New Blogging Accessories

I really shouldn't be splurging on such things during the current economic climate but sometimes a boy needs new toys. I recently got a KVM switch so that I can have ONE monitor on my desk, one keyboard, and one mouse, but two computers: one for work and one for play.

All was well except that neither of my keyboards are USB which is required by the KVM switch. However, after living a year with two monitors, two keyboards, and two mice on my desk, I figured two out of three isn't bad and I could handle two keyboards, at least for awhile.

Here's the problem: I would be switching back and forth between PCs and forget to swap out the keyboards, and I'd start typing away and wondering why nothing was appearing on the monitor. For someone who works in a lot of spreadsheets, this could potentially cause a major data disruption if I'm not careful, so it was obvious a keyboard correction was in order. Especially after I shoved my personal keyboard off to the right one day, right into the slightly elevated edge of the higher printer table between me and txrad, and broke a leg off it.

I'm on a big ergonomic push right now due to some back troubles and I'm trying to correct all the wrongs in my work desk environment. No more twisting to the left for employment duties and then twisting to the right for blogging or other personal work.

This keyboard might not fit the ergonomic definition but I really love the quiet notebook-style keypad and the backlit keys.

Also love the ultra-slim design! This baby is almost wafer-thin.

I'm rather embarrassed to admit that I've never used programmable function keys before now. And I love that I can use the keyboard to mute sound, increase and decrease volume, and jump directly to my email with one keystroke.

Best of all, I took a gamble that there wouldn't be a huge difference in price between Amazon and Fry's Electronics here in Austin. I saw this at Fry's today and bought it for around $58 plus tax. I told myself I was not going to check the price on Amazon, but while shopping for a cordless mouse (by the way, the keyboard is corded and I'm fine with that), I ran across this keyboard for $69.99 and because it is shipping through an outside vendor, not Amazon, there's an additional $6.89 shipping charge. So I got quite a deal.

Interestingly enough, the Logitech mouse I have ordered is $99.99 at Fry's, plus sales tax which in Austin would be another $8.25 for a total lof $108.24. I ordered the mouse on Amazon for $66.36 with free shipping and no sales tax.

It pays to shop around.

I am definitely happier with this keyboard than I am the one I ordered from Amazon a couple of weeks ago... one of those pliable, roll-up keyboards. It is fine for very light typing, but at my usual typing speed and finger pressure, it would have produced a very cryptic blog post. I wrote a review of that gadget at Amazon.