#wasd code keyboard

[tsworman]

Mechanical Keyboard Pt. 2

I've spent just under a week with my new keyboard and I'm really enjoying the feel.

I've found the back lighting is really amazing/helpful when gaming in the dark. The LED key covers I originally got from MASS Drop were a bit dark. The blue blocks out most of the light resulting in blue keys that are only visible in complete darkness (even at highest brightness setting). The green covers gave the keys a nice color in a moderately lit room. For now I'm only using the blue covers on my directional keys which I've replaced with clear covers for the moment.

I feel the MX Clear switches are nice for a mixture of typing/coding and gaming, utilizing the tactile feedback. I'm still very happy with that choice of switch. I played through Portal 2 Co-op on Friday evening using the new board and it was enjoyable. A bit more so with my previous keyboard. That said, most games are more enjoyable when the 'A' key doesn't get stuck.

I had a discussion with friends this weekend over the usefulness vs. cost of the mechanical switches. Dana argued that they have little use, based on the cost, outside of competitive gaming. After much thought, I'm inclined to mostly agree. I differ only that it does make coding and type work a bit more comfortable. If that is a significant portion of what I do with my life, shouldn't I want to make that as enjoyable as possible? I think both sides have a valid point, but only because the cost is significantly higher than a regular keyboard. I could pick up a lot of cheap keyboards for the cost of this one. If the cost were half, I think the argument that they are a luxury item outside of competitive gaming is a lot harder to make.

Minor gripe, it would be nice if the keyboard back light shut off after a period of in-activity. I have to remember to turn it on/off with Function-F12 each time I use the keyboard. My computer stays on all the time since I use it remote from elsewhere. No need to have all those LEDs constantly on and drawing power.

Photos and further review to follow sometime next week.

[tsworman]

Mechanical Keyboard Pt. 1

For the past year my keyboard has had an 'A' key that sticks. I cleaned the keyboard several times but can't seem to fix it. Most people would just replace it, I kept remapping 'A' to other less used keys and started using the machine only to game. It is a beloved Sun Unix style keyboard and I really was struggling to let another go.

A love note to my Sun keyboard: "You have been amazing. CTRL is in the proper place for all my Emacs shortcuts and I love your other useful keys (cut, paste, copy, kill, meta). When I'm happy about what the computer has done, I can mash your 'props' key a few times and hope that it conveys the proper emotion. Sun keyboard, you have stopped others from using my machine and made them proclaim "What is wrong with your keyboard? Where is backspace?". I have 3 others similar to you, but none are the same. It is with great regret, that tonight I will reclaim your parts. In the future I hope you can be better utilized to repair your brothers when they fail. <3" Over the past year I settled on moving to a mechanical keyboard. I wanted the ability to hardware remap the CTRL key and liked the idea of customizing a board. Mechanical keyboards have most of these options and allow you to pick switch type and style. Cherry switches come in various varieties, but luckily several manufacturers make sampler boards which include one of each switch type. I sadly decided that I liked the Cherry MX Clear switches the best. Very few keyboards are manufactured with them and even fewer have back lighting. The CODE Keyboard from WASD/Coding Horror was one of the few boards that met all my requirements. After 4 months of being out of stock, I finally managed to snag one two weeks ago. It arrives today. Mass drop recently ran a Mechanical Keyboard LED color cover group buy which I went in on. This will let me modify the keyboard color. I also ordered a rainbow pack of covers from China but they have yet to arrive.

Pictures and review to come in the following days.