JeremyHelms

Time for new input devices…

December 22, 2006 at 12:52 am

I've used my Microsoft Wireless Natural Multimedia Keyboard and Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer 2.0 for as long as I can remember; replacing with the exact (or updated) version whenever necessary. But, I think it was just from habbit, because I actually don't care too much for the bulky keyboard. The mouse I like however, because of the customizable buttons on the side and being able to set them to forward and back for browsing the web - makes jumping from page to page in the browsing history very easy.

I could probably live with this setup for all of eternity, but recently I have found a major issue with using Microsoft wireless devices in an operating system other than Windows: additional data is being sent with the key codes!? I'm not sure what the data is exactly, but I found out about this while troubleshooting an unkown scancode error that was nearly unavoidable in my recent installation of debian. This message would show up out of the blue (not specific to any one key) and would sometimes roll down the shell prompt window for days until I hit another key that sent a piece of "hidden" data that would stop the error from occuring. I thought this was a misconfiguration of Debian until I found (after hours and hours of digging) a blog post about a guy having the same problem and [thankfully] his solution.

Now, I have two more linux distros running (Ubuntu desktop & server) and the problem occurs on these as well! So, although my keyboard and mouse work fine in Windows, this unknown data being sent doesn't make me very warm and fuzzy, therefore I think it's time to look into some new input devices..

In a post on C# Shiznit, Bobby discusses an awesome keyboard made by Enermax called the Aurora and in looking at it's specifications I see that it's not only half of the height that my Microsoft keyboard is, but it's also about 50mm shorter in length and 30mm shorter in depth which would give me back some real estate on my slide-out keyboard tray instead of having the keyboard hang over the edge like it does now!

Well, I'm not sure what setup I'm going to choose, but I'll be sure to post my findings when I'm finished!

About the author

I am Jeremy Helms, 28 year old graphic designer, web designer, site architect, programmer, copywriter and ambitious entrepreneur. I was born and live in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. This site is my personal periodical for design, code, business and other topics. When I'm not glued to the computer, I enjoy music, movies, late-night television and sometimes a good night out on the town with friends.

I began professional work in the IT industry 13 years ago in September, 1995. I started my first business in 1998, incorporated my second business in 2001, my third in 2002 and my fourth and most recent in 2006. I am a sponge — I am constantly exploring and learning — about business, design, programming, history, society, and whatever pops up on blogs across the web.

• I have been happily married for 5 years; together for a total of 10 years
• I am a father of two boys; Junior (born 02-06-07 @ 6:17PM — 8lbs 13oz.) and Jedi (born 05-06-08 @ 12:39PM — 8lbs 4oz.)
• I am a free and accepted Master Mason, belonging to Florida Alpha Lodge No. 172
• I have two prize Labrador Retrievers (Buck & Brody)
• I graduated from Choctawhatchee Senior High School
• Some of my favorite movies include Snatch, L4yer Cake, Blade Runner, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, THX 1138, Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, the Star Wars hexology and Ronin