Introducing the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard

[jacobolus]

"mod" to me means "module",

“mod” on the internet also means “modify” or “modification”. For instance, piercings and tattoos are “body mods”, aftermarket engine parts are “car mods”, and new computer games created by taking the engine from an existing game and replacing the art/levels/etc. are “game mods”.

[davkol]

...forum mods...

[Madhias]

Mod, youth subculture. Anyone remember?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

"mod" to me means "module",

“mod” on the internet also means “modify” or “modification”. For instance, piercings and tattoos are “body mods”, aftermarket engine parts are “car mods”, and new computer games created by taking the engine from an existing game and replacing the art/levels/etc. are “game mods”.

This "internet" thing … what is it?

[mondalaci]

@Grond: I think magnets shouldn't be emphasized that much. After all, it's not the main feature.

@DerpyDash_xAD: Neo keyboard sounds a bit vague and overly general to me. I'm also pretty sure that most people associate Neo with the main character of the Matrix movie.

Ndrew has been brainstoring all day and here are some possible alternatives:

His first idea was Twin Sixty given that it's a 60% keyboard of two (twin) halves. (@Muirium: Not sure whether he's taken the Twin word from you but you deserve five gold stars for coming up with the idea!) Turns out there's a ridiculously expensive watch on the market with that name. Not sure whether it's trademarked but there's a good chance it is.

My next idea was Twin Thirty given that 2*30% = 60%. According to Ndrew's opinion this doesn't sound that good and the formula is not that important. For example there's an engine called Twin 600 that features 2x300cm3 cylinders which is illogical if you think about it.

His next idea was Split Sixty with which I'm pretty much in love at this point. It describes this keyboard fairly well regarding the size and ergonomics and also sounds cool.

But prove us wrong! What is your opinion?

[davkol]

sixty...

[matt3o]

of course.... Double Decker

[Grond]

I guess Split Sixty sounds ok... but Gemini is still my favourite entry, by far.

[Laser]

Maybe "GeMini X" ? (or GeMiniX)

It suggests both a split keyboard (gemini), a 60% format (mini) and also sounds a little like Poker X ...

[Grond]

"Poker" gives 76.400.000 results on Google, which is more than Gemini – still a cool name in my opinion. "X" is quite gratuitous though.

[Muirium]

Poker is the perfect example! We all know exactly what it is, and consider it to be one of the standard keyboards for custom cases etc. It's definitely a success, generations 1 and 2. But its name is one of the least Google unique words on the whole internet!

Hasn't been a problem.

[Hypersphere]

If the product is good enough, the name can be arcane, but after the product catches on, everyone knows what it is. Examples include the Leopold FC660C, RF 87U, and HAL 9000.

[Laser]

"Gemini X" sounds like "Cherry MX", and the X hints to 'extra', exquisite etc.

Another twist could be something similar to the GH60 poject ...
So "Twin 60" could be another name. (Or even "Gemini 60")

[Hypersphere]

For what it's worth, I've tried googling a variety of proposed names and most came up with large numbers of hits. However, when I tried "gem60mx" there were zero hits.

[cookie]

To be honest, the name is the least thing I'd be worried about.
Am I really the only one who thinks that the layout can be improved?
And that they should somehow get rid of the display or think out a smaller , less prominent solution for this?
What is with the shape? Am I the only one who woul'd love to have the horns removed?

Name wise I like Twin Sixty!

Edit: Instead of a display I'd think it would be enough to put a small RBG LED somwhere in the frame and you can choose the color for the active layer yourself. Less Toy, more serious!

[Grond]

Yeah, maybe it's because gem60mx it sounds as nerdy and obscure as a japanese arcade shooter from the late 90s.
And cookie, I'm with you on those matters (layout, display and the horns). But I assume the design is kind of final, and the name is the only thing that is open for discussion.

[Hypersphere]

@Grond: Hmm.. "Nerd the Obscure" -- it could be a remake of a Thomas Hardy novel. We DT-ers love that which is nerdy and obscure, do we not?

[Grond]

I surely do! Last week I was playing with this shooter from 1998, it's actually pretty good, but the title is easily forgotten. It's called "ESP Ra. De."!

[Muirium]

Notice that first person shooters seldom if ever reach the pure intensity of chaos that traditional shooters take as the baseline. Being immersed in the game's own perspective is one thing, but the cost was dialling down the difficulty. Like moving to an inferior input device… (such as goddamn thumsticks, which essentially ended my gaming when they became unavoidable in the early 2000s.)

[Daniel Beardsmore]

We DT-ers love that which is nerdy and obscure, do we not? :)

If only that were true.

[bhtooefr]

For what it's worth, the way Apple's skinny ISO enter looks on a scissor-stabilized rubber dome isn't exactly the best representation of how it looks on a mechanical board.

For that, you want the //e:



So, really, here's what you need to decide with the width:

How well do you want to support ISO? Fully standard ISO requires 15 U width, avoiding the Enter key being narrower than 1 U requires 14.75 U width, but Apple's proven that 14.5 U can be done. And, at 14.5 U, you can also do a hybrid ANSI/ISO layout - basically, follow the country's ISO layout, except with an ANSI enter, and the key to the lower left of Enter gets moved to above Enter on the far right.
Do you want to support an OADG-like (Japanese PCs) layout? Apple's solution for a 14.5 U JIS layout is horribly ugly, and you'll need 15 U for full OADG compatibility.

[mondalaci]

@cookie: I was also considering an RGB LED a long while ago but given our broad feature set it's just not expressive enough, so a more capable display is needed. We could reduce the size of the display in future versions, though.

Many of you expressed your concerns regarding the durability of the retractable cable. To address this we plan to provide a coil cable, too. It would be shorter than a standard telephone coil cable but same mechanism.

[cookie]

Well I see no point in a display to be honest, I mean this device is obviously adressed to people who are willing to learn new layouts, experiment with different key bindings and optimize their typing. They won't look at the display anyway.

Or do you guys plan to drag some kids onto the "Hacking" thing? Don't get me wrong please, I don't want to sound that drastic but it makes no sense in my mind at all.

On the one Hand it is verry appealing to have a programmable, split ergonomic 60% keyboard with the option to controll the mouse with it and so on. On the other Hand this display and these horns somehow ruins the Idea of an "as compact as possible 60% layout". And it feels more gimmicky than serious.

I'd anyway want to have control instead of "mouse" and the backspace where it is on the HHKB.
And yes, the strange key sizes are a problematic too. And from my verry personal point I'd love to have a blank option

Well I digressed a bit, in my opinion a rgb led would look more clean and professional than a display. Maybe I am wrong but I let the other folks decide.

[mondalaci]

The display is particularly useful if the user defines multiple application-specific keymaps and Agent automatically sends messages to the keyboard when those applications get switched. It's pretty important to know which is the actual keymap or else it's easy to get confused. This is the main rationale behind the display but there are other minor ones, too.

A blank version will be provided, just as our FAQ says.

Thank you for your opinion! We will evaluate everything that has been said here but cannot change most things for the first version.

[DerpyDash_xAD]

3 RGB LEDs at the top could be a lot more compact, and look better, while still transferring plenty of info to the user.
But with the display, I dearly hope we'll be seeing actual function in the display, such as a wpm calculator.

[davkol]

For example, Roccat mice let the system know, when you switch profiles or cpi in hardware. A native system notification doesn't interrupt the workflow as much as looking down at the device. Of course, a specific driver is required.

[mondalaci]

3 RGB LEDs at the top could be a lot more compact, and look better, while still transferring plenty of info to the user.
But with the display, I dearly hope we'll be seeing actual function in the display, such as a wpm calculator.

This is definitely a possibility that sounds interesting and we didn't think about it yet. Good idea!

[mondalaci]

For example, Roccat mice let the system know, when you switch profiles or cpi in hardware. A native system notification doesn't interrupt the workflow as much as looking down at the device. Of course, a specific driver is required.

Native system notifications can be fine but they'd drive the user crazy when popping up all the time upon switching applications.

[Grond]

DerpyDash_xAD wrote:3 RGB LEDs at the top could be a lot more compact, and look better, while still transferring plenty of info to the user.
But with the display, I dearly hope we'll be seeing actual function in the display, such as a wpm calculator.

This is definitely a possibility that sounds interesting and we didn't think about it yet. Good idea!

I actually suggested the same idea before, but maybe I didn't explain myself too well.

Should you have any concrete suggestions, please let us know! It's remarkably hard to come up with something that looks and works well (and is manufacturable). Up until this point you're the first person with this opinion but we're always open to better solutions.

I don't know how many layers are there, but if it's just three I guess three leds with different colors or symbols may be enough, isn't it?

[DerpyDash_xAD]

Well I'm saying use RGB LEDs so you can have a minimum of 9 layers, with far more possible. But yes, you were my inspiration ;）