Every sci-fi author should have one.

Not that I am a sci-fi author, but I just got me one of these: the Saitek Eclipse II keyboard. And it is lovely.

I really fancied a keyboard with the so-called "scissor" action of a laptop's keyboard, and sadly the Eclipse does not have that. Far more important to me, however, was the ability to see the keyboard in total darkness. I've always loved working in the dark with devices with glowing screens, be they computers with proper monitors or hardware music sequencers with poky little fifty-character displays. However, I can't type properly, so have to have some light on in the room when I'm working with my Mac so that I can see the letters on the keys. But no more, for the Eclipse II has keys whose inscriptions light up. I'm sitting here with the lights off — I can barely see the table the Macbook's sitting on — merrily typing away on this thoroughly excellent glowing keyboard. Class.

Furthermore, it has a brightness knob and glows in three different colours: blue, red, or purple. The purple's kind of pale and is the least impressive-looking of the three options, but a few minutes of typing have revealed that it's probably the easiest on the eye when you're actually using it rather than just sitting there and admiring the pretty lights.

As for the action, it may be non-scissor, but it's still very nice indeed, and various reviews across the Web assure me that it's hard-wearing. And if I do crave that scissor action, I can, of course, always use the keyboard that's built in to the Macbook. Not much point, now I come to think of it, in buying a laptop keyboard to plug into your laptop.

Now all I need to do is build meself a proper desk to put all this gear on. DIY beckons. Joy.