{"id":1687,"date":"2010-10-26T22:59:12","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T11:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vectorstorm.org\/?p=1687"},"modified":"2010-10-26T23:23:56","modified_gmt":"2010-10-26T12:23:56","slug":"keyboards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/2010\/10\/26\/keyboards\/","title":{"rendered":"Keyboards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As a professional programmer, I spend an awful lot of time using a keyboard. \u00a0When I went to apply for my first game industry job at Maxis, I had to apply through a temp agency, and one of the things that the temp agency made me do was their typing test. \u00a0I scored about 90 words per minute on that test, and had a very difficult time then convincing them that no, I didn’t want a secretarial job; \u00a0I wanted to go work for Maxis. \u00a0I still tend to score between 90 and 95 words per minute; \u00a0at that sort of speed, having a nice keyboard is quite important, both for health and comfort.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I’ve tried lots of keyboards. \u00a0Shortly after starting at Maxis, I settled on the original Microsoft Natural keyboard as my favourite. \u00a0When my second Natural keyboard died a few years back, I went in search of a new one, but was underwhelmed by the more recent revisions of that keyboard. \u00a0So I went on another round of testing keyboards, and eventually switched over to the modern slimline Apple “chiclet” laptop-style keyboards as the best-feeling keyboards for typing on. \u00a0I’ve been using them for the past three or four years, even going so far as to buy an extra one to use at work, instead of using the cheap membrane keyboards that work was providing. \u00a0Compared to those membrane keyboards (and even to most other laptop-style keyboards) the Apple ones just felt precise and responsive, with a really nice tactile feel. \u00a0As I type this post, I have three of those Apple keyboards within arm’s reach. \u00a0But I’ve always been vaguely curious about mechanical keyboards; \u00a0keyboards with each key mounted on a separate mechanical switch.<\/p>\n

Mechanical keyboards are absurdly expensive, but are loved by writers and many other heavy keyboard users (to a level that seemed, I will confess, to border on the irrational and obsessive). \u00a0Well,\u00a0taking advantage of my current “working from home” status (and despite of my current “not receiving an income” status), I bought myself a “clicky” keyboard to use on my work-from-home computer. \u00a0The precise model of the keyboard doesn’t really matter; \u00a0the important thing controlling the feel of the keyboard is the switches it uses: \u00a0Cherry MX Blues, one of the most popular “clicky” switches around; \u00a0they produce a rather noisy “click” as you press a key, and a softer one as you release the key again. \u00a0When you’re typing at 90wpm, it can make quite a racket. \u00a0Reminds me a lot of typing on a real typewriter, although it’s not actually nearly that loud. \u00a0And you never jam the keys.<\/p>\n

The keyboard was delivered this morning, and I’ve been using it all day. \u00a0Observations after a day’s usage:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. As I mentioned above, it was absurdly expensive. \u00a0More than three times the price of the Apple keyboards I’ve been preferring lately, and those keyboards were already absurdly expensive.<\/li>\n
  2. I’ve always been a bit obsessive about maintaining a quiet workplace. \u00a0Noisy computers, noisy hard drives, noisy fans, noisy neighbors, etc. all really drive me to distraction. \u00a0But for whatever reason, I don’t mind the noise of the keyboard at all. \u00a0My old co-workers (who now appear to have discovered this blog) will tell you that at work, I always kept a pair of earplug headphones in my pocket, for when I needed to focus, or when some sort of noisy disruption was going on (builders, fire alarms, etc). \u00a0But I’m perfectly okay with the noise level of this keyboard. \u00a0(I suspect I’d be less okay with it if someone else was typing on it, though!)<\/li>\n
  3. The typing action on this keyboard is downright sexy. \u00a0Light, fast, responsive. \u00a0Even though the keys can be pressed a much longer distance than the Apple ones, they require much less force to press. \u00a0What’s more, you don’t have to “bottom-out” the keys the way that you do on the Apple keyboard; \u00a0press them halfway; you can hear and feel the moment that they’ve been pressed far enough to register, and can release the key immediately, and move on to the next one.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I guess this is just my way of saying that I’m absolutely floored at the difference. \u00a0It’s to the point that the Apple keyboards, which I loved to type on yesterday, are starting to feel like typing directly on a desk; \u00a0just flat and jarring.<\/p>\n

    Which has kind of left me with a problem. \u00a0I now have two computers which I’m using on a daily basis (in fact, often simultaneously), but only one absurdly expensive keyboard, which means that it’s going to be a lot less pleasant to type on one of the two computers.<\/p>\n

    And there’s another problem. \u00a0This keyboard is far too noisy for nearby workmates to put up with it (and I imagine that the somewhat-quieter Cherry MX Brown switches wouldn’t be much better in that regard), so when I eventually start working in an office again, I’m not going to be able to take it with me.<\/p>\n

    Clearly, there is only one option: \u00a0I will have to become absurdly wealthy so that I can buy another absurdly expensive keyboard, and then never work in an open-plan office environment again. \u00a0I know, it’s a terrible price to pay, but I’m willing to make the sacrifice if it’ll mean typing bliss. \u00a0:D<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As a professional programmer, I spend an awful lot of time using a keyboard. \u00a0When I went to apply for my first game industry job at Maxis, I had to apply through a temp agency, and one of the things that the temp agency made me do was their typing test. \u00a0I scored about 90…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/po9WK-rd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}