Sunday, 8 June 2008
12:58 PM
A couple of months back, when I got my new computer, I was obliged to get a new keyboard. I just ran out and got a USB keyboard that was, um, not expensive. As it happens, I ended up with a Logitech keyboard.
I noticed even at the time that the new keyboard had keys in slightly different places, and I assumed that this would take some adjustment. A couple of weeks ago, however, I realized that this adjustment was not happening. I was constantly hitting the wrong key. For example, I'd try to go to the end of the line and end up on the next page or something.
I was surprised by how much this affected my productivity. I'd be editing, for example, completely focused on what I was typing, and then oops! WTF? Where am I? And I'd have to scroll around in the document, find where I was, and then pick up where I was. Which frequently resulted in oops! WTF? Where am I now? Or I'd be typing and realize that I was overwriting existing text all of a sudden.
I've had a laptop for a long time, and I had long since resigned myself to the unfortunate fact that I am way less productive on that machine. I just cannot type as efficiently on that keyboard, and I spend an amazing amount of time backtracking and retyping and such. But it's a tradeoff; being able to work on the bus, albeit at lowered productivity, is better than not being able to do anything.
But to lose this productivity at the desktop was not acceptable. When I finally realized that I was not adjusting to the new keyboard, then -- and only then -- did I have a close look. Oho. This is the relevant part of my work keyboard, which is identical to my old, pre-new-computer keyboard:
This is the layout of the new Logitech keyboard:
The difference is small, but it's there. Look at the positions of the Home and End and Insert keys.
And for comparison, this is the layout of my laptop:
Switching between these three layouts was apparently too much for my aging brain. The net result was not only that I did not adjust to the Logitech layout on my home keyboard, it screwed up my typing on the work machine. This had not happened before, I think, because I don't spend so much time on the laptop that it retrains my brain enough to mess up my work typing. But the comparatively small difference between the two desktops did the trick.
The only solution, of course, was to get a new keyboard for home. I went a-looking, and this time rather than just picking up the cheapest keyboard, I spent a long time looking at layouts and pretending to type. I could reject out of hand all sorts of keyboards that had what I knew was the wrong (well, "wrong") arrangements of keys. It was kind of a frustrating experience, because there are actually not as many keyboards as you'd think that a) have the right layout, b) are wired (wireless is clearly a big item), and c) didn't have sucky keys. I eventually found one, tho, a Saitek that has the right layout, almost the right feel :-) and as a bonus, is backlit.
I have nothing against the Logitech folks, but I now know that I cannot ever buy their keyboards. Either that, or I have to go out and buy enough for all the computers I work with.
A valuable lesson, and fortunately, one that wasn't too expensive. I might be too old to learn a new keyboard layout, but at least I'm not too old to (eventually) learn that I in fact need a particular layout.
[categories]
technology, personal
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