Damn, that hurts! (in more ways than one)

Oh, the pain! My favorite piece of computer equipment bit the dust yesterday. What is it, you ask? Or more to the point, what WAS it? Was it a super high res giant monitor? A turbo charged untra sensative drawing tablet? A Cyberdine Systems neural net processor with "detailed files"?

Nothing quite so grandiose, I'm afraid. It was a keyboard. But not just any keyboard, mind you, it was a Goldtouch adjustable split keyboard, which had been nothing less than a godsend for me. You see, about a year ago, my left wrist started giving me all kinds of trouble while typing. It started out as a little ache one day, and then by the end of the day it progressed to searing pain. It got to the point where I had to punch keys with a pencil because I just couldn't put my hand into typing position without it feeling like there was a red hot fire poker embedded in my wrist.

This went on for weeks, until I found the Goldtouch keyboard. Literally, as soon as I plugged the thing in and set it to the proper angle, the pain was gone, instantly. Oh, what bliss. With the Goldtouch, I was once again free to spend the better part of my waking hours as a hopeless computer adict, leaving the outside world free to go about its business without having to worry too much about the likes of me. It took me a couple days to get used to typing in the new position, but it was well worth it. Happy days were here again.

All that suddenly changed yesterday, however, when after returning from seeing King Kong (which abslutely frickin' rocked, by the way. The Kong vs. T-rex fight has got to be one of the greatest movie moments of all time. Go see it.) I walked into my home office to a beeping sound. The beep was repeating about once per second, not very loud, but certainly annoying enough to make me go "what the hell is that?" and start hunting for the source. It didn't take long to discover it was coming from the computer.

After another "what the hell is that" moment, aimed at the computer, a quick bit of trial and error revealed that unplugging the keyboard made the noise stop, and plugging it back in made it start again. I figured, no problem, something must just be goofy with Windows. A quick reboot should clear this right up, right? Wrong! About a minute after rebooting, the beep... beep... beep... started right up again.

I dug out an old keybaord from the closet, and plugged it in. No more beeping. Now the hard truth was starting to set in. My life-saving prize Goldtouch (not a cheap item), which had so effectively nursed me back from the brink of pain-induced psychosis, was now having health problems of its own. Nooooooo!!!!

Okay, I thought, no need to panic. Maybe a key is stuck down or something. Maybe it just needs a good cleaning. I popped off all the keys, and cleaned out the past year's worth of hair and debris that had accumulated underneath them (gross), and gave the whole thing a thorough rubdown with Endust For Electronics. I even took the time to scrub eacf each individual key. Then before replacing the keys, I took a look at the little rubber membrane in each socket to make sure nothing was stuck or crooked or dirty. Everything looked good, so I replaced the keys and plugged the board back in. Beep... Beep... Beep...

Okay, now time to panic.

Wait a minute, I thought. Maybe I could just live with the beep for a while until a solution could be found. I opened up MS Word to test the keys, and that's when all hell broke loose. Some keys work just fine, but others have completely bizarre results. Touch B, for example, and it prints "b45". Touch the 4 or the 5, and it also prints "b45". Touch D and the machine goes to the welcome screen. Touch M, and it minimzes Word. Etc, etc, etc. No rhyme or reason to it, just a crazy set of repeatable malfuncitons.

Okay, now it was time to panic for real. Thekeyboard was undeniably dead. I was seriously upset. I really loved that keyboard. I almost felt like a pet had died or something. Who would have thought a 2-foot contraption of plastic and wires could be so important?

I couldn't really take any time to mourn though. I had work to do. I plugged in the other keyboard and got started. OUCH!!!!! The pain was back within seconds. It had been gone for a year, but all it took was to put my hand in standard typing position, and BAM, the red hot poker from hell was once again firmly embedded in my left wrist. Clearly, this was not going to work.

I managed to find an old Belkin Ergoboard in my closet, which is how I've been able to type this post. Combined with a soft gel wrist rest, it's doing a pretty good job of keeping the pain down to a dull discomfort, but it's nothing like the Goldtouch. Also, it's huge and ugly, and it takes up way too much room on my keyboard/mouse tray, leaving my poor mouse with only half the room to move that it had before.

The really weird part is I have absolutely no recolection of ever buying this thing. I can't imagine where it came from, but it's gotta be ancient since it's beige. When did computers become not all beige anymore, the early 90's maybe?

It is definitely a mystery. We've only been living here for 4 years, and the place was absolutely empty when we moved in, so it wasn't a donation from the previous occupants, and we certainly didn't bring it with us when we moved in. Maybe it's an evil alien shape shifter that broke my Goldtouch and took the form of an Ergobaord so it could eat my fingers when I least expect it. Yeah, that must be it.

Anyway, the sort of good news is I contacted Key Ovation, the maker of Goldtouch, and they said that while it's probably not under warrantly anymore since it's more than a year old, they might be able to fix it or else give me a good discount on a replacement. Nice folks. So, I guess there may be a light at the end of the (carpral) tunnel, but it's probably gonna cost me some bucks.

So, why did I bother typing all this out? Well, partly to test myself on this Belkin monstrosity and see if I could type for a good length of time without too much pain, and partly because I figured if anyone could empathize with the rediculous feeling of loss I have over something as inane as a dead keybaord, it would be the SL community. All the coolest crazy people are here, afterall. Anyone have any comments, thoughts, condolences, flames, or other responses?

Sorry to hear -- but wow -- that's a lot of text on the ol' flat keyboard.


I wasn't too happy when my keyboard broke, either ..... but only because I'm cheap and lazy. This wireless keyboard served as a remote for movies and music as well as serving an entire network.

Now I have to go back to my desk if I want to skip a song (oh, the horror!)

ow! sorry to hear about your keyboard,

I've had many fine Keyboards come and go, but not quite like that, its my experiments with Soda and Mints right on my desk that ended my keyboard's life,

Also upon last year I had my Windows office CD blow up inside of my case, it was sweet to hear, but not so fun to get the fragments out,

but really good keyboards like that are very hard to come by, one day I might have to find something similar, Playing so many video games and typeing away madly has made my hands rarely tired once or twice a month,

I'm sympathetic. Hands and eyes are the most important things in life. Start an SL donation fund. Haha.

All said, I'm an extremely lazy typist, type with keyboard on my lap half the time or have my wrists lying on the desk, and all kinds of terrible postures. Those ergonomic things totally mess me up. I can't stand 'em (but I also slept on the bare floor for years until my girlfriend moved in with me).

My heart pains for you. I too have lost a Goldtouch and it is truly heart-breaking. May you get another one soon.

mmmm, I know what you mean, and feel your pain.

I nursed my first work keyboard through about 13 years of use, even asking the company for it when I left, just because it had diagonal cursor keys.

To developers across the world: You don't know what you're missing until you code with diagonal cursor keys!

you can still have diagonal cursor keys!

http://www.monu-cad.com/keyboard.htm#Features
http://www.mck142.com/downloads/mck-142-layout2.gif

daaaaaaaamn!!
had I know about that, Eggy, my family's "what do you want for christmas" questions would have had only one answer

I felt your pain! Get yourself to a good chiropractor and you will type pain-free on any keyboard. 6 weeks ago I had the same symptoms you have, in BOTH hands/arms. Not only did I wake up every night, with searing pain in my fingers, hands, wrists, arms all the way up to my armpits in flames (or at least it felt like that). It would take up to 2 hours in the morning until I could FEEL what I was touching, because even though the pain was almost unbearable, I had no sensation at all when I touched something. Dressing was quite a chore, turning on the shower almost impossible....

I finally gave up on my doctor and went to a chiropractor, for the first time in my life. WHAT a difference after just one treatment. I'm committed, I don't ever want to feel the way I did...specially because everybody around me thought it was all just in my head. Well...maybe it was, but if it was in my head the problem is gone.

Off.........to the chiropractor. I'm a life-time addict now!

Buy a new one.