Attn: Canadian Laptop Retailers and Supplying Manufacturers!!

With this blog post, I wish to extend the electronic equivalence of the "finger" to computer manufacturers and retail stores who carry only the bilingual keyboard (ISO) based laptops in Canada.

In 2006 I brought my last Toshiba laptop in Canada by a retail store (FutureShop). It was a solid, reliable machine which worked extremely well for running many statistical test models and was used in the completion of a Thesis with no problems what so ever. Naturally I would have liked to replace it with another Toshiba laptop. Alas, all Toshiba latops come with an insane bilingual (ISO) keyboard in Canada now.

In 2008, unknowingly I made the mistake of buying a poorly built Compaq laptop as a second laptop which had one of these bilingual keyboards. Eventually after it's warranty has ended, I replaced the bilingual (ISO) keyboard with a standard US (ANSI) keyboard to keep my sanity. After close to two years of use, I never got used to typing on that atrocious bilingual keyboard. This was when I started to realize the madness of having only this bilingual keyboard available in Canada for those of us who have used a standard keyboard for many a years and can type.

It took me all of 2010 and most of 2011 to find a suitable laptop to replace the the older Toshiba laptop. As a consumer who is purchasing a laptop approximately every two years I think I can effectively protest by not buying in local retail stores so long as they force this keyboard on me. I have had a very difficult time in Canada to find a decent laptop which match the specifications I need without a damn bilingual keyboard with this insane ISO keyboard layout.

I have just ordered a lenovo Thinkpad from lenovo.com with a keyboard of my choice!!! Thanks to the stupid decision of some ignorant fools, I have to do these transactions online even though I prefer to go to a store and have a look at the product I am about to buy in person. I wish I knew the proper authority responsible for making the decision to force this keyboard on all Canadians to give those gits a good piece of my mind. If lenovo.com is competent and the Thinkpad machine is reliable which they are reputed to be, I will be going back to lenovo.com when I am to replace my second laptop in the near future.

If I am ever to consider buying a laptop from any other manufacturer and retail store perhaps they should consider offering, at the very least a choice of keyboard to the customers instead of ramming this insane keyboards down our throats. Just my two cents on this matter.

Canadian Bilingual Keyboard out! Standard US Keyboard in! (Compaq Presario C700)

Click on image to enlarge..

Sign the petition to bring back the US keyboard layout as a choice for Canadians.

If you happen to know how to type on a standard US keyboard and happen to live in Canada, then you are fresh out of luck when buying a laptop! Unknowing how impossible it is to get used to this keyboard, I purchased my last laptop in Canada. A Compaq Presario C700.

On this silly keyboard, the left shift key and the enter key are completely useless. Re-mapping the keys will not change the physical stupidity of the layout. To fix the problem either cut your pinky fingers where they join your hands to make them longer and flex in unnatural ways, or replace the keyboard.

If you happen to own one of these laptops in Canada and can no longer stand this keyboard, you may be able to replace it the way I did. Here are some resources that I found online:

• Technical Manual for Compaq Presario C700
• Youtube Video of the keyboard replacement (not by me)
• ebay seller where I got my replacement US keyboard from (Feb-23-2011)

Few tips from my experience:

• The manual shows the keyboard can be removed without removing the panel with the power button. The video shows the removal of the panel is required. The video is right. I did not pull out the zif (zero insertion force) cable from the panel with the power button. You can just loosen the power button panel and pull the top edge of the keyboard out.
• The most tricky part of this process is inserting the zif cable from the new keyboard into the socket. They are small and require some patience to get it. I inserted it incorrectly at first and had to remove everything to do it right. Second time I plugged in the power cable and tested the keyboard before I closed everything again.

I hope my experience helps anyone who can not stand this keyboard and wish to get rid of it on their Compaq Presario C700 purchased in Canada in favour of a sane keyboard.

Until the retailers in Canada wise-up and start carrying a choice in keyboards on the laptops, I will not be buying another laptop in Canada!

Stop The Meter!

Go to: www.stopthemeter.ca or www.openmedia.ca/meter and sign the petition if you have not already done so. Stop the internet meter in Canada!