BEFORE: Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 and Microsoft Intellimouse Optical

AFTER: Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 and Razer Habu (published as a Microsoft product)

I previously raved about the Comfort Curve 2000 — cheap, solid, low-profile (short key travel) and with a unique, subtle curve which really aided my RSI. It's several months later and I still think it's a great keyboard, which is why I've upgraded to one of its big siblings, the Wireless Laser Desktop 6000.

First, let me get the cons outta the way:

• I paid more than I should've for this new set (my CC2000 only cost ~CAD$30), but as they say, time is money and I was in a hurry to get back to my computers and continue tapping away.
   
• You can't get a new WLD6k without its included mouse, which sucks. My harsh verbiage is precisely because that mouse is very similar in form the Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0, which I've never been fond of: it's clunky, so heavy when you put the batteries in, and left me feeling like a spacefaring freightliner encountering a well-armed squad of Kestrel: in other words, helpless!
   
• Multimedia buttons can be reconfigured but have preset purposes. I know this helps give new users a direction and sense of what they're for, but let's just say I reassigned the clearly-marked Gadgets button to hide all open windows and show my desktop instead.
   
• If you've read that sometimes keystrokes get missed, this has been true — and annoying — in my experience so far, too. Every now and then, you'll be sure you pressed a key down, but nothing will appear, and since I'm very well-tuned to my typing rhythm, it feels like there's a little latency that throws my flow off: basically, it's annoying. Good news is tho, after experimenting with positioning the wireless receiver — it's currently sitting next to the Microsoft logo on the far right of the keyboard — it appears to have gotten better… as I'm typing this post now. Still, it's cautionably finicky, and I'm cautious of even putting the keyboard in my laptop while typing.
   
• But, the big upside to wireless is: with limited desk space, I can put the keyboard somewhere else when I pull my graphics tablet (Intuos3 6×8) up on the table. Very convenient instead of my previous situation, which was sitting scrunched up with the tablet on my life. This should make for better art; count on seeing Torley Textures VI — or whatever I decide to call it — soon.

Now, cons of the Razer Habu mouse:

• Control panel has scrunchy fonts and isn't very intuitive. For example, it feels like the various sliders have a very fine granularity. However, after pushing the "Apply" button, looks like your settings get quantized from 1-10. So why not just snap to those sliders in the first place?
   
• Also, loud breaking glass sound in the "Test Area" for "Double-click speed" is very painful on unexpected ears.
   
• Seems that the advertised macros are limited to 16 steps. Yes, this includes key-down and key-up, so pressing the "Q" key, for example, counts as 2 steps. Disappointing because a macro, by definition, and from my experience, should be far more extensible. It appears the 32 KB of onboard memory is used primarily for the firmware, not storing data like this.
   
• You have to stick on your own feet to the mouse with included adhesives. Very odd for a premium-priced mouse (I paid CAD$86.99).
   
• Scroll wheel doesn't appear to accelerate as drastically as my old mouse (I like very fine-tuned scrolling when I move the wheel slowly); maybe this is a Control Panel (IntelliPoint, not Razer Habu) setting I can change later, tho.
   
• Perhaps most painful of all, I wasted an hour of my time figuring out how to get the firmware upgrade to work. Ugh. Gracious thanx to this Razer Blueprints page, I got it sussed out.

Now then, with the negatives out of the way, what's good? A lot to speak of! I already feel a noticeable improvement in my typing + mousing quality and quantity, which is so important, first and foremost, for my health. Awhile back, I had awful RSI, and while things are noticeably improved, this also means they can keep getting better. So synergistically, combining both the Wireless Laser Keyboard 6000 and Habu (funny name: its source moniker is, as many of Razer's products, a serpent) together, and throwing aside the WLD6k's bundled mouse, here's what I appreciate:

• Leather wrist rest feels very nice. After typing with my wrists on a marble slab for while to build up endurance (like sleeping on the floor), this is really comfy. I think it's permanently attached to the rest of the keyboard, so I have no way of removing it safely. But then again, why would I want to? After putting up with so many lousy wrist-rests, and the fact that my previous Comfort Curve 2000 didn't have one (odd marketing, eh?), I feel way better with this setup. Coupled with the leather arms of my office chair, it's a consistent, delightful sensation.
   
• The keys exhibit a more upscale, plasticky, squishy feel than the CC2k's. But NOT horribly mushy. That essentially means they're not so noisy, but at the same time, seem to exhibit more resistance. Perhaps that's just perception, or the fact I banged hundreds of thousands of keystrokes into my CC2k and suitably broke it in. Thus, over the stretch of the new few months, I look forward to doing the same thing with the WLK6k. Time will tell.
   
• Function keys are compressed vertically, which means they almost take on the appearance of little gel candies, were it not for their black monochronism: they're not hard to hit, tho, and thank goodness, unlike V1 of the WLK6k — this is V2! — the Delete key isn't oddly shaped.
   
• While the keyboard is fairly wide because of all the buttons, the space is well-used. From previous experience, I found I didn't touch the fancy multimedia buttons all that much, but with this new opportunity, I may have to give it more of a go. Automation saves time, after all. I'm glad this keyboard has a zoom control — when I was using the Microsoft Digital Media Keyboard Pro (MUSHY KEYS… STAY AWAY!), I liked the zoom slider, even if it was really a bi-polar switch. Well, here they got it right: it's a two-sided switch. One end zooms out, the other zooms in. Works.
   
• The patented (I presume) Comfort Curve! A subtle bend, so keys aren't lined up in parallel, but rather, more naturalistically according to the angling of your arms. O, how I love this design: I never want to go back to "traditional" keyboards since the Comfort Curve has proven to be so remarkable. I don't type "normally" — y'see, most of my typing's done with thumbs and pointing fingers. Yup, hunt-'n'-seek. So I can't really use those ergonomic, split-style keyboards. But I can certainly run like an ace on this, and I felt it in the store when I was gliding my fingers over a demo unit. 'Twas incredible. For space considerations, it's extremely difficult to think there'd be a laptop keyboard like this, as fond as I am of my MacBook Pro, but… y'never know.
   
• NEGATIVE TILT! This is supposed to be more natural-feeling; I never understood why keyboards with legs would want to force your wrists up in an awkward position, aka positive tilt. I haven't experimented a lot with this yet, but it's supposed to be more ergonomic because it keeps your wrists straight. 90-degree angles, they say…
   
• All in all, a lot of the good things I had to say about the CC2k carry over!

I'd previously made several failed attempts to switch mice from my long-beloved Intellimouse Optical. A venerable pleasure to use, precise tracking, and with the 5 buttons I'd become familiar with. Ahhhh. At the same time, life does go on, and I believe I've found my new match. So, I shall talk positively about the Habu:

• 7 buttons! The usual 5 ('cept the side buttons are both on the left instead of one on each side, as was the case with the Intellimouse Optical), plus two more under the scroll wheel that are like little buttons. I've already assigned both of them to Second Life-specific functions: the top one does Ctrl-Shift-S for a snapshot, and the button one makes my avatar jump. Nothing like picture power, huh? If only I could get my WLK6k's keys assigned to advanced keystrokes too.
   
• Slightly-curved fit is a great companion for the WLK6k. Sadly, southpaws preferring to mouse with their left are outta luck, as this is a decidedly right-handed mouse.
   
• After I worked out the config kinks and set things up, I observed a noticeable degree in responsiveness improvement: I used to think my IO was smooth, but now that I've optimized the Habu, it clearly has the tracking edge: very comfy to zip up, target an icon, double-click, and go wherever I need to be next. I've already built some in Second Life today, and even tho I'm still acclimating to the change, I feel good.
   
• Right and left-click buttons are extremely clickable and satisfying, yet require a minimum of effort. Similarly, scroll wheel is notchy and loose, yet not out-of-control (as the close-to-worn-out wheel on my IO feels — I remember how tight that thing was at the beginning!). Middle-clicking is similarly very direct. The package actually comes with a way to pop the side panel out and change the positioning of those buttons via an alternate panel, but I like mine closer to the front, as the default has them, so I'll keep 'em as they are. For now.
   
• Blue glow is eye-candy, but after seeing the red of my IO for so long, it's an ice-cool touch.
   
• I got a new mousepad, a simple Allsop MousePad Pro, to go with it. Tracks great with the laser sensor. I haven't come across any jittery movements I didn't intentionally make yet!

In the course of both my work + play, I break my days down into blocks of time. Seconds wasted accumulated across weeks become minutes, become hours, etc. I'm especially reminded in recent times how it's worth paying a reasonable amount more for good tools if they help you do what you hope to accomplish that much better and faster, and without detriment to your health. I've continued to evolve how I use my computers as tools, and if you're a regular computer user, chances are you touch your keyboard + mouse more than anything else a day.

Philosophically, I'm also reminded of when I was an actively performing pianists, and the great lengths I'd go to, to find keyboards that worked for me. But I was very adamant in knowing what was out there, how so-and-so Yamaha would feel different from a Kawai, a Bösendorfer, or another Yamaha. You can never quite tell until you get on, and often, in competitions, there are times when you don't have an advance opportunity to tickle those ivories. Much as an Olympics fiasco some years ago, I remember when a grand piano of a different make — majestic as it was! — passively trounced competitors whose fingers had been attuned to another kind of instrument. Those little slips of precision become cracks, which grow into cumulative gaps.

To riff off a certain Mentat, it may be by will alone that you set your mind in motion, and thus, you use your mind to set your body in motion. You want to keep yourself together, so thrive on tools that serve your life well. Your health, as I've found, could depend on it.