TypeMatrix Keyboard
With all of the extra typing and long hours in the last few weeks, I have started getting significant pain in my hands and wrists. (Why am I writing this blog entry then - FIIK :)
So, I finally returned to working at my desk (instead of sitting on the LR couch hunched over my laptop) and decided to pick up a more egonomic keyboard. I ordered a TypeMatrix keyboard (The dual-labelled QUERTY/Dvorak model from Ergo Canada after spotting a post on /. about the keyboard.)
The guy at Ergo Canada was very helpful - I placed the order on Sunday evening and he wrote back a few minutes later to see if he could phone to get my credit card details.
The keyboard arrived today and here are some first impressions:
The spacing between the keys is hard to adjust to - so rather than use it QWERTY mode, I have just started learning the Dvorak layout. I should have just got the Dvorak layout. :)
Seems like a nice keyboard - thin and portable for travelling, good key feel (perhaps a bit firm though), hardware-based QWERTY/Dvorak key mapping and (mostly *) plug-and-play with my Toshiba Satellite laptop running Debian
Other cool bits are:
- large enter, tab, backspace, shift and space keys.
- center-placed tab, enter and backspace keys - less wear and tear on the pinky
- two space bars
- nice keys
- linear grid key layout - none of the keys are staggered. This is a bit hard to get used to when using the board in QUERTY mode, but is really nice as I learn the Dvorak layout.
The only gripes are:
- Home/End/PgUp/PgDn are overlayed on the F9 .. F12 keys and require holding a 'function' to access.
- The Control/Alt keys are a bit badly placed.
- The delete key is clown-nose red.
- right shift key is further out than the left shift key
- their typing tutor doesn't work under Wine
Weird/Neat stuff
- two backspace keys that are almost next to each other. I don't need bs keys for each hand :)
- press caps lock on either keyboard and both capslock indicators light up - probably a behavior of the laptop rather than the TypeMatrix
(*) If the board is plugged in on boot, then the system does not recognise it properly.
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Posted on Thursday, February 20th, 2003 at 0:00
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