Freelance Propaganda

More on Keyboards

So I decided against spending waaay to much on the Kinesis and plumbed for a Microsoft Natural Keyboard which I’m using now. It isn’t too bad but has some serious drawbacks.

Firstly it is a ps 2 keyboard with a USB adapter. Now that wouldn’t be much of a problem except that it means it doesn’t have a usb hub in it. So If I wanted keyboard, mouse and sound out of this ol’ puppy I was going to need a hub. Extra expense.

Anyway my biggest complaint is the number pad. Who the fuck needs that. And it makes me put the mouse so far away that it takes about 10 minutes to find it. There should be a big monkey’s bum trackball in the middle of this puppy,

Also it shows me that I’ve been touch typing slightly wrongly—-hitting the ‘B’ with my right hand. It is now on the left of the keyboard so I can’t so that anymore.

So my quest for a decent keyboard continues although I’ll keep this for a while I guess. Check these two out. Shame that they both cost a serious amount of cashola. The Kinesis like one with the track ball is by Maltron and only costs about $400.

The flat one has the advantage that the whole area is also touch sensitive and can do gestures and mousing right on the keyboard. I’d go for it but at $329 I’ll need to save for a bit I guess …. although I fucking tempted. I wonder when they’ll have a wireless version—-that would be the ultimate.

They also have a slightly cheaper model that slips into the powerbook keyboard slot. Pretty cool—-but that puts me back typing next to the screen again …

Perhaps I can pull all the keys off the number pad and stick a trackball on top of it.

The iCurve on the other hand is awesome, moving the monitor right up to eye level and looking very slick. Niiice,