In hindsight, I changed keyboards because my hands were hurting. Typing a lot means I need a good keyboard. It reminds me of when I used a mouse to play an onscreen set of piano keys in HyperCard, but found it ludicrously slow compared to an actual piano — and no chords! Better still were those classic apps that let me use the QWERTY keys like the ol' trusty ivories, but further up is an actual synth controller with the same familiar layout that's been in usage for hundreds of years. And even among those, you have different grades: unweighted, semi-weighted, weighted, and one word doesn't mean a lot when it comes to performing and capturing the feel under your fingertips. Purists will of course compare the feel to an actual concert grand — where again, preference comes into play.

Coming from a musical background, I'm very sensitive to keyboard touch. Since things often connect and come together for me, after I typed on my MacBook Pro keyboard for awhile, I realized how comfortable it is: a big difference is the low-profile keys with lessened travel time. Across thousands upon thousands of keystrokes, all that distance adds up on wearing down your fingers.

I'm pleased that I've been typing away on the Comfort Curve 2000 for several weeks now, and save for a very noisy spacebar, most of the keys are clacky but not annoyingly so. The standout feature here is if you look straight at the layout, it appears almost like the keyboard was warped or is melting under heat. That's because true to its name, there's a gentle bend to conform better to your touches. (It's not a full-out split ergo.) Even a two-finger typist like me can attest to how much better it feels — I tried an instore demo and was puzzled at first why the "N" key is proportionally so big, but in the context of flowing through words and entering data into a computer, it makes much more sense. Especially as I write this.

It's intriguing to note how arrangements differ between the all-Roman and Japanese editions. There's a white variant too.

To be fair, I also ran my fingertips across every other keyboard in the store, and I'm surprised even the Logitech G15 had a lousy, indecisive feel. It's a tragedy, almost like typing is secondary and whiz-bang gadgets come first. Well, in the spirit of Gabriel & Dresden, that means a back-to-basics approach for me. While I'm not suggesting a reversion to Apple's Extended Keyboard II, I want to make sure I get quality keying action!

The CC2000 is short on fancies: along the top are some multimedia buttons you can reconfigure to do other things with IntelliType drivers, and there's usual Calculator key, but the bevel around the edge is relatively slim and there's no wrist rest. I find I still need added padding in that area, so I've got my wrists laying on a cloth right now. If you close your eyes and run them along the keys, you'll be struck by how short — yet responsive — they get towards the top rows. The deformation doesn't interfere with the need for quick movements, as I found using the arrow keys in Second Life. (The Up arrow is indented and sloped towards the back of the keybed but feels great when your pointing and ring fingers are on the Left and Right arrows.)

Also of mention is that the CC2000 is billed as being "spill-resistant", which is good because I totally messed up a previous keyboard by dumping water on it — actually, dumber than that, I tried to give it a bath to get the crud out from between the keys. It did not end well. While I won't be doing my own impromptu spillage tests, it's good to keep in mind.

One downside is that the CC2000 doesn't have its own additional USB ports (which means you still have to plug peripherals into your system's tower or equivalent), and it doesn't support PS/2 either. Which is an old and tired standard, and maybe a bit refreshing, future-looking to be exempt from. Only prob I ran into with that was when I first plugged the keyboard in, and it failed to respond until Windows's plug-and-play took attention after some long moments later. But following that, things are good.

My feelings about the Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 keyboard come through continued usage, but from where I sit — with a straight back, good posture is very ergonomically important! — I'll award it a personal 9 out of 10 (that's 90%!) and emphasize it's so dang cheap that if I ever get on the wireless bandwagon, I'm tempted to seek out its extremely, much-higher-priced relative, the Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000. It might be overkill, but I'm always searching for possibilities.

If this review helps you save some strain and stress on your fingertips, it's all worth it. Good health is priceless.