A little agua
Did you fail Spanish class in school? So did Steve Margolin. That’s why he created Bottles in Translation, a Boulder-based company that sells water bottles with more than 100 English-to-Spanish words and phrases printed on the side. When Margolin and his family visited Spain during the sweltering summer of 2003, he found himself frequently incommunicado with the local population and without a translation guide.
“We always had our water bottles with us,” Margolin said. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be convenient if the words were right here on the bottle?”‘
Handy phrases like “What time is it?” and “Where is the bathroom?” adorn the bottles, which come in three colors and cost $14.99 plus shipping. Margolin estimates he has sold about 250 bottles since making them available during Cinco de Mayo this year. Margolin, who teaches high school social studies in Longmont, is also preparing an English-to-French version for release at the end of September.
Keyboard puts keys closer
A new keyboard from Microsoft is designed for the millions of finger-stressed computer users worldwide. The Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, released last week, splits the keys into two sections as it bubbles up and out in a convex gull-wing design. Dan Odell, Microsoft’s hardware ergonomist, said the unusual shape put the keys closer to the fingers, reducing reach and unnecessary motion while encouraging a more natural and comfortable typing position. The $65 keyboard has 108 keys, not including a top row of dedicated shortcut keys, and it has some useful extras, like back and forward buttons for Web browser navigation and a “slider” that sits between the “g” and the “h” keys and controls the zoom function of the program running in the foreground. It can be used, for example, to zoom in on a picture in Photoshop or make the font larger in Internet Explorer. A removable raised platform creates a 7-degree reverse slope that Microsoft says encourages better arm and wrist alignment. Atop this raised edge is a cushioned wrist support that provides a comfy resting place for the palm’s heel.
According to a Microsoft study, the average computer user strikes the keyboard 669 times an hour.