I’ve been slowly refining my home system, having purchased a whole bunch of computer crap yesterday, including a super cute little USB hub¹, which to my delight actually manages to run four devices (including my recharging iPod) without additional power!
I also bought my third external keyboard (after being unhappy with previous cheap & clacky keyboards), this time an Apple. I’d probably be recommending it right now if it weren’t for:
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The irritation that the Apple keys are in different positions from the Windows keys on PC keyboards. In fairness this is probably Microsoft’s fault (the windows key came much later than the apple key). Also the Scroll-Lock/Print-Screen/Pause-Break keys are replaced by F14/F15/F16. It is of course possible to remap keys, so it’s not that big a deal.
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The fact that the left control key occupies the lower left extremity on the keyboard means that it’s very easy to accidentally press it with my palm.
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The fact that my spacebar is broken! It’s actually listing to the right and only responds to presses on the leftmost two-thirds. I’ll be exchanging it tomorrow. So much for the theory that I was paying extra for quality ;)
And finally, I got myself a new graphics tablet (Genius 5×4″ MousePen) which so far appears more accurate and responsive than my 6×8″ Wacom, which is very touchy about power supply etc (I suspect this is related to their battery-less pen). The Genius comes with AAA battery for its pen, which I’m guessing will last quite a long time since these pens don’t require very much power.
I would have also purchased one of those tilted laptop stands (to replace the phone book) but unfortunately that would block access to the audio ports on the front of the computer (not a good location for ports). I’d really like it if that USB hub also had mic and headphone jacks– that would be sweet.
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1. Targus USB 2.0 Micro Travel Hub (ACH63US)