I have two external keyboards that I use a lot, because I find even at a desk, they are way easier on the hands than using the laptop integrated one. My complete favourite is the Logitech UltraX Premium keyboard. It wasn’t expensive, it feels really robust, its supposed to be spillproof which will hopefully make cleaning it a lot easier (I do eat at my desk so my keyboards take a lot of this kind of abuse), and its got a proper layout which is very important for programmers. I once had a laptop with both slashes next to each other in one corner of the keyboard … its really not helpful! The other keyboard is a mini one, I often work from different locations and normal sized keyboards are too long to cart around whereas this one fits in my laptop bag. Its an A4Tech X-Slim multimedia keyboard and, while unexciting, it does allow me to type for more than a couple of hours when away from the office without seizing up! These are the keyboards:
Next up, trackballs. I have two, for years I used one of those Microsoft ones with the ball in the middle and the buttons on the thumb … it died about a week from my dissertation hand-in and I’ve never managed to find another I like as much. At the time I bought the thumb-ball Microsoft Optical Trackball Mouse, which is hard to use and doesn’t suit my hands – useful though if you need to keep alternating inputs as I sometimes do, and of course it takes less space than a mouse. I probably won’t replace it but I do think that the Trackball Explorer has a lot of potential I think. I’ve always liked microsoft mice, despite not liking much else they make :) My other trackball is a real favourite, a fabulous piece of kit! Its a Kensington Expert Mouse (on the right below) and although I don’t use it a lot now (I don’t use a mouse a lot), when I am working with documents or whatever its great. The ring around the ball spins and acts as a scroll wheel – very neat. I did find that this helped a lot with my hand pain too. The best thing about this though, is that it was a gift!
I have a lot of mice. Which is strange as normally, I don’t use one! As a kubuntu user who mostly writes code or documents, I actually don’t need a mouse to interact with my computer most of the time. I browse using Opera’s spatial keyboard navigation, and find that not having the mouse around means I don’t use that and strain my hands – it sort of removes the temptation. To lean over the keyboard and reach the glidepad on my laptop is fine for the odd click when needed, but discourages me from using a mouse when I can use a keyboard. Since I touch type I can then just sit with my hands on the keyboard all day and I don’t get such bad pains if I set up in this way. Anyway, mice! I’ll start with a long-term favourite, which really wasn’t expensive. Its my Belkin Ergo Mouse which was a panic buy in response to the onset of RSI pains. Its a great little mouse and fits my hand really well. I don’t really know why I like it so much but its put up with a lot and still works like a dream. I’ve also recently acquired a contour mouse, as a hand-me-down, which doesn’t have a scroll wheel but apparently that’s because scrolling is really bad for your hands :) It’s got a space to rest your thumb while you use it which is good as it helps stop the resting of thumb and wrist on the desk and then twisting to move the mouse. Finally, my new gadget of joy, my Kensington SlimBlade Media Presenter Mouse. Since changing jobs, I’m doing more presenting – both as a trainer and as a speaker at various events. Since my laptop has no bluetooth or anything, I’ve been restricted to clicking the slides along using the laptop keyboard which is awkward if you have bad room layout or want to walk around. This mouse is a really cute little wireless mouse, but when you flip it over it doubles as a remote control for media and presentations. I’ve used it a few times and love it although I’m finding it very unreliable under windows vista and their technical support has been anything but supportive. Maybe I’ll write more about that another time. Anyway, its a lovely gadget and I’m happy to have it.
So, there you have it, my input device confession. Does anyone else hoard things in this way? And do you have a favourite device that I haven’t mentioned? Comments please :)
There will also be a follow-up article to go with it – showing some code examples, because sometimes its easier to think of things when they are written down.
It was only after an hour or so when I properly looked around me, I realised I was the only woman there. The only one?? You can’t tell me there are no female geeks in Manchester, I refuse to believe it! Manchester is one of the most vibrant and happening cities I think I’ve ever been to in my life. Seriously, what’s going on? I can only think that either there really are no female geeks in Manchester, or there are – in which case they’re either oblivious to geekup or they’re avoiding it.
So, for what its worth I had a perfectly nice time and chatted to some interesting people (thanks guys!) but I would love to know which scenario above is actually the real explanation. If you have a theory then please post a comment!
We got back, walked up to the front door and I decided I needed to water my plants as they were looking at bit sad. So I went up the side of the house to the back to get the watering can while Kevin went in the front door. The back of our house is pitch black at night but I know it well so I just wandered round, right along the back of the house and grabbed the watering can. I then looked around and realised there was something moving in the dark … something very big. Eventually this heaving shape resolved itself into a man climbing out of my kitchen window at which point I started SCREAMING. Forget panic alarms, I was easily louder than any of those, the whole street must have heard me.
As I was only about 4 feet from the man in question, he must have got a fair fright as well (who wanders around back gardens in the pitch black at midnight after all??). Seems like he heard Kevin going in the front and scarpered back out the way he came in. Of course Kevin, in the house, has no idea what is happening other than there is screaming outside the house … I can’t imagine what was going through his mind when he realised it was me screaming. Anyway I ran back to the front, went in the house and after some total incoherence explained to Kevin what I’d seen. At which point we had no idea if there was still anyone in the house or anything.
I rang the police and our neighbours were also out asking if we were OK, they very kindly helped Kevin check if there was anyone else in the house. The police responded quickly and were very good, which is great. I’m sure they had enough going on on a Saturday night! Anyway the fingerprint people came this morning and got a good footprint from the kitchen counter, which was very interesting as I’ve never seen them do that before.
To cut a long story short, we are fine, nobody was hurt (although we both got almighty frights), and nothing was taken. The window is boarded up now and we will get it replaced as quickly as we can. It seems like the intruder thought we were upstairs asleep (car on the drive, no lights on, midnight), and it was just very lucky that we got back when we did, there was no sign that he had been anywhere other than the kitchen.
Overall I think the event was well-organised, there were certainly plenty of people there and we had a projector, speakers and a room so it pretty much ticked all the boxes. The Fat Cat is a nice pub, with good beer, but for those of us coming from further afield it was a bit tricky to get to as its not exactly handy for the station. The evening was good however I felt that the timings slipped badly – I was the first speaker and although there was somthing else happening earlier on, the talks aimed for 7:30 were actually nearer 9pm … so a couple of pints later than I was expecting my audience to be and I think my talk came across as rather dry as a result! Also since one of the speakers ran over his time completely (now I understand why other geekups sit with a stopwatch and click the slides through for you!), I had about ten minutes after the talks to hand out a couple of business cards and answer a few quick questions before I had to dash off for my train. All of these though are only teething problems and I think everyone had a pretty good time, so well done to Jag for getting it off the ground … here’s to next month!
To turn these off go to:
Tools > Autocorrect > Custom Quotes tab
And until the “Replace” boxes.
Hope this saves someone else the annoyances I had.
They’re pretty though :)
