That Which We Touch: Keyboards & Mice

I commonly find myself encouraging people that I consult for to buy a nice keyboard and mouse. And although they are out of production, the iconic IBM Model "M" mechanical keyboard is an abiding symbol in our modern world for a reason. They are so rugged and for the longest time, considered "industry standard" that Hollywood foley (sound effects) operators generally use the sound of them to represent people typing, although most modern keyboards are now silent. They are long out of production, but still sought after to this day, especially by "hacker" types who tend to pound so hard on the keys that they wear out the typical "rubber domed" type in short order.

I have a long running fascination with input peripherals; that's mice and keyboards to most people. I love them, and am willing to try all manner of them to find the perfect combination. My current combo are the Logitech Illuminated Keyboard, because I hate lag and find that I rarely move the keyboard around, plus I quite often do computing at night with the lights darkened; paired with a Logitech Revolution MX wireless mouse. This is because I absolutely hate the cord, and find that I do in fact use the various other buttons, especially the forward and back. The free-spinning wheel is a bonus when I'm searching on a looong webpage.

....And as a nod to my quirkiness, on occasion, I also use a year 2000 relic; the Microsoft Sidewinder Strategic Commander. Yes, I know it was designed for role-playing games, but I like the idea of extra programmable buttons so I use it for stuff like the Aero-Flip key combination..... and because it's weird!

Speaking of "weirdness"; I've been into that for a while now (in relation to mice and keyboard at least), going back to the Logitech Cyberman 3D controller. Back in those days, I had imagined that I would like gaming and the concept of a device that allowed for the normal mouse functions as well as jumping and ducking would be great! Turns out that I never did get into gaming and the Cyberman was a little limiting. However my fascination didn't begin or end there.

In the late '90s while living in Chicago, I walked into a Relax Your Back Store in Lincoln Park. There in the middle of all of these really cool and comfortable seating was an especially interesting office chair. Around that time, there was a lot being written about carpel-tunnel syndrome and various other ailments associated with long hours of working in front of a computer monitor. Here was a solution! An office chair where the keyboard was split in two, one half on the respective sides along with touchpads, therefore allowing the user to keep both arms supported and in optimal positions. The price tag of course kept it from becoming a mainstream item, but the idea was really interesting and was partially responsible for kick-starting my slight obsession with ergonomics. Of course, when you combine this will a long established obsession with design, then this becomes a fertile area for come craziness. 

For some years, the computer industry's mainstream product that represented ergonomics pretty much was represented by Apple's split keyboard and Microsoft's more easily handled, but enormous concept and it's clones. The M$ style was pretty popular and could be found most anywhere, while Apple's offering was a little more of a "niche" product and rarely seen outside of the "big-screen", like in the movie "Hackers" where the mousey villain used it.

There were a few "mavericks" among the crowd though, like the really radical Kinesis and the Safetype "grip" style keyboard, but they pretty much were commercial failures.

In the meantime, the industry's ever moving pendulum headed the other way to more of a design orientation. So of course, Apple (and it's contractor Frog Design) is going to lead that pack! In today's world, there's not a product that represents cool, than the Apple Bluetooth keyboard. That's especially true of the short version without the number pad. It's small, simple, works and just looks great anywhere in the house. If it had a built in pointing device, it would definitely be my keyboard of choice for our home theater PCs. 

If a wireless version of this existed, I'd definitely use it, but IBM and now Lenovo steadfastly refuses to cut the cord, so I'm still using the Logitech DiNovo Edge in the living room and the Mini in the bedroom.

They are pretty good devices, but of course, I'm still saddled with the devil's invention....., the touchpad on both! 

Design keeps pushing the envelop, especially in the gaming area where some of the mice are beginning to resemble science fiction. One device (though not ready for prime time), that it really cool in concept is the infra-red keyboard! Although the reviews have universally panned it, we seem to be one step closer to the really cool input devices of Hollywood.

Who can forget the oh-so-futuristic keyboards of Star Trek. Here is an overlay that anyone can run out and buy, but you know if you have a tablet, that pop-up onscreen keyboard that you peck on already has you there!

Of course, the 3-D virtual reality interfaces of the films "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Minority Report" were both ultra-impressive to geeks like me, but really: who wants to wave their arms around and do so much work to surf the web?

Now, this is more like it! The Gravitonus, Ergonomic Workstation and iCubby! But barring spending many tens of thousands of dollars, I'll stick with what I have for now. What's my current target?

It's an NMB Concert Master keyboard of course! 

....And this is an Altec Maxisound. These obviously 90's masterpieces of computer hardware will help me when I'm working on somebodies machine. On occasion, I find that I've forgotten to set up sound on a computer after a reload since my testing area doesn't have room for speakers. Then embarrassingly, I'll have to go back and get the drivers sorted out for them later. A few days ago, I was watching a "fix-it" video on YouTube, when I saw one of the Concert Masters on it. I was hooked! This will go along very well on the Tech Station that I'm planning to build.... but of course, that's another post.

"Bread and Butter" and Other Random Thoughts

.....or in this case, toast and butter, but anyway.... in my IT consulting business, there are certain jobs that are just simply that. They aren't glamorous, or really even much fun at all, but they do pay the bills (or in my case, the PayPal balance). 

Probably half to two-thirds of my business involves rebuilds on Windows machines. If you've been on a computer for any amount of time, you know that your machines slow down almost immediately upon arrival at your house. And by the end of the 3 to 5 years (or 2 if you've bought consumer HP or Acer), when you've finally decided that the sluggishness is so bad that something needs to done about it, then I get called. Now if it's gone the actual 3 to 5 years, it'll need to have RAM upgraded since all those updated have succeeded in majorly slowing it down. However if you've actually gone all the way out to 5 years, it probably needs to have the hard drive replaced too (it's mechanical). Anyway, having been in this business 6-7 years now, I've accumulated enough of a clientele that there are usually several of these in the average month. It's as boring as it gets, but like I said before, it pays the bills. By the way; these people come to me because I'm better at it AND charge something like half of what Best Buy/Geek Squad does!

Of course you guy should know that the bulk of my remaining business is flipping computers, since I written about it quite a bit. Specifically, I do "business class" machines that my clients have come to rely on due to their build quality/price-point balance. These machines like the Dell E6400 (my current favorite) can be delivered to them loaded, updated and ready to run for around $250, plus or minus. They are easy since I have the official Dell restore disk for the OS that they are licensed for and can be found in the thousands. On occasion, I'll do a ThinkPad for someone if they are willing to pay a little bit more for the attributes that they are famous for (keyboard, better build quality, etc.), or even Apple products like MacBooks..... crazy huh!?! I've done about 5 Apple products in the last year and a half. I don't mind do them; they're just expensive for what you get. 

Lately, I've gotten into laser printers. I don't mean, I've just recently started setting my clients up on them! No, I've been doing that for 4-5 years since they are so much more inexpensive than inkjets to operate. I've moved 3 of my 4 commercial clients to them. I have actually started repairing them. Recently, I accidentally came across some videos on YouTube showing how to do simple repairs on the mid-sized ones like the Laserjet 5/6p, 2100/2200/2300, plus I stumbled into a little shop in a neighboring town that had a bunch of them. They all seem to have some sort of small issues ranging from worn "pick-up" rollers to bad fuser grease. He doesn't have time to mess with that so he sells me several at a time for a relative "song". So I fix them and send them off to happy clients who probably won't have to change a toner cartridge for 3 or 4 years!

Now, I'm not exactly Super-Green guy running around in my woolen socks and Birkenstocks, but if I can help cut down on techno-waste, I will! 

And now for the "random" part: my brother is moving. .....So he's decided to thin-out his massive collection of stuff. So a couple of weeks ago he asked me if I wanted one of his old 35mm cameras. Obviously since it was an oddity (Topcon Uni), I said shoot yes (or some thing to that effect). Anyway, when the box arrived it contained the Uni, some various other old camera gear, but also a Nikon Coolpix 995, with a "fisheye" attachment (!) and these!!! The Coolpix 8800 and Coolpix 8400 twins as well. They are both 8Mp of the "superzoom" category which originally sold for around $1000.... apiece! I used to own a 8800 so I'm familiar with it, but they're be a post just on these guys when I can get around to it.

Lessons Learned From Vacation

We got back from our yearly (seems like anyway) trip to San Antonio. We went to places that we've been before, stayed at a hotel that we've stayed at before, ate at places we've eaten at before. Did we learn anything from this trip? Sure we did:

• We packed exactly what we needed to, no more, no less. Very efficient in terms of luggage. If you don't carry one of those pop-up mesh laundry hampers; you should. We've done it 3 times now, and it's been a revelation each and every time at keeping a hotel room tidy, especially when two children are along!

 

• I carried a power strip having learned from annoying experience that hotel rooms don't have enough outlets and that many are behind furniture. Also worked out great.

 

• The Best Western "Alamo Suites", which isn't all that close to the "Alamo" by the way is a perfect fit for us. It's close enough to the downtown/Riverwalk area without being down there with the noise, crowds and costs. I could get my wife down to the convention center each morning for her conference in 10 minutes. It has an indoor pool which was great for the kids and the rooms are large (with a full-sized fridge and microwave), plus breakfast is included. We got it at around $80 a-night. It's not luxurious in any way, shape, or form, but it was clean and did the job for what we needed.... besides, it's just down the street from out favorite place to eat....

 

• The Piedras Negras de Noche is our favorite Mexican food restraunt, bar none... and it's not close! We just don't go to San Antonio without going there. It's hard to find, hard to get to, and everybody looks at you when you come in because we're not hispanic, but we've loved it for about 8 or 9 years now. The first time we went, our son was still sleeping in a Pack-n-Play and he's 10 now. I'm a little surprised that Guy Fieri hasn't done one of his "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" on it yet. 

 

• The DeWeese's Tip Top Cafe, is one that Guy has done a show on and it was great again the second time there.... even if I didn't get the any pie this time. The kids even love it.

 

• It was definitely worth it to carry two cameras. The Nikon D300 with the 18-200mm "Superzoom" was just about perfect for the San Antonio Zoo, and it got some really nice shots. However, it was the Panasonic GF-1 that was the revelation! I surprised myself by taking it to Sea World and it was great for that; light, and quick reacting, plus this time I remembered to take the LVF-1 finder, so that when there was too much sunlight I could switch to that. The 100 degree heat and trudging the distances involved in that park would have made the D300 a burdensome carry. It was also perfect for Ripley's Belive It, or Not, and the Witte Science Museum. I'm VERY happy with that camera!

 

Anything not go right, despite the planning and familiarity? Yup! Remember me getting the portable access point ready in case we got a bad wireless signal in our room? I forgot to pack an Ethernet cable! However, even that was a case of using one of my "go to" strategies and having it work even in a relatively unfamiliar city. After our trip to the Zoo, and a great lunch at the Tip Top Cafe, I found a Goodwill up the street, swung into there and 5 minutes later, I had picked up 3 Ethernet cables for 99 cents a-piece. Try that at Best Buy! Although I found that I did what little internet access I needed to at the desk,and only used the cable to go directly to the laptop, it was WAY faster than the WiFi access. 

So yeah, that's it! I couldn't be happier..... other than getting home, and unpacked, and the laundry done, and everything put up.... that is!

Traveling Propellerhead

Tomorrow, we're leaving for what seems like a yearly trip to San Antonio. For many years, we went there because the kids were in the Sea World age. You know, too old to just go anywhere, but not old enough to do a lot, and certainly not old enough to have the attention span to go to adult types of attractions! Although, at 7 and 10, they are old enough to go somewhere else, we are headed back to good ol San Antonio because my wife has a math teaching conference there this year. Which is a good opportunity for me to discuss what a Frugal Propellerhead carries on a trip that involves many hours of car riding.

We'll start with the fact that the car involved will the the Civic Hybrid, so space will be at a premium. At least we're only going to be gone for 3 days so their won't be a ton of luggage. 

I'll start with my main camera; the D300, which I'll mount with the 18-200mm (27-300mm eq.) and the 50mm/f1.4 for low light situations. One of my main destinations will be the famous San Antonio Zoo as well as the neighboring Japanese Garden at Brackenridge Park. And of course, there will be the obligatory trip to Sea World as well, so these situations are ideal for that camera with a superzoom lens.

You can see in this comparison why, the Panasonic GF-1 will probably also make the trip as the evening "walk-around" camera as we stroll the Paseo del Rio.

 

....And as if there was a question; the X301 will go on it's very first family trip taking the place of the X300 which was the veteran of many over it's years. This in the company of the little Targus card reader and my 6G iPod will allow me to dump, review, edit and post pictures while we are gone. The iPod of course will function as my in-car music jukebox as well. 

Both of our ThinkPad Tablets will probably make the trip, serving first as "in-car" entertainment for the 5 hour drive, then for my wife to take notes on during the conference.

My son will probably want to take his Sony Bloggie along with his 3DS and my daughter will probably take her Nintendo DSi. These are what we call, parent sanity devices. 

You might be thinking: that's a crazy amount of electronics for a 3 day trip, but hey, look at it this way..... how much is quiet and serenity worth? Remember..... 10 hours in a small car and 3 days in a hotel room!