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Annoying hardware: a rogues' gallery

Rupert Goodwins ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 06 Jun 2008 17:35 BST

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Notebook input devices
Good notebooks have some of the finest, most aesthetically pleasing engineering to be found anywhere. So why do makers keep messing up the bits that really matter? Keyboards are crammed in too tight with oversized keys you never use and tiny, shifted ones you need but can't find. Spacebars are the size of cocktail sticks. Mouse buttons are placed where only a six-fingered mutant could reach them. Touchpads migrate to the side of the screen. The list of sins goes on and on — and with the advent of MIDs, UMPCs and other bizarre perversions, it can only get nastier. The people who perpetrate such nonsense should be forced to use nothing else for a month — or until they go nuts.