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Unfortunately no longer made but I have had the same Microsoft Natural Pro for at least the last 16 or 17 years and yes it is dirty, (somewhere in between the first two pictures in the link) but it has been really reliable although I did have to take the space key mechanism apart when it started jamming as I continually use the left hand side (clean patch) but a few minutes work soon saw that working well again
Apart from the fact that I am a slob  you can even deduce languages that aren't used by looking at how dirty the []{} keys are
Microsoft Blog[^]
Before I started using this keyboard my wrists used to ache and putting my hand in my trouser pockets was particularly uncomfortable (helped stop me getting the wallet out though  )
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I have a PS/2 Microsoft Natural Keyboard from 1995 that I use everyday for the last 22 years. I took it with me every where I go, had changed jobs half dozen times since then. It collects so much bread-crumbs but it's the best keyboard. I'm very clumsy programming using laptop keyboard or those straight up one. My only fear is that soon PC would stop supporting PS/2. 
I have had all kinds other natural ergo keyboards, one that comes apart into two, vertical one, even other same version Microsoft Natural Keyboard(pro, 4000, 6000), none of them I compare to this old one. It has to have the right key weight -- not too hard.
modified 11-Aug-17 12:32pm.
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I don't use one of those ergonomic models, not a touch typist so they REALLY slow me down, but I have one of those original IBM model M "clicky" keyboards that I've held onto for decades and absolutely love.
I find the very positive feedback of the "click" (mechanical feel and sound) reduces the force I put into typing which saves a lot on the fatigue I feel at the end of a long day of writing code.
If I could get one that was "ergonomic" I might give it a try but it would take me a while to get my typing speed back up to what it is with a conventional "straight" keyboard.
The one downside I've recently encountered with it is the lack of a "Windows" key, but I was able to remap the left ALT to that function so it's not a huge issue.
I tried a Microsoft "Natural" years ago when my wife purchased one, felt like I was typing on a sponge, I hated the thing.
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My preferred keyboard is the Logitech Wave keyboard. It's wireless as well. Just enough curve to keep my hands comfortable but not split like the Microsoft ergonomic keyboard.
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God help u,
pleas look at these videos:
bee sting therapy - YouTube
For me and my wife, they helped a lot, in healing the problem itself.
_______________________________________
May god give u good health and knowledge.
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MANY years ago, a chiropractor worked with me to align my work environment.
I would typically spend 10-15 hours in front of the computer, with the body to prove it, LOL.
Here is an exercise I show everyone who will listen:
Sit down at your computer
Put you hands down on your keyboard to type.
Notice the position of your shoulders, etc.
Now lift your hands so your elbows are at 90 degrees, PALMS UP, point your thumbs out.
The effect should be that your shoulders fall back a bit, and you are sitting with GOOD Posture.
Now just rotate your hands down, and place them on the keyboard.
Use this process to help adjust your keyboard height, and your wrist pad height, so your arms rest,
with slightly more than a 90 degree bend (You want your hands aiming a little bit down, so that your hands get better circulation. Cold hands usually mean your keyboard is above your elbows!
Next, lift your monitors up, off the desk, so you are comfortably looking forward. I make my eyes level point about 2/3rd of the way up, so I tend to hold my head level and can lift or set my eyes.
FINALLY for those of you with near-sighted prescriptions. PLEASE get a special reading glasses prescription for use in front of the monitor. After YEARS of gradually worsening eyesight, and always increasing my prescriptions. THIS CHANGE STOPPED that. My eyes stabilized for 8 years, and then I had lasik 18 years ago, and have been fine since. I still spend 10+ hrs in front of the computer.
It took me almost 4 weeks, 3 keyboards, and a keyboard tray (most expensive part), to setup my environment. But I Love it.
Oh, for carpal tunnel, a great thing to try is a TINY Mouse.
Tiny Mouse
I was surprised. Basically because you use literally your fingers, it removes a LOT of macro motion. YMMV...
And I would try 5-6 cheap keyboards before I spent that kind of money. I use the slight bent intelli keyboard form microsoft.
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yes, I know I can turn them off... now. I think, I'm still looking for the appropriate setting. Was working last night. Left for a bio break. Came back, laptop at login screen - hmm, password, hmm - all work gone, virtual machines, Visual Studio, browsers, everything gone....
Nailed by the "We're from Microsoft and we've installed updates - elephant you."
So, doing a little research this morning on how to turn this off, and I came across this little gem:
Quote: "Prior to the Creators Update, Windows 10 made most of the decisions for you regarding when updates would be installed, and didn't provide ways to tailor the timing to your specific needs," said John Cable, director of program management in the Windows servicing and delivery team.
"What we heard back most explicitly was that you want more control over when Windows 10 installs updates. We also heard that unexpected reboots are disruptive if they happen at the wrong time."
The audacious and pompous statement leaves me wondering if anyone at Microsoft worries about developers who have gone postal and are now listening to voices. If I were in a developers' conference and this pompous ass said this, I'd throw things at the stage. Just let me walk into their server room and randomly pull power cords on their servers. Total MS arrogant BS.
----------------------------------------
Years ago, I ran a database group. We mainly used PCs to run X-Windows (the window system that never crashed) to touch Unix development machines. Had an IT guy proudly proclaim that he could reboot anything at any time. Curious I inquired as to his method... smiling he said, "Oh, I just pull the power cord." After I explained to him that many times my team had days/weeks of work running on their machines, and he should check before he did that, he stated, "Well, you have to realize that we have a job too" in the elephant you voice.
I smiled and said, "Well, either your career or your life is going to be cut short. If I get to you first, I'll walk you to the parking lot. If my team gets to you, you might not make it to the parking lot." While I was there, we never had a reboot by surprise...
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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charlieg wrote: We also heard that unexpected reboots are disruptive if they happen at the wrong time.
Yeah - what a ridiculously politically crafted statements.
Why not: "Yep - we heard, and we know, that your machine rebooting when you have a bunch of apps running with unsaved data and/or state can totally screw up your day". It'd be more honest.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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I heard MS is going to loosen the screws a bit with the next update in regard to the level of control we have over updates. In the interim, how about stopping the Windows Update service? I do this on my two work computers because I was tired of updates being automatically applied, my computer being rebooted, and me then spending hours (days in some instances) rewinding everything because the update messed up my development environment.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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Yes, with Creator's Edition (bld 1703) they were supposed to add some ability to control the reboot. This is what I am running, and I have yet to find it. Probably my rage induced foggy vision is hindering me.
That said, I actually have Windows Update set to manual. Seems it can now be triggered to start, I've now changed it to disabled.
Thanks for reminding me to check that. What a certified CJ Microsoft has become.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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In some workplaces, doing that for any reason can get you fired.
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True, but this be mine machine
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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My post was more of a PSA for worker schleps than a note about your specific case.
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Search: Control - select control panel, administrative tools, services.
Find Windows Update. Right click on that Windows Update service and select "Startup Options" Set the startup options to disabled.
Now right click again on the Windows Update service again and Stop it.
Go Rename \Windows\Software Distribution to \windows\Software Distribution.old
This last bit is to clean out any update that is sitting in there yet to be applied that can dog you and even loop forever if incomplete. You can't rename this if Windows Update is still running.
Now barring some other vicissitude, your Windows 10 will work more like your toaster does. The same each time just like yesterday, without delay.
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charlieg wrote: Just let me walk into their server room and randomly pull power cords on their servers.
I suspect their running *nix. After all, they're smart enough not to run their servers with an auto-update anytime policy, right? Right??? 
Marc
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Welcome to the club! I've now gotten back into the habit of not leaving stuff open overnight...Win7 spoiled me for many years. If you find the magic setting, please let us all know!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Sort of makes a stable operating system pointless, doesn't it?
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Quote: We also heard that unexpected reboots are disruptive if they happen at the wrong time.
They're just figuring this out NOW?!?!
Have they not been using Windows at Microsoft?
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charlieg wrote: After I explained to him that many times my team had days/weeks of work running on their machines, and he should check before he did that, he stated, "Well, you have to realize that we have a job too" in the elephant you voice.
Wow. So he took pride in his incompetence? Any sysadmin with more than 20 minutes worth of experience would know that if rebooting a machine is part of his job, then it's his responsibility to coordinate with whoever might be affected to minimize any disruption.
With an attitude like that, I can't imagine that scheduling a reboot at 3:00am on a weekend is something he's ever done.
Your response was entirely appropriate.
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Seriously, I actually thought he was joking for a second - I mean techies do this all the time... right?
Then I realized he was serious.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Quote: "Well, you have to realize that we have a job too"
The saddest part about this attitude is that such a person distances himself from the organizational goals. We all have jobs to do, but there is a REASON why we are doing them.
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We also heard that unexpected reboots are disruptive if they happen at the wrong time."
Yup, when, despite having set the time for this stuff to happen at a safe time it gets reset by an update, and the next update decided to apply itself (even though the machine was at the time disconnected from the network) while the PC was running sound cue software for a live theatre performance, it's pretty disruptive.
Like ticket refund disruptive. £150 worth of ticket refunds, I believe.
We have a Mac based system now. W10 had its chance and blew it.
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i like to play with tech I've not been exposed to. The Apple infrastructure has never really interested me, but it certainly can't hurt to expand my knowledge base. Local computer shop has a mac mini for $600, sounds like a training investment. It's small enough to sit on my Linux pizza box.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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“Smart contracts” are at the heart of the Ethereum blockchain. They are written by coders, so some people think of them as “apps”. But in reality, they aim to replace legal prose. Smart contracts can describe, for example, a set of conditions that will control who gets a pre-deposited amount of money. Or they can describe who will get to decide what happens with a pool of coins.
Fascinating read.
As well, the response.
We believe that TheDAO has taught us best how not to launch an open, asset-holding smart contract. Not having the option to upgrade code (that is yet to be tested live in the field, despite the most meticulous internal and partner testing) has been proven to be a sub-optimal strategy, to say the least. The privilege to upgrade the code naturally provides Bancor with full access to all aspects of the token.
Have any of you dabbled in cryptocurrency?
Marc
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