Since I’m back in Hood River for the summer I decided that this year I’m going to set up my office a bit more completely rather than just hacking away on the laptop on the dining room table. So I got myself a dedicated desk, keyboard and second monitor. Ah – better coding comfort.

 

Except I bought a new Microsoft Keyboard and man does this thing suck. Back at home I have been using a Microsoft Natural keyboard for years and I love that thing. It’s just great for typing quickly and the keys are just the right size etc. It’s a very subjective thing of course but that keyboard just was a good fit right out of the box.

 

So I thought I want to get something close to this keyboard again. Unfortunately it looks like Microsoft doesn't make any anymore - nor do other mainstream manufacturers at least in the few stores I looked while in Portland last week. So I went looked around for other MS keyboards and I picked a wireless version of one of their internet keyboards. But I cannot for the life of me get dialed on this keyboard.  The layout of the Home/End/Delete/PgUp/PgDn keys is just not working for me.

The layout is:

 

Home                      End

Delete                    PgUp

                             PgDn

 

I guess I’m used to the two row layout, where the relative key combos are all stacked above each other which seems much easier finding the right key. I never realized how much time can be wasted fumbling for the right keys. This seems like such a little thing but I can not get comfortable with these keys and I’ve been working on this thing for nearly a week now.

 

There are other odd quirks with this keyboard that I didn’t notice while checking out the keyboard. The layout of the keyboard isn’t quite centered so it seems like my fingers end up sliding off by one key. It’s really strange… The function keys are arranged in sets of 3 which puts them into odd places as well. Worse the keyboard is black and since I like to work in near darkness with a few candles lit maybe it’s tough as hell to find the F5 key to run a project.

 

Why do they fuck with these keyboard layouts every now and then? I have another keyboard sitting in my closet here that has a similiarly screwy keyboard layout that also got used for a few weeks before I gave up on it.

 

I’m just about ready to toss this keyboard too and just go back to typing on the laptop. The laptop keyboard is actually decent, except it’s not optimal positioning (sits too high) and I end up the beginnings of carpal tunnel when typing even moderate amount of time…

 

<sigh> the little things in life that make things easier. Amazing... 

 

Enough carping…