Introduction

Although I am a fan of futuristic science fiction shows and movies, three persistent clichés have always bothered me and almost ruin the narrative. First, the automatic doors and the general lack of hinges are bothersome. Automatic doors require a significant amount of maintenance, take up too much space and break down too often to be practical enough to replace conventional doors entirely. Second, denim jeans are nowhere to be found but everyone is wearing monochrome jumpsuits. Denim survived the Great War, the great depression, World War II and the Stonewash jeans craze of the late 70s and early 80s (what the hell were they thinking?) so I’m pretty sure it would take several extinction-level events before civilization dismisses denim completely. Lastly, translucent screens and the lack of keyboards in sci-fi computer terminals are just horribly impractical. I have no idea why the screen and controls in sci-fi have to be in a 3D floating space when a simple flat screen and conventional keyboard is significantly more accurate and gets the job done. The amount of time and money required to develop a three-dimensional floating display is ridiculously high, let alone a tangible interactive 3D display.

The through-line between all these ideas that we still use today is that they are practical and effective. Science was not built upon by sticking to weak ideologies and dogma but by constant tempering of theories. Just because an idea sounds cool doesn’t mean it is functional. Until such far-fetched technologies are within economical and practical manufacturing range, companies will continue to produce hinges, denims and keyboards for our daily use.

Arctic Cooling is a company who has made quite a name for themselves in manufacturing PC cooling peripherals but also offer a multitude of other products related to the PC market. Arctic Cooling may not manufacture hinges or denims, but their wide product catalog includes audio equipment, remote control toys, power supplies, mice, HTPCs and keyboards. One of their latest products is a lightweight, wireless keyboard called the Arctic K481.

The Arctic Equipment K481 Wireless keyboard was originally designed for use with the Arctic MC001 Entertainment center. The Arctic Equipment K481 keyboard runs off a pair of AAA batteries and communicates wirelessly with a USB adapter through an RF signal. Since there are no drivers or software needed for installation, the Arctic Equipment K481 Wireless keyboard works with a lot of devices that have a USB port, including some game consoles. The Arctic Equipment K481 Wireless keyboard also has a built-in touchpad for simulating mouse functions, making it a convenient all-in-one input device for your HTPC.