For anyone curious about what’s so special about my dream keyboard that I mentioned last December:
- Buckling-spring construction. It’s equivalent to an old IBM Model-M keyboard. Unlike the flimsy, cheap membrane keyboards most people use, buckling-spring keyboards are solid, are built like tanks, and last forever. True, they are much noisier, but my typing already sounds like a jackhammer, so it shouldn’t be much worse.
- Integrated TrackPoint. Some people hate these things, arguing that a normal mouse is better. While I won’t argue with that, a TrackPoint and a mouse aren’t mutually exclusive. Modern operating systems support multiple pointing devices; why not use both? If you need to do a lot of mousing and only a bit of keyboarding, use the mouse. If you need to do a lot of keyboarding but only a bit of mousing, you can use the TrackPoint without taking your hands off of the keyboard. It’s the best of both worlds. It rocks for coding, and I think all keyboards should have this.
- Windows keys. Some people hate these things too, arguing that they’re nearly useless. If they bother you that much, there are versions without them. Me, I think they’re useful. Use an application such as WinKey to assign keyboard shortcuts to Windows-key combinations. For example, I set Win+p to open the command prompt, Win+i set to start my web browser, and Win+v to open my volume controls.