If you're going to opine on the creeping demise of keyboarding, then surely you must also mourn at the cold-hearted death of handwriting. And in truth, I do. It saddens me greatly that some schools feel the need for Powerpoint to be part of the curriculum even at the Kindergarten level (I kid you not) yet nearly none make even a cursory pass (pun intended) at teaching cursive writing to children. There's a cognitive connect with the experience of writing notes by hand that is missing entirely from keyboarding. But even beyond that, the ability to write without the aid of a machine is a fundamental human capability, right up there with conscious thought, not a quaint nostalgic "technology." But back on point, I cut my teeth keyboarding on an IBM green-screen dumb terminal (attached to a S/36) so I vividly recall the mechanical clacket-clack of the IBM keyboards. Even the nicely tactile IBM PS/2 keyboards paled in comparison to the feel of those IBM "big iron" keyboards. I had hoped that Apple could save handwriting but unless handwriting recognition is forthcoming with the 2nd gen iPad, that seems to have been in vain. Pity.

Like you, Jeff, I love my (blue) Leatherman Squirt P4. My keychain is quite minimal - no fancy fobs or jangly giblets, save for a very handy little stainless steel pill container that carries a few days of 2 maintenance meds that I need to take mid-day when I usually nowhere near my bathroom or desk. I've carried this economical little gem (sans interior vial) for over a decade and it still keeps my pills dry: http://www.hobbytoolsupply.com/product.php?productid=78