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German: Apple vs. standard.

Find the @.

Try typing on a German keyboard...

Notice the placement of the Z and Y keys. (This is actually sensible, based on their frequency of use in German, but getting used to it is an adventure...)

Notice the symbols on the number keys. The !, $, and % are as you'd expect... the () keys are on the 8 and 9 instead of the 9 and 0... and the rest of the symbols are hopelessly thrown about.

It's with a bit of geeky pride that I claim the ability to touch-type on both the English and German keyboard layouts.

dammit like this
stupid html...

Unless I'm mistaken, all keyboards can do the basic ASCII characters.

And guess what, all keyboards can do any characters. The keyboard is just a lot of switches and a cable that tells the computer which switches are pressed; the mapping between keys and characters is established by keyboard layouts, which are configurable in all major OSes. The differences between keyboards for one script and another are, for the most part, the symbols printed on the keys.

Having a keyboard layout that doesn't match your keyboard is certainly not optimal, but it's not terrible; back in the days where Spanish language keyboards were still not widely imported into my country, and all the keyboards were in English, plenty of people learned to type Spanish layout on an American English keyboard. In the worst case, just buy some damn stickers to put on the keys.

How are you going to enter these URLs on a standard keyboard from a different region?

By typing them, of course. After all, the standard keyboards from a different region are designed for that script!

Seriously, dude, it's not like your OS doesn't support international keyboard layouts, or like you can't buy international keyboards, or even just sticker overlays for your existing keyboard. If you care to learn a language with a different script, you can most certainly use it in the computer that you have today.

How are you going to enter these URLs on a standard keyboard from a different region?

By typing them, of course. After all, the standard keyboards from a different region are designed for that script!

Seriously, dude, it's not like your OS doesn't support international keyboard layouts, or like you can't buy international keyboards, or even just sticker overlays for your existing keyboard. If you care to learn a language with a different script, you can most certainly use it in the computer that you have today.

I must agree here also, I worked as an automobile mechanic in a very dirty shop for several years while I was going to college. We used pc's to do things like order parts and look up technical information about jobs we where doing. Let me tell you brake dust is a very nasty thing.

Some sudgestions I might make:

1. You don't have to spend alot of money for fan filters. Use pantyhose, cut them to fit over your fans and rubberband them down around them leaving the exhaust side of the fan open then install them.
2. Make sure you have more intake than exhaust, this creates a positive pressure within the pc itself and helps to keep the dust from creaping in throught the cracks.
3. Deffinately use an optical mouse.
4. Use a keyboard cover, http://www.datacal.com/dce/typing-cover-info.htm

   The monitor is another story, someone earlier sudgested using one of those desks where the monitor mounts under the writing surface. This sounds like the best way to protect it in your situation although when sealing it off I would install a few fans because monitors can create a lot of heat (using the filtering methods I described earlier on all intake fans). Here I would also make sure I had positive air pressure or more intake than exhaust.

   As for the cold, just leave the pc turned on that should be enough to keep it warm.

These do look nice, but the killer feature on a keyboard for me would be a built in trackball somewhere near the middle of the main key area. The reason that I avoid using the mouse a lot is that the latency of getting my hands from over the main keys to the mouse and back is so high, having a trackball under a thumb would be ideal.

Not exactly in the arrow-key area, but it does have "IBM model-M" clickety-click buckling springs.. Available in PS/2 and serial.

Unicomp on the Ball.

Or perhaps you enjoy a keyboard with a clit?

This one has a trackball below the space bar. Or you could get a keyboard without numeric pad and place a trackball where the numeric pad would be. Perhaps buy a separate numeric keypad to go next to the trackball (or on your left, if you're lefthanded).

Or a keyboard with a touchpad?

Or steal a 1U keyboard/trackball drawer from your work's datacenter?