• Things I wrote
  • I kicked off my new Network Computing column with this one: Ethernet Has A Goldilocks Problem (and here’s a response: Network Convergence: More than Just 10 GbE)
  • TSIA! Is PCIe SSD right for you? Deploying PCI Express SSD devices
  • I haven’t written for Silicon Angle in a while, but thought this was best there: From Scale-Out to Big Data to the Cloud
  • Will You Be At The ExecEvent? I will, and it’s just two weeks away!
  • Sometimes you have an idea: The Three Requirements To Overcome Inertia
  • I’m Open-Sourcing My 2011 Storage For Virtual Environments Seminar! So now I Need Numbers!
  • Apple Breaks ICS Calendar Auto-Subscription In iOS 4.2
• Other great links
  • Derek Schauland asks the eternal datacenter question: Where can I plug in?
  • Brandon Carroll documents that Solarwinds Install is Easy as Pie!
  • I love Greg Ferro’s Network ZEN, but this week’s was especially awesome: Network ZEN: A Switch
  • Nigel Poulton puts together some amazing storage content. Case in pout: VMAX vs VSP
  • Seriously, Google? Google stripping support for H.264 video out of Chrome
  • The most-scary WordPress article I’ve read in a long time: Why You Should Never Search For Free WordPress Themes in Google or Anywhere Else
  • Howard Marks takes on a topic we discussed last time I was in New York: More on Advanced Erasure Codes
  • Top Five Storage Technologies for 2011 <- Good guess!
  • The only insanely great thing to come out of CES: Breakthrough device of CES 2011: Motorola Atrix = Phone + PC
  • I love words 20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words from Around the World

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© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, January 14, 2011
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Everything, Personal, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

I was surprised that, although the keyboard seems to be functional, Mahalo doesn’t show the OLED keys actually change.  I would have thought that would be a good use of 15 seconds…  The updating doesn’t seem to work either – the keys have pictures, and they flicker and go out when Art unplugs the board’s power, but they never get updated with the “tasteless” designs he creates on the iMac!  In fact, when he powers on the keyboard again, it appears that it never comes back to life at all – random colored squares are displayed instead of letters!  Could it be that the ultra-board still doesn’t, you know, work?!?

He spends a lot of time demoing the ability to create custom key displays, even mentioning that you could play Tetris on the board,  but there were some concerning bits…  He never mentions animation, says that the key macro plugins “have to be created by us”, and stresses that the initial shipment (“now”) won’t be user-upgradeable.  So if you want your Maximus today, you get a pretty, $1500 keyboard with lots of pictures that you can’t change.  Yay!

I’m still not sold on the Maximus.  I love the concept of in-key displays in general, as in a remote control or computer peripheral, but am not sure that this is the right execution of that concept.  Ars Technica reports that the keys are wide and the screens don’t move, making typing difficult, Wired notes the amazing greasiness of the keys, and did I mention how expensive it is?  But hey, you can pull a Cash/Kemp and buy that keyboard one key at a time!  I’d love to see some company in Shenzhen take the idea and run with it.

On the other hand, I really do like the Lebedev Mini Three.  For “only” $150, you get a three-key display that might do what Windows SideShow hasn’t been able to deliver – add peripheral displays to the PC.  And since that “PC” can be a Mac, lots of folks will be happy!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Optimus Maximus: Ultimate Keyboard Non-Demo at CES!
This post was categorized as Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.