Friday, July 10, 2009

Finally, A Microsoft Product That Doesn't Crash (yet)

Lately, my wrists have started to bother me a bit, and I decided to blame my laptop's keyboard for this. I figured I would experiment with an external keyboard and see if that helped. I ended up spending a bit more than I wanted to, and went with the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard. I'm glad I did.

So far, I'm impressed. The shape does seem comfortable than a typical keyboard, and the elevated positioning of the front of the keyboard is more natural than it looked in the store. Even the wrist wrest is comfortable.

The inner geek in me is pleased too. There are plenty of buttons that I can map to applications and such, along with a rocker to simulate a mouse wheel and easily accessible forward and back buttons. Of course, the customizable keys aren't within home row striking distance, so I'll probably never use them. But, it's good to have them there should I ever need them.

I have to save, of all the Microsoft products I use throughout the day, I'm thinking this may be my new favorite.

One of these days, I'm going to setup the ultimate in ergonomic and comfortable work spaces. Any suggestions on getting there?

2 comments:

  1. Xerxes11:48 AM

    This is the best piece of hardware I've ever bought. Since I got it 5 months ago I don't want to type on any other keyboard. I wonder if by mouse wheel you mean appying this change to the configuration file: http://paininthetech.com/2006/04/29/hack-the-microsoft-natural-4000-keyboard

    I'm looking for comfort, but on a rather as-it-happens basis. Apart from the keyboard, I wanted to reduce finger travel distance so I opted for the Colemak keyboard layout, which took me about three months to get used to. I still type a bit below 80 wpm, but a slower speed is fine with me and my wrists. I also take 1 minute breaks every 40 minutes. So far so good.

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  2. Of course, you'd thought of the obvious and obtained a split-keyboard long before I commented and suggested it. I hope it's working well for you. :)

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