Possible to disable on/off switch when keyboard is out?

[emkorial]

So I just got a new Verizon TP2, and ran into a glaring problem with it. With the keyboard slid out and typing, the index finger of your left hand naturally falls directly on the on/off button (the one that turns off the screen in the upper left corner). So you hit a few letters and invariable you hit the switch and the screen turns off.

At first I thought maybe it was just me, so I asked 5 different co workers to try it (without telling them what I was testing for, I just asked them to type some text) and every single one had the screen turn off on them.

So is there anyway to disable that button when the keyboard is slid open? And how dumb is HTC for putting the button there in the first place? I mean, did NO ONE at HTC actually pick up the phone and try it before approving the design and shipping the thing out? Not a single engineer used the thing with the keyboard out? Pretty shoddy work. Up there with the reset switch being behind the battery cover (who in the world thought THAT was a good idea?)

HTC seems to be the champs at getting something 95% right and them competely shooting themselves in the foot by making 1 idiotic decision that ruins the device.