Besides pointing to (new to me) KeyChatter with all kinds of resources about the mechanical keyboard world, the Tiny App blog’s post Hard keyboard carrying cases brought back all kinds of memories!
The most valuable (in terms of applied practicality and life-skills) educational class I ever took was my touch-typing course in high school. It was an elective and everyone thought I was bonkers for doing so. Because I hung with the brainz of the school often there were Hermione’ish discussions about what classes we should or should not take as if they weren’t AP-type they might count for a lower rating and hurt our class ranking even with an A. This one definitely wasn’t on the AP class chart. I took it anyway, got an A and learned to touch-type on the old IBM Selectric typewriter like nobody’s business! (And still managed to graduate within in the top 10!)
That gave me the confidence to write well at the typewriter and easily transition to the world of PC keyboarding.
Those IBM Selectrics had a great feel and I still can’t help but tickle those keys when I find one buried in an office every now and then.
The nearest equivalent in my early PC days was a GRiD brand keyboard that had a mechanical touch like the fabled IBM Model F keyboard & Model M keyboard with the chunky five-pin DIN connector.
When the transition to PC’s/servers with the PS2 and later USB connectors came, out went the mechanical touch and in with the grief of the plastic/rubber dome (and similar) cheap & disposable keyboards we now find.
So thanks to TinyApps, here is a bunch of related links for mechanical keyboards that I have found. While I have always admired the Das Keyboards the most, the revival of other mechanical keyboards at a more reasonable price-point makes me more comfortable with putting it on the Christmas wish-list!
- How to Choose the Best Mechanical Keyboard (and Why You'd Want To) - Lifehacker
- Get Started with Mechanical Keyboards With This Discounted Rosewill - Kingja Deals
- This Mechanical Keyboard Switch Sampler Is My New Favorite Desk Toy - Lifehacker
- Most Popular Mechanical Keyboard: Das Keyboard Ultimate Model S - Lifehacker
- Five Best Mechanical Keyboards - Lifehacker
- Typing stealth: a review of the CODE Keyboard - Ars Technica
- The CODE Keyboard - review via the Coding Horror blog
- CODE Mechanical Keyboard - CODE homepage
- Das Keyboard - Homepage
- [Official] Mechanical Keyboard Guide - Overclock.net forum guide
- An introduction to Cherry MX mechanical switches - The Keyboard Company (with cool GIF’s)
Happy clickity-clacking!
--Claus Valca
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