Those of you that know me will remember that I carry a full-sized keyboard in my laptop bag. I find it much easier to code and demo if I use the same keyboard all the time. So, I carry it with me. My keyboard is like a constant companion that goes wherever I go, and my recent trip to DevConnections in Orlando was no different. The birds were singing. The sun was shining. My keyboard was firmly secured under the flap of my bag... or so I thought. As I approached the Orlando hotel, I had no idea that my close friend's lifetime was near its end. There was nothing that would have alerted me to this fact. Suddenly, my trusted comrade slipped from the bag and shattered on the hard cement. And when I say "shattered", I don't mean that a few keys popped off. I mean that keyboard blood and guts were strewn everywhere. As I surveyed the gory scene, I realized that repairing my keyboard was out of the question. The ground was littered with twisted plastic shrapnel and warped springs. It had become my own proverbial "Humpty Dumpty". There was no way this egg was going back together again.

Believe it or not, this tragedy absolutely paralyzed me. Because I spend all of my time with the same keyboard, I am a complete novice (i.e. a "newbie") at using my laptop's built-in keyboard. With only the keyboard on my laptop, I was reluctant to do demos during the conference. I would sit in front of my laptop blushing and stammering into the keyboard like a seventh grade boy asking his first girl to a dance. I had to face the facts: I couldn't avoid replacing my dear friend. Only one questioned remained. Should I purchase the same model or go for an upgrade?

I spent some time looking online and finally settled on the Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard. It's newer, sleeker and sexier than my old buddy, but it also has a very attractive feature: holes that I can use to tie it to my laptop bag. There are lots of other great features like the LCD screen and the extra 18 user-programmable buttons, but the holes were the selling point for me. No longer will I put my closest friends at risk.

Helpful holes allow me to use straps. YAARRR!!! (pirate-speak)

Securely attached to my Tom Bihn Super Ego.

This thing's not going anywhere!

This experience has served to cement a universal truth in my mind. It is the sort of axiom that I wouldn't mind having engraved on my tombstone at the end of my days. The idea is basically this: no matter how sophisticated humanity's achievements in technology, no matter how rich our medical advancements, gravity wins. Gravity always wins.

Words to live by.