$1.859

With the new iMac, and trying to move the server code to another box, my corner desk looks like something out of Star Trek: 15″ LCD panel on the new server, 17″ LCD panel on the laptop, 19″ LCD panel on the old server, and 20″ LCD panel on the iMac. There’s a lotta glow from this room!

The more I look at the iMac compared to the other hardware in my office, the more I appreciate its graceful styling. It’s a thing of beauty, and sits like an inspirational beacon on my desk, beckoning me to create and develop.

But… (and there’s always a but)

What crazy monkey designed the keyboard and mouse? The mouse is a single button mouse — no scroll wheel, no right click (without assistance from the keyboard), and no textured feel in your hand. It really is like holding a bar of soap with a cable attached. Is it cool looking? Yes. It just doesn’t give me the function I want.

So, I brought out my old Microsoft Bluetooth mouse and got it configured with the iMac. And then I remembered why I didn’t like the Bluetooth mouse. Whenever it goes to sleep, it takes an 9.5 earthquake to wake it up again. When I reach for the mouse, I expect it to respond, and my Microsoft Bluetooth mouse is a bit sluggish to get out of bed. 😉 It’ll go back in the “for sale” pile.

The keyboard that came with the iMac is another beautful work. Simple, small, and has the keys you need to do work — no fancy shortcut keys, volume control, or anything else extraneous. The feel of the keys though is horrible. Back in the old days, I measured my like or dislike for a keyboard by the “click” of the keys. The more clickey it was, the more I liked it. Nowadays, the clicks aren’t there audibly, but most keyboards have a tactile click, and that’s good enough. The Mac keyboard is just plain mushy. I have a tough time touchtyping with it, as I can’t tell when I have or haven’t hit a key hard enough to make an impression on the app I’m running.

So, I think today will be yet another run to BestBuy, or CompUSA, or somewhere, to get a Apple-centric wired mouse and keyboard. My apologies to the iMac designers — the mouse and keyboard are art, but aren’t suited to my work!