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[Gasman]

Pat, they last for ever on one AA for mouse and two for keyboard.
If they do, then you use the laptop's devices, or are you travelling with a desktop?

 

[Pat Hartman]

Pat, they last for ever on one AA for mouse and two for keyboard.

Not really forever. They are timed to go dead when you are in a hotel room or if you are at home, after the stores are closed. Why can't I use wired devices if I want to? There is nothing inherently better about wireless. Then there is the problem of the dongle, which I have lost for more than one wireless mouse. At least some mice have an onboard storage slot for the dongle but not all of them do.

Batteries now come marked with an expiration year so at least I have a better shot at not bringing along an old expired one. But why change now? I have no problems with wired devices so I'm stickin' with 'em

 

[Isaac]

Then there is the problem of the dongle, which I have lost for more than one wireless mouse

SO true. I literally lose every single dongle I get with a wireless mouse, and mostly stick to wired at this point too.

Then again, I'm NOT a heavy 'laptop user/mobile traveller' - i.e., Yes I buy laptops, but they're exclusively used hooked up to monitors and all peripherals (because who can be equally productive on that tiny laptop keyboard??), so I probably am not as aware of the benefits of wireless

 

[Gasman]

Well mine is plugged into the laptop 24/7, so somewhat hard to lose.
Keyboard and mouse go in the backpack when travelling.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

At the moment I'm using a wired 6-button mouse that came with the gaming machine I bought (when the old 'puter gave up the ghost.) But the games I like to play don't allow for more than 3 buttons on mice anyway so I've got three useless buttons.

 

[Isaac]

What about ya-all's keyboards? Has anyone used, for an extended period of time like years, one of those "ergonomically correct" weird-ass curved keyboards? If so, are/were you a fast touch-typist? And was it true that you "got used to it" and were eventually able to type just as fast on it as your traditional prior keyboard?

I'm 45 with no carpal tunnel yet and keeping my fingers crossed. They say the way I type isn't ideal, but I have a hard time imagining getting fully used to anything else

 

[Gasman]

I am not a touch typist, and my hands move all over the place.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I took a touch-typing class in high school. It was the most practical class I ever took and it was only a one-semester class. When I got into college, I got a Smith-Corona-Marchand electric typewriter and typed papers for myself and a few friends. Then the university got a timesharing systems and I was able to type in programs like crazy. I became the first person on my campus to use a word processing system to write my dissertation. OK, technically it was a typesetting system fed through an old IBM Selectric - the one that had a rotating ball instead of lever-action type arms. But it was amazing at the time. Blew away my major professor. Once I started work in the real world, I was touch-typing between 60 and 70 words a minute (corrected).

When I started my amateur writing hobby, a couple of times I blew through 3 or 4 chapters a night when composing. I can touch type about as fast as I can talk when on an electronic keyboard.