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Kinesis Advantage (split grid) keyboards. Alternatively, anything with cherry MX blue or MX brown switches, preferably without the 10 key/keypad section. Accoun

Kinesis Advantage (split grid) keyboards. Alternatively, anything with cherry MX blue or MX brown switches, preferably without the 10 key/keypad section. Accountants are probably the only people who should actually have a 10-key built into their keyboards.

tomjakubowski 12y ago
> Accountants are probably the only people who should actually have a 10-key built into their keyboards. Those who still play MUDs with a client might like to have them too, although whether they should be playing MUDs in 2014 is another question.
- robert_tweed 12y ago
  You can get standalone numeric keypads. How else could accountants and MUD players survive with a laptop? For this reason I don't understand why it remains the norm for PC desktop keyboards to include them, despite their use being the exception.
  - michaelbuddy 12y ago
    you can even get mechanical 10keys too. I like having a 10 key for working in 3D (Blender). If one is savvy enough in autohotkey or other keyboard customization, you could map the 10key to useful functions and label the keys with stickers or if standard keycaps, get some custom caps made.
markbao 12y ago
Awesome. I've been meaning to pick up a Kinesis Advantage—the combination of MX Brown switches plus ergonomic keyboard is great. I had the Freestyle2 which was less than great. I've been typing on Apple chicklet keyboards for years and while they're actually not that bad, they're not ergonomically sound at all.
- graublau 12y ago
  I think the chiclet keys are an ergonomic silver-bullet - RSI probably comes from years of us typing on deep keys in high keyboards.
  - tomsthumb 12y ago
    Chiclets are actually worse on your fingers because they shock-load your fingers when they bottom out. Mechanical keyboards are much easier on your fingers because you can feel when the key is activated, and sometimes hear it. This lets you know that you can stop pressing before the key bottoms out and there's much less force put through your fingers.
    - markbao 12y ago
      Never thought of that—that explains a lot of the fatigue I get from typing on them for long periods of time. I know that certain Cherry MX keys do the same. Which ones don't bottom out too harshly?
- tomsthumb 12y ago
  Yeah, the grids are much nicer. I can use the normal numbers now almost as fast as many of my friends can use a 10 key, and I never forget where symbols are for programming since everything is lined up quite nicely.
na85 12y ago
>Accountants are probably the only people who should actually have a 10-key built into their keyboards. I use mine a lot for flight sims. I'm sure MMO players don't mind having extra keystrokes.
- tomsthumb 12y ago
  Sure, but I would think those are both pretty small minorities relatively speaking, and these people surely feel and understand the need for a keypad. There's also separate 10-key pads that you can use so that your mouse is in a sane place except when you need to punch in a lot of numbers.
jfb 12y ago
I love my Kinesises (Kinesis? Kinesis-s?) but I wish that there was more experimentation in keyboards; I always wonder about chording keyboards, for instance; or a better HID interface than what we get with generic USB drivers. It's just not quite irritating enough to get me out of the ruts of path dependence, I guess.

tomjakubowski 12y ago

> Accountants are probably the only people who should actually have a 10-key built into their keyboards. Those who still play MUDs with a client might like to have them too, although whether they should be playing MUDs in 2014 is another question.

robert_tweed 12y ago
You can get standalone numeric keypads. How else could accountants and MUD players survive with a laptop? For this reason I don't understand why it remains the norm for PC desktop keyboards to include them, despite their use being the exception.
- michaelbuddy 12y ago
  you can even get mechanical 10keys too. I like having a 10 key for working in 3D (Blender). If one is savvy enough in autohotkey or other keyboard customization, you could map the 10key to useful functions and label the keys with stickers or if standard keycaps, get some custom caps made.

markbao 12y ago

Awesome. I've been meaning to pick up a Kinesis Advantage—the combination of MX Brown switches plus ergonomic keyboard is great. I had the Freestyle2 which was less than great. I've been typing on Apple chicklet keyboards for years and while they're actually not that bad, they're not ergonomically sound at all.

graublau 12y ago
I think the chiclet keys are an ergonomic silver-bullet - RSI probably comes from years of us typing on deep keys in high keyboards.
- tomsthumb 12y ago
  Chiclets are actually worse on your fingers because they shock-load your fingers when they bottom out. Mechanical keyboards are much easier on your fingers because you can feel when the key is activated, and sometimes hear it. This lets you know that you can stop pressing before the key bottoms out and there's much less force put through your fingers.
  - markbao 12y ago
    Never thought of that—that explains a lot of the fatigue I get from typing on them for long periods of time. I know that certain Cherry MX keys do the same. Which ones don't bottom out too harshly?
tomsthumb 12y ago
Yeah, the grids are much nicer. I can use the normal numbers now almost as fast as many of my friends can use a 10 key, and I never forget where symbols are for programming since everything is lined up quite nicely.

na85 12y ago

>Accountants are probably the only people who should actually have a 10-key built into their keyboards. I use mine a lot for flight sims. I'm sure MMO players don't mind having extra keystrokes.

tomsthumb 12y ago
Sure, but I would think those are both pretty small minorities relatively speaking, and these people surely feel and understand the need for a keypad. There's also separate 10-key pads that you can use so that your mouse is in a sane place except when you need to punch in a lot of numbers.

jfb 12y ago

I love my Kinesises (Kinesis? Kinesis-s?) but I wish that there was more experimentation in keyboards; I always wonder about chording keyboards, for instance; or a better HID interface than what we get with generic USB drivers. It's just not quite irritating enough to get me out of the ruts of path dependence, I guess.