Mat Harden

Programmable keyboard

I know it’s a bit geeky, but I want a new keyboard. Sometimes my keys on mine don’t engage properly and it’s frustrating. I’ve got one of those new Dell space saver jobbies at work which is simple and all I need. But do you know how hard it is to find it on their crappy website!? Very. Only because I know someone who works there did I manage to find the part number and subsequently, the item itself.

Looking around Digg, I found the Das Keyboard which has no inscriptions on the key what-so-ever. The idea is that you’ll force yourself to memorise the keys by their location, increasing your productivity. That’s all very well, but it’s damn ugly. For $80, why not buy a cheap one and scrub the letters off?

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BMW have just placed a ‘1 Series with iPod connection’ ad at the bottom of my road which led to me finding iPod you BMW. I’ve been waiting for someone to release some slick iPod/car integration and I was hoping this would be a good start.

I’m left disappointed. It looks as though they’re still making things more complicated than they have to be.

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Oh dear. What a stressful time it is when your host’s server suffer “technical difficulties” and takes 36 hours before it’s back online whilst loosing your 2 most recent blogs (now recovered). Hmmm… clearly no load balancing here then. The first technical support guy was so unhelpful. But I knew I had to stay calm, as shouting doesn’t get you anywhere in these situations [thinks back to 3 delievries of a Dell].
Thankfully a new server is in place which is actually responds to page requests much faster.

Now I have to find it within myself to re-post the last two blogs.

Broken iPod

That’s right. My third in eight months. My second iPod, which arrived February 23rd 2005 broke a couple of weeks ago. Today I have received my second replacement. Suffering from similar symptoms as the previous plus I couldn’t update it and then screen stopped working.

Apple have been pretty good though. I called them last Monday, they picked it up on Tuesday and now I have a brand new one. Lets hope this one lasts.

I love concept cars. When we’re all driving round in that Lexus out of Minority Report I’ll be a happy man. But until then I’ll continue to dream of cars such as the ones built by Rinspeed, some crazy Swiss company that’s going to make all our road rage disappear.
Check out their amphibious car which was previous shown on Top Gear.