[Boston.pm] Keyboards
Last night there was brief moaning by people who wanted keybards without the Windows(tm) keys. IBM sells two USB keyboards that meet all my requirements. Ctrl and Alt are right next to the space bar. That little key on the left is a function key. The travel keyboard is the same as the one on my T30 laptop which I love. The nubs on the F and J keys wore off, but it was easy enough to make new ones out of bits of plastic and glue them on with Krazy Glue. My biggest complaint is the back and next buttons next to the arrow keys. I've trained myself not to touch them but I still hit them by accident once in a while. If I owned my laptop I would just pop them off with a screwdriver and they would never be a problem. I quickly turned off the touch pad and buttons since that's right where I rest my thumbs. http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=-840langId=-1partNumber=31P8950storeId=1 http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=-840langId=-1partNumber=31P9490storeId=1 I haven't bought one yet, so if any of you know of something better, let me know. --- Glen Peterson Senior Software Engineer, Web Consultant South Hamilton, MA USA ___ Boston-pm mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
Re: [Boston.pm] Keyboards
On Wed, Aug 04, 2004 at 08:48:19AM -0400, Mark J. Dulcey wrote: Glen Peterson wrote: Last night there was brief moaning by people who wanted keybards without the Windows(tm) keys. For many users, the easiest and cheapest way to get one is probably to go to the MIT Flea and buy an old keyboard -- one made long enough ago not to have Windows keys. That won't help if you need a USB keyboard. So get an Apple or Sun USB keyboard. -- David Cantrell | Official London Perl Mongers Bad Influence Soylent green is purple! Soylent green is purple! ___ Boston-pm mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
Re: [Boston.pm] Keyboards
On Wed, 4 Aug 2004, Mark J. Dulcey wrote: Glen Peterson wrote: Last night there was brief moaning by people who wanted keybards without the Windows(tm) keys. For many users, the easiest and cheapest way to get one is probably to go to the MIT Flea and buy an old keyboard -- one made long enough ago not to have Windows keys. That won't help if you need a USB keyboard, though, since they're mostly too new. Of course, the even easier even cheaper thing for all the people that aren't aghast at the prospect of using Windows is to just *learn to use the Windows key*. It's tremendously useful, really -- * [win]+[e] -- launches Windows Explorer * [win]+[r] -- opens a Run dialog window * [win]+[f] -- opens a search window * [win]+[d] -- minimize everything, show the desktop * [win] -- bring up the system menu from the taskbar There's others too, that's just the ones I use all the time. I resisted using the win-key for years, but now that I've given in, I'd never want to go back to using Windows without having that key, and it bugs me that Linux OSX don't seem to have globally available system tools available with just a keystroke like that. Of course, if you use Linux, then you can't use these functions and you've got bigger problems anyway (e.g. you're stuck with Linux :). In that case, ok, maybe the key is dead weight, but then, for most people, there are lots of dead weight keys: [SysReq], [Pause/Break], [Scroll Lock], most or all of the F-keys, any internet keys on keyboards so equipped, etc. And yet, for whatever reason, no one ever complains about the useless [SysReq] key, or (the one that really bugs me) about the conspicuous absense of keys for basics [cut], [copy], and [paste]. And yet people have no trouble getting worked up over a perfectly useful key that just happens to be burdened with an annoying little advertising label on it. Man, life's rough... :-) -- Chris Devers [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://devers.homeip.net:8080/blog/ np: 'Theme From Hatari!' by Henry Mancini from 'The Best Of Mancini' ___ Boston-pm mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
Re: [Boston.pm] Keyboards
At 8:20 AM -0400 8/4/04, Glen Peterson wrote: Last night there was brief moaning by people who wanted keybards without the Windows(tm) keys. I It has the windows keys, but I swear by the Tactile Pro. Works fine on Mac or PC, should work on anything supporting USB keyboards. It's noisy because it uses mechanical switches, but it has the best feel of any keyboard I've used since the original Apple Extended keyboard. You should be able to remap caps lock to control if you prefer it to the left of a, although I've been on the Mac too long now to care any more. -- Kee Hinckley http://www.messagegate.com/ Enterprise Messaging Security and Compliance http://commons.somewhere.com/buzz/ Writings on Technology and Society I'm not sure which upsets me more: that people are so unwilling to accept responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate everyone else's. ___ Boston-pm mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
Re: [Boston.pm] Keyboards
On Wed, 4 Aug 2004, David Cantrell wrote: On Wed, Aug 04, 2004 at 08:48:19AM -0400, Mark J. Dulcey wrote: For many users, the easiest and cheapest way to get one is probably to go to the MIT Flea and buy an old keyboard -- one made long enough ago not to have Windows keys. That won't help if you need a USB keyboard. So get an Apple or Sun USB keyboard. But the bottom row of keys behaves funny when you plug an Apple keyboard into a PC (or, for that matter, a PC keyboard into a Mac). The same keys are all still there, but not in the same order, so you end up having to ignore the labels and any existing finger memory and get used to how the keyboard actually behaves. This is fun for a while, but gets old fast. What's the point? If you don't happen to have one laying around already, Mac-compatible keyboards are almost always more expensive than generic PC ones, so between the cost and the annoyance it hardly seems worth it to buy one for this. I still think the easiest way is to just get used to the Windows key -- anything that makes Windows a little more pleasant is worth it -- but who am I to talk -- I'm a Mac user anyway :-) -- Chris Devers [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://devers.homeip.net:8080/blog/ np: 'Mr. Lucky' by Henry Mancini from 'The Best Of Mancini' ___ Boston-pm mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
Re: [Boston.pm] Keyboards
Chris Devers wrote: I resisted using the win-key for years, but now that I've given in, I'd never want to go back to using Windows without having that key, and it bugs me that Linux OSX don't seem to have globally available system tools available with just a keystroke like that. On my Linux laptop (SuSE 9.1 and KDE), the Windows key actually DOES do something: it pops up the SuSE menu of applications. So it's not completely dead weight. There aren't any Windows-key+something functions, though. And yet, for whatever reason, no one ever complains about the useless [SysReq] key, or (the one that really bugs me) about the conspicuous absense of keys for basics [cut], [copy], and [paste]. And yet people have no trouble getting worked up over a perfectly useful key that just happens to be burdened with an annoying little advertising label on it. People don't complain about the SysRq key or those other useless keys you mentioned because they're mostly in out-of-the-way places. The Windows key, on the other hand, occupies prime real estate on the keyboard, so it is a bit more in the way. I think the original poster didn't like the Windows key because it pushes the Control key farther away from the spacebar. ___ Boston-pm mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
Re: [Boston.pm] Keyboards
I whined last night that I use a Playstation 2 Linux Kit keyboard, which is, in my opinion, the best keyboard layout I've ever used: http://playstation2-linux.com/Linux_kit.jpg Ctrl, Meta and Alt are next to the space bar on both sides and are all about the same size. Caps-lock is in the normal non-Sun position. It's got a really nice touch, too. Unfortunately, these keybaords only ship with the Playstation 2 Linux Kit and I can't find another. If you're a fan of laptop keyboards and on a budget, check out the ViewSonic Slim keyboard, as seen in the movie Paycheck. The feel is really good, however some of the key locations suck. The Delete and Insert keys are squished on the right side and there's a random second pipe/backslash to the left of the space bar, too. http://shop.store.yahoo.com/a-c/viewviewslim.html However, I really like the feel of the IBM keyboards and am strongly considering purchasing one of those standalone ones. -- Ian Langworth Project Guerrilla Northeastern University College of Computer and Information Science ___ Boston-pm mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
Re: [Boston.pm] Keyboards
On Wed, 2004-08-04 at 10:21, Mark J. Dulcey wrote: People don't complain about the SysRq key or those other useless keys you mentioned because they're mostly in out-of-the-way places. The Windows key, on the other hand, occupies prime real estate on the keyboard, so it is a bit more in the way. I think the original poster didn't like the Windows key because it pushes the Control key farther away from the spacebar. There's also the fact that SysRq actually does something, at least on Redhat and Fedora using the default Gnome desktop settings: it creates a screenshot. I notice this every time I accidentally hit SysRq instead of Scroll Lock. And Scroll Lock is used by my KVM switch to switch between my various machines. As for the Windows key, Metacity uses that as a mouse modifier; within the content area of a window, W-leftbutton moves the window, W-middlebutton resizes the window, and W-rightbutton pops up the same menu you get from right-clicking the window's titlebar. -- John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux Unix Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0xD5C7B5D9 PGP-Key-Fingerprint 72 FB 39 4F 3C 3B D6 5B E0 C8 5A 6E F1 2C BE 99 signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ Boston-pm mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
Re: [Boston.pm] Keyboards
On Wed, 4 Aug 2004, John Abreau wrote: There's also the fact that SysRq actually does something, at least on Redhat and Fedora using the default Gnome desktop settings: it creates a screenshot. That sentence, in a nutshell, is why I'm ready to give up on Linux :) How amusingly lateral their thinking was in choosing that over the much too obviously labeled print screen key. I can just picture the devious little bastards now: where can we put this where NO ONE will think to look for it and no one will ever find it on purpose? Wait, I know! I still think hardware keys for cut / copy / paste would be infinitely more useful than any of these, but oh well, we're stuck with this now. -- Chris Devers [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://devers.homeip.net:8080/blog/ np: 'Lujon' by Henry Mancini from 'The Best Of Mancini' ___ Boston-pm mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
