Having given up smoking for several years, I no longer melt keys with hot pipe ash. It now therefore, proves worthwhile to spend more than a Fiver on a keyboard.
Has anyone had any experience with either of the following; the "Linux" Keyboard: http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/cymotion-line/cymotion-line_master_linux.h... or more practically a washable one as shown on the Gadget show the other week: http://www.hela.co.uk/helashop/customer/product.php?productid=14
My only problem is that I learned to type 40 years ago on a Monotype keyboard, from the days when printing was still done with hot metal type, where the keys were balanced against compressed air, and a very light touch was needed not to get repeated letters. Every so often I have trouble logging in as my touch is too light for the keyboard I have.
A further point, how does one set up an 88 key keyboard? I can't see one in xorgconfig
Any comments would be appreciated.
On Tue, May 02, 2006 at 12:39:06PM +0100, John Seago wrote:
Has anyone had any experience with either of the following; the "Linux" Keyboard: http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/cymotion-line/cymotion-line_master_linux.h... or more practically a washable one as shown on the Gadget show the other week: http://www.hela.co.uk/helashop/customer/product.php?productid=14
Unfortunately not, I'm looking at getting a new keyboard without a number pad as i want to regain a bit more deskspace and knowing what to buy without trying it is a bit tricky as there aren't many shops that allow you to try *every* possible keyboard. In the range i've looked at there is options starting at about 5 quid going all the way up to 150 quid!
My only problem is that I learned to type 40 years ago on a Monotype keyboard, from the days when printing was still done with hot metal type, where the keys were balanced against compressed air, and a very light touch was needed not to get repeated letters. Every so often I have trouble logging in as my touch is too light for the keyboard I have.
You could try and find some keyboard that is described as "laptop style" as they usually have lighter keys which may help.
A further point, how does one set up an 88 key keyboard? I can't see one in xorgconfig
You set it up as a 105 key keyboard and just ignore the bit that you don't have a number pad as far as i know.
Thanks Adam
On Tue, 2006-05-02 at 13:31 +0100, Adam Bower wrote:
Unfortunately not, I'm looking at getting a new keyboard without a number pad as i want to regain a bit more deskspace and knowing what to buy without trying it is a bit tricky as there aren't many shops that allow you to try *every* possible keyboard. In the range i've looked at there is options starting at about 5 quid going all the way up to 150 quid!
Forgot to mention that Cherry do a nice happy Hacker size keyboard intended for Epos applications, Paul had one on his Embedded demo system he brought to the kit meet. Has a nice key action (it's not a membrane keyboard but has proper individual key switches like the old IBM buckling Spring jobbies)
On Tue, 2006-05-02 at 12:39 +0100, John Seago wrote:
My only problem is that I learned to type 40 years ago on a Monotype keyboard, from the days when printing was still done with hot metal type, where the keys were balanced against compressed air, and a very light touch was needed not to get repeated letters. Every so often I have trouble logging in as my touch is too light for the keyboard I have.
I have a similar problem in that most of the time I work with Laptops. I find the extended key travel of "desktop" keyboards annoying now.
In the end I settled on a CoolerMaster keyboard, model number EAK-US1 which is a rather pretty Aluminium thing with laptop style keys, Can't remember where I got it from but it was circa £20-25 and has blue status LEDs "so it must be good". The only vaguely annoying thing that took a little bit of adjustment is that it has the smaller "single row" style Return key
This is slightly "softer" than most keyboards, but I think the reduced keytravel alone will probably help you.
Sorry Adam, it still has the numeric keypad although it is a little smaller than a standard keyboard not being a full 105 key layout..I suggest you look at the Happy Hacker keyboards which are excellent although I don't know if they do a UK keymap version.
On 2 May 2006, at 2:12 pm, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On Tue, 2006-05-02 at 12:39 +0100, John Seago wrote:
My only problem is that I learned to type 40 years ago on a Monotype keyboard, from the days when printing was still done with hot metal type, where the keys were balanced against compressed air, and a very light touch was needed not to get repeated letters. Every so often I have trouble logging in as my touch is too light for the keyboard I have.
I have a similar problem in that most of the time I work with Laptops. I find the extended key travel of "desktop" keyboards annoying now.
In the end I settled on a CoolerMaster keyboard, model number EAK-US1 which is a rather pretty Aluminium thing with laptop style keys, Can't remember where I got it from but it was circa £20-25 and has blue status LEDs "so it must be good".
Is that by any chance the keyboard you had with you on Sunday?
Cheers,
Dave
On Tue, 2006-05-02 at 14:25 +0100, David Reynolds wrote:
Is that by any chance the keyboard you had with you on Sunday?
Yes. I have found it on sale in the UK here
http://www.overclock.co.uk/product.php?productid=18289
Regards Wayne
John Seago wrote:
Has anyone had any experience with either of the following; the "Linux" Keyboard: http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/cymotion-line/cymotion-line_master_linux.h...
I have this keyboard, I bought it at the beginning of last year. I had to dig to find a UK supplier that stocked it and even then the box was all bashed up.
The keyboard is quite nice, with big square flat keys and comes comnplete with a wrist rest, PS2 dongle and a nice TUX logo.
The only downside is that I could not get the software to work well with FC3 or FC4. If you use the supplied SUSE distro or another stable distro then you will probably be OK. I was going to try to hack some fixes as you get the source code with the keyboard software, but I am only intermediate C/C++ and the source files contained over 10,000 lines of C++ code!. I decided that I was not going to spend a month getting the software working with FC4!
Happy keyboard hunting.
John Seago wrote:
Having given up smoking for several years, I no longer melt keys with hot pipe ash. It now therefore, proves worthwhile to spend more than a Fiver on a keyboard.
Has anyone had any experience with either of the following; the "Linux" Keyboard: http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/cymotion-line/cymotion-line_master_linux.h...
I've recently gotten one of these free with a year subscription to Linux Format in the UK (where i learned of this LUG and have just joined - this is my first post) the offer is still on if you fancy getting one, you might as well go for the subscription and get one free! Works out not too much more than the keyboard on it's own. I haven't recieved the keyboard yet but i'll make sure to drop a quick reply back with a review once I do get it.
or more practically a washable one as shown on the Gadget show the other week: http://www.hela.co.uk/helashop/customer/product.php?productid=14
My only problem is that I learned to type 40 years ago on a Monotype keyboard, from the days when printing was still done with hot metal type, where the keys were balanced against compressed air, and a very light touch was needed not to get repeated letters. Every so often I have trouble logging in as my touch is too light for the keyboard I have.
A further point, how does one set up an 88 key keyboard? I can't see one in xorgconfig
Any comments would be appreciated.
On 2 May 2006, at 6:01 pm, Sam Bartle wrote:
I've recently gotten one of these free with a year subscription to Linux Format in the UK (where i learned of this LUG and have just joined - this is my first post)
Notifying about free stuff? Good first post ;)
Welcome to the list.
Cheers,
Dave
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Adam Bower -
David Reynolds -
David Simon Cooper -
John Seago -
Sam Bartle -
Wayne Stallwood