Fashion and Function... Why not?

Somehow, the Desktop PC market became a "one-size-fits-all" wasteland... and the mobile PC market isn't much better, but just when you thought the only improvement to the world of the booring beige colored PC was the almost equally booring black colored PC, things seem to be looking up...

Microsoft's new concept PCs are cool.

Sun's Project Looking Glass is cool.

I hope that this trend goes beyond fashion and extends into functionality and ergonomics... except for speed and minor window dressing the computer on my desk is virtually identical to the one that I was using 10 years ago. Is this design really optimal, or did we just settle?

I've got a great ergonomic keyboard. Everthing adjusts, so I can get the proper wrist angle. It's also relatively small because it doesn't have a "ten-key" keypad. I don't do numeric data entry, so I don't need a "ten-key" keypad. How many people do? Why do most PC Keyboards include it?

Why have a keyboard at all? For many languages keyboards aren't the best solution. Many people around the world are much better served by pen-based interfaces such as those common on PDAs, but you don't often see them on desktops.

Fun stuff!