When a project doesn’t work, there are so many things that could be wrong. Is it the code? A loose wire? A misconfiguration of some kind? Or do you just not know what you’re doing (my favourite)? The uncertainty is exacerbated when you’re using vintage integrated circuits. Old ICs have a habit of going bad. In some cases, this is… Read more »
When your job involves many hours a day hammering at a keyboard then the nature of that humble instrument, so little regarded by occasional or amateur computer users, assumes great importance. And if, like me, you are of considerable age and have worn-out hands, then the choice of keyboard becomes critical – otherwise it turns into an instrument of torture…. Read more »
It’s always fascinating to know what kit others use. Reviews are all very well, but I’m more interested in what people work with on a day-to-day basis. So I’ve set up an account over on kit.com. I’ll be sharing lists of the equipment I actually use and like. If you see something in these lists you’ll know that: I bought… Read more »
This book was published in 2016 but I’d always dismissed it because I assumed it would be too basic. After all, I’ve been messing around with the Raspberry Pi for some years now and I really had no use for a book that spends the first couple of chapters saying ‘this is what an LED looks like and here’s how… Read more »
Some mechanical keyboard enthusiasts talk about the ‘end game’ – finally reaching the perfect combination of layout, switches and key caps. Others say you never get there – that there is always another keycap set to buy, always another switch you haven’t tried, always a layout you hadn’t considered. I don’t care about any of that crap. I just want… Read more »
Topre switches are a divisive issue in the mechanical keyboard community. To some they are the apogee of keyboard switch development. To others they are rubber domes with hype. Topre switches combine the slider mechanism of mechanical switches such as Cherry MX with a spring plus rubber dome capacitive actuator. So some people like to refer to them as ‘semi-mechanical’…. Read more »
I have a mouse problem. I don’t mean the house is overrun with small rodents. (Well, it is, but that’s another story.) No, the problem is that the conventional computer mouse has become a pain to use. I have osteoarthritis in most of my joints. The hands are especially bad. Indeed, one of the things that has driven me back to… Read more »
This was not a serious purchase. I bought this keyboard purely for its looks. I mean, why wouldn’t you? The version I opted for came with retro-style keycaps that mimic a 1920s or 1930s typewriter. They look fantastic with a retro-styled project such as my HMV1960 Raspberry Pi case. Are they great for typing? Not so much. Because of the… Read more »
There seems to be an obsession with many mechanical keyboard enthusiasts to make the keyboard as small as possible. I can go along with this only so far. As you can see here and here, I’m already a fan of the tenkeyless (TKL) form factor, which dispenses with the number pad but keeps everything else. The KB Paradise V60 takes… Read more »
The Das Keyboard 4C impressed the hell out of me when I first got it. But over time, as I’ve become more familiar with mechanical keyboards and what they’re capable of, disillusionment has set in. Having decided to explore the idea of using a mechanical keyboard I started trawling the interwebz, as one does, and the name of Das Keyboard… Read more »
There is a world that most people know nothing about. It is home to a motley assortment of obsessives. Welcome to the dark and sometimes noisy domain of mechanical keyboard enthusiasts. I had no idea this subculture existed until my painfully progressing arthritis spurred me to seek out alternatives to the standard Apple keyboard that came with my iMac. More than… Read more »