I used to be pretty hardcore as my keyboard choices go. I have a stack of vintage IBM and Lexmark Model M keyboards, and can grade them like a wine connoisseur ('these '96 models just doesn't have the bounce I expect from even a good vintage '93 or '94', even though they're all far superior to the brand new Unicomp models still on the market). But like many computer users, I sometimes suffer from pain in my hands and arms from excessive typing. A while ago I decided I had to give up the Model M, due to both the excessive typing force it encourages and my increasing discomfort with the standard keyboard layout. A succession of keyboards aimed at ergonomic use have followed. Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 for Business #5QH-00001. Brand New Microsoft. New Listing *PLEASE READ Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 Black (B2M-00012) - 773kh. 12 product ratings - Microsoft 4000 Natural Ergonomic Keyboard KU-0462. Or Best Offer. Looking at the Wedge keyboards there's two options; retail and business. Can anybody tell me the difference between to two? I'm having a. Download film bioskop terbaru full movie. I've been though enough configurations of those now to feel comfortable passing on some shopping recommendations, gathered as I considered what I wanted for a second keyboard after settling on a primary one. Obligatory warning note: please be very careful here! If you're in enough pain from typing to want or need an alternate keyboard, you could have a problem much more serious than just a keyboard change will fix. My own experiments to improve what was diagnosed as classic ' were carefully supported by monitoring during doctor and physical therapy visits, to make sure there wasn't really a larger issue and that I wasn't making things worse in the process. You don't want to end up like the poor author of, who was left unable to type altogether after poorly executed care here. Shopping recommendations There's a lot to chew on below. Here's the condensed version, which answers the most common questions I and others seem to have about the more mainstream Kinesis products: • The Kinesis Freestyle with VIP kit is my recommended middle of the road pick. Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 Business Vs Retail Store![]() It has some parts you'll want even if you decide you want the somewhat more difficult to deal with (and much more expensive) Ascent 'multi-tent' kit. This gets you most of the benefits possible here, using the most common ergonomic keyboard positioning, while still offering some flexiblity and upgrade paths. The combination is $129 as I write this at the retailer I bought mine from and would recommend,. • If you think a more vertical setup might be a requirement for you one day, you can do add that later on the Freestyle. But you really should see how you do with just the VIP setup first, because the Ascent alternative is both really expensive and has its own potential issues. The most I'd recommend you consider spending right from the start is the extra $36 to get the the version of the keyboard with the wider 20' separation, because that you're going to want if you want to go vertical one day (but really only in that situation, so don't consider that important either) • If you're OK without so much flexibility or really need PS/2 support, consider the Kinesis Maxim keyboard. It's about the same price, is easier to move around due to its more integrated design, and it supports the position you're likely to settle on with the Freestyle anyway. • Want to experiment with a more ergonomic keyboard design to see if it helps you, but without committing so much money at first? Microsoft's Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 is a decent cheap (under $50 if you shop around a bit) option here, albeit without a good feel for presses of individual keys. Now we head backward toward how I came to these conclusions. Keyboard ergonomic issues In order to put all this into some context, first we need to talk about what's wrong with the traditional keyboard. Keys that require less force to activate are always good, but I have those on my laptop and it's not really comfortable to type on it, so that's clearly not enough. The main thing I've come to appreciate is that our forearms aren't designed to be horizontal for long periods of time. Try this experiment: let your arms fall loose to your sides. Note the position your hands are in relative to your arms? Your thumb is forward, your hands lined up straight with your forearms. Now hold your arms in front of you. Your arms feel more comfortable with your thumbs are pointing toward the ceiling, right? That's a natural position your body is comfortable with. Now note how your hands and arms move when you use a standard keyboard. There's a 90 degree twist from your natural position. Your hands might be bent backwards some too; that's not good either, as it tenses the muscles in your forearms (which then pull on things all the way up to the elbow). And unless your arms are much more flexible than mine, you probably are more comfortable with them further apart than when you're using a standard keyboard, where you have to bend your elbow further inwards than is really ideal in order to get both hands on the home row. Kinesis has a good description of the various problem areas here in their document. On a particularly painful day where it hurt just to rotate my hands into the typing position, I noted that all it took was returning to thumbs-upward and separating them to make that feel better. The first question this raised for me was whether I could type like that. ![]() Kinesis Ascent You sure can; the (also called the 'Multi-tent' kit) lets you split the keyboard in half and push it straight up if you want. The product catalog on their site isn't all that great, I found the shopping experience at reseller easier to navigate and order from (cheaper than direct from Kinesis, too). The Ascent is a really expensive upgrade for the keyboard. I found it valuable for mapping out what my options were, because you can setup just about any angle/position combination with it. Ultimately I wouldn't recommend it for most people though. For me at least, the really sharp angles (near the 90 degree vertical position shown in the product picture) were hard to type on for a couple of reasons. While I touch type, I learned just how much I look at the keys for punctuation when in this position, because it's hard to do. The biggest problem with this accessory is that while well constructed, it's still just sheet metal. There was too much flex in the design for me to really be happy with it, particularly in its vertical position. ![]() I had to tense more muscles than I expected to type that way, because I had to be so careful not to press too hard toward the center. It feels like you might collapse it inward, even though that's actually hard to do, because it does give a little in that direction. And angles short of vertical didn't turn out to be very useful to me either. Once I made the angle greater than around 20 degrees, I couldn't get a comfortable position until I reached >70, at which point I was back to being worried about collapse toward the middle again. At small angles, it was much sturdier, but there was still just a bit more play than I like. What I wanted instead was to adjust into the right position, than make it really solid in that spot. That's the approach more explicitly taken by some of the other competitors here, like Goldtouch; there's a good discussing their products, and I ruled out Goldtouch because I wanted the option of being able to separate the halves (even though it turns out I don't really need that right now). One part of the Ascent design aimed to improve stability is a metal connector plate that attaches to the two keyboard halves. I found this to be a bit sketchy in that the halves aren't locked into place as firmly as I'd like (it's just a couple of bolts). The stock Freestyle keyboard comes with a removable 'pivot tether' connecting the two halves of the keyboard. That allows splaying the two halves of the keyboard apart from one another at an angle, which I found works better for me than trying to keep them straighter. You certainly can splay with the Ascent by just not using the connector plate, but now you're dealing with two completely disjoint sections. The biggest issue I found with that is repeatability: without a way to lock into the position I want to use, the two halves tended to drift toward sloppy and bad positions without me noticing. Moving the keyboard around is a nightmare too without the connector plate. Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboards It's hard to ask the day job for a keyboard combination that approaches $400 with all the fixins when I wasn't even sold on it myself completely.
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