Keyboards and Keypads II

I had been searching for a good USB keypad for use with my laptop. I prefer to enter sets of numbers using a separate keypad rather than using the “keypad mode” keys native to my laptop, since I don’t need to keep switching between modes if I am both entering a list of numbers and going back and forth to text.

Over the years, I have had several different keypads, and the most common problem is that the rubber feet keep coming off of them. To anyone manufacturing these things, I need to tell you:

  • people who use separate keypads use them with their laptops;
  • this means that your keypad must be as mobile as my laptop;
  • when little pieces come off the keypad in my book bag, most likely one or more of the rubber feet, this causes the keypad to annoyingly rock side to side as I press the keys, since the pad is no longer supported in a balanced way;
  • this always happens, because manufacturers universally fasten the feet (which are made of rubber to keep the keypad stationary on the table as I type) to the keypad with glue;
  • this is a bad thing, because these feet eventually become un-glued;
  • there are many new keypad designs which come out every year, the prices of these differ wildly, as do their functions and capabilities;
  • all of these people glue the rubber feet to the keypad, regardless of how much you paid for the keypad;
  • meaning that all keypads from $6 to over $100 has a useable life of about 3 months, unless you wish to put up with the instability issue;
  • and so if you are like me and you get annoyed with it, you’ll spend $6.00 for a minimal USB keypad, knowing that you’ll buy one again in 3 months.

This is an open letter to the many manufacturers of such keypads: rubberize the entire bottom of the keypad. Affix it mechanically rather than with glue. Hell, you can even make the whole keypad waterproof. Even make the whole thing our of silicone like some manufacturers do with entire keyboards.

Above is a $6.99 keypad I picked up at Canada Computes, made by iCan. The depiction from the store website is more optimistic than my actual product, feet-wise. Notice that one piece of rubber goes all the way across the top. That would actually be nice, except that my actual keypad has the conventional four smaller feet. I am still hopeful that this one might be more durable, since they appear to be on the unit quite solidly. As a bonus, the USB wire wraps all the way around the unit when you store it.

Visits: 90

Keyboards and keypads I

I have had a problem with dust, hair, and dirt accumulating on my keyboard, going in between and under keys thus and over time the keyboard gets increasingly difficult to use, even with compressed air. Elephant adds a silicone covering over the actual keyboard. The form-fitting layer is completely removable. Cleaning it is a simple matter of wiping. No more compressed air. The keyboard sold for under $20.00, so I picked one up.

It is also kind of slim, and is avoiding the recent trend toward a split keyboard design (not sure I liked it anyway). But in wanting this cleanabillity, I had to give up the direct access keys which my old keyboard had: for things like a calculator, a file window, and email. What I get instead are the 12 function keys which seem to have a dual function within applications. I can still control the sound card volume from this keyboard, however.

I had some past experience with other keyboards which boasted total flexibilty, whose structural material consisted entirely of silicone and thus could be rolled up, apart from its improved cleanability. The problem was that I found them more difficult to use. There is something to be said in favour of a keyboard that has a hard plastic case. It makes keyboarding easier when it is done on a hard surface. And with the silicone covering I get the best of both worlds.

Visits: 74

[Video Monday] Next – Only A Friend Of Mine (August 1975)

Next, circa 1975.

This is my first instalment in a series of lost and forgotten records from the past. Most of these hits are Canadian hits, and they are the ones that bring back memories for me from my youth.

Below is a recording from a Canadian bubblegum rock group singed on to Columbia in the early seventies called “Next”, entitled “Only a Friend of Mine”. The personnel on this 1975 recording consisted of Mark Laforme on guitar and vocals; Mel Coburn on drums and vocals; the high voice comes from Garnett Zimmerman, who played keyboards; and on Bass and vocals, Roly Greenway. This being August 2010, marks its 35th anniversary, for what it’s worth. Roly Greenway is apparently of no relation to Brian Greenway, who plays with April Wine.

Greenway and Laforme appear on the credits as the writers/composers of this single. Greenway would be better known to the world as the bassist and leader of the Canadian band Crowbar, and earlier as the backup performer for Ronnie Hawkins. Crowbar would re-form intermittently after 1977. Next was never heard from again.

But no worries, I at least have audio in the link below of probably their biggest hit.

The song “Only a Friend of Mine” barely made it into the top-40 in many regions of Canada, but was pretty catchy.

Visits: 217