I typo badly. First step — check my keyboards

A worn keyboard on a 10 month-old laptop. Copyright Rob Echlin 2019

Typos are irritating, and they seem to be completely under my own control. They are, if you count buying a new keyboard as under my control.

It’s frustrating to rattle off a line of prose, or a line of code, then look back and discover there are 3 fewer spaces than there needs to be, twice an adjacent letter got hit instead, or a couple times the right hand key was hit before the left hand key that was supposed to come first, or the other way around.

It’s worse on the work computer and on my shiny Mac laptop, not so bad on the computer in the kitchen.

Why? Keyboards.

• The computer at work has a So-Cheap-It’s-Almost-Free keyboard that IT found for me when I complained that my original keyboard had the labels worn off of several letters.
• The Macbook Air has an astonishingly irritating keyboard for such an expensive toy.
• The computer in the kitchen, the one that’s not too bad, has a 5+ year old keyboard that came with it — It’s a 2nd hand corporate-grade Dell desktop. Dell used to provide their corporate customers with decent keyboards. And now it’s the best keyboard I have.

Well, actually it was my best keyboard, until Saturday. On Saturday I set up my home writing space with a couple of enhancements.

First, some background. When I got that ultra-cheap keyboard from IT, they actually agreed to buy a new keyboard if I picked one out, and if it wasn’t too expensive. And I decided I wanted to have the same keyboard at work as at home. Then I forgot about it until the new one became worse than the first one.

Spoiler! I bought a new keyboard!! Copyright Rob Echlin 2019

So on Saturday, I went to a local “Canada Computers” store that has about 15 or 25 computer keyboards on display for people to try. I know that work is as cheap as I am, so I ignored the backlit gamer boards with Extra Gamer Macro Keys and, well, some other things that the sales person mentioned and I ignored. Those boards starts at $169 and climb straight past $239 to prices that I, well, I ignored completely. Maybe I should have taken notes, this might have been a longer blog post.

After depressing me with the expensive keyboards, the sales rep casually brought out the one keyboard with only keyboard features, no light show. I’m pretty sure I didn’t look excited — I’m told I am too reserved and don’t really show emotion.

I just as casually asked about some other features I had heard of that seemed relevant — replacing the keys, isn’t that $60 one good enough, how well does it repel water. You know. Small talk. He pointed out that this one doesn’t make as much clackity-clack as some others. Quiet enough for home or cube-space. It still cost $100, but I think work will spring for one. I took one home.

Here’s a pic of how I set up my temporary ergonomic workspace on the kitchen table.

Genuine photo of a genuine kitchen with a genuine computer and stuff. Not sure why the piece of paper has a smiley face. Copyright Rob Echlin 2019

Here’s what you are looking at that is on topic for this article:

• I added a booster seat to the kitchen chair, so my arms would be at the right height. Actually, that wooden booster seat thing is a ring toss game that my daughter made in grade school. It’s upside down for the purpose it was designed for.
• To raise the screen of the laptop a bit closer to my new eye level, I improvised a stand for it, with the meal tray my son made in high school. The support for the keyboard is an empty egg carton, and there is a bottle of shampoo keeping the keyboard away from the back of the tray, so it is in the right position to hold up the back of the laptop.
• The screen is farther away from me than usual, so I increased the font size in the editor to 14pt.

I still had some typos today while typing this, just a lot fewer.

Still to fix?

The swapped letters are definitely from me typing too fast, or not paying enough attention. Practice at typing slower will help there. And slower on the new keyboard is faster than fast was on the Cheap-cheep keyboard.

Missing spaces is definitely a phenom of the really cheap keyboard at work. Did I say that it squeaks every time I type a space? Well, now I did.

The “adjacent letter” problem seems to be gone. Nice.

I want a real laptop stand. Christmas might be good, especially if it comes on Nov. 15 this year.

A tale of 2 nice keyboards.The old and the new. Copyright Rob Echlin 2019

I am looking forward to taking this keyboard to work tomorrow and having a “new keyboard” chat with IT.