Andrew Huey | pointlessly blogging since 2001
My Microsoft Ergo 4000 keyboard is working out OK, but still feels a bit weird. I want to get a second one to use at work, but it’s looking like I can’t use it with my KVM. Bummer. Maybe I can find a way to get myself a nice new USB-compatible KVM.
There’s some good stuff on the keyboard over at Coding Horror and a review at CNet that pretty much confirms that the keyboard won’t work with a PS/2 adapter.
I’m typing this on a new Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. I like split keyboards, and this is a pretty good one, though the keys are spaced a little differently from the way they were arranged on my old keyboard. It’s got a bunch of extra keys on it for launching applications, zooming in and out, and going back and forward in your web browser. It also comes with an attachment that gives the keyboard a reverse slope. I tried that out, but couldn’t get used to it, so I took it off. Apparently, the reverse slope is better for you, and I can see the point there, since it would allow you to avoid bending your wrists at all.
This is a USB keyboard; my old one was a PS/2 keyboard. I was actually using all my USB ports, so I had to pull my Zip drive to free up a port. Now, I have to decide if I want to buy another USB hub so I can plug the Zip drive back in, or if I just want to mothball the Zip drive.
I’ve been using the same old b&w HP DeskJet 520 for the last 10 or 15 years. It’s always worked fine, and I’ve never really had a truly pressing need to print in color. I’ve had a Dell 720 color inkjet in a box gathering dust for the last year, though. It came free with my Dad’s computer, and he didn’t need a printer at the time, so I took it home. I finally decided to take it out of the box tonight and hook it up. It works OK, but it’s not astounding. If I’d paid money for it, I might be disappointed. I think I need to try and print something on good photo paper, and see how that looks. I don’t have much room on my computer desk, so I’m just sitting it on top of the DeskJet for now. Hopefully, that won’t be a problem.
I’m thinking about picking up this DVD player from HKFlix.com. My current DVD player is pretty old, and doesn’t handle CD-Rs or DVD-Rs (or any variation thereof) at all. I really don’t need the HD stuff yet, but maybe someday it’ll come in handy.
Since I rebuilt my computer, I’ve now got an emply 5.25″ drive bay, with no insert to cover it up. Maybe I should put a cigarette lighter in there. Or maybe I should just dig up an old cover at work tomorrow. Or duct tape.
I’ve got my computer assembled and mostly working. I spent a few hours last night getting the hardware together, and most of the day today installing software, moving stuff from the old drives to the new drive, and stuff like that. I thought I might have a problem with one of the DIMMs, but it got through memtest OK, and I haven’t had any problems with it as I’ve gone through all the software installs and so forth.
The box is definitely quieter than my previous setup, which is nice. It’s a bit faster, too, of course, but not astonishingly so.
I still need to set up most of my external devices — printer, scanner, external drive, Palm, and Pocket PC. And I still have a bit more software to install. Hopefully, I can get most of that done tomorrow.
Things to remember when putting together a new computer:
In case anyone’s interested, here are all the parts I ordered from Newegg:
According to their order status page, everything shipped today, so I should see it all at some point next week. After I get the thing put together, maybe I’ll post some notes on how everything worked out.
I’m thinking about replacing most of the guts of my desktop computer again. I last did this in October 2002, so I’m about due. I’m looking at an ASUS A8N-SLI motherboard, an Athlon 64 3200+ processor, an Asus AX550 video card, a gig or two of Corsair RAM, a WD 250 GB hard drive, and maybe a DVD burner and a new power supply. The lot could set me back about $900. I still need to do some more research, but I think I’ve identified a bunch of stuff that should work well together. I’ll probably be sticking with Newegg again — I got the parts for my current computer from them, and they’ve generally been competent and fair.
I picked up an iHome from Costco today. If all goes well, I should wake up to the sounds of John Coltrane tomorrow.