The more I use the Logitech Wired Ultra-thin Illuminated Keyboard, the more I like it. I don't mind the cord as much as I thought I would, I don't need to move the keyboard around much anymore I guess. Now I just would like a nicer mouse like another MX revolution. Also, I just finished a Home Theatre PC system build with a Mini-ITX motherboard from Asus, more on this when I have some time. Stay tuned.

Mouse? Mouse? Well I've been a fan of Logitech mice for a really long time. I have several of their mice. The VX Revolution serves my mobile laptop needs. It's small, has a little receiver that fits neatly back into the mouse for storage, and it has insanely good battery life.

At home I have the old fashioned G5. I bought this back when I was still playing CounterStrike Source with my friends online. Now we're all busy with kids or work, and it's been far too long since I was gunned down in some fruit market hunting for terrorists. It's a corded mouse, which I'm not a big fan of, but I appreciate its resolution switching on the fly with the button on top of the mouse. The original G5 which I have has only a single back button for browsing and not a forward button as well, but that's been fixed in newer releases of the mouse. I don't want to spend the coin to buy the cordless version, so there it sits on my desk. The MX1000, or whatever laser mouse came with the DiNovo Laser Desktop bundle I have, sits unused. I originally figured I'd use the G5 just for the gaming, but now it's my all aorund mouse at home. At work, I had to, I JUST HAD to get the MX Revolution mouse when it was on Black Friday sale last year. It's a wonderful mouse if it weren't for one tiny nagging issue that annoys probably just me in the entire universe. It's a long story** you can read at the end of this post. But I digress, the MX has a great mouse scrolling wheel and really good tracking. It would be perfect if it added on the fly resolution changing like the G5.

**Long story, here it is:
I use me the Autodesk Maya professionally, and there is abundant use of the middle mouse button. All new mice have the middle scroll wheel that may be depressed to be a middle click. Well, it takes more effort to press down the scroll wheel than a middle button, and when you're on the watchout for carpal tunnel syndrome, every little effort counts. SO, all the other Logitech mice that have the side to side scroll funciton on the scroll wheel also allow you to remap the side to side button press for the middle mouse. And since tilting the wheel left or right is MUCH easier than pressing it down, it makes for a much easier and less carpal damaging middle mouse button click. SO anyway, for some unknown reason, you cannot remap the side scrolling on the MX to be a middle mouse click. Horrible! Luckily I found a hack online that opens up ALL the mouse button functions for remapping to pretty much anything, and I use that. Fascinating, wasn't it?

Logitech's DiNovo keyboard is the only keyboard I will willingly type on. It's such a wonderful keyboard, though I could do without the Bluetooth. One thing that irks me is using this on a KVM is near impossible, as the OS you switch to will want to pair with the keyboard everytime, which means you have to punch in a new security code. This is troublesome, and in an age where we've put rovers on Mars, I think there must be a solution for it. Until that happens, I broke down and bought a corded USB keyboard, the Wired Ultra-thin Illuminated Keyboard from Logitech. I have yet to put it on my system, but from what I've seen from a coworker's here at the studio, it's pretty nifty. Plus it's a fraction of the cost of an actual DiNovo, and is fairly close to it, more or less. I like its style and the fact that it's backlit a lot. I'd prefer to have the DiNovo Edge, but can't bring myself to put down the high price for it. This corded one was a good deal with a Black Friday rebate.
But from my limited experience with it, it does not have quite the same tactile awesomeness of the Dinovo. My DiNovo at home is on the fritz and having bluetooth issues (bluetooth was such a flop compared to it's promise!!), but Logitech replaced it under warranty without issue, so that says a lot. I could do without their severely bloated drivers and constant updates balloons. Other than the fairly useless battery wasting number pad/media pad remote, the DiNovo is really a fantastic keyboard, I can't type on anything else (other than my laptop keys).

This past fortnight I had TWO 30" displays setup at work. On my desk, on the same system. That little Dell, I hafta get you the specs when I remember, with a midrange QuadroFX in it, is currently TWO dual link DVI 30" 2560x1600 resolution screens. I'm thinking it's just too much to bear, it hurts my back, but man is it f*&^ing cool. I split my Maya window between the two screens today. I put it so I had two different modeling windows at an angle to each other and I just stuck my face in between them as would a college kid in a strip club. I'll sit with it a while longer and see how it goes. One is a Dell 3007FWP, the other an HP LP3065. Both the same LCD panel, each with it's own nifty add on features. I've been a damned lucky man to be having them, singly or doubled up. In any event, I'd love to work with a DreamColor sometime soon. I also have seen how Dell's reporting over a billion colors in some of their screens, which I am assuming in my uneducation, means they are 30bit as I know the DreamColor is. You can read about my review of the HP in an upcoming Post Magazine, and the Dell was reviewed a while back in same magazine. Good stuff, and it's all getting better. I'm trying to get some time back so I can more reviewing as I used to when I had far less dad things to do (which I love, don't get me wrong).

Oh, right, and the reason why I felt like kicking that Dell workstation was a silly Windows XP swap file setting that was poorly set. Though I would like to get a scratch drive on that machine and even the OS/Program drive to a 10k rpm velociraptor to help boost it, but overall it's been a really sturdy machine.

I use a Dell workstation at the studio (at work), and I went from wanting to kick it daily to now really counting on it. I have always liked Dell workstations, but moreso the mobile ones, save for their heft. But I do have to declare my love for HP deskside workstations cause they have always kicked ass in studios. I mean these things take a beating and still can be elegant. But their laptops, well not as much of a fan. Although I really like their portability, they seem rather exposed to peril. I like their size and shape a lot, but they feel a bit less sturdy than I'd like, and their performance has not been as rock solid as I've seen from the Dells. There is the m2400 I'm really interested in seeing, it's 14" screen and form-factor makes for great mobility. I had a short look at last years SIGGRAPH, the last one in LA. It felt really easy to carry, and yet pretty sturdy. Having grown tremendously to loving the m70 and then relying hugely on the m90 to get me through a mobile day, I wonder how the m2400 would fare. Now let's talk about a notebook I would very much like, and that's the 13" MacBook Pro, running Windows7. Yeah, ok, be upset with me. Fine, find me out and gun me down. But I am thrilled that Windows is now on Macs. Brilliant. Workstation wise, I have yet to be convinced, as I don't think that is a market they are going for. Wait, before you send me horrible thoughts, by "workstation" I in particular mean a workstation that can handle the 3D's. Show me a 15" with a Quadro option, and we'll talk. As far as their towers, I think they're beautiful machines, but I'm a fan of Frankenstein. I enjoy the hunt and the build and the work in maintaining a home built rig. Economic as well as fun, if you like this sort of pain. It's a challenge I love to slowly destroy myself with, but it's at least all mine. I don't feel I'd get that from a Mac tower. Perhaps at work, where I'm more inclined to just want stuff to work right, at home, I prefer to have the fun of parting it together and making it run.