01.08.08

Spanish Keyboards

Posted in Hardware at 2:10 PM by Jeff

Who would have thought that using a Spanish keyboard would be annoying?

A few weeks ago at work, I was hunting around for a USB keyboard to use instead of my laptop’s keyboard. I figured this would be more comfortable to type on than the small laptop keyboard. Unfortunately the only keyboard I found was a Spanish keyboard.

Spanish Keyboard (differences with US-English Keyboard in red)

I didn’t change the keyboard layout on my operating system, so touch-typing is still very similar. Some of the buttons say they are different, including almost all of the special characters. Not to mention this keyboard has an Ñ button. Also the Enter button (”Intro” in Spanish) and the left shift button (indicated by an upward pointing arrow only) are half of the width they are on English keyboards.

If I could remember where all the special characters are and that I have to reach farther to hit the left shift and enter buttons, then this keyboard will work great. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

12.04.07

Solid State Drives

Posted in Hardware at 12:10 AM by Jeff

It seems that SATA drives may no longer be the top dog of data storage. The new Solid State Drives are gaining popularity. Of course, there are both good and bad points to using a SSD instead of a SATA or PATA. Here are some of my thoughts.

Pros:

  • Mechanical failures non-existent (there are no moving parts)
  • Very quiet
  • More shock resistant

Cons:

  • Life of device is limited by the number of writes
  • New technologies are always more expensive (even if they are not better)
  • More susceptible to magnetic charges

There are laptops already being sold with solid state drives, including the ASUS Eee PC, Alienware m9750, and the Dell XPS Series. There are probably others that I don’t know about.

11.26.07

Laptops Are Bad

Posted in Hardware at 10:31 AM by Jeff

Even though laptops are growing rapidly in popularity, there are a few drawbacks. I didn’t really think about any of these drawbacks until recently because I am now using a laptop full-time at work. Laptops are designed to be portable but not ergonomic. It is very hard (read: almost impossible) to find a comfortable typing position at a laptop. The screen is too low and the keys are too squished together for long periods of typing. Some days I leave work with a sore neck and pain in the arms, wrists, and back.

The story about why I temporarily have to use a laptop full-time is too long and boring to share here. However, the powers that be have said they are going to find a desktop for me to use. I can’t wait.

Has anyone else experienced this problem during extended laptop use?

11.19.07

Costco Buys Old Computers

Posted in Hardware at 2:14 PM by Jeff

I have no idea why Costco would possibly want my old computers. But I recently found out that they do take old (still functional) consumer electronics as trade-ins.

The bad news is that the prices are nothing exciting. Costco’s free trade-in valuation tells me that my old Pentium III computer is worth $8. That definitely doesn’t take into account the Linksys Wireless-g card, 250GB HDD, or the 256MB video card with S-video and HDMI outputs.