XO Mini Keyboards

Posted by Seattle XO on Monday, January 28, 2008 at 7:39 PM


Several people commented on the little USB keyboards that Chris, Wayne and I brought to last Sunday's meeting. These little things are just about the width of the XO itself, are actually pretty good for touch typing and are certainly much, much better then the XO's child-size membrane keyboard.

I found the MC keyboards at a Hong Kong dealer at usb.brando.com.hk. Though I did find them in the US, the price was much higher then the $22 that Brando charges. If you decide to order one for yourself, I encourage you to look around the site as there's a lot of unique stuff there and since the prices are cheap and that the shipping charge is a flat $3 per order you might find something else you'd like to play with. 

A couple of caveats you should know about. When you plug the keyboard into the XO, notice that all the special keylights at the top of the keyboard light up. Apparently, there some kind of issue with the XO's keyboard mapping that does this. You'll find that the caps lock, scroll lock and num lock's are all activated and they can't be turned off. The way around this is that within 2 seconds of plugging it in, press the caps lock key twice. You'll see all the lights go out and you're back to normal. A minor point about the shipping: these are shipped from Hong Kong and require a signature for delivery. And, finally: being this small there's no room on the key layout for a right hand shift key. Other then these two points, the keyboard makes a great addition to your XO travel kit.

Tim

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Meeting this Sunday!

Posted by Chris Altwegg on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 8:42 AM

Hello fellow XO laptop users!

It's time for our second meeting, this Sunday, January 27, at 2pm at the Saturday House. We'll probably go until 5 or so.

(Directions and links below)

There's no formal agenda for this month, but we can spend time helping each other with our little computers.

We will be doing more Opera web-browser installs, Doom and SimCity game installs, lessons on how to re-image your machine if things get totally messed up, and share insight and ideas on playing audio and video files.

Plus, if you haven't been able to get TMobile working, bring your login information and we can work on getting that working.

Please RSVP if you think you will be attending. (Click seattlexo@gmail.com to RSVP)

(If you would prefer a weeknight meeting sometime, like Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, starting at 6pm, please respond and let us know. Maybe we'll do an evening meeting sometime too!)


A couple of other items:
- There's plenty of electricity and extensions, but you might want to bring your XO power adapter along. Write your name on it or on some tape, so you go home with the correct one.
- There's also plenty of WiFi
- The door on 1st Ave has a call box, press #5 and wait to be buzzed in.
- It's a couple of very steep staircases up to the Saturday House space. There's hand-rails, please be careful with coming up.
- If you can't manage the stairs, there is a freight elevator on the back of the building which is wheelchair capable. Please give me a call on my cell phone, and I'll come meet you. Chris Altwegg 206-523-6477)

Dress warmly, it can be kinda chilly in the Saturday House space. And if you need computer glasses, be sure to bring those, the menus in Opera are TINY,
but worth it! Even if you haven't gotten your machine yet, please come!

Chris Altwegg, Tim Celeski, Wayne Wong
Seattle XO User Group

Saturday House:
1952 First Ave. S., Suite 5, Seattle
http://www.saturdayhouse.org/
http://tinyurl.com/24fsa2

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