TyperA FAQ

Q: What does the name TyperA mean?

A: Quite obviously, it consist of `typer' because that's what it's all about, and `A' symbolizing metaphysically the long journey of an aspiring typer, from A to Z, alpha and omega. `Typerä' is also Finnish and means `stupid', but that is just a coincidence.

Q: It doesn't work.

A: 1. Find out whether your web browser supports Java or not. Try e.g. this hangman applet at Sun's site. If you see a hangman game and it works, then you have Java support. Otherwise, download Java support. Where and how, depends on your browser. IE users might try www.microsoft.com. Another one to try is java.sun.com.

2. If you have Java support and it still doesn't work, then the game applet stops because of an error. To see the error message, you have to find Java console. IE users: enable "use java console" in internet options / advanced, and select "java console" in the view menu. Netscape users: select tools -> java console. Sun Java plugin users: find a small java icon in the taskbar, right-click it and choose "show console".

3. If the error message is something obvious, do something to fix it. Otherwise, you can mail it to jouko@iki.fi. Include the whole error message in the mail.

Q: How do I restart my browser?

A: We have received some e-mail inqueries concerning this. To restart your browser, first close it and then start it again.

Q: It says "ERROR HAPPENED" even though I played as normally.

A: Your WWW-proxy may mess things up, or then you have an old version of the Applet in your browser's cache. Try restarting the browser and/or turning off proxies. You might also experience this problem if you fiddle around with the back and forward buttons of the browser. Or, it may happen if there's an extremely lot of network lag and the game thinks there is some kind of cheat involved.

Q: "Keypresses per minute"? What kind of rating is that? Words per minute is the standard unit.

A: Counting keypresses gives much more accuracy. Already now many people have identical results on the list.

Q: Is/was there someone from USA helping in creating and developing the site?

A: No. Believe it or not, this site was created without help from Americans. (Strange question but it has been asked?)

Q: How many people are doing TyperA?

A: 1

Q: Hey, player X is cheating! It's not possible to type over 300/400/500/600/700/800 keys per minute.

A: They could always cheat and there's no way to stop it in the end. You can never trust a Java Applet running on the client machine. It's a piece of software your browser downloads and runs. There is no way to be sure the user doesn't modify or manipulate it. Even if they don't, they may use some other type of cheating: a robot that types fast, a program that optically recognizes the letters on the screen, or dope themselves with a drug that boosts their reflects and speed. For easier ways of cheating, it's becoming more and more difficult as the anti-cheat mechanisms in TyperA evolve.

Cheaters are deleted from the hiscore list on sight, and usually banned. Feel free to try anyway. And by the way, all other flavors of abusers (eg. those putting asdfg or D words in the forum or guestbook) will be also banned from the site.

There is evidence that some people type way over 800 keys per minute (official, "real" typing competitions).