Praise be to the Microsoft Natural Keyboard

I've been typing for a very long time. I was originally taught touch typing using an old-school manual typewriter in Year 3 by a nun. I spent much of my childhood dicking around with computers starting with the Dick Smith Wizzard, learning to program. My teenage years were (mis)spent chatting on bulletin boards, then the Internet.
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By the time I left high school I could do about 140 words per minute at typing so my first real job was doing data entry for a mail order porn video company, typing in peoples' orders for, erm, adult entertainment. To this day I can type a credit card number in about 5 seconds without looking at the numeric keyboard.

Once I got a real job I found my wrists started getting sore from all the hours at the keyboard. Real ergonomic keyboards cost an absolute mint so I started trying out Microsoft's recently-released ergonomic keyboard, borrowed from someone at work who'd tried it and given up finding it too weird. Once I stopped crossing-over for the "b" key, I really got used to it and I haven't been without a couple since.

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I've owned about every iteration, including the diabolical "Elite" whose sin was to change the layout of the arrow keys. I tend to own one for work and one for home, and end up having to buy a new one every 1.5 years or so as they wear out. Not bad given the amount of work they seem, and I often eat my lunch over them. I had one die when our ceiling collapsed in our London flat a few years back, it never really got the grit out and half the keys stopped working a few days later.

This email was prompted by me having to run out and buy yet another. A cluster of keys on the left-hand side had stopped working. Yet again they've changed the grade of plastic on the keys, though they seem okay. It's a bit less clacky too.

So thanks Microsoft. At least you've got one product that has mostly been superb! Now if Logitech would just bring back the superb Trackman Marble FX I'd be very happy!

Logitech TrackMan Marble FX
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