output :[

How did I end up at this place? A keyboard snob? An elitist? In the early 90s my Mum gave me her IBM Model M keyboard from a previous job. A mechanical marvel, an engineered masterpiece. I couldn't fully appreciate it at the time, perhaps I was young, but more likely we just had no idea how crappy keyboards would become over the next two decades. I spilled orange juice into the Model M, and although a little sad, I moved on.

Years later, despite getting mild RSI at work I persevered with crappy bottom of the line HP keyboards in the office. My Mac Pro was delivered with the horrendous A1048 keyboard. I replaced this with the 'funky' aluminum mac keyboard - hey did I just pay good money to give my Mac Pro a laptop keyboard?

DSI Mac Mechanical Modular Keyboard

Finally I lost the plot. From Fentek Industries I bought a snappy DSI Mac Mechanical Modular keyboard. The idea is that it is expandable in various ways, but I was happy to get a tenkeyless keyboard and save on desktop space. I also wanted a mac-specific keyboard layout, and there really aren't any alternatives. The DSI Mac Modular has the option and command keys in the mac positions, and no context-menu key. Additionally, the Mac Modular supports volume up, down and mute, and has an eject key. This is all well and good, but I would love to have seen support for pause/play/next track for iTunes - really more useful. My only other minor quibble with the keyboard is that the compact layout is a little dense. Using a Windows layout at work day to day, I get a little disoriented with cursor keys, page up/down etc jutting right up to the regular keys.

The typing action on this keyboard is great. I have the one blessed with brown Cherry switches, blue are also available. Despite using the 'quieter' brown Cherry switches, you will get a very distinct mechanical keyboard noise from this keyboard. Drives the wife a little crazy. Doesn't matter, I'm in my own world churning out wpm on this baby.

My keyboard seems to have a weird issue with USB - it just stops working after some period of rest. Not sure if it's the keyboard or my computer, but I will contact DSI about it.

I would definitely recommend this keyboard for any Mac user desiring a quality keyboard with a Mac specific layout.

Realforce 87U Keyboard

Now, the real new darling in my life is the Topre Corporation's Realforce 87U keyboard. The typing experience on this really is fantastic. The keyboard's reputation of being the best you can get is well deserved. Topre's capacitive switch technology is really unique. It doesn't feel like any mechanical switch I've used. The keys do not bottom out in a hard, clunky manner. Instead they seem to offer some gentle deceleration before they hit the end of their travel. They are also quiet. The sound is satisfying, but not clacky like regular mechanical switches. The layout is great - a standard Windows layout with everything in the expected location, perfect for programming. The tenkeyless layout keeps the mouse close to my right hand. It's appearance is totally ninja with black text on black keys, which looks cooler than blank keys and also lets non-typists hunt and peck, should you allow them to touch your keyboard.

Kapow! I decided to power up from the regular understated black escape key to the red one.

Navigation keys

Numeric keypad

The Realforce keyboards are also customizable. I have switched my left [ctrl] and [caps] keys, putting the left control key closer to my pinky. You can also deactivate the Windows key and the Numlock key.

Beautiful blue glow...

To support this, you get alternative sets of [capslock] and [ctrl] keys. You also get an additional red [esc] key (as pictured) and some pretty funky blue WASD keys - for gamers I guess?

Scouring the web, you'll no doubt encounter many personal dilemmas about shelling out so much money for just a keyboard... wait... just a keyboard? I use a keyboard every day of my life. I use a keyboard to earn my living. Would you expect a carpenter to use a rusty old band saw? Would you risk your well being with poorly fitting shoes? It is utterly worth it. If I lost this keyboard, I'd absolutely buy a replacement without hesitation. Once you lay your hands on one of these, you'll know exactly why you bought it.

[Updates about some problems with the light at the end]

I thought I'd write a quick entry about my trusty Planet Bike lights, since they saved my ass twice tonight. Although bike lights are vitally important, they often seem rather ineffective. Car lights are much brighter, and in the city, there is a lot of ambient lighting, some of it flashing, meaning bike lights sometimes don't register with motorists and pedestrians until just before the moment of tragedy.

No more.

The Planet Bike Superflash tail light was the first product of theirs I bought. Bloody brilliant. This light is impossible to miss. It has two bright LEDs that flash rapidly, and then an astoundingly bright LED that flashes less frequently, making for a dazzling discotheque, proudly asserting your presence on the road. I bought this with the CatEye Opticube - a respectable (and slim) head light.

Chuffed as I was with my lighting rig, riding home one night I encountered a solar flare approaching me from the other direction. Holy shit, is that a motorcyclist on the path? A stray comet!? No! It was a cyclist with a bike light! I saw him the following night again. That light! So obnoxious, so brilliantly bright! I headed into Sid's bikes on 19th and asked about this super bloody bright bike light I had seen. They kindly directed me to the Planet Bike Blaze, and the Blaze 1W (one Watt!!).

Holy cow... is that mother bright! Like the Superflash, it has a rapidly pulsing bright light before blasting your eyes out the back of your head with a laser beam every fourth flash or so. You can also just turn it on. Bright. Unbelievably bright. And that's only on the half setting, click the button again, and you have thermonuclear bright. According to the manufacturer, you can see it a mile away, but I'd be pretty surprised if you couldn't see it from the moon, possibly even from the dark side. Trust me, if you haven't seen one of these, your bike light is like riding around with a candle compared to this thing. At the time, my Opticube was about the brightest thing I'd seen, but I can look into this thing without causing eye damage... the Blaze? Even on half setting, you'll be seeing colors for a minute if you stare into it. In defense, it is possible my Opticube's batteries are running down... [brief interlude] yes a little, but even after swapping the batteries around, I have a big purple blob in the middle of my field of vision from looking into the Blaze. There is something about the reflector and lens in this thing that is so effective.

While I was recently back in Oz visiting family, I took my bike lights with me for night cycling. I clip the Superflash onto my Chrome bag, so no problems there. The Blaze, however, has an absolutely brilliant mounting system. Very quick to adjust, easily removed, and consequently very easy to transfer to any other bike. There is a snap-style adjustment for course tightening, and then the clasp allows you to screw in to tighten it right up. The clasp then clicks in beautifully to marry your Blaze to your handlebars with no possibility of divorce. You don't even need any tools - possibly a key to help if you need to loosen the snappy bit, but you probably won't need to. The design of this thing is head and shoulders above any light I've seen. I love it. Especially compared to the finger bleeding procedure involved in getting the fucking Opticube onboard. Arsehole thing.

Borrowing my brothers rather cool Giant XTC, I noticed he had some pissweak Guppy lights, or something similar. In the interests of keeping him alive, I donated my Blaze and Superflash to him. So on returning home, I bought another Blaze, and the Superflash Stealth. Wow, possibly even cooler than the regular Superflash! Maybe even brighter!

I keep the Opticube, since it's by no means a slouch, and use it in conjunction with the Blaze, setting one to 'on' and the other to flashing. I feel this is the best of both worlds. So anyway, riding home tonight, in the cold, dark winter evening, some impatient dickface driver was about to swerve around a slower vehicle before BLAMMO! Take some of that Blaze in your faze, sucker! Later, riding down 18th, a bus, blocked by a cab, was about to pull out in front of me when it slammed on the brakes. The Blaze had saved my ass again, as the bus driver quite obviously saw me and my truck light coming, or possibly went into seizure, and slumped over the wheel. Doesn't matter... drivers can see me now, I'm no longer drowned out by bright car lights and ambient city lighting noise.

Oh yeah, and remember Planet Bike donate 25% of their profits to bike advocacy... that gets my vote!

[update Jan 2010] - As much as I do like the light, I have to concede that I have had issues with the mount. The clip that holds the light into the bracket is not secure. The light sits unbalanced on the bracket, and hitting rough patches (say cobblestones) can rattle the light out of the bracket. Mine has ejected itself numerous times, causing some impact damage to the light, and eventually cracking the plastic base that holds it into the bracket, making it worse and even more likely to jump out. It is now held together by electrical tape. Hopefully Planet Bike will redesign the mount. If you are on smooth roads, it's a great light, if you hit rough patches, this light is not for you.

In the mean time, I have ordered a pretty kick ass looking Cygolite MiliOn USB - bright, light, and USB rechargeable! ...Still awaiting delivery.