Tools of the Trade #1 - Your Keyboard

[Duleigh]

I just want someone to make a keyboard that doesn't spell wrong.

I used to have one of those! Then someone turned on the spell checker and it went downhill from there.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

RedDragon mechanical keyboard without the number pad. It lights up where each row of keys a different color. Keys are very nice and barely click. I also have one with the number pad on it. I got this one so I have more room on the right for the mouse. The only problem I have with it is the number row of keys is a dark blue. Very hard to see on a black key body.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71cngLX2xuL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

 

[oggbashan]

Yesterday I used my laptop for the first time in about a month.

Apart from needing updates to Windows and the anti-virus software, I usually use a full-size keyboard with it.

But somehow, the keyboard next to it has an AT-type connector and the laptop uses USB. I suspect grandchildren...

 

[Duleigh]

Yesterday I used my laptop for the first time in about a month.

Apart from needing updates to Windows and the anti-virus software, I usually use a full-size keyboard with it.

But somehow, the keyboard next to it has an AT-type connector and the laptop uses USB. I suspect grandchildren...

An AT connector??? That's prehistoric!

 

[Comshaw]

While fighting my way through a musical overload (Musical = the art of the muse, I think it applies) I noticed that I ran out of USB ports on my MSI gaming PC and swapped out the hard wired MSI keyboard with the flashy color changing lights and the hard wired MSI flashy illuminated mouse with Old Reliable, my wireless Logitech K350 contour keyboard & 8 button mouse. I gave them up for the allure of the flashy, flowing, ever changing lights on the MSI keyboard.

I put some miles on that old Logitech, we've been together for years, at one point I was taking it to work with me back when I worked for the Evil Empire as they were trying to drive me out, I'd haul it back and forth from home because the keyboard that the Evil Empire provided was cheap, cheesy, and highly uncomfortable to use. There I was at work, remotely monitoring, maintaining, and updating up to 500 servers worth millions of dollars using a small desktop PC and a laptop in a docking station unified with the cheapest keyboard I've ever used in my life. I wore out two of them in a year. In the end, my flashy illuminated MSI keyboard was just as cheap and flimsy as the keyboard resembling things that the Evil Empire provided their salary slaves.

Once I returned this month to keyboard of substance, I realized how truly vital to this art/profession/hobby. The K350 used to be the top-of-the-line keyboard and I paid a lot of money for it when it was introduced, now you can get the keyboard for under $30, and at that price I'm tempted to get a backup. I consider it my #3 tool behind word processor, and computer. How much importance do you put on your keyboard? Are you picky about what keyboard you use or are you comfortable banging away on any old piece of plastic? And is there anyone out there with one of the old really loud clicking keyboards?

A keyboard to me is a tool, no different from a ratchet, a welder, a circular saw or a shovel. Having spent a lifetime with one tool or another in my hand, I am a firm believer in matching the tool to the job. Some of my friends and co-workers were (and are) tool snobs. They wouldn't buy or use a tool unless it was a brand name: Snapon, Matco, Cornwell, Mac, DeWalt, Milwaukee, Porter Gable, Hilti. They not only looked down on the cheap generic tools like you get at HarborFreight, but on the other middle brands like Craftsman and Kobalt. Me, I buy and use them all. If I'm going to use it once or twice and a cheap tool will do the job, I'll buy it. If I'm going to use it intermittently, once a month or so indefinitely, I'll buy a Craftsman or Kobalt. If I know I'll need it every day, a high end name brand is the one. I never saw the sense in paying $1000.00 for a spot welder I'm going to use twice a year, when I can buy one for 1/5 the price that will do the same job for as long.

I know, I know, I'm getting to the keyboard issue.

The same goes for a keyboard. If I was going to use it every day, all day and my job depended on it, I'd get the best I could find. But I don't and it doesn't, so an inexpensive one, that I can toss and replace without a qualm when it goes gunny bag is what I choose.

Comshaw

 

[oggbashan]

An AT connector??? That's prehistoric!

So am I. I have donated my XT dual floppy to my local museum but I still have the ability to read and write 360k floppies and 3.5 inch floppies.

 

[Duleigh]

So am I. I have donated my XT dual floppy to my local museum but I still have the ability to read and write 360k floppies and 3.5 inch floppies.

Sir, that is geekage of the highest caliber! A true devotee of tech gone by. I once had a Trash 80 with an 8" floppy disk system in my office and I couldn't wait to toss that horrible thing. 80kb of data on a disk the size of a dinner plate. How did we survive?

 

[oggbashan]

Sir, that is geekage of the highest caliber! A true devotee of tech gone by. I once had a Trash 80 with an 8" floppy disk system in my office and I couldn't wait to toss that horrible thing. 80kb of data on a disk the size of a dinner plate. How did we survive?

I still have some of the punch cards from the IBM 1401. I was the system manager in the early 1960s.

 

[Duleigh]

I still have some of the punch cards from the IBM 1401. I was the system manager in the early 1960s.

Quick Story - In the late 70's / early 80's the USAF was using IBM punch cards to track appointments, the cards would have the name of the airman, time of the appointment, and the office they were required to visit in clear English at the top of the card. At Role Call in the morning the line chief would hand out the cards and call out the appointment. A wiseass got a few blank cards and typed up a few extra and slipped one in the morning stack. The line chief started handing out cards: "Smith! Dental! Jones! Finance! Davis VD Clinic!

We stopped a VERY angry Sgt. Davis as he was calling his wife to ask some pointed questions.

 

[Blind_Justice]

For those interested, the Alesis VI49 is a fantastic master keyboard at a reasonable price. 49 semi-weighted full-size keys with velocity and aftertouch along with a couple freely assignable knobs and buttons to control other gear or virtual instruments. The whole thing feels much more upmarket than the 200 Euros we paid for it...

What? A good keyboard is essential for making good music, especially when many budget synthesizers a) don't have any or b) said synth keyboards feel flimsy and cheap. Using a MIDI controller can prolong such a machine's lifespan by reducing wear and tear on the el cheapo keys.

Okay, enough thread hijacking, back to talking about the other keyboards again...

 

[Duleigh]

For those interested, the Alesis VI49 is a fantastic master keyboard at a reasonable price. 49 semi-weighted full-size keys with velocity and aftertouch along with a couple freely assignable knobs and buttons to control other gear or virtual instruments. The whole thing feels much more upmarket than the 200 Euros we paid for it...

What? A good keyboard is essential for making good music, especially when many budget synthesizers a) don't have any or b) said synth keyboards feel flimsy and cheap. Using a MIDI controller can prolong such a machine's lifespan by reducing wear and tear on the el cheapo keys.

Okay, enough thread hijacking, back to talking about the other keyboards again...

I have an old Casio CTK-601 that works great... but when I sent the output to the printer things get a bit weird.

 

[stickygirl]

Apple, usb connected to my old G5. I've always loved the low profile keys and action. I've tried the generic look alikes and meh.... not quite the same. Only the original Apple k-board hits the spot for me.

 

[Duleigh]

Apple, usb connected to my old G5. I've always loved the low profile keys and action. I've tried the generic look alikes and meh.... not quite the same. Only the original Apple k-board hits the spot for me.

I was always a fan of Apple hardware, their hardware was miles ahead everybody else

 

[Handley_Page]

While fighting my way through a musical overload (Musical = the art of the muse, I think it applies) I noticed that I ran out of USB ports on my MSI gaming PC and swapped out the hard wired MSI keyboard with the flashy color changing lights and the hard wired MSI flashy illuminated mouse with Old Reliable, my wireless Logitech K350 contour keyboard & 8 button mouse. I gave them up for the allure of the flashy, flowing, ever changing lights on the MSI keyboard.

I put some miles on that old Logitech, we've been together for years, at one point I was taking it to work with me back when I worked for the Evil Empire as they were trying to drive me out, I'd haul it back and forth from home because the keyboard that the Evil Empire provided was cheap, cheesy, and highly uncomfortable to use.

.

.
Are you picky about what keyboard you use or are you comfortable banging away on any old piece of plastic? And is there anyone out there with one of the old really loud clicking keyboards?

I used to spend my time (for a while) as a Technical Author, a job requiring a decent keyboard, if only to get up to some speed. The best keyboard I ever had was an old IBM 'clanky' (made by Cherry) and used on the PS/2 machines. I really mourned the loss of that keyboard (grandchild/coffee) and have yet to find another of that ilk.
For me, it was the spacing of the keys and the depth of the operation.
I have a thing made by/for HP with loads of extra buttons I wot not of which isn't too bad, but I cannot get up to a decent speed. . . .

 

[ChloeTzang]

I believe actually they did disagree on not only the bird but also the way the nib was cut. Live birds were preferred over dead, and Swan was considered the best, but swans were very disagreeable and gave up their quills dearly. Next best was goose, I suppose because if the goose fought back they ended up coming home for dinner... the hard way. Crow quills were preferred for fine writing, the Declaration of Independence was written with crow quill pens. I once read that writers had assistants whose job it was to cut and sharpen their quill pens. Having done calligraphy with modern steel nib ink pens and at one point amassing a big collection of nibs, I could only gaze in awe at calligraphy with hand cut, bird plucked quill pens


(I can't believe I went down this rabbit hole)

Neither can I (believe you went down this rabbit hole) but it's actually fascinating. I have a Regency story I'n writing, and THAT is something I really want to work in. Set around 1815, Chinese princess in Regency England - chinese calligraphy vs english penmanship. That's a really interesting little throwaway. I already have her fighting Gentleman Jackson - chinese martial arts vs english boxing.... lol

Anyhow, keyboards? Naaaaaah. I have an old HP laptop, and I just use the laptop keyboard. It's really basic, and a bit worn and coffee stained, but I'm used to it. I used to have a seperate keyboard but I tossed it, too big and clunky and it got in the way. I don't want all fancy stuff, just a basic qwerty keyboard with enter, delete and a space bar. Now a monitor on the other hand - I have a huge monitor and I use both screens - the monitor for writing and the laptop screen for music and research while I'm writing

 

[Duleigh]

Neither can I (believe you went down this rabbit hole) but it's actually fascinating. I have a Regency story I'n writing, and THAT is something I really want to work in. Set around 1815, Chinese princess in Regency England - chinese calligraphy vs english penmanship. That's a really interesting little throwaway. I already have her fighting Gentleman Jackson - chinese martial arts vs english boxing.... lol

Anyhow, keyboards? Naaaaaah. I have an old HP laptop, and I just use the laptop keyboard. It's really basic, and a bit worn and coffee stained, but I'm used to it. I used to have a seperate keyboard but I tossed it, too big and clunky and it got in the way. I don't want all fancy stuff, just a basic qwerty keyboard with enter, delete and a space bar. Now a monitor on the other hand - I have a huge monitor and I use both screens - the monitor for writing and the laptop screen for music and research while I'm writing

I'm kind of a history geek and when history collides with something I love (like calligraphy) no rabbit hole is safe. Just as long as we avoid steam locomotives on these pages we'll all be safe, but until then maybe the Warrior Bunnies of my next Light Novel type story should take cover. Chinese Calligraphy is so much different than European, the act itself is an artform, so beautiful to watch! But - I'm a sucker for Germanic gothic alphabets. And didn't Jet Li take out Gentleman Jim in Fearless? (or was it Once Upon a Time in China 2) Either way, I can't wait to see this story, I'd cast Ming Na Wen in the lead role, script unseen.

I do like laptop keyboards, even the blue tooth keyboard on my Surface tablet. Evil Empire 2 gave me a great laptop with a wide screen monitor and a keyboard with a number pad... the day before they cancelled the project they hired me for. Having used multiple monitors for so long one big and one little drives me crazy, my hat is off to you. We're a Wonderful Wife Ch 2 (just posted) was written on a Surface laptop. I'd love to find a keyboard that feels like a laptop keyboard for my PC.

 

[shakna]

I'd love to find a keyboard that feels like a laptop keyboard for my PC.

Apple's keyboards feel like that to me. They'll work fine with anything non-Apple, out of box.

 

[jsmiam]

@Duleigh, I also own Logitech k380 (compact) and k480 ( with a notch to hold phone or tablet. It’s big for a portable keyboard, but smaller than a full size computer keyboard) fast switching multi device Bluetooth keyboards, pretty nice feel to them also.

If the desktop doesn’t have Bluetooth, the usb adaptors are cheap, no need for an expensive one if it’s for a desktop. Plus you can also use on phone or tablet.

@Handley, Unicomp would feel just like your old keyboard. (Before I sound like an ad for them, they do have one common-ish criticism, quality control not as good as it should be considering it’s ibm roots.)

 

[tenyari]

Mechanical Gaming keyboards are vital to games for fast response time and durability. They're equally picky about their mice for the same reasons. And neither should ever be wireless.

Having had a wireless mouse die on me in the middle of playing an action game I understand why they feel that way.

I'm not fond of most laptop keyboards because of the size and typing always feels a little odd. But I've used them for years.

Right now I actually have a gaming keyboard, but a lower end non-mechanical one. It was budget enough but also had good reviews. Something called HyperX Alloy Core RGB.

I actually find the 'RGB' aspect annoying. The thing is lit up, and when my computer is off you can't read the keys because the letters only show as lights under the keys... I've managed to disable the strobing colors aspect of it, but every now and then something resets and it starts spamming strobe colors at me.