Marco's RTG - All Comments

re: Mechanical Key Switch Keyboards Demystified

László Monda — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:47:10 GMT

Congratulations Marco!

This is currently the best resource on the Internet on mechanical keyboards. My journey has been started with Das Keyboard but it will end with my own design. We're just building a pretty unique, fully programmable keyboard intended for hackers, utilizing quality microswitches.

It's nice to read this page because it reinforces my opinion that mechanical keyboards are absolutely superior to the rest.

Really nice article, keep it up!

re: Mechanical Key Switch Keyboards Demystified

avidracer — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:04:05 GMT

hi Marco,

great article, I ended up withthe filco 104M/EB model. wow, its amazing, gives a good feel when typing on it. Its now my daily work keyboard also.

could you also please cover the scissor switch models ? are they better than the rubber dome and quiet at the same time ?my wife will go mad if I make so much noise at home and I was looking from some quiet aletnatives.

re: Mechanical Key Switch Keyboards Demystified

Nicomater — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:19:49 GMT

I gotta get one of thses, nice article.

re: Mechanical Key Switch Keyboards Demystified

Marco C — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:00:25 GMT

Awesome! More converts. I'm glad this aritcle has pointed some of you in the right direction. Enjoy your new keyboards!

re: Mechanical Key Switch Keyboards Demystified

Paula — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:12:11 GMT

Thank you for this excellent article. I learned the hard way that having a crappy keyboard will ruin your wrists. After several weeks of using a terrible $10.00 keyboard, I started to develop severe wrist pain. I switched to a wonderful keyboard with ALPS keys and it's like typing in mid air, as if I'm not even pressing any keys at all. Within a week my wrist pain totally disappeared. I'll never type on a cheap keyboard again.

re: Mechanical Key Switch Keyboards Demystified

Lei — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:33:51 GMT

Great article Marco, turned me into a keyboard nerd.

re: Rocking Out With The i-Rocks KR-6230 Compact Keyboard

Bill Bev Dafoe — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:04:05 GMT

It's all about keyboards. The reason I could never use a laptop (except under dire circumstances- very dire) are the damn keyboards.

I have become a complete addict to ergonomic keyboards. I have five of them, and my favorite by far is the microsoft (unk. model) black one. When I type on it I can type super fast- and my thoughts flow better.

Also- I really think it is better for your hands.

Do miss the click though.

re: Gigabyte Offers Up Some Input--Devices That Is

realneil — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:26:39 GMT

I never used to imagine spending lots of money for a keyboard especially when you can get one for 10 or 12 bucks and it works.

Over the years I've come to realize that it's an important part of the system.

I bought an iMac a year ago and was impressed with the little Aluminum keyboard that comes with it. I showed it to my wife who is always complaining about how crappy keyboards are. She promptly stole it and uses it connected to her Laptop now. I miss that little keyboard too.

re: Woz: Once A Genius, Always A Genius

realneil — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:26:56 GMT

Tinkering is the most fun one can have on a rainy day except chasing the missus around. I can remember fixing toasters, hair dryers, washing machines, and all sorts of other stuff when I was a kid at home. It's only natural that I progressed into building Spaceships for NASA and starting an unofficial repair service for my friend's computers as a hobby.

I would have loved to work with the Woz back then.

re: It's Not Just A Docking Station Anymore

3vi1 — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:46:14 GMT

Wow... that's weird. It's like they've made height assumptions about your chair.

Not a good idea, IMHO.

re: Mechanical Key Switch Keyboards Demystified

Dan — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:35:10 GMT

Hey thanks for the video, it took me a long while to decide on what I wanted but end the end i got a Majestouch Tactile Click, and boy is it worth it! I can defiantly see a difference in my typing speed after typing on it for just a couple minutes, not to mention that the sound of the keys is simply intoxicating! No comparison to those plastic dome ones at all, the price is more than worth it. Thanks again for the great write-up!

re: Mechanical Key Switch Keyboards Demystified

Marco C — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:46:46 GMT

Hope you enjoy those Scorpius boards! The cherry blue switch was my favorite until I got used to the browns. Now I'm diggin' the silence...

re: Mechanical Key Switch Keyboards Demystified

Granville — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:03:06 GMT

I believe I found this article a month or maybe 2 after it was first released. Oh a whim I was trying to find clicky or mechanical switch keyboards and came here. I do remember seeing the video the first time I landed here so it was after that.

One day my cat knocked over my glass of water and got my long standing favorite keyboard drenched. Unfortunately it ruined the contacts inside and wasn't working anymore. This is when I took it apart and realized that just because a keyboard clicks, doesn't mean that it is a mechanical switch keyboard. What I found was some layers where when the key was pressed it pressed a contact sheet down onto another sheet to make the keypress work. While the keys themselves were clicky and on real springs and felt great when typing on it, I don't beleive that this is how mechanical swtich keyboard are really made.

I had some older keyboards, one with an older style AT plug with an adapter to ps2, and 2 IBM models that seem to still have their lead weights in them that came iwth ps2 plugs. I just find it hard to have them on my desk since they are so large and bulky that I recently decided to get 2 Scorpius keyboards based solely on the video found here and the sound that they made; I find the lighter sound more to my liking.

I got them in today and while I've seen some reviews by people who said they opened up the keyboard that they just got and found disturbing things on the inside. I don't plan on doing that to mine since I just want it to work, but it's touch and feel is so much better then the rubber dome one, that it actually took me a minute to get a good feel for the new typing sensation.

Thanks for the article and the video.

re: It's Not Just A Docking Station Anymore

Marco C — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:04:11 GMT

Yeah, that's an actual docking station from Kensington...

forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php

re: Gigabyte Offers Up Some Input--Devices That Is

3vi1 — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:55:36 GMT

I've said this a million times: ERGONOMICS. Why must it be that Microsoft is the only company to offer a decent ergonomic/split keyboard? I was at Fry's a few weeks back and no one else really compares.

And you know how much that hurts me to say given my Linux fanboism.

If Gigabyte or anyone else wants my money, they could start by typing on their keyboards for 16 hours non-stop, then typing on a MS natural keyboard for 16 hours... then hitting the drawing board.