Train of Thought

Many of you will know I have a Mac Mini connected to my TV, to provide internet TV (via Miro) and a PVR for broadcast TV (via Elgato’s eyeTV). Several people I know have similar set ups, and there seem to be three schools of thought for controlling it from the sofa:

• Use the apple remote.
• Use a bluetooth Apple keyboard and mouse.
• Use some non-apple keyboard/trackpad combo.

Of the three, I like the last – there are too many times when a keyboard is needed on OSX to make the first work for me, and trying to find a flat surface for the mouse means the second drives me mad.

So when I set my mini up, I tried to source a suitable keyboard. Here in the UK that seems to be a hit-and-miss affair, with stockists varying each time I looked. When I noticed a wireless USB keyboard intended for a PS3, I snapped it up. It’s by Logitech, and called the Y-RAN77 (snappy!). They don’t seem to make it any more, but amazon lists something similar.

The only remaining problem is that some of the keycaps weren’t resulting in the right character when pressed. Some people prefer that – relying on their typing ‘muscle memory’ to get the right character. I use so many different keyboards, I don’t really have a subconscious recollection of them all, so I used this tool to remap the defaults the mac used to the correct items.

If you also need such a thing (unlikely), the file is here. Just copy it to /Library/Keyboard Layouts, and then pick ‘Logitech Y-RAN77′ from the list of ‘Input Menu’ options in the international prefs pane.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Miscellanea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.