Category Archives: About Me - Page 32

Triple Gunnars

Posted by on August 23, 2013 No comments

Ok, so now I have three pairs of Gunnar glasses.  I figure I have enough experience with them now to make a compare and contrast review if you are considering any of these models.

My first pair was the Groove model.  When I got it, I was somewhat disappointed by the rubber arms  – I was thinking they were metal from what I saw in the pictures.  The Groove has good-sized lenses and a decent wraparound design.  However, the Groove’s nosepads are not articulating.  If they don’t fit right, you need to bend them into a comfortable position.  I actually gave up on the Groove for an extended period because I could not get the nosepads to stop digging into my nose.  That is what led me to my second purchase.  But while waiting for shipment of my second pair, I was able to find a position that fit and felt excellent, and they became my standard work glasses.

The next set I purchased were the E11vens.  My primary reason for buying them was the hard plastic, fixed bridge.  I figured that would be better than the nosepads that were burrowing into my skin on the Groove.  When I got the E11vens, I was disappointed by the cheap black plastic.  Plastic doesn’t have to be cheap-sounding, but this is.  Very tinny and light sounding.  However, despite that,  the E11vens are lighter than the Groove and the bridge is comfortable.   Also, this model excels in an area that the others don’t.  It’s wraparound design is totally up on your face, like goggles.  Because of this, if you get dry eyes, these will keep the moisture in your eyes and you will praise them at the end of the day.  The other positive about the E11vens is they have the largest lenses of the models I own.  This means you can look all around without needing to move your head as much.  While I was using the Grooves at work and the E11vens at home, Woot had yet another Gunnar sale.  This time, they had a model I’d been watching and hoping for.

I purchased the Emissary model last week and just got them today.  The full name is Attache Emissary, to give you an idea of the image they are trying to convey.  And when I opened the box and pulled the glasses out, I was stunned.  They were beautiful.  Where I was disappointed with the materials used in the other two, I was highly impressed with the sturdy feel of the metal frames and their hinged arms.  The glasses felt feather-light, but they probably weigh about as much as the E11vens.  It’s probably just a perceptual trick because the Emissary frames are so thin and the E11vens are so bulky.   The lenses were tiny, unlike the other two.  The Emissary looked very similar to the Ray Ban prescription glasses I wear.  So from a stylistic perspective, there is no comparison.  If you want style, this is the one to have.  But that style comes at a price.  The lenses are very small, so you need to move your head more to keep the your vision through them.  Because they are small, they don’t have any of the wrap-around benefits like the E11vens, so your eyes may dry out quicker.

Looking at the Gunnar online store, The Groove isn’t available anymore, nor is the E11ven, and the color of Emissary I bought isn’t available.  That’s all fine.  Woot is a clearinghouse for older and discontinued stuff, and the glasses work just as well as the new models.  The model I have my eye on now is the Epoch, which is similar to the Emissary, but with thicker frame lines.  Go for four?  Why not?  I used to have a massive collection of sunglasses in my younger days.  I guess this is the adult computer geek version of that hobby.

Garbage Backup

Posted by on July 4, 2013 No comments

As I get older and my data grows along with me, I am slowly getting better at managing it all.  I’ve blogged before about losing data and it’s never pleasant when that happens.  But, I’m doing pretty good now, and I have one more step to go.  Right now I have weekly backups to an external drive.  The next step is to have a monthly backup stored offsite in a safety deposit box.  But anyway, that’s not the point of this post.

I have a 1TB external drive for my backups, which occur weekly.  They are differential backups, only backing up the changes.  That should allow me to get a lot more use out of the drive instead of doing full or incremental backups, and it also gives me change history.  But I want to get even more out of that drive.  Right now I’m down to about 30GB free.

One thing that Windows backup does is backup your user profile folder.  This includes your temp folders, yes, and your temporary internet files folder.  You probably see where I’m going already, so I’ll just explain what I ‘m doing to trim down the amount of useless data I’m backing up.

Windows has a Disk Cleanup utility and that utility has the capability to be automated, which is what I’m doing.  I run the utility just before the backup so that my hard drives are as clean as possible.  You can do this in a couple steps.

First, open a command prompt and enter cleanmgr.exe /sageset 1

This will open the disk cleanup utility and will prompt for what types of files you want to clean.  For me, I just chose everything, but you may want to be more selective.  Temp files and Temporary Internet Files are options.

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When you click ok, the options are saved as profile #1 (that’s what the 1 is for; you can choose another number if you want different profiles).

When you want to run this cleanup profile, just open a command prompt and run cleanmgr.exe /sagerun 1

You can also put that in a shortcut or put it in the Task Scheduler.

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Enjoy your smaller backups and your extra drive space!

Let Me Tell You About This Meal I Had…

Posted by on June 14, 2013 No comments

It’s never good if I have a story to tell after a meal.  This is one of those meals.  This is one of those long-ass stories, too.  Tonight, I was deep in my usual gyrations over what the hell I was going to eat.  Running through the mental list of eating places wasn’t triggering anything.  I went on UrbanSpoon and listed everything in my area.  Nothing did it.  I started to get a bit sentimental over places in PA that I used to love eating at and couldn’t get to anymore.  I remembered some of the non-chain restaurants that I enjoyed and wished I had something like that here that I could rely on.  Unfortunately, despite searching, I have yet to find a good mom-and-pop.

But, a light came on.  There was one place I could try.  It was an Italian restaurant that had replaced a sports bar I used to go to.  I’d been there once before and was sorely disappointed.  At the time, they had just opened up.  I think I went within the few couple weeks of their opening.  My impression of the staff was that they were clueless.  The waitress acted like she didn’t know what a waitress was supposed to do, like checking on tables.  The kitchen was backed up beyond comprehension.  I think I heard “an hour” mentioned.  At least one table walked out during the time I was there.  I was on the verge of leaving, myself.

But I got my drink order in (I’m stuck now!) and then after a while, my waitress was ready and able to take my order: spaghetti with meat sauce – nothing amazing.  Yet another extended while after that, the waitress comes back and says they don’t have any meat sauce, would I like marinara?  No, I wouldn’t.  This is an Italian restaurant.  How do you not have meat sauce?  I ended up getting my drink and salad for free, and I left a $5 tip on the table and walked out.

Why would I want to go back to that?  Well, it’s been at least two years since that first experience and the place is still around, so surely they’ve got it figured out, right?  So I revisited the restaurant with elevated hopes.  And I don’t have any desire to go back again.

I show up in the front of the shop and walk up to the counter.  I say I’m dining in and I don’t know whether to order here, be seated, or seat myself.  Right off the bat, this is something that shouldn’t happen.  The waitress says, “You’re dining in?  You can go to the back room.  It’s much nicer back there.”  So, now your employees are saying that the restaurant has a nice section and a shitty section.  They’re still freaking clueless.

I seat myself and place my (same) order.  I’m kind of excited because their house dressing is a homemade creamy Italian – that’s hard to find.  But when the salad arrives, it seems weird.  Lettuce, onion, carrots, and… a hot pepper and chickpeas?  Odd, but no hassle.  I eat the lettuce and the carrots, but the house dressing is not to my liking.  Flavor-wise, it’s super sweet.  Makes me think of eating Vidalia onions.  Second, it’s warm.  That doesn’t sit so well with me.

My opinion is wavering at this point when my entrée comes out.  It’s soup!  I’m not saying that the meat sauce is runny, just that it’s a bowl full of sauce.  Like I can’t see the noodles, full.  And the sauce is really dark.  The first thing I think is, “Did they burn this sauce?”  Then I smell it and think, “Did they burn this sauce?”  Then I taste it and it’s… different.  Probably burnt.  Seasoned, yes, but I can’t put my finger on what it is.  Doesn’t really matter what it is because I just. don’t. like it.  Then the breadsticks came out.  I didn’t think you could screw up bread, but these sticks were completely tasteless.  They had parmesan cheese sprinkled on top and butter and/or oil poured on them.  It looked like oil, but darker.  I didn’t watch to touch it.  What the hell is up with this place?

I eat what noodles I could fish out from the depths of the sauce pit and at one point in my search mission, I found a leaf.  Yeah, a full leaf.  I think it’s the kind they use for seasoning, but I also think they’re supposed to be finely chopped?

Has the service redeemed itself after the “get out of the slums and go to the back room” direction?  No, not really.  My entrée was brought out by a different waitress that again didn’t understand the finer points of service.  She asked if I had spaghetti with meat sauce, which I confirmed, and she left it with me and bolted.  Waitresses with experience will first ask if everything’s ok and handle common requests, like cheese, napkins, or refills.  My main waitress that brought the breadsticks asked about cheese, but had to take care of multiple things before actually getting around to it.  Even then, she had a lot of trouble finding the cheese. (Who moved my cheese?)  Fascinatingly, although my salad dressing was warm, the cheese shaker was refrigerated .  Also, since I had the table next to the open kitchen, I was able to deduce that the cook didn’t seem to know how to be a cook.  I heard a shout at one point and I heard an exchange where he had to scramble because he forgot to make an appetizer.  Bad night?  Or just another night?

Finally – the weirdest part to me – the owner made his way around asking everyone if their food was ok.  I go to other “real” Italian places, and I know the owners do this. They love chatting you up in their heavy Italian accents.  This guy, no accent.  Didn’t look Italian at all.  Didn’t even look like an owner.  He could have been just another patron, I don’t know.  I lied and said the food was good.  Had he pressed harder and asked if it was “good” or “great” or “amazing”, he might have gotten the truth out of me.  But he seemed satisfied.

In summary, there wasn’t one redeeming piece of my entire meal experience.  As crazy as it sounds, this place is a sports bar that serves Italian food, with bar-quality food and service.  And that’s speaking badly of bar food.  It’s usually really good, I just can’t handle the atmosphere.

Gunnars

Posted by on May 30, 2013 No comments

I’ve been a Woot buyer for a while, from back when Woot was cool.  But even now, you can still get some good deals.  Anyway, that aside, it was a few months ago that I saw one of my co-workers wearing these yellow glasses.  He said he got them on Woot.  I recognized them as Gunnars and was curious as to whether they were worth the money.  He said he noticed the difference.  I tried them on and because of the slight magnification of the lens, I took them right off and said “no way.”

Weeks go by and my co-worker is wearing his Gunnars every day.  Every once in a while I ask, “they’re working ok?” and he says they’re great.  The joke in our department is that they are future glasses and when wearing them you can “see future.”  On a more practical level, if the glasses didn’t work, he would’ve stopped using them.  So, the next time Gunnars showed up on Woot, I went for it.

I purchased the Groove model.  When I got them, I was slightly underwhelmed.  The arms were simple rubber and the nose pads were stationary and tiny.  But I got over that and wore them to work.  After an extended time, the nose pads started really hurting me.  I adjusted them over and over but couldn’t find a good position.  So I ended up wearing the glasses less and less and eventually they just ended up in a drawer.

Another Woot sale came along and I decided to purchase another pair, one with a different bridge.  I decided on the e11vens, since they had a solid plastic bridge.  When I got the glasses, again, I was slightly underwhelmed.  The whole frame was a glossy black plastic and felt a little on the cheap side.  But the glasses look like something Tony Stark would wear, so there’s that, anyway.  At the time I ordered the e11vens, I played around with my Groove’s one more time and found a very comfortable nose pad position.  With that modification, I started wearing the Groove’s consistently.  Now I had a pair for work and one for home.

The real question is, do they work?  Yes, they do.  You’ll see a lot of reviews saying that Gunnar’s are overhyped, overpriced, and pointless.  After using them, I have to disagree.  I’ll admit, when I first researched Gunnars, I was totally put off by the hyper-aggressive, buzzword-laden marketing they used.  Since that time, the company seems to have toned the hyperbole down and the message is a lot more palatable.  I read some quotes from their founder and they made a lot of practical sense.  Basically, Gunnars are safety eyewear, and that’s not sexy.  It wouldn’t be very cool to be wearing “safety glasses” at work, and who would ever buy them with that label?  So I understand why they did what they needed to.  Now, with some real testimonials and word-of-mouth behind them, they can afford to be more realistic and practical with their message.

Now, some of the arguments against Gunnars say that that all they are is tinted glasses and all you need to do is go out and buy blu-blockers from the dollar store to get the same effect.  That’s fairly untrue.  Some of the features that Gunnars profess (and probably way over-hyped) are actually beneficial.  I’m not going to look up what their special marketing words are when discussing the features, because they don’t matter.

One feature -  I ‘m pretty sure they call this “microclimate” – is the wraparound style of the lenses.  It doesn’t need a buzzword to be effective.  I know this works because my eyes don’t dry out throughout the day.  You may think it’s a placebo effect, but physical proof that my eyes aren’t drying out is that I get “sleep” in my eyes at the end of the day, which means my eyes are tearing more than sufficiently.

Another feature is the slight magnification, the part that freaked me out when I first put the Gunnars on.  This magnification is optimized for up to about a 3 foot distance.  Don’t wear Gunnars for driving or even for walking around, they don’t work for far distances and you’ll get a headache. 

Gunnars hype the optically pure lens material and anti-glare coating.  Eh, I would hope glasses would be clear and anti-glare, especially at that price.  And the tinting, it’s not sunglass tint, it’s like shooting glasses.

So, can you use blu-blockers?  Sure, but you won’t get a wraparound fit, so your eyes will dry out.  The tinting will be darker and more pronounced, which I can’t see that doing any good.  You could use shooting glasses, but you won’t get the near-range magnification.  Cheap sunglasses probably aren’t as optically pure as specialized glasses, so maybe there would be a bit of distortion.  And, purely for vanity’s sake, in an office environment, wearing Gunnars may be considered edgy, but wearing actual sunglasses would be either tacky or plain weird.

The other real question is, are they worth it?  For $100, I wouldn’t think so.  Luckily, they are a Woot recurring item, so you shouldn’t have to pay that much.  At Woot prices, they are definitely worth the money.

An Honest Try

Posted by on May 22, 2013 No comments

I’ve played around with Linux in a few different forms on and off in my computing years.  Recently, I’ve been pretty impressed with the Ubuntu and Mint offerings, since they are really starting to look like polished pieces of software, with friendly installers and GUI management tools.  So, I happened across an older laptop and decided I would make it an Internet machine.

My biggest problem with Linux is that I am a Windows developer.  That means I spend a lot of my time in Visual Studio and SQL Server, neither of which are suitable for Linux.  I could probably get by with Wine emulation for most other applications, but developing is what I do, so I need Windows.  But I figured I could have a laptop that is just for Internet, and with Linux, it would be a speedy little device.

I keep an Ubuntu USB stick handy for disk diagnostics, so I booted that up on the laptop with no problems.  The laptop’s hard drive was dead and I was waiting for a new one.  I figured I’d try something fun and try installing Ubuntu to a 16GB naildrive stuck in the laptop.  Just so you know, it’s impossibly slow when running off a USB drive acting as a hard drive.  No SSD speed here.

Last night, I got my new hard drive, installed it, and downloaded the newest Mint version onto a USB drive.  I went to install and the system froze.  Tried again under compatibility mode and Mint essentially said the machine was not compatible.  So I tried with the newest Ubuntu.  Same thing.  I should have figured as much since Mint is built from Ubuntu.  So I went and installed the older version of Ubuntu I had on my diagnostic USB drive.

Mind you, I went into this install with a pretty positive attitude.  Maybe I was a little unrealistic in how lightweight and fast Linux is supposed to be, but lots of things started adding up.  Downloading the ISO images was so slow.  I thought Linux was huge in universities and they had lots of bandwidth.  I guess that’s not as true anymore?  I was surprised that newer versions were less compatible with older hardware.  I thought things always got better with time.  Then, the install itself took a surprisingly long time to finish – over an hour.  Again, maybe I’m being unrealistic, but I think that my expectations have been molded by the enthusiastic Linux community.

Finally, after install, I have a desktop and everything’s working pretty well.  I map a network drive and try out a few application.  Then the Update Manager pops up.  Yeah, I’m using an older version, so I have to update.  Woah, 471 updates!  That’s almost four times as many as Windows XP’s post-install updates (~120).  Alright, go ahead and update me.  Another hour passes and now I have to reboot.  Linux needs a reboot?  I restart and when I get back to my desktop, I’m prompted for my wireless network passphrase.  That’s odd, I thought Ubuntu would save that.  I re-enter the password again and Ubuntu prompts me again.  Oh.  The 471 updates broke my wireless network driver.  Where do I go from here?  Which update did it?  Not knowing the details of Linux, how would I even begin to troubleshoot this?  Can you even roll back updates in Linux?

So here’s where I picture myself at: I can reinstall fresh then either skip all updates or try to find (guess) which updates botched the wireless and exclude them.  Looking through 471 updates is not high on my list.  The other option is to install Windows XP, which I know will work.

Payback is a Bitch

Posted by on April 25, 2013 No comments

Yesterday during work break, I went on a walk.  It was a strange, rather painful walk, as my feet were killing me most of the time.  I resolved that I would wear different shoes if I was going to go walking again.  After getting back and settling down, I found that I couldn’t sit.  My back would twinge in that way that says “get ready, here it comes…”  So, I did what was reasonable.  I put some ice on my back and left work to get home and lie down.

At home, I applied the TENS belt and was disappointed after an hour that it wasn’t doing any good.  So I did some leg stretches and then knocked myself out with my in-case-of-emergency-take-these medpack and slept the night away.  I woke up in the morning very, very slowly.  During this extended period of reflection, I found that the stabbing pain was still there, recurring every 10-20 minutes.  Additionally, I found the pain radiating down my leg.  Ohhhhh….  Nice to see you again, sciatica.  How have you been?  I thought I kicked you out years ago.

In my experience, I have two types of back problems.  One affects me when I move and one affects me when I stay still.  It’s my good fortune these two problems don’t occur together.  The first case is severe.  It starts with little warning jabs like I had, then when you don’t expect it, bam.  You are frozen solid and then immobile for about a week.  These incidents have been chronicled in older posts.  The second case isn’t as bad.  I mean it’s not awesome or anything, but it’s not debilitating.  I can take care of it with a few weeks of leg stretches, focusing on the hamstrings.  The important thing is that since I know it’s the second case, I don’t have to necessarily be cautious about moving about.

However, the timing of this recurring injury is interesting since I’m scheduled to take classes this weekend for Reiki.  Reiki, for those that don’t know, is energy healing.  I have a series of pages that I’m writing for this blog on my Reiki experiences that aren’t released yet, but will be shortly after my classes.  This is going to be an excellent first test of the healing ability of Reiki.

Change For The Good, Right Now

Posted by on April 10, 2013 No comments

In the “these things happen to other people” news, I’ve been a target of a hacker.  As hacks go, it was fairly significant – my EBay account.  The hacker bought a whole bunch of stuff, surprisingly not using my linked PayPal account.  EBay locked my account quickly, notified me, and took care of most all the issues with fees and listings.  Regardless, I felt obligated to apologize to a bunch of people who got caught up in the mess.  One person had actually shipped the product by the time I emailed them.

I’ve been online a long time and my password strength has grown with the ever-increasing threat.  I’ve felt I’ve had a decent password, but I suffer from what a lot of people probably do, and that is password entropy – using the same password on every site.  Well, that’s not entirely true since I do use a variant of my main password for those sites that don’t support the special characters I used.

Now it’s time to get real.  Just before I discovered my eBay account was hacked, I had dealt with some spammer sending me over 7000 emails of random text.  So I was giving consideration to changing my email address, and why not have a different email address for every site?  So my email address for Bank of America would be bankofamerica.com@mydomain.com and for Expedia it would be expedia.com@mydomain.com.  This would be relatively easy to remember and would identify if anyone sold my email address to another company or if my email was stolen or harvested.

But at the time, I felt a bit overwhelmed with the task of changing ALL my emails.  Now, since I have to change ALL my passwords, I might as well go through with it.  In addition, I’ve decided to use a password manager, KeePass.  It seems to be a pretty slick utility and I’m surprised I never gave it a chance before. I think my main reason for avoiding it was that I never wanted to be unable to access a website because I didn’t know my password.

But upon closer inspection of that fear, it is very similar to other fears that keep you from (positive) change.  The fringe cases override everything.  It seems everyone is afraid of the word “can’t,” because it is only interpreted in its absolute and permanent sense.  It’s not “I can’t do this,” it’s “I can’t do this right now.” And the “right now” part is what makes the modern time so awesome, hectic, and dangerous.

So, with KeePass, I can have a password file on my home computer and there’s a version for my phone that I can keep synched.  That should be well enough to let me do what I need when I need to.  And for the other cases, it’s going to have to be the other person disappointed when I say “I can’t” because I’m not going to let it control me.

Talk About Growing Pains

Posted by on March 22, 2013 No comments

It was a little while ago I installed Windows 8 with great visions of developing Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 applications.  Because of an issue that I suspect was caused by Hybrid Sleep mode, I ended up rolling back to Windows 7.

That’s worked out well for me.  I continued to update my CarTracker Windows Phone 7 app for my use.  Meanwhile, I waited for the Windows Phone 7.8 update.  Since that doesn’t seem to be coming anymore, I went to T-Mobile and got myself a new Windows Phone 8.  It’s great.

So then I need to install my CarTracker app on my new phone.  I try to install the Windows Phone 8 SDK on my Windows 7 install.  Nope, you have to install it on Windows 8.  So I fire up my Windows 8 virtual machine and install Visual Studio 2012.  Then I try to install the Windows Phone 8 SDK.  Nope, you have to have a 64-bit install of Windows.  So then I scrap that VM and create a new VM, install Window 8 64-bit, install Visual Studio 2012, then the phone SDK.  That’s working now.

After getting VirtualBox talking to the phone (tip: enable USB 2.0), and getting the virtual machine to talk to TFS on my host PC (tip: bridged networking), I got the CarTracker source loaded.  Then I had to install 3rd party controls.  Finally, I could build and deploy the app.  But I couldn’t deploy to the phone, only to the emulator.  This was a simple mistake on my part. (tip: set the phone app as the startup project)

Before I converted the project to a Windows Phone 8 project, I wanted to branch the source code and get a working deployment on my old Windows Phone 7.  Windows Phone 7 requires the Zune software.  Zune software require .NET 3.5 (tip: install .NET 3.5 from Control Panel>Turn Windows Features On/Off).

It’s been many years since I’ve had to do so many steps to get something working.  This is like Linux-grade configuration and setup.  I’ve been so spoiled by well-working Windows software and such a degree of compatibility that this seems incredible.  And I think this behavior is encouraged.  Everything is all “disconnected” “loosely-connected” “loosely-coupled” whatever.  I don’t think, actually, I’ve very sure that if I wasn’t a programmer and that I hadn’t been here many years ago, when you had to take care of yourself, I would be lost.

Windows 8 is a huge gamble for Microsoft, much like XP was when there weren’t any drivers and DOS applications weren’t compatible anymore.  I guess in a couple years things will be good, but we’re in that painful time right now.  Windows Phone 7=Windows 7, Windows Phone 8=Windows 8.  Don’t try to mix them.

You Like It, You Buy It.

Posted by on March 19, 2013 No comments

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to overspend on a pair of shoes.  I thought of the saying, “who would ever pay retail prices” and realized there are some circumstances where it may be warranted or at least justified.

First, I was in an upscale mall.  Obviously, this is going to command high rent for the tenants.  Things haven’t been so great for the retail sector, so it was good to see the shop even still in business.

Second, the store was not a chain store, just a mom-and-pop.  If not being a reason to shop there, at least it’s a reason to give them a pass on higher prices since they can’t compete with the volume of a chain.

Third, and what I felt was the most compelling reason, was that the store had a selection of product that I had never seen anywhere else.  It was very boutique-ish, but still had a good selection of sizes and colors for each model.  There were a lot of high-end shoes – actually they were sandals – from brands you don’t see in all the chain stores.  It was as if the owners deliberately chose to not stock anything you could get somewhere else, which might have been a wise decision.

Because of that uniqueness, I chose to patronize the store in order to preserve its importance in the retail space.  Without business owners taking a chance like this and making obscure, high-quality brands and specialty models of better-known brands available, everything would be the same everywhere.  Total homogeny.  Plenty of people complain about the generic landscape of retail, but is anyone willing to put their money where their mouth is?

Key Board

Posted by on March 14, 2013 No comments

When I’m at work, there’s some desk items that cause some distraction.  It could be the stuffed creatures on the shelf, it could be the NERF guns or the NERF Super Soaker missile (“The F Bomb”).  But for some people, the thing that catches their attention is my keyboard.  It’s a new keyboard, but it doesn’t look new.  It’s old-school.  It’s actually impossible to find a decent picture of it online.  Even the manufacturer’s website doesn’t have a flattering photo of it.  It’s a KeyTronic.  It’s been my favorite keyboard brand for at least 15 years.  It hasn’t changed its look in 15 years, nor has it changed its feeling.

Yesterday, I purchased the newest model of KeyTronic’s keyboards and this weekend, I’ll have the chance to find out if they are remaining true to their roots.  There’s a couple things I can’t live without on this keyboard.  When I say I can’t live without them, I mean, I bought one for home and one for work.  The productivity loss when I change keyboard layouts is significant.  The KeyTronic keyboard is offered with a large L Enter key instead of the straight bar Enter key.  This makes the backspace half-sized and moves the backslash key up to the top row.  The other thing I can’t live without is the tactile snap of the keys.  Less important, but noticeable, is the huge chasm of empty space between keys.  This is a very forgiving keyboard to type on.  When you type code all day and in the evenings either code some more or blog, a good keyboard is required.  Yet another design feature you don’t see everywhere is what someone called the “stadium seating” of the keys.  When the top row of keys is nearly 50% higher than the lowest row, I find my thumb resting more naturally under my fingers to hit the space bar.

I was looking online to see if there were any other KeyTronic fans.  Outside of product reviews, there’s a couple of threads on a mechanical keyboard forum praising the feel of the KeyTronic, although also admitting it is not a mechanical.  So, besides that, I didn’t find much.  And what I read sort of inspired me to type a bit and remember why I liked this keyboard so much. 

In this day where flat keyboards are the standard, and chiclet keyboards are fashionable, it seems like typing is taking a back seat, which is consistent with the slow decline towards content consumption instead of content creation.  You need a keyboard to type a URL or a status update or maybe an email (so long…); you don’t need a task-oriented keyboard.  Gamers buy keyboards made for their needs.  I would like to believe that this keyboard grew up as a product optimized for the needs of the time, which required much more typing than the current age.  But now it’s become a keyboard made for my needs – extended typing sessions.

So now I’m waiting and hoping that I will have a new keyboard that has all the same great feeling of this one but has a look of “what kind of keyboard is that?” instead of “is that even a USB keyboard?”