Today i got my hands on a new remote keyboard for Windows Media Center 2005.  a few interesting peices of note.

1: its fully infrared. i though, when reading about it, that there was a kind of a USB Wireless dongle thing, like most Wireless Keyboards, and that the Remote stuff was used over IR, but the whole thing works over IR. in some cases this is really cool with up to 30 feet of range, but also can be annoying with a cluttered desktop like mine.

2: its not too comfortable for typing lost messages, like this one, or at least its not for while sitting at a desk. maybe on an arm chair, with it on my lap, but then i wouldent see what im typing (when will i get a dotTEXT poster for media center?!).

3:  its really cool that you can program the keys! there is a TV power button and a volume control, which are programmable. so, i have my TV power button set to the PC button my on TV Remote (getting input from the MCE) and it works perfectly. im not using the volume controls for normal volume (as my PC does all that) but i use it for chaning the TV channel to normal TV or turning it off. and you can still use the volume control to control the volume if you hit shift. All in all, a very nice keyboard! and its got a built in mouse! this thing gets better and better all the time!