first thoughts on having a split keyboard

[ironymaiden]

that's where the tea mug goes. between the left and right halves.

tomorrow the tenting kit arrives in a second box. this is the first time in years i've typed on a flat keyboard without wrist rests. those need to get here pronto.

i was afraid that my typing was going to be too idiosyncratic and i would discover that i've been doing something with the "wrong" hand for decades. nah.

the 9 inch cable is just long enough. if i had more chest i would definitely have wanted to go wider. as it is i already feel taller.

even without the tenkey, it takes up at least as much desk real-estate from outer edge to outer edge, except that i have a mug and could probably have a small notebook in the open middle space. i dig it.

it has a bunch of macro keys that i've never bothered with on other keyboards (mostly because they didn't want to work on Mac or were too far a reach or inconsistent on Windows). beginning and end of line keys will be my friends. we'll see if i having cut/copy/paste/undo keys is worthwhile when the muscle memory is so strong.

Comments

[buhrger]

what's a "tenting kit" in this context?

[ironymaiden]

as ethnomuse notes below, it's to lift the inner edges up at an angle, more like how our wrists like to be rotated.

[buhrger]

that makes much more sense! i was trying to figure out how we got from ergonomic office furniture to camping gear :-)

[eiffel_71]

Hope all goes well!

[ethnomuse]

I hope you'll like it. My keyboard is connected by a ball & socket - like joint in the middle at the top, so there's not enough room for tea & it's only split 2 inches at the widest point. But it does mean the tenting aspect needs no extra gadgets.

[ironymaiden]

i looked at that one! i've had one of the huge Microsoft ergo keyboards at work for about 15 years* and i decided i needed to be more radical if i was going to protect my hands for doing fun things that aren't typing.



*the one at My Corporate Masters had most of the keycaps worn off. the one from The Eyrie is to new to show that kind of wear but it's also odd to me that i got it new in box and the design seems unchanged in all that time.

[ethnomuse]

I think I chose mine cause it was possible to be at least semi-portable with it - not that I ever took it to a library or coffee shop, but I had thoughts of being able to take it traveling more easily.

Cari

[jesse_the_k]

Wait -- a good computer peripheral design that was permitted to last?

(In the last decade, hardware folks seem to have become infected by the "just one more feature" nonsense that makes software so frustrating.)

You know about BetterTouchTool and Karabiner, right?

[sistawendy]

Split keyboards FTW! I've been using one for a long time.

[ironymaiden]

i'm going to see how this goes; so far so good.

i am a little concerned about what happens assuming i ever get to go back to an office - if i can get another one of these for my desk without a dr's note or if i start carrying my keyboard back and forth. (that's certainly what will happen if i graduate to an ergodox.)