Staticfree Blog

As any computer geek knows, having a good keyboard is very important. Understandably, as most tend to have their hands poking away at it for at least a few hours a day - I can't think of many other things where you can say the same. Now, as I've been using my laptop as my main computer, I've been poking away at a reduced-size keyboard for a while. This is well and good, but my hands are not as content with it as I. So I've been hunting for the Perfect™ keyboard, and I think I may have found it.

The IBM USB Trackpoint Keyboard seems to have all the features I want in a keyboard (except perhaps a numpad). The most important ones being:

Full-sized

I have big hands, so I like having a keyboard that actually fits them. I'm always surprised that I can deal with my laptop's keyboard, as it's reduced in size.

TrackPoint (nipple)

I hate mice. They're very bad for ergonomics: in normal use, one is constantly moving their hand away from the keyboard to the mouse and back again. Well, that's not entirely true: I just hate mice for every-day tasks like clicking a link on a web page and such; they're great for doing 3D modeling, graphics work, other things where you have one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard. Trackpoints on the other hand, are great as their small size and easy access makes switching between them and keyboard negligible. Just don't try and do oekaki with one.

Feel

I've grown to like the feel on my big, black IBM TrackPoint II keyboard. It's got a key feel that lets you know you're pressing a key. "*press* CLICK *release*" This is due to the buckling spring mechanism in each key (sorry for all the Japanese sites. I can't seem to find any equivalents in English). Unfortunately, it looks like the USB one I'm looking at doesn't have that same mechanical feel. There's nothing quite like a keyboard that weighs so much it could be easily used as a bludgeon, and is so well-constructed it would also withstand being used suchly.

Color

Black is just cool. Other colors are good as well, just so long as it's not beige. Who decided generic stuff had to be beige anyhow?

So, ultimately this is the perfect keyboard except for the key mechanism. The IBM Trackpoint II would be excellent, but they're hard to find (I believe they're discontinued) as well as slightly large for the laptop world and most importantly, PS/2 not USB.