Wednesday, 14 April 2004
Happiness Is a Warm Keyboard
I'm typing this on my brand new keyboard, courtesy of yesterday's fun-filled romp with Dell support.
The keys work much better than those on my old keyboard. No excessive rattling, a much more sturdy feel, the edges of my space bar are responsive. The best is that pressing any key in the vicinity of Backspace doesn't flex that entire region of my keyboard. That last one was a killer.
So, zero credit for Dell's support process; kudos to the fact that the fix exists. But then again, why shouldn't I expect a decent keyboard on a € 3,200 portable computer?
It's almost as good as the keyboard on my ThinkPad 390X (bought used, € 420).
(updated Friday, 16 April 2004)
As a special bonus, let me add one more thing that - in the way of all blindingly obvious things - totally slipped my mind.
When I got my replacement keyboard, I actually received three boxes. Hmm, I thought. That's when the sneaking suspicion started creeping up on me.
Sure enough: when I opened the boxes, I had one (1) keyboard and two (2) screws. Each screw had arrived in its own individual, foam-packed box. This is just too much fun. Let me repeat that, with varying emphasis: Each screw had arrived in its own individual, foam-packed box.
my replacement keyboard
Here we have my replacement keyboard and the box it came in. Oooh, ahhh. Nice, huh? Actually, I lied; it's really my old keyboard because I'd already installed the new one when I took this picture. Psych!
one of the famous screws and their packing materials
Now, this is the picture you came for: In the background, we have two boxes. Each one contained padding and - you guessed it - a screw. But not just any screw! No, these were screws in plastic baggies! The screw takes star placement in the foreground (the little black smudge near the front). I included one plastic baggie in the picture because I knew you cared.
Truly, this is comedic genius at its best. It was too expensive to just send someone to our office (despite our contract), but it was cheap enough to haggle on the phone for 50 minutes and (I can't help it, here comes the emphasis again) send me individually packed screws.
I'd say I'm speechless, but I'd be lying - unless you count "speechless with laughter."