Has your keyboard enthusiasm ever decreased?

[Madhias]

I for one like Cherry MX blacks most, but do not praise them again and again

But you have a Tipro logo even as an avatar, and I don't want to tell the others where you have a tattoo...

Code: Select all

Tipro keyboards use plate-mounted Cherry MX Black switches without diodes. 

[seebart]

...and I don't want to tell the others where you have a tattoo...

Ahhh...OK apparently the two of you know each other much better than I thought. Or is that some kind of Austrian joke Madhias?

[kbdfr]

[…]

But you have a Tipro logo even as an avatar […]

seebart, how do you say "Treffer, versenkt!" in English?

[fohat]

It always comes down to this: It's all personal preference.

My wife is a magazine editor who types thousands of words per day, and has for decades.

I tell you this to establish the validity of her opinion, and to prove that she is somebody who *really knows*

That said, her idea of the best keyboard in the world is the latest Apple keyboard which is ridiculously thin and has flat keys with virtually no travel or tactility. Her typing technique is letting her fingers hover over the keys, dipping down ever so lightly to type.

Her keyboards are horrible and frustrating to me, but I am a ham-fisted old guy who learned to type on a manual typewriter in the 1960s where the technique was to stab down like a spear with each stroke, and actually flick the wrist to increase the thrust of each keystroke.

[Muirium]

[…]

But you have a Tipro logo even as an avatar […]

seebart, how do you say "Treffer, versenkt!" in English?

"Ah, bollix, you gone sinked me battleship ye evil get!" Or something to that effect.


@Fohat: My brother (a heavy typing coder) is the same way. Can't understand the draw of my keyboards at all. (Though he did like the look of my SGI Granite. Just not the feel.) He loathes travel. He tried everything at HaaTa's keyboard meetup at GitHub in April. The only thing he liked was the Fingerworks!

One thing he and I agree on: Apple's new keyboard (in the retina MacBooks) is better than the wobbly chiclet they did before. Yet so many chiclet lovers cry out the opposite! I like the butterfly boards for what they are: tantamount to touchscreens. They annoy me less than the turd in my MacBook Pro because they don't even try to feel like something substantial. Obviously I'd take a real mech for lengthy work anyday, but for a built in keyboard they're a relief!

What does she think of the MacBook keyboard? I expect: thumbs down.

[seebart]

OK but what does Mrs.fohat say to an Model M, or better yet Model F? Has she ever tried out any of yours?

@kbdfr: OK I get it. The heat wave left me "a little mongo".

[fohat]

What does she think of the MacBook keyboard? I expect: thumbs down.

She has an old MacBook Pro that has got to be at least 5 years old, and she has been using it for so long that I suppose that she has become accustomed to it, so she doesn't complain.

But, of course, she loathes my keyboards. "Those big ole clunky things" she calls them.

And, as icing on the cake on the rare occasion that she uses my computer, I have a vertical mouse (Anker) and she can't figure out how to use that, either.

[Muirium]

A trip to the Apple Store to see those new wee guys is most informative. I always considered my 2013 MacBook Pro's keyboard a step back from my 2003 PowerBook's. But the new ones are snappy. So little travel. She might like them. But most reviewers do not. I wonder what you'd think!

[mr_a500]

There's only so long one can be interested in and talk about keyboards before it ends up in obsessive madness. I've basically reached the limit. I've only ever been interested in vintage: non-beige pre-'84 keyboards (spherical doubleshot keycaps). There's not much more for me to find or discover - and I'm running out of room in my "Command Centre".

My only remaining interest is in finding amazingly rare or unknown 70's keyboards, but anything like this is usually way overpriced on eBay these days.

I should be out sailing anyway.

[Muirium]

The best thing about sailing: collecting cufflinks for your blazer… you are in the yacht club surely, Commodore?

I muck about on DT instead of Twitter and the like. I'm not really here to deepen my stash (although it does tend to gradually happen), so much as shirk from mundane yet pressing things. I like the refreshing lack of typical internet anonymity and plumage preening.

[mr_a500]

The best thing about sailing: collecting cufflinks for your blazer… you are in the yacht club surely, Commodore?

Ha... clever... Commodore, mister Amiga.. Commodore Amiga. Well played.

No, I'm not in a yacht club collecting cufflinks, smoking cigars and comparing dinghy sizes.

I just sail my "poor man's sailboat". Maybe if I hadn't bought all those expensive keyboards...

[vivalarevolución]

I will say that my interest wanes when I step away from the keyboards for a few days and wonder what the heck I am doing with my time. Then I inevitably will get sucked back in when somebody comes out with an awesome project or the Model F or beamspring calls my name.

[tigpha]

Lurker discards stalking cloak... Hi all!

Hobbies wax and wane. I used to draw and sketch a lot more a few months back, but that's now at a low ebb. It will return, as it did a few years ago after a very long ebb.

I'm here hacking keyboards to bits because of diversity, of the history and the craftsmanship that went into these machines. I spend time and effort on examining keyboard feel, look and heft, the sound too. I think that my collecting is tailing off now that I have over a dozen keyboards of different ilk. But now that I have pulled them all apart (except the Apple chicklet ones which do not dismantle without incurring destruction) I want to put the pieces together in different designs.

Making my own designs is turning out to be quite a challenge. I tried to get switch mounting plates laser-cut, but working with two local firms has been frustrating. One had trouble reading the DXF files I drew, and the other simply didn't answer calls. This frustration steers me to new experiments. I am about to try electro-etching the steel switch mounting plates in iron sulphide electrolyte. Anyone interested to hear how the etching goes?

I think it's the process I enjoy, learning new methods to make stuff, more so than actually possessing the kit.

[Ander]

I realize this is an o-l-d topic, but when I saw it in a Google search just now, I felt compelled to contribute this reply:

No, but my wife's has.

Cheers, A.

[Muirium]

You're not kidding about OLD, but as long-passed time is spot-on for the topic, let's take a little stock here…

All of us go through hot and cold phases in hobbies like this. 2013-2015 was my hot phase, when I was new and loading up on all the vintage and modern mechs I could find. It was a good time to be around, as I was right on the scene for Tinnie's Kishsaver haul and for accessibly priced beamsprings, among other things. I formed most of my taste (a kinder word for prejudice!) in that time, too. By the end of it, I was firmly into Topre and Model F, where I've remained since.

As for the cold phase, well, mine was prompted by real life stepping in. I eventually came back up to surface from all that, and I've scored a few more keyboards and the like since, but yeah I'm definitely past the crazy-keen collecting days of yore. I do still use my keyboards quite heavily, however. This isn't one of those hobbies like guitars you can put aside at length! So I'm still 'keyboard adjacent' and occasionally even 'in the game', but not as deeply as I was. I suspect the same is true of almost all longterm keyboard enthusiasts, who don't have space for a complete warehouse museum.

[inozenz]

mine is increasing steadily, eversince i started end of 2019

[hellothere]

Mine has decreased a bit.

I neither have unlimited cash nor unlimited space. That means that if I repair a keyboard, which is where I get my fun fix, and I don't like it more than my somewhat flexible top five keyboards, I sell it. I'm now trying to find keyboards that interest me more, rather than "buy low, sell high after a restoration." However, I still have at least 30 that fall into that category.

My spouse has tried a couple of my keyboards and likes them -- provided we have money in the bank.