chris . word

If you’re a person who uses a computer and, more to the point, an input device known as a keyboard on a daily basis for hours at a time, having a good one is highly necessary. In fact, not having one can often lead to bad results for hands, wrists, back and more.

So, over the years as I’ve written and done other work requiring long hours using a keyboard (I currently use an Apple Wireless Keyboard or the one on the MacBook Air), I’ve always been in search of a good one. Notice I didn’t say a “great” one.

I hesitate to use the word “great” because I’ve yet to find one I even consider good. Sure, many of the ones I’ve tried over the years have been decent. Some could even be considered close to good. None were even close to great though.

This brings me to the problem at, well, hand. Or, hands as the case may be. I need to find a great keyboard. I say a great keyboard because I think at this point only a great keyboard can help me.

It’s the hands, you see, they are hurting. Yes, over the years I’ve developed some pain in my fingers from all the oh so important typing. So now, I need to do something about it or pretty soon I won’t be able to type at all. The horror!

I really don’t care at this point how much it costs, just that it helps and helps me keep working. Although, as someone who’s paid both very little and quite a bit for keyboards over the years, I’m not entirely sure price is the total arbiter of “great.” If it was, I would probably have found that “great” keyboard long ago.

Given the above, I’m now in search of the perfect keyboard. If you have any thoughts on the subject, feel free to let me know. I will also be doing my research and buying several to try out over the next few weeks.

I will, of course, report on what I find out, if anything. I know there’s a lot of choices out there but based on past experience, I’m not all that optimistic.

Still, miracles do happen and I’m the kind of person who tries to keep an open mind. So, let the search commence and may the best keyboard win.

I’ve been trying to use just the iPad 2 for a few days to do my writing work and I came to the conclusion that I need a keyboard. That’s not to say that typing directly on the iPad 2 wouldn’t work for most people, or for me under different circumstances, it’s just that right now my fingers are a bit sore and it’s time to explore other options.  
 
Fortunately, I already have a solution. I’ve dropped some hard earned cash on a keyboard case and stand combo from Incase. It’s called the Origami Workstation and it features a place to hold your Apple Wireless Keyboard (I already had one of from a previous experiment) and to hold you iPad or iPad 2 either vertically or horizontally. I usually pick horozontal, just in case you were wondering.  
 
With the iPad 2 and keyboard in place things have gotten much easier on my hands and fingers. Yes, I realize having to bring a keyboard with you begs the question as to why I don’t just use the MacBook Air. That’s a valid question and one I could answer by just saying I just don’t want to.  
 
The truth is I’m not just doing this just for me. I’m doing it for you. For those of you who want to know if you can get along and get work done with just an iPad 2 and that’s it. The answer is, so far, yes you can — unless you have a problem like I do. In that case you need to make some adjustments. 
 
Problem or not, the iPad 2 is especially useful if you’re a writer, or some other type of creative person, who’s job it is to put words in a certain order and upload, print or otherwise share them with people. It really is a great tool.  
 
It’s likely if my hands were a bit younger and I haden’t spent the last ten or more years pounding keys I would have gotten away without using an external keyboard. Sadly, I can’t. You might be able to, however. And you should try. It makes the idea you can bring a small device like the iPad 2 with you, and that’s all you really need, that much cooler. 
 
My needing to use a keyboard doesn’t change the fact that the iPad is a great writing tool and so far has proven to be very useful in my everyday work. Now to get back to it. I’ll let you know how it’s going, don’t worry.

Well, if you think touch sensitive tables are interesting, that is. Really, I kinda do. Although, Surface, as its called, seems to work much like the screen of the iPhone so I wonder where they got the idea? Maybe it was the movie Minority Report that inspired them? Sure, that could be it. Whatever it was that made them think of it, the technology is pretty cool so check it out.

after moving into the new place i realized that it was a great opportunity to get rid of stuff i really don’t need and could do without or could substitute something else for. so, out went the big g5 tower (to my bro, sam). out went the big pc tower (to my friend shaun) and in came the new 20″ intel iMac from Apple. not just any new 20″ intel iMac mind you. i sprung for the extra video ram (doubled it to 256 megs) and maxed out the ram to 2gb. a must, really. ram is pretty cheap these days and is a great way to improve performance for not that much money. if you have the means i definitely suggest maxing out the ram in any Mac you purchase. you won’t be sorry you did.

what does this all mean and why should you care? you might not unless you enjoy the occasional game of half-life 2 or other pc only game. or, you want to run outlook or some other pc app that has no mac counterpart. like the macbook, i decided to install bootcamp and use the iMac as my new windows machine on the desktop. i did this mostly to see if it would replace my pc tower as a gaming machine. the short answer is yes. absolutely.

in fact, using the iMac booted into windows xp provided a superior gaming experience than i previously had on my windows gaming box. the iMac performed very very well. so, it has replaced two machines for me and now i have much more room on my desk to pile up other stuff i need to get to. so, if you are looking for a great gaming machine and want to play pc games and mac games, the intel iMac is a great choice. it also does other stuff like check email, browse the internet and normal computer things.

i have not tried it with very many other pc games yet. i felt that half-life 2 was a good game to start with given that the system requirement of the game are quite high. it a beautiful game to see and it looks great on the 20″ monitor of the iMac and its even in widescreen 16 x 9. very cool. i won’t go into the whole installing boot camp procedure here as its kinda boring. suffice to say that i installed it and used it in the normal way without any changes. installed windows xp w/sp2 without a problem and was in windows and running soon afterward.

the one change that turned out to greatly improve things was that i ditched the ati drivers that bootcamp puts on the driver install cd and instead used other video drivers from the super genius over at omega. these drivers rock. much better than the lame ones that bootcamp wants you to use. after making this change i got greater frame rates and no freezes or anything.

to be honest, i had no freezes prior to replacing the drivers but i did see the increased performance from these drivers that i hoped. so, if you go to all the trouble to do all of this, be sure to get the omega drivers and use them. one other note. you can’t install drivers that you get from the ati website so don’t bother downloading them at all. even though the video card in the 20″ imac is technically an ati x1600 it doesn’t mean you can actually use the drivers from ati. you can use the omega ones and you should.

so over the last couple of months i have cut the number of computers i have at home in half. two laptops into one: the macbook. and two desktops into one: the iMac. not to mention that the iMac runs so much quieter and cooler than the g5 tower its not even funny. the g5, while a great machine, is really hot and really noisy. now i can actually enjoy music in my office again and not have to turn it way up to drown out the sounds of the g5 tower. i am much happier now.

in other news, i made a couple of posts at Laist lately and will also be heading down to san diego in july to cover the big san diego comic con. i haven’t been in several years and this will be my first time in a long time mostly as an observer and attendee. the last couple of times i was there with a film project or something and was too busy to really look around.

so this time should be fun. although, its not all fun. there will be a little business too. i will be making a few notes for Laist as well as meeting with a few people regarding some upcoming projects that i can’t talk about at the moment. very secret and all that you know. suffice to say that i might be going back into yet another business i was in a long time ago. at least a little bit. or, maybe more than a little bit. what can i say? i like to keep busy.

Want one? Go here.

great article on how to use your Mac Mini (mac mini not included) as a TiVo style device. of course, i still prefer tivo but this is pretty cool anyway. plus, and i don’t really want to talk politics right now, tom delay gets in trouble again. innocent until proven guilty but it does make you think. and its even in texas. that’s gotta sting.

and where will google go next? free wifi in san francisco and beyond? new set of microsoft office-like software? space? who knows but these guys sure know how to stir the speculation pot. they are almost as good at it as steve jobs. almost.

lastly, my work schedule seems to be getting a little better so i hope to be putting fingers to keys more often again. i like doing this and hopefully can with regularity. thanks for your patience and readership. its appreciated.

Yes, its that time again. The beginning of the week. Oh joy. Actually, today was a “pretty good day”(tm) and I got a lot of work done. I even managed to sell my old 12“ Powerbook to a very nice person who paid in cash. So, that was good. I hope she likes it. I think she will.

On the computer subject the saga continues with my G5 tower. Being the do-it-yourself kind of person I am, I pretty much tried everything i could think of to try to get it from doing the random freeze and kernel panic thing. Sadly, I had no luck. Also, the guys at Melrose Mac in Burbank were pretty much no help either. Although, they did manage to replace my power supply so it doesn’t make the annoying noise it was making, so that is a point in their favor.

Sadly, they dropped the ball on the rest of it and so will not become the preferred repair place for me and people that i work with. As the problem was so random and seemingly had no root cause that I could determine, I felt the only place to take it was to an Apple Store. Fortunately, in LA we have several. I, of course, went to my friends at the Glendale Galleria for help. Not only do I like Jenn and the rest of the gang at the Glendale Apple Store, but I am also a preferred consultant for them as well and they send business my way. So, of course, I like that too.

I took the G5 to them last Tuesday, July 5th. One of the Genius bar guys, Tim, took quite a bit of time with it and examined it very completely. Even though it took some time, i appreciated his effort. Fortunately, the machine exhibited the same behavior for him as it did for me and he checked it in for ”extended diagnostics“. Now, almost a week later, I got nothing. He did tell me it would be 7 to 10 days before I would know something so I am not upset or anything. Like many customers, I want to have my machine back with me and working like it used to.

Like doctors, I’m sure that computer consultants don’t make very good patients so I will try not to call Tim every day with more suggestions on how we might get my G5 back on its feet. I think he probably has it under control. So, I will give him the time he indicated, then I will see what’s what. I think Tim and the rest of the Glendale Apple Store crew will come through for me as they always have. Of course, being how I am, I am already pricing a replacement should this drag on too much longer (like another few weeks waiting for parts or something like that).

It may seem strange to be thinking about buying another computer from a company who already has one of yours in for repair. I don’t find it strange at all. I like Apple and the Mac. I will always be a Mac user and will always buy Apple products as long as they are around. I don’t necessarily want to buy another G5 right now, what with the Intel Macs coming. But, the G5 is a proven and tested product so getting another one isn’t so odd. I don’t want to be the first one to get an Intel based Mac anyway. Not the first but maybe the second or third. I might try to hold off a little to see how they work. Besides, i think we’ll see Intel Powerbooks before Intel Towers anyway so a new tower is still, in my opinion, at least 6 months off.

Whatever happens with my G5, I know Apple will make it right eventually. It will get fixed or they will give me a new one. As t has already had a video card problem and a power supply problem, it might be getting close to the replacement point. Or, I will just buy another one and when the current one is fixed, sell it. Whatever happens, I will stick with Apple. Besides, where will I plug in my three iPods if I don’t have a Mac? In my Windows box? Come one, be serious. Although, Half-Life 2 does kick ass. Can’t play that on a Mac, no matter how fast it is. I guess I need to keep my Windows machine too. Oh well.

just an update. the broadcast flag was not attached to an appropriations bill. over at the eff they are pretty happy about the rise of citizen activism that helped the cause. the eff’s new activism coordinator, Danny O’Brien, sees this as a victory for sift citizen action. well, i guess it could be that.

i prefer to think that the people in congress are not so dumb as to put through just any legislation that the entertainment industry or other giant lobby may want. especially legislation as lame as the broadcast flag. maybe i have too much confidence in our government? i don’t know. they can’t all be morons. can they?

and, those crazy kids at think secret have some details and photos of the intel based macintosh that is being shipped to developers. check it out. it looks like a macintosh with an intel motherboard and cpu inside. cool.