Today my new keyboard arrived and I'm very pleased. I expect it's going to take me a while to get used to it but the keys feel wonderful and the shape and placement is perfect. If you're looking for a reasonably priced keyboard that will help you get your mouse into a much more comfortable position, I definitely recommend the Key Ovation Goldtouch keyboard.
Thanks to Alan for the pointer and to everyone else for all the great suggestions.
Posted by: Susan Kitchens | September 30, 2005 4:26 PM
Spreadfirefox.com is currently contentless apart from the notice that says it'll reopen around October 15th.
While my advice is never taken seriously by anyone (making Cassandra of Troy seem like an amateur), I find it slightly odd how a site visited by thousands is wasting its improvement downtime with what amounts to the man/shovel animated "Under Contruction LOL!! tell your friends though!!!!!!" image. (For comparison, Google says that SFX has 15,000 inbound links while popular homestarrunner.com has only around 2,000 inbound links. Even more: spreadfirefox.com as a text search yields 753K results; homestarrunner.com, 246K, *the* nyt.com, only 38K...)
Wouldn't it be better to at least offer barebones functionality of the original site by putting a sentence or two about why Firefox needs to be spread and a few banners people could slap on their sites?
Oops, there I go again with my radical thoughts about not wasting the almost million mentions of SFX around the web by building a single page using a computer language consisting of about a dozen "commands" using such undecipherable symbols like <b> for bold and <p> for paragraph.
As in "Sir Gawain and The Green Knight" I ask: "Where is the captain of this crowd?"
[Sorry to post this here (feel free to take it down) I just couldn't post it on SFX for obvious reasons.]
Posted by: andkon | September 30, 2005 7:35 PM
Why has SFX been taken down? And for so long?
Posted by: Dan100 | October 1, 2005 12:29 AM
Did you buy the keyboard direct??
Posted by: Steve | October 1, 2005 5:31 AM
It's been proven that these types of keyboards have 0 effect on health, as in they're not "healtheir" or "safer" to use than regular keyboards.
So what's the point ?
Posted by: Caleb | October 1, 2005 8:25 AM
> So what's the point?
Look how cool they look!
Posted by: Sam | October 1, 2005 4:00 PM
They look awful...
Posted by: Mr Lizard | October 1, 2005 4:51 PM
> So what's the point ?
it needn't be healthy, because asa hopefully won't eat it.
it's about ergonomics. on a normal keyboard you write fast. one a good one, you write much faster. so, asa can do much more of the stuff he uses his keyboard for, everyday. this sums up to quite a lot ;)
and, well, it's cool, too. despite the fact that *i* don't really like this design.
Posted by: Sebastian | October 1, 2005 4:52 PM
Has anyone got any experience of the apple wired keyboard? I'm thinking of getting one for my new powerbook and my existing pc (a kvm switch will be used to flip between the two)
Many thanks (hopefully this is within topic!)
Posted by: Mr Lizard | October 1, 2005 4:56 PM
What's the point?
Ergonomics can be for a different reason, too. Like making sure that your arms don't ache. Intensive keyboarding (long hours) with a leetle too much of a reach from keyboard to mouse causes the ol' carpal tunnel to flare up. A more flex keyboard lets you sit down at computer for longer hours, w/o that sense of heaviness in the forearm, the numbness-unto-pain, stuff like that. Then again, forget it. Why get an ergonomic keyboard? Just get the hell away from the keyboard, and kiss those long work days and deadlines goodbye. (Don't I wish)
Posted by: Susan Kitchens | October 2, 2005 11:09 PM
I've been looking to get a keyboard to combat exactly the same problem that Asa's been suffering (mouse too far to the right). Finally looks as though I may have found a candidate. Hope I can get one in the UK.
By the way, why don't manufacturers put the numpad on the left hand side of keyboards to avoid this? ... especially for right-handed people.
Posted by: Silent Scream | October 4, 2005 9:52 PM
I followed the link; saw that they're coming out with an Apple compatible keyboard in November. I had the old Apple ergonomic adb keyboard (keypad a separate element, so mouse closer to keyboard). Thanks to the adb-to-usb switch, the keyboard hasn't seen recent use. So, I'll keep an eye out for this one, come November. :)