Pointing Stick Keyboard Roundup

An anonymous reader writes "Blogger pettijohn went on the search for the best USB external keyboard with a pointing stick. He found exactly three products that fit the bill in the market, so he bought all three and wrote a proper roundup review."

Comments

Re:Pointing Stick?

[Rhaban]

Depends on who can hear you.

Friends: Keyboard Clit
Coworkers: Keyboard Nipple
Boss: Pointing Stick.

chiropractor

[Anonymous Coward]

>After a chiropractor urged me to...
>chiropractor

Oh dear....

Re:chiropractor

[raddan]

The physicist would respond, however, "Necks are not my field." A chiropractor, however, claims be able to cure any ailment using spinal adjustments, which is patently absurd.

Re:chiropractor

[natehoy]

Depends on the chiropractor.

I wrenched my back pretty badly last summer, and it kept getting worse. I finally went to see a chiropractor who spent some time examining the bone positions, used some electric thing to warm up the muscles, did some twisty crunchy stuff, and I walked out of the office upright and nearly pain-free, and armed with some photocopied sheets of appropriate exercises to strengthen the muscles and stretch things back into shape. I went back for a couple of followups, and he fine-tuned the adjustment, and my back felt perfectly normal within a couple of weeks, and we were done.

If the problem is skeletal, a competent chiropractor is an appropriate person to see. There are cases where misalignment of the spine can cause problems elsewhere (nerve issues, breathing issues, etc).

But, yeah, claiming to cure cancer by doing an adjustment is off in oogy-boogy land, and gives the competent bone manipulation folks a bad name.

Re:chiropractor

[Sir_Lewk]

It never fails. Whenever chiropractors are mentioned on slashdot inevitably a dozen people and their cats sign on and make comments about how they know it is all mumbo jumbo but they or a loved one actually benefited from it. They, and the occasional mod, think these are actually insightful comments, which they are not.

Of course, someone that goes to a chiropractor is probably more pre-disposed to not understand the concept of scientific evidence so I guess it's not all that puzzling...

Re:chiropractor

[Locklin]

In my case, the problem was simple - I was shoveling gravel, moved wrong with a heavy shovel extended, and shifted a bone ever so slightly out of place

I'm sorry, but is that even possible? As far as I know (IANAD or AC)all of our bones are pretty much solidly in place thanks to muscle, ligaments and other stuff. I suspect that if a bone became "out of place" you'd be writhing around in the back of an ambulance, not trekking to mall to find a chiropractor.

You are correct, there is no evidence that the "miss-alignment of bones" that chiropractors "diagnose" exists. They have been shown to, at most, have similar efficacy to physiotherapists when doing the same procedures, and that's about it.

I love how readers just provided *more* testimonials in response to my comment. Seriously people, this isn't how medicine works. There are people who use the *exact same* arguments to support prayer based healing, leeching chemicals for autistic kids, WD-40 for arthritis and all sorts of Woo. Testimonials are *not* valid support for medical treatments. Put up clinical trials or go home.

Re:It's not a pointing stick...

[Nadaka]

It isn't about looks. It is about operation. You use the trackpoint more like a clit.

Re:The lenovo is good, but not perfect

[Ipeunipig]

The touchpad more than likely has its own connection wiring in the internals of the keyboard.

Re:It's not a pointing stick...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've never understood why so many people have difficulty finding the clit... it's not exactly rocket science; it's pretty well front and center!

Re:what?

[tecnico.hitos]

Insightful, seriously? Some modders here seriously disappoint me.

It's a matter of preference. Disliking them doesn't make you more rational than the article writer.

First Summary Line?

[DeadboltX]

"Blogger pettijohn went on the search for the best USB external keyboard with a pointing stick."

Is there such a thing as a USB internal keyboard?

and did anyone else envision him poking at various keyboards with a stick?

Re:Why, why, why?

[pavon]

I don't like trackpads. They always register touches when I am typing and screw things up. Turning off tap-to-click helps somewhat, but they are still a pain. Oh and scrolling using the side of the pad never works for me. As much as I'd like the idea, the OS X multitouch trackpads are worse. They are constantly zooming when I meant to scroll, or scrolling when I meant to move the cursor or vice versa. I absolutely hate those things and they are another reason I will never buy an Apple laptop.

The eraser-caps are much nicer. They never move when you don't want them to. They can be very fast and precise once you get used to using them at high sensitivity. The middle button for scrolling is much nicer than any other implementation I have seen on a laptop.

Mice are much better than both for most things to be sure. But I don't like carrying around a mouse with me and the nubs are the best I have used on a laptop. Even on the desktop, if 99% of what you are doing is text, it is nice to be able to scroll and do quick cursor placements without taking your hands off the keyboard.

Re:what?

[tresho]

I just did a quick and completely non-scientific study of asking several people about these, all of them hate them. Birds of feather...

Re:Anyone else have this problem?

[bemymonkey]

Sounds like you're pressing too hard. Crank up the sensitivity all the way and you shouldn't have that problem, because you won't be applying enough physical force to cause that much wear and tear.

Obviously it'll die sooner or later, but luckily with Thinkpads, you have the option of just popping in a replacement keyboard with a new trackpoint built right in ;)