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I use one of these Kinesis keyboards, have done for over 10 years as I got carpal tunnel or some similar typing related injury. Doctors over here never took it seriously back in the 90s so I just bought it myself, went from being able to only type for 15-30 minutes without pain to being able to type normally. In addition to that it doubles up as a really nice gaming keyboard because the keys are arranged in a grid. Ok so you have to used ESDF rather than WSAD but that's fine as all but the shittiest of games let you remap them. The really good thing about it is the thumb pad which contains Ctrl+Alt+BkSpc+Del+Home+End. That's a lot of keys that can be reached with just the thumb, and the thumb is the strongest "finger" on your hand, again for gaming this can provide, use, open, reload, crouch etc. etc. In addition to that, I have their "Savant Elite" USB footpad mappet to right shift right ctrl and right alt so that rather than using my little finger for shift I can use my foot which isn't going to wear out. It also means I can map them up to things like crouch in gaming (insert Time Crysis pun here) It's actually my second one of these keyboards. I bought the first as an AT model in 1997, for 5 years it went on the train to work with me every weekday where it was battered around by the kind of inconsiderate arseholes you meet on the train. It picked up a few chips off the plastic on the corners but never actually stopped working. When one of the keys eventually failed in about 2006 or so, way out of warranty, the manufacturer sent me bag of keyswitches for just the price of P&P so that I could solder them back on. I could've carried on repairing it but in the end just decided to get another one, this time in black and with a USB interface since by now it was running off an AT->PS2 adaptor and in a few years time I'm was probably going to have to hang that off a PS2->USB adaptor too.
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Aug 31, 2009 14:07
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Jiblet posted:I don't suppose it's quiet is it? It's fairly quiet, but given that my GF uses a Model M, it's not really a good comparison coming from me. If you happen to be in the South Wales valleys, you could try mine, but to be honest it takes at least a week (and a bit of perserverence) to get used to one of these, it's not something you can decide upon in 5 minutes. However the official UK seller of these keyboards, ergonomics.co.uk state the following in their FAQ: quote:Can I get goods on trial? While I'm on the topic of the Kinesis kit. I do have a complaint about the "Savant Elite" footpedal, there are certain keys, such as Right Alt and Right Shift that when mapped to the footpedal do not work in games and Kinesis support were unable to offer any helpful suggestions. I eventually discovered that this footpedal was actually based on a PI Engineering X-Keys device and emailled their support, claiming to have the model that the Savant Elite is based on. They sent back these instructions that worked with only one modification quote:Currently this is a bug in MacroWorks II however if you have access to a Windows XP machine lets try the following and see if this will fix what the X-key is sending: The only issue I had was in the macro recorder software, if you follow those instructions, you end up configuring it so that for a pedal-down event it sends a key-down event immediately followed by a key-up event. What I did was deleted the key-up event, clicked the radio button labelled "release" then recorded the macro again, only this time I deleted the key-down event. This results in a key-down when you press the pedal and a key-up when you release it, meaning that the pedal now works just like a normal key. I can use it as a shift key for typing, and I can use it in my games. (Mapping the pedal to the kick button in NecroVision is quite fun)
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Sep 3, 2009 15:02
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IOwnCalculus posted:Funny thing is, I didn't even realize until just the other day that I actually have two slightly different versions of the same keyboard. The one I have at work has standard flat Windows keys, while the one at home has Logitech's newer style of Windows key with the dome in the face. So you have an older model with an XP logo and a newer model with the Vista logo. Microsoft actually have quite strict licensing terms for the use of that key, and when Vista came out they required keyboard manufacturers to start including the new logo and the moulded dome.
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Sep 3, 2009 16:56
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modeski posted:After a bit more reading I think I'm going to go with the Logitech Illuminated Keyboard. Has anyone here got this and have anything good/bad to say about it? Call me cautious, but the keyboard is something we all use every day so I want to me totally sure before I get the credit card out. Non-standard keyboard layout, it has a massive Delete key which means that another key (most likely Insert) has been either removed or moved to a retarded place.
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Sep 17, 2009 00:15
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modeski posted:Is that the only thing different? I'm currently using another Logitech Keyboard with a massive delete key, and it hasn't been a problem for me so far, so I can't imagine it being an issue in the future. I guess I don't use Insert too much! It bothers many people, and is the first thing that caught my attention. I can deal with completely non-standard keyboards like the Kinesis or laptops but a slight change like that on an otherwise standard feeling keyboard annoys the crap out of me when the key is not there. Same with those bloody keyboards that rotate that row of 6 keys so that they can save a few pennies by making the keyboard half an inch narrower.
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Sep 17, 2009 00:26
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