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Thursday, 27 June 2002 |
The guy at the AppleCentre was absolutely convinced that ergonomic split keyboards no longer exist. Apparently various companies made them years ago, but because nobody needed them or bought them, they vanished from the face of the Earth, he kindly explained to me.
I guess that means this Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro that I am typing this text with is a figment of my imagination. It’s not a terrible keyboard, just a disappointing one. The split keyboard is OK, but the keys themselves feel rubbery and sloppy, and I know I am not typing as fast as I should be on it. I pound the keys to vainly compensate for their sponginess.
Another ergonomic keyboard, that obviously also does not exist, is the SmartBoard made by an American firm named Datadesk.
A Melbourne firm called Divisible By Zero is the Australian distributor. I want one. It has microswitches instead of rubber pads under the keys. The world’s fastest typist endorses them. I want to be the world’s fastest weblog writer.
Why do Australian, and especially Western Australian, retailers so love to deny that specific objects exist in the world? They’ll often tell you long, involved stories that are nothing but sheer fantasy. I had one of those this morning. Bullshitting with a straight face is a national pasttime.
11:24:41 PM 
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One solution to RSI is to buy yourself a decent multi-button trackball, or a Wacom art tablet with pen, or both as I have.
I have been dropping in to various computer suppliers in my quest for a source of trackballs and tablets, so I can recommend them to these people. Needless to say I have not come across one yet. You can find a couple of trackball models by Microsoft in a couple of stores, but having tried them I wouldn’t recommend them. Microsoft skimps on quality when it comes to their own brand hardware. Hell, they skimp on quality when it comes to software, too.
When I stopped by an AppleCentre I asked the guy about Wacoms and the best brands of trackballs. They do not stock them, but were glad to show me the manufacturers’ websites.
Whoopee. That’ll really convince me to buy something without seeing it or without trying it out first. And my colleagues will be really pleased to go along there and have the same experience. NOT!!!
10:52:42 PM
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I have come to the conclusion that RSI, also known as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, is the new membership badge of the macho man cult.
I first encountered one of these heroes of the western world in London, a computer guy who was proud to display his bent and twisted right hand and explain in detail how much pain he was in.
Subsequently I have come across many such people, including one who gladly bared his right arm to show me a scar the whole length of it, that he got from an operation for RSI. He was still in pain, and the procedure was only partially successful.
I was discussing this issue of RSI with some colleagues earlier this week, and there was a few with the disease in its early stages. None of them were aware there are alternatives to the bog standard el cheapo mouse that comes with all Windows computers.
Yes, these guys are all Windows victims, although I do believe I have persuaded them to buy Macs next time their Windows boxes drive them insane. That should not take long!
10:34:20 PM
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I spent a few hours at the end of the day today—late night shopping day in the suburbs even if it isn’t that in the city, which has it instead on Fridays—and one of my jobs was to find Edison screw daylight-balanced light globes for the Italian worklight on my computer workstation.
A lighting store in Stirling Highway, Claremont, had 2 Hungarian-made English General Electric 60 watt clear glass envelope Edison screws daylight-coloured. They told me they can only get daylight lamps in packs of six, one pack at a time, and have to constantly reorder that six-pack as their supplier will not give them more than that at any one time. Dead stoopid but hardly surprising.
I related some of the tales of my quest for these lamps, and a few of the other things you can buy quite easily in the civilised world, to the shop assistant. She is from Sydney, and knew exactly what I was talking about.
She told me that the store does a roaring trade in all sorts of Edison screw light globes for European and American light fittings, and that trade has increased radically since the Ikea store in Osborne Park ceased stocking replacement lamps for the light fittings they sell. Duh, Ikea.
For anyone who doesn’t know, when the rest of the world standardised on Edison screw incandescent lamps, Australia came up with the bayonet cap and it is the only kind you can get in most stores, despite the fact that a large number of Edison screw light fittings are imported and sold here in place of local product.
If you want well-made and well-designed light fittings, then you generally end up with an import. If a bare bulb in the middle of the ceiling is just fine for you, then you get a bayonet cap fitting and shove a bayonet cap light globe up it. Preferably one without the benefit of frosting. It’s a terrific way of ruining your vision before you’re 40, and surprisingly popular.
I have to go back to the store next week, to pick up their next pack of 6, and some smaller Edison screw lamps for a few other lights I have here.
10:08:10 PM
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Thursdays have become the shittiest days for television viewing in Perth now, after Stargate SG-1 is over at 8:30PM. You may as well just turn the goddamned thing off and play some records or listen to the radio.
9:38:50 PM
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I dropped by a few department stores and mainstream computer stores, and found they only sell one particular brand of computer case that is a dead giveaway as a computer case.
In other words, your average snatch-and-grab thief takes one look at someone carrying one of those, knows damn well it contains a notebook computer, and seizes the day. Besides which, they were all briefcase-style cases, not backpacks. Arm-stretchers. Backache makers. Both my brothers have bent spines from years of carrying these kinds of things.
Finally I located one store in Perth selling STM (Standard Technical Merchandise) backpacks. Went straight there, handed over the cash; now I’m happy.
These are damned good bags. Mine is the Sports model, and these guys at STM have really thought this thing out, which is rare. Pocket for my mobile, pocket for my tickets, plenty of space for essentials like calculator and fountain pens, another pocket just for portable music player and headphones, pass-through for the headphones’ cable so you can listen with your device concealed and secure—there’s plenty more.
I am so impressed with this backpack that I have loaded everything from my Arc’teryx backpack into my new STM Sports and will carry it every day now.
9:28:38 PM
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© Copyright 2002 Karl-Peter Gottschalk.
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