Archive for October, 2007

For the last 3 years, I was using a “happy hacking” keyboard. This keyboard is really small and looks
like a laptop keyboard. I really liked it and was able type really fast with it. Unfortunately, after spending too
much time behind a keyboard I started to feel wrist pain. This keyboard is comfortable, but on the long run I realized that I was typing with my left hand turned to the outside.


I finally decided to try the kinesis advantage keyboard. I’m now using it for a month and here is my first feelings about it.

• I’m using the qwerty mapping
• I found it really hard to use at the beginning. I switched to it in one week, and as recommended in the guide, I didn’t use any other keyboard the first week. The hardest is the frustration of not being able to type as fast as before…
• I started to do the exercises given with the keyboard but quickly stopped the second day… I used http://www.goodtyping.com/which was really really useful
• The default mapping was not optimal for me, I had to remap some of the keys.
• The arrows are at a very bad location… but I’m started to get used to it.
• The {, }, [ and ] are really are to type… which can be a problem when coding.
• I’m still slower than with my previous keyboard
• I really found this keyboard comfortable, and it’s true that it’s hard to get back to a classic keyboard once you are used to this one.
• Since I’m using it, I don’t have pain anymore

Next status in one month… hopefully I will get back to my full typing speed

Some links:

• Description of the kinesis advantage keyboard
• Kinesis website
• Website to buy the happy hacking keyboard
• Happy hacking keyboard on wikipedia
• http://www.goodtyping.com/