
Windows Key is the *EVIL* key (Score:5, Funny)
My hands a blur across the keyboard as I wail on everyone in sight. I reign supreme as a Half Life GOD!
Only one person left to destroy. I go for my patented *crouch* *jump* *wiggle strafe* manuever....
My finger accidently hits the WINDOWS key.
I sit there frozen like a deer in the headlights.
I stare dumbly at the windows desktop for a few minutes.
Its not even worth it to go back into the game.
I shut the system off.
I HATE THAT KEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why the crap are there TWO of them?? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's also completely egotistical for them to bear the Microsoft logo. A modifier that is intended for window operations is actually a good idea (although better uses like Windows+Drag to move a window are for some reason quite absent), but making it the logo of a company is completely ridiculous. The menu key is also woefully underused. To be honest, with all the push towards using the mouse as a sole input device, these buttons would almost be better off on the mouse instead of the keyboard.
I'm surprised so many people voted for SysRq... although it's not used very often, it's extremely useful on Linux if you enable Magic SysRq keys when you compile your kernel (Why is this considered a debugging option? This should ALWAYS be enabled. I suppose it's possible to hit these combinations by accident, but it seems quite unlikely to me). Scroll Lock is used nicely in MESS to switch between controlling the emulated computer and controlling the UI. Print Screen isn't as useful to me, but in newer versions of Gnome it will actually take a PNG screenshot of your desktop. Kind of a modern print screen.
Alright, the Pause/Break key isn't very useful... For some reason, nothing ever thinks to use it much anymore. Every game should allow you to pause using it, and I personally think that OS's themselves should use that key to suspend or kill programs when you use it. Maybe I'll remap it to give a Ctrl-C in Linux... This key always reminds me of the old Run/Stop key on my old C-64.
One key that I always thought was rather useless was the Num Lock key... at least on desktop machines anyways. Aside from laptops, pretty much everyone has cursor keys right next to the keypad, so I don't see much reason for duplicating their functionality anymore.
Personally, I'd love to have a keyboard with Super, Hyper, and Greek modifier keys. I actually hacked up a Greek font and used some Linux commands to let me do things like LeftCtrl-LeftAlt-L to get a lambda and such. This was actually quite useful while I was taking engineering classes, although moving stuff to a different computer didn't work too well.
Pause/Break (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the most useless key nowadays is the Pause/Break button. I used to use that one all the time in the DOS days, now it's...defunct. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Re:Pause/Break (Score:3, Informative)
Windows: Win-Pause brings up the system properties dialog (same as Properties on my computer)
I have never known scroll lock to do *anything*
Re:Pause/Break (Score:5, Interesting)
I also know that Scroll lock was the evil key that prevented me from installing Oracle 8i on a Linux server more than 2 years ago. I kept pressing the buttons and they wouldn't respond, and I combed the web and usenet for a solution to no avail for hours on end. When I eventually managed to discover that Scroll Lock was responsible (by accident), I was so mad I wanted to rip it out of the keyboard.
Re:Pause/Break (Score:5, Interesting)
Holy crap! I just tried this in Excel 2000, and it works!
It still works... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Pause/Break (Score:4, Informative)
-B
Re:Pause/Break (Score:3, Interesting)
My favorite was when, in a computer lab full of people, I managed to call "Beep" (in VB) in the completely wrong place (infinite loop). Of course, Break didn't work, and Ctrl+Alt+Delete didn't feel like doing much either. I got quite a few angry stares before it occured to me to do a hard reset.
CAPS LOCK (Score:4, Funny)
this is here to evade the lameness filter, because it has a problem with posts containing too many uppercase letters, even if it is intended to be funny. having to add all this to the post really ruins the joke, i think.
I beg to differ (Score:4, Funny)
If the caps lock key was not there, my mother could not send me e-mail.
Before you vote Sys Rq (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Before you vote Sys Rq (Score:5, Informative)
$ import -window root screenshot.png
That said, SysRq is useful for when X crashes - Alt-SysRq-S,U,B syncs, unmounts, and reboots.
Re:Before you vote Sys Rq (Score:5, Funny)
$ import -window root screenshot.png
And to think they said Linux wasn't as user friendly as Windows. :-)
Logitech Key (Score:5, Funny)
For those with a significant other ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Scroll Lock Useless? (Score:5, Funny)
former Clinton staffers say (Score:4, Funny)
Re:former Clinton staffers say (Score:4, Informative)
Took congress and an outside investigator 14 months to figure that out, but the press was too busy discussing Iraq or the latest mauve alert to bother reporting it.
What about numlock? (Score:3, Insightful)
However, I started using Linux around '97 and learned that the numlock key IS used in Linux... its purpose is to be a pain in the ass.
I already have cursor keys... I cannot count how many times I go to type in an IP number or credit card number or something and I look up to see my screen doing funky things.
Big time waster for me.
--Richard
Alternate use for Num Lock (Score:5, Informative)
Bring on the "my system never crashes" flames!
Re:Alternate use for Num Lock (Score:3, Informative)
Even then, Num/Scroll/CapsLock is not really that reliable a source of info. on a crashed system - If the CPU is in a really intensive loop with interrupts mostly disabled, and you've punched one of the *Lock keys a few times, then when it does wake up, the LED will change off/on so rapidly you won't notice (unless of course you always press the thing an
Re:What about numlock on X Windows? (Score:3, Interesting)
Can anyone shed any light on how the numeric keypad is handled (or not handled) under X Windows?
I recently needed to fix a tcl/tk application to handle the numeric keypad nicely on multiple platforms (mainly Sun and Linux) and I found myself in a world of hurt.
Firstly, the X documentation doesn't seem to mention the numlock key, they use the "mode switch" key, which may or may not be the numlock key on some platforms...?
On Sun, it makes some small sense, where the numeric keypad acts like cursor keys
Application Keys Are Worthless (Score:5, Funny)
These keys come in really handy once you're done loading Linux on the computer. Not.
the 'Apple' key... (Score:3, Informative)
the 'Apple' key as you describe it comes in 2 flavors, the open (hollow outline) Apple key and the closed (solid color) Apple key found on the Apple computers before the Macintosh.
Function Keys (Score:3, Interesting)
But despite these options, WHAT ARE THE FUNCTION KEYS USED FOR?! They obviously have hystorical usage, as old DOS-based stuff used to use them, like Wordperfect had a template you put over your keyboard for different functions. But now, I think the keys are just useless... even more so than the Windows key as in most cases it actually does something!
Re:Function Keys (Score:3, Funny)
WHAT ARE THE FUNCTION KEYS USED FOR?! They obviously have hystorical usage...
(hands covering ears) In your case, perhaps they have a hysterical use.
Re:Function Keys (Score:4, Informative)
I believe all the function keys can be bound to keystrokes or even scripted actions as well. What I don't understand is that on top of the nearly 50% useless keys, they add things like media keys and quick keys and all that crap. I have two rows of buttons on which I use ONE key (F11) maybe once a month.
They could put an LCD or something up there instead. And have it do visualizations or display system resource information. That would be totally bad ass.
scroll-lock and a wasted LED (Score:3)
101 Keys. (Score:3, Interesting)
When I use one of the 104 key leyboards, I always hit the ALT key with my thumb (trying for a space).
I HATE the Microsoft keyboards.
Actually I have a keyboard that has the function keys down the left side AND across the top. It also has a built-in LCD memory calculator. The cursor keys are laid out in a square pattern, with extra keys to go up/left, up/right, down/left, and down/right in the corners.
Least useful key: (Score:5, Funny)
interesting shtuff on SysRq (Score:4, Informative)
SysReq incredibly useful... (Score:3, Informative)
On OS/400, the AS/400 operating system, pressing SysReq (Shift-ESC in a terminal emulator) interrupts whatever you are doing and brings up a System Request prompt. Pressing enter on a blank prompt brings up the System Request menu. With SysReq you can start a secondary sign on, end your current requested operation, work with your current job, display system messages, sign off, and various other functions. Very useful shortcut for AS/400 power users.
We also use IBM 4690, an OS for controlling IBM POS terminals. On this OS, SysReq brings up the "System Keys" menu, which provide access various OS functions such as displaying the message log, working with background applications (services), started a secondary application window, or perform an IPL.
IBM used SysReq to it's full potential at every opportunity. It's not IBM's fault that Microsoft f'ed it up by neglecting this wondrous key.
Workstation keys (Score:5, Interesting)
Alt - Strangely enough, Alt never worked. Very disconcerting when you're used to using it for everything. The diamond keys did everything Alt does on a PC.
Compose - There's also a Compose LED, so it must be some kind of mode, but toggling that light was all the key did.
Alt Graph - I was hoping it would let me input Greek characters or something.
Unlabeled Key - Yep, a key with no label whatsoever. This was my favourite!
I'm sure these keys have - or at least had - some purpose somewhere, but I'm also sure that a bunch of undergrads don't need them.
In fairness though they had some very useFUL keys as well, like Cut/Copy/Paste and Undo.
As for the poll, I guess I'm too much of an old DOS fart, because I used to use most of the keys listed all the time.
Re:Workstation keys (Score:5, Funny)
META (Score:4, Interesting)
As many have pointed out, the sysrq key, another popular vote getter can be put to good use in Linux. And the scroll lock key is useful in FreeBSD (and other BSDs?)
But what on earth good is that "other" Windows key, the menu key or whatever that thing is called? I haven't even been able to find a binding for that key that I ever get any use out of. Anybody know anything useful to do with it (besides remove it altogether, which I'd prefer.)
noah
Sysrq key (Score:5, Interesting)
Very useful for a crashed system - alt-sysrq s alt-sysrq u alt-sysrq b.
Another one is when X is crashed, you don't have to reboot necessarily - you could just use alt-sysrq k to kill the current console (IIRC, which I probanbly dont).
Or you could debug tasks by using t, etc.
Caps Lock (Score:4, Funny)
The XWindows key is AWESOME (Score:4, Informative)
Just try it out... Slap this into your system's Xmodmap file (/etc/X11/Xmodmap for redhat):
clear mod4
keycode 0xffeb = F13
keysym Super_L = F13
That makes your right windows key become F13. Use xev if you wanna experiment with the left one. You'll have to restart X11 or manually load the new settings with xmodmap for them to take effect.
Now, go into your GNOME or KDE settings and figure out how to make F13 control the raising and lowering of windows under the cursor. On Ximian XD2, you'll have to go to the System menu, then Personal Settings, and then Shortcuts. Then you'll have to uncheck "Support MS Windows (tm) Keys". Then, look through the list for "Raise obscured window, otherwise lower" and bind it to your windows key (F13).
Now, try it.
Doesn't that feel good?
Of course, it works better with Focus-follows-mouse mode. For those of you that don't know, focus-follows-mouse is the setting that focuses the window your mouse cursor is over. New linux kids are so used to clicking to focus now, they don't seem to "get" the power user mouse behavior.
Then again, they also don't understand the power of a good virtual desktop pager (and no, neither KDE nor GNOME have one). Anyone who's used and loved FVWM2 or at least one of the FVWM variants knows what I'm talking about.
thebigwhitebutton (Score:4, Funny)
The definitive guide to answers to this poll (Score:4, Interesting)
Scroll Lock: Useful to people who use a console (me)
Windows Key: Useful to people who don't like using the mouse in Windows (works in Linux too, but most of us don't use it)
Application Key/Pulldown Menu: Useful to people who don't like using the mouse in Windows (works in Linux too, but most of us don't use it)
Apple Key: Quite useful to most advanced applications on the Mac.
Pause/Break: Extremely useful to prevent booting when you need to look at POST results (me)
The Any Key: Useful to humorous help desk staff
Ctrl-Alt-Neal: Useful to all Slashdotters who don't like Cowboy Neal
Re:sysrq (Score:3, Interesting)
At least in Linux, SysRq can be used to pass basic commands straight to the kernel. It allows you to force a system to reboot, kill programs, etc. I wouldn't necessarily call the SysRq button a useless key.
For more information, do a search on "SysRq magic" with Google [google.com].
Re:Why sysrq (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, obviously not me.
So, tell me: what the heck does it do?
Re:Why sysrq (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Why sysrq (Score:5, Informative)
See this nice writeup for details on SysReq. [linuxgazette.com]
Re:Why sysrq (Score:5, Informative)
the Alt + Sysrq + keystroke on linux can do these things:
b - Reboot hard.
e - send TERM to all processes, but not to init
i - send KILL to all processes, also not to init
k - send KILL to all processes on only the current console
l - send KILL to _all_ processes (init included!)
m - dump memory info to screen
p - dump registers to the screen
s - sync kernel buffers to disk
t - dumps process info to screen
u - remounts root partition read-only
Re:Why sysrq (Score:3, Informative)
Here's the link to the Google Groups search [google.com].
- Peter
Re:The PROPS key... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The PROPS key... (Score:4, Funny)
Word. Like those users that FRONT on you.
Re:Scroll lock (Score:4, Funny)
Incredible, isn't it?
Re:Regarding the controversial Windows key :-) (Score:3, Insightful)
One of our servers sometimes has problems with intermittent mouse operation, and then I can press the Windows key and still run programs or reboot the server.
Of course Windows itself is vile, so I was tempted to pick Windows Key on a strictly symbolic level. but the key itself can be useful.
Does Linux use the Windows key to run its own copy of the start menu? And if so, would Microsoft consider it trademark infringement?
D
Re:Scroll Lock and why (Score:5, Funny)
True. When I ran a BBS, I used the Any Key as a stupidity detector.
Before being allowed to sign up for an account, users were presented with a text screen describing the BBS - at the bottom were the words: "Press ANY key to continue (If you don't know which one this is, it's the one on the front of your computer labeld 'reset'.)"
The logs showed a grand total of two disconnects at this page.. it could be co-incidence, but who knows?
Re:Scroll Lock and why (Score:3, Interesting)
If you have a Belkin KVM switch, two taps of scroll lock followed by a number (or up or down arrow) switches to the desired box.
It's also useful in apps that support it, where you can move the paper instead of the cursor with the cursor keys with the scroll lock on.
Indeed. But why are there TWO of them?
I vote for the Windows menu key being the most useless key. When it
Re:Disable those keys! (Score:3, Interesting)
Here is a web site that documents the steps to go through to make a hyperlink out of your url: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/tut8c.html [maricopa.edu]
And for the kids, here's that link above, in a clickable form [winguides.com]. It's a pain to deal with plain url's in slashdot posts, because slashcode breaks up long "words" after fifty characters. It'
Re:On my Sun Ultra-10 (Score:3, Informative)
The Compose key is for entering "foreign" characters, i.e. ISO-Latin-1 characters that you might not have on your keyboard (especially if you have a US layout). When you press it, the LED turns on. While the LED is on, if the next two keys you press are a known sequence, then the keyboard will enter the funky character. For example, "compose" followed by "a" and ":" will usually enter the Ger
Re:"Apple Key" (Score:4, Informative)
The documentation referred to them as the Open Apple and Closed Apple keys and they did different things. I forget the control sequence (Ctrl+Open Apple+Power?) but one of them was a reboot sequence. I also don't remember any of the closed apple commands, but that was nearly 20 years ago.