[Gllug] Web Site Creation

[Nix]

On Sun, 6 Nov 2005, Stig Brautaset wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 04, 2005 at 08:48:32PM +0000, Nix wrote:
>> (I tend, these days, also to need specialized keyboards to turn
>> anything much out, but that's illegible painful handwriting combined
>> with RSI, not native lack of talent ;) )
> 
> Which keyboard is that, if I may ask?

A Maltron series E. Like this (warning, *big* image):
<http://www.maltron.co.uk/images/press/maltron-ergonomic-english-trackball-tq-hr1.jpg>.

(I think I've rabbited about it before on this group.)

An ancient Usenet post (from 1993!) by Karl Fogel turned me onto it;
knowing how much he writes (code and books) and that he's an Emacs user,
well, it's pretty much guaranteed that the resulting keyboard works and
isn't violently antipathetic to Emacs use. Subsequent email discussions
indicated that he'd only worn out one keyboard in ten years of constant
use.

I had some really strange problems at first involving autorepeating keys
suddenly deciding to switch the key they were sending, so holding down \
might generate \\\********..., but this turned out to be a bug in the
2.6.10 kernel's atkbd.c, and it works flawlessly now I've upgraded.


It's a bit tricky to adapt to even in QWERTY mode; a *lot* of keys are
in odd places, but even the '" and /~ locations (upper left and lower
right respectively) can be adjusted to. The vertically arrayed keys
disrupt your typing more than you might expect, but one can adapt to
that too. It's lovely having every key accessible without moving your
hands... (Obviously the alternate keyboard layout disrupts your typing
completely if you turn it on, until you get used to it. And when you do,
whoo-eee, many common English words have nearly all their letters under
your fingers without needing to move your fingers *at all*.)

But concentrating on the key layout is silly. The most important thing
by far isn't the layout, but that contoured shape; my fingers never need
to stretch noticeably, and it pretty much forces proper touch-typing
as well.


The cost is a bit much: five hundred quid (435+VAT) for the trackball
version, but *well* worth it: my hands now only hurt at work. (When I
get a diagnosis of RSI (which involves switching doctors to one who
believes in its existence, so is very annoying) work will be forced to
spend some money and hopefully my hands will no longer hurt at all.)

There are competitors: the Kinesis Ergonomic is sort of like the Maltron
only half the price, injection-moulded, much more fragile and devoid of
the alternate Maltron keyboard layout; they're basically a cheap Maltron
knockoff. Given a choice between a keyboard that costs 250 quid and dies
in two years and one that costs 500 and dies in ten, well, even though I
was hardly flush with cash at the time I'm not an idiot :)

At that the cost was such that I'd probably never have dared to switch
if it wasn't for the try-before-you-buy trick you can pull, which they
don't advertise anywhere nearly enough on their webpage. They have a
keyboard rental scheme where you pay something like ten quid a week: I
just started out renting and switched after a couple of weeks when I was
sure I could adapt.

It's the only keyboard I've ever bought where the manufacturer's MD asks
you if you'd like any keys moved around before they make it; apparently
if you have especially large or small hands they'll also scale the
keyboard up or down! I'm a great fan of doing business with very small
companies: you may pay a bit more but little companies often really
*get* customer service. :)


The keyboard does not improve my illegible painful handwriting. ;)

-- 
`Heinlein is quite competent at putting together sentences, but usually
he also puts together a plot to go with them.' --- Russ Allbery
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug