Is there any research about the keyboard issue? Sometimes I suspect that it is simply impossible for adults to learn touch-typing naturally the same way I did as a child (ie, simply by telling myself 'don't look at the keyboard'). Or maybe it's that they never engage in the activities that really force people to become fast typists (in my case, probably IRC) and perhaps never will.
I only learned to touch-type in my late twenties. It took my about two weeks of practising with gtypist for 20-30 minutes a day. I only type about 50-60wpm when I push myself (usually quite less), but even if you can only type 30wpm it's still an enormous improvement over hunt-and-pecking. It makes me cringe to think they're "teaching" MSOffice to school kids but can't be bothered to teach them basic typing skills.
