This week, I got three pieces of hardware I'd been looking at for some time. I've been using them a few days, so I'll offer my first impressions. They are the Enermax Crystal Keyboard, Razer HP-1 Gaming Headphones, and, last but not least, a Mac mini.
I read a bunch of reviews on these online, since I was torn on which I should buy.
For a long time, I had used my Labtec Elite 835s (and before them, 830s). I needed a headset, since desk mics are so passe. I got Koss SB/45s, which were pretty much crap. They sounded bad and were really uncomfortable. Really, I have an immeasurable fondness for those Labtecs. But it was time to trade up. The Razer headphones seemed like a good choice. Not cheap, but not audiophile expensive at around $100. I use my headphones exclusively, so it seemed worth it.
All the reviews I'd read said they were very comfortable to wear for hours at a time... well, no. Y'see, the pads on the cups themselves are great, a soft velvety material that's miles above the plastic crap on the Koss phones (well, duh, those are $20 headphones). Problem is up top... you see that sort of retention strap? That means that there isn't much pressure placed on the top of your head... instead, it's held in place by the headphones squeezing onto your head. Yeah, not as much fun. I get the feeling they'll get better as I wear them. The headset will give more and be more comfortable, which actually did happen with the Koss headset. Still, they're not comfortable right now and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who doesn't have a ridiculously large head.
The volume box is the next problem. It's quite big, since it has dials for front, back, and center volume as well as bass. The problem is, there's only about a foot and a half of cord between the headset and the box, which means it'll weigh heavily on you... oh, but there's a clip, but guess what, it's facing the wrong way. I don't get this at all, where did they expect you to clip it? Your shirt pocket and have wires across your chest? Your pants pocket (but it barely reaches)? it's quite puzzling.
Oh, the sound? It sounds good, I guess. I mean, it does sound better than the Koss headphones, which is to be expected, but the surround sound isn't really stunning and it doesn't improve on things that are already poorly encoded, of course.
Recommend? No. Skip these, Razer has made some good products, and this isn't terrible, but for $100, I expect it to be great, not mediocre and serious usability issues cripple it.
Enermax Crystal Keyboard
I'd posted before that I wanted a new keyboard... I decided to take the plunge and get the Enermax Crystal Keyboard. Why? Because it's gorgeous. I needed a USB keyboard (or a PS2 adapter, but where's the fun in that?) for my Mac mini, so I decided it was time to swap out my Microsoft keyboard (regular, none of that ergonomic crap) for this. The first thing that anyone will notice upon seeing the Crystal is... Uo! Mabushi!
The diamond cut finish is truly... well, shiny. It helps that the layout is very compact and there are no superfluous keys (the only one I ever used was the Calculator key... seriously useful, that one). The layout is rather strange, though, it's more like a laptop than a full size keyboard... in fact, the keys themselves are low profile, like those on a laptop. Still, they feel very sharp and not mushy at all. The layout does take some getting used-to. I can deal with most of it except for the extra backslash key between the left Alt and the spacebar... I don't understand its purpose... do people really use the backslash key that much? There's a bit of an adjustment period for desktop users, since the low profile of the keys means you have to press harder on some of them (I'm looking at you, right shift key) and the layout is different, but I've gotten used to it in two days.
As a USB keyboard, it has two built-in USB ports, but really, they're useless since they're USB 1.1. That means using my thumb drive or iPod on them is out of the question. Besides, my PC has two USB 2.0 ports on the front of the case. It's also got microphone and headphone jacks, but, again, I'm not sure how useful they'd be... you'd have to ruin the simple elegance of the keyboard with wires running around your desk.
Recommend? Yes. At $60, you're not going to run out and buy this keyboard. If you're an ergonomic freak or love keyboards with lots of travel and clicky keys, you should pass this up. If it matches your decor and you're in the market, however, it's a good, solid (and very heavy) keyboard that looks great and works well.
Mac min (1.66Ghz Core 2 Duo, 1gig RAM)
So for the longest time, I've wanted a Mac. Probably because that guy from Dodgeball looked SO DAMN COOL. Actually, no, I hate Apple's smarmy attitude. I hate their lack of options when buying computers (hey Apple, I would've spent another $300 on a machine if you'd offered a standalone midrange system). No, what I like is Mac OS X. At work, I mainly work with OS 9, which is horrendous. Yes, worse than Windows 95. I did manage to install OS X on one machine in my lab and use it as a testbed. I liked what I saw, but I was running it on an iMac from 2002. I did think that, given that I wanted to develop games that are cross-platform and given that I wanted to write software for work, I should probably pick up a Mac. I looked carefully at the options... wait, no, I didn't. Apple doesn't give you options. Did I want to shell out money for an iMac that I don't have room on my desk for? No. The Mac Pro? Forget it. Drop ridiculous amounts of money on a system I may not like?
That left me with the Mac mini. Really, it's not a bad choice, since I don't need to do 3D work on it, I won't be playing games on it, and if I need more storage, I'll get an external drive that I can share between my computers. Cool. If I decide I really like it, I can upgrade in the future and use the mini as a media center or something.
As far as the computer itself, there's not much to review. It works, it's snappy enough, really. I'm having issues with wireless speeds, but that's probably due to poor reception... I'll have to dig out a hub and use it.
The biggest problem with my setup is the lack of DVI KVM options. There just aren't many, and the few that do exist are either ridiculously expensive, unreliable, and ugly as sin. My monitor accepts an analog and a digital signal, so I can use both... and use something like Synergy2 as a keyboard and mouse switch. Thing is, with the crappy wireless connection, it works very slowly on the Mac... fast enough for general clicking, but bad for things like, oh, coding. We'll see again, after I hook things up via a hub.
So what do I think of the Mac Experience? Well, I knew what to expect, but it's nice having it on my own system. QuickSilver is great and TextMate is just amazing. Is it worth switching for? Enh, no. If you've got a solid PC, there's no reason to switch to a Mac. Simple as that. Almost all the worthy software runs on both, PC's have tons of games and other software, and, well... the dirty little secret is.. it's just not all that different. Sure, the Mac 'just works', but truth is, so does most stuff on my PC. Macs are secure? Sure, but running behind a firewall using Firefox and staying patched, I haven't had a problem. Stability? Honestly, my system almost never crashes and the few times it does, it seems like a hardware issue (and anyone that thinks Macs don't have them is a moron).
Still, the architecture is nice, and I do appreciate it. I'd had high hopes for Vista, but it seems like it'll be more of the same, and Microsoft's WGA crap is ridiculous. I'm glad to have my mini, I'm going to do some Rails stuff on it and play around more, I actually do enjoy having it. I just wouldn't switch right now.
Recommend? Yes. Want to try using a Mac without the commitment? Here you go. Great form factor, nice software, and it's surprisingly snappy for something so tiny. I can't really say I'm going to switch, but I'll be using it. Only thing holding it back is the lack of a good KVM solution.
I usually read customer reviews when I'm shopping online... that's one of the great things about it. Does the product work as advertised? Is the content of that book useful? Does that video game appeal to slobbering 12 year-olds with too much time on their hands? The average reader at GameFAQs? It's nice to know, even if it doesn't sway my ultimate opinion. More professional reviews are nice, but represent limited use of the item. If I'm buying headphones, I get crazy statistics that I don't understand when what I really want to know is, are these comfortable after using them for hours?
The thing is, if you want people to take your opinion seriously, avoid rating things with the highest and lowest scores. I toss those out, mentally. Not entirely, mind you, but it's a red flag as far as credibility goes. There simply aren't that many products that fail so miserably as to deserve a one and while there are even fewer that manage to achieve perfection, I usually consider a perfect score to simply mean a satisfied customer.
I was looking at reviews for Joel Spolsky's User Interface Design for Programmers and noticed that there smatterings of ones among all those fives. That's kind of strange to me, since I really enjoy Joel's style of writing. It's a bad, bad, idea to start making comments about how bad Joel's writing is... because I enjoy it and feel a bit insulted when I hear that.
About a year ago, I had a grand plan. I have a lovely desk. It's huge, black, and, in the event of a nuclear attack I can hide underneath it and rule over the cockroaches. It's a pain to move, but I love it. When it came time to build a new computer (an adventure in and of itself), I decided that I should make my computer look nice. Nice, you know, like a grown-ups computer. No neon rims or flames. No strobe lights or disco balls. Like something a hip 20-something might have. I tried to call a hip 20-something, but, not having any of those available, I winged it.
I didn't get very far. See, you don't have many choices in the PC hardware field. There's beige, black, and black and silver. On rare occasions, you'll get the Apple White, which is what I went for for my case. Nice, something like an overgrown Mac Mini. And that's as far as I got. My mouse is a moderately attractive Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000
Ah, black and silver. I hate black and silver. With a passion. It doesn't look ugly on its own, mind. It looks ugly because it's cheap. See, at some point, the black was deep and glossy and the silver was brushed metal or chrome. Very chic. No longer. Now, black and silver is associated with cheap products that kind of want to look expensive.
So where am I now? Searching, in vain for a keyboard. The keyboard of my dreams. Let's start with the requirements. USB, please, since I would like to easily use it with a Mac and PC (I realize I can get an adapter if need be). Wireless is nice, but not necessary. It should look nice. What do I think looks nice? Well, the Logitech diNovo is nice (I know, it's silver and black), the trouble is, it's a set, takes lots of batteries, and is ridiculously expensive. I just want the keyboard. And I want the numeric keypad to be attached. So it fails.
Did I mention I wanted performance, too? Yeah, I'm picky like that. I do a lot of typing and it's important that I have a keyboard that I'm comfortable with.
There just doesn't seem to be a lot of choices for high end computer peripherals. Oh, sure, there are ones aimed at 'professional gamers' (all three of them), like the very solid Saitek Eclipse keyboard. But those tend to look like, well, toys. Expensive toys, but toys. I want my toys to look like they're meant for grownups.
C'mon, how about color? No, not neon iMac colors, but a little here and there. Something classy.
