James's Weblog

I recently bought an IOGear GKM571R mini keyboard. Copied and pasted from my Amazon review:

I really like this keyboard for HTPC use. I also have the Lenovo N5901 multimedia remote/keyboard, and while the IOGear GKM571 is quite a bit more expensive, it’s also much better.

Things that I like:

• It’s backlit. This is the single biggest flaw in the Lenovo N5901.
• It has a scroll wheel. Scrolling without one is a chore because it’s not easy to accurately grab and move a scrollbar thumb with a mini-trackball, and it’s not easy to press arrow keys on a small keyboard by touch alone.
• It uses standard batteries. Li-ion batteries have a higher charge density, but like all batteries, they eventually wear out, and replacing them is usually a pain. I much prefer replaceable, standard batteries (especially low-self-discharge NiMH ones).
• It’s the right size. It’s larger than the Lenovo N5901, but it’s still compact. The larger size allows it to have more spacing between the keys, so it’s easier to type without accidentally pressing adjacent keys.
• It has a full set of keys, including F1-F12.
• Its power switch is intuitive. It turns on when you open the lid and off when you close it.
• It’s easy to set up (at least on Windows). It was instantly recognized when I plugged it in, and no configuration was necessary.

Things that I don’t like:

• It occasionally drops out. This might be because I plugged the RF dongle into a rear USB port, but I didn’t encounter any such issues with the Lenovo one.
• The keys are mushy. Unlike with the Lenovo one, there is no distinctive click when the key registers.
• There are no dedicated arrow keys or escape key. They require using the Fn modifier key.
• I’m not sure how I’ll clean the trackball if it gets gummed up.
• The scroll wheel can’t be pressed, so there’s no native middle-click.
• I wish it used Bluetooth instead of requiring its own RF dongle. Oh well. The RF dongle is unobtrusive, at least, and RF contributes to the ease of setup.
• I’ve occasionally had a little bit of trouble reading some of the keys when lit. Maybe it’d be better if IOGear used a green or red backlight instead of blue; humans have poor visual acuity for blue.

Things that I’m (mostly) neutral about:

• The Lenovo N5901 trackball can be used with one hand (although dragging requires two hands and then becomes awkward) whereas the IOGear one is designed for two-handed use. I prefer the two-handed design though; if I’m going to type anything, I need two hands anyway.

I have four physical computers at work sharing two monitors, two keyboards, and three mice in various configurations. To make it slightly less complicated and to continue my obsession with Trackpoint keyboards, I bought a French-Canadian SpaceSaver keyboard from eBay. It’s completely unused, and it’s one-third the price of the equivalent US English keyboard (which currently isn’t available on eBay anyway). I don’t plan to use it that much, so the slightly unusual key configuration didn’t seem like a big deal, and I wanted something fairly compact to keep out of the way.

That said, I imagine that French-Canadians must be mutants. Whereas typical U.S. English keyboards have Enter keys that are about double the width of normal keys, the Enter key on this French-Canadian keyboard is tall instead of wide. Consequently, there’s an extra key between ' (apostrophe) and Enter, and my pinky finger can’t reach the Enter key without moving my hand off of the home row. Argh.

Well, I received the Endurapro 104 dream keyboard that I bought on auction.

Surprisingly, although the keyboard was said to be used, it appears to be very clean. It looks quite pristine. The keys feel really nice, and although they are indeed louder than the keys from modern membrane-based keyboards, they’re not as loud as I had expected them to be.

Unfortunately, the TrackPoint is a disappointment. Because the keys are physically taller on buckling-spring keyboards than on membrane-based keyboards, the TrackPoint stick must be significantly longer too. Increasing the stick length increases the lateral distance that the head needs to move. Overall, it takes much more effort to use the TrackPoint on the Endurapro 104 than it is on my IBM TrackPoint IV keyboard, which is a shame.

Well, I found and bought a used one on auction. I know I previously swore that I never again would buy a used keyboard, but $30 for the keyboard of my dreams seemed too good to pass up.

I’ll see how filthy and disgusting it is when it arrives.

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.

Is it wrong for me to lust after this keyboard?

I am such a geek.