Introductions - open invite.

[hoggy]

Hi guys!

I'm part geekhack and part deskthority and I thought it would be nice to introduce myself (a bit late I suppose) to our new shared community. I've been posting on geekhack for 2 years (I think).

My collection falls into two groups -

Ergonomic keyboards - it's my opinion that circa 1992 was the golden age for these things. The jewel in the collection is an unboxed datahand that's a little yellowed but otherwise in great shape.

Access-IS Keyboards - as they are fun to reprogram and if you are patient, can be had relatively cheaply on ebay.

I'm up to about 70 keyboards now. My daily driver is a Kinesis Advantage that I implanted red switches in (but haven't done the thumb keys yet). I keep around 6/7 keyboards at work and swap boards daily for a bit of variety.

I'm not posting pictures as they exist elsewhere in the forum.


I type in dvorak as I was having difficulty typing a few years ago.

So if you normally lurk or just trade - why not break the ice and introduce yourself - trust me, you're not weirder than the rest of us.

[nacho]

Your proposal sounds like a psycho therapy session, where they go around and introduce themselves. It might work, though.

[hoggy]

My name is hoggy, and I have a problem...

[nacho]

My name is problem, and I have a nacho. I and I, mon. One luv.

[Acanthophis]

My name is Problem, and I have keyboards.

[Rafen]

My name is Rafen and I'm addicted to wine coolers. Strawberry-kiwi ruined my life.

[ripster]

My name is Ripster. Why it says ripster on the left is because of laziness.

[dorkvader]

I'm not posting pictures as they exist elsewhere in the forum.

Hoggyboard!

When I'm bored, I just go through your photobucket again. There are tons of cool pictures in there.

[hoggy]

Thanks! I've got some new keyboards recently and I've just returned from town with a new camera...

I've also subscribed to lynda.com (no, it's not porn) and they have a few tutorials on taking better photos. Hell, they can't make me any worse.

[DanGWanG]

I am DanGWanG, probably not hard to guess my name or ethnicity

I started collecting keyboards when a noob friend of mine showed me his Filco TKL with Blacks. He bought them on EK right before they stopped carrying them, and so I was on the hunt for one. It's nice to reminisce back on those days when I owned a Das.

I don't really overly enjoy vintage keyboards, as I much prefer more modern ones. My collection typically consists of Filcos and Realforces. However, I do finally have a KMAC coming I'm very excited about that, and you can be sure to see some pics of it when the time comes.

Lately, I've been really into keycaps and ClickClacks. I dress them up on keyboards like doll's clothes, and take pictures (that was a weird analogy..). My collection grows, surely but slowly. Oh, and I love weed.

[fossala]

I am Fossala (Dave). I enjoy keyboards and technology but hates the capatalism that goes hand in hand with it. I'm a Linux/BSD user that falls in with most of my political views. I'm a chef by trade. I have a 5 year old son and a misses. My other hobby is cycling, I'm training for LEJOG (100 miles a day for 8 days) next year (one end of country to the other).

Belive it or not, I'm not a C*** I just unhappy with the way the world runs.

[hoggy]

The great thing about keycaps is they really help you get more enjoyment out of a board. I think they can be quite addictive for that reason. I bought far too many from round four.

[hoggy]

For a great collection of boards and the ability to take a decent photo - webwit does rather well indeed.

I'll post a link to my photobucket album later, it's a little bit difficult from my phone.

DangWang - looking forward to seeing the kmac!

[dorkvader]

I am DanGWanG, probably not hard to guess my name or ethnicity

I never considered that until now. Took me a minute to understand.
--

I'm Dork Vader. My username is a pun on my last name IRL, as people who have shipped to me may have noticed.
My interests are varied. I enjoy biking, origami, learning, reading, hacking, electronics, thinking, philosophy, religion, and of course keyboards.

I currently work in computer repair.

I try to see things from other people's perspectives in the hopes that I will be better able to understand my peers. This has been met with limited success, but I can at least understand some things now. I strive to have good English explanations for my ideas and ideals, so that I can share them.

---
Oh, I got you covered, hoggy:
http://s987.photobucket.com/albums/ae356/hoggyboard/
http://s987.photobucket.com/albums/ae35 ... Keyboards/

[Ascaii]

Hello there, I am Ascaii. Many of you will know me simply as Chris.

I am an engineering student and discovered mechanical keyboards in 2010, looking for a way to increase my output writing reports and other stuff for uni. From beginning on, I developed a hand for coming up with used boards.
I collect a few things, but mostly I pass things on that I do not want to keep for myself, usually at cost. I guess I'm one of the go-to-men on DT if you are looking for cheap, used cherry boards, as I usually have a dozen in my cellar waiting.

[demik]

My name is Rafen and I'm addicted to wine coolers. Strawberry-kiwi ruined my life.

nick swardson reference?

[TexasFlood]

TexasFlood and I rediscovered my Northgate Ultra in the basement a couple of years ago and discovered that there were other keyboard geeks out there as well. It's been downhill ever since,

[Icarium]

I got into keyboards at the beginning of this year because of mild RSI issues. Apart from trying to find the perfect board (aren't we all...) I have started collecting boards just for the switches. I like taking them apart and playing with the mechanics, maybe I should have become a clockmaker, oh wait that trade is extinct. :p
My collection is probably somewhere around 40 boards.

[WRXChris]

Hi everybody, I re-discovered the wonderful world of mechanical keyboards a few years ago but couldn't convince myself to buy one until a year ago when I started to get some sort of RSI in my fingers and wrists. A filco tkl mx brown was my first modern mech kb, and I unsuccessfully tried to make it my only mech kb. Now I have 3 filcos, 2 pokers, and 2 g80s and quite a few keycap sets with more on the way!

Growing up in the late 80s, early 90s I was lucky enough to occasionally use model m's and apple extended keyboards at friends houses and school, and always remembered their superior typing feel! In high school in the late 90s mechanical keyboards were unfortunately a distant memory, and I would always spend my limited PC building budget on hardware components, neglecting my peripherals like a big dummy!

Other than keyboards I have lots of interests. I enjoy outdoor stuff like hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, and swimming. I play pick-up ice hockey occasionally. I also like PC gaming, music, cars, go-kart racing, learning to program microcontrollers, and that stuff DanGWanG is always talking about!

[kint]

Hi I'm kint, and I might take the chance to introduce myself to the DT community too...
I'm a male thirty something and live on Germany's baltic sea cost.
I rediscovered mechanical keyboards a few months ago started messing around and recently found the according community...
As for the 'boards, there are the Cherry MX I do use currently and those Cherry I currently don't.
Apart from that no other keyboards in the house, I'm no collector in that field.
I like to tinker with all kinds of stuff, but rather the mechanical, technical way than coding, so yeah, sometimes I feel a little weird here cheers.

[Rafen]

My name is Rafen and I'm addicted to wine coolers. Strawberry-kiwi ruined my life.

nick swardson reference?

Nice catch.

My name is Rafen. I am currently pursuing a Computer Science degree in the concentration of Application Development. I live in the United States and have been learning and using mechanical keyboards for about a year. I really got hooked on these keyboards when I purchased one for my gaming computer a while ago and then when I realized how amazing they are to type on I was hooked. Now I spend most of my time on the internet reading keyboard and programming forum. My goal is to find the perfect keyboard before I graduate school in less than a year so that I have a great keyboard to take with me when I get a job.

[fohat]

My name is Harry and I am a late-middle-aged white guy who lives in the suburbs of Atlanta with my wife and kids. I am interested in everything, but particularly the arts and sciences. I like to tinker with things, so a keyboard hobby is very therapeutic. My great "outer" passion is wild music, and I prefer avant-garde and psychedelic jazz and rock of the 1960s and 1970s.

I used mechanical keyboards in the 1980s (BS) and 1990s (Alps), and re-discovered them a few years ago when I bought an almost-working Northgate Omnikey for $2 at a thrift store. I still have a thing for Alps, although they suffer from a bad rep around here. I have a dozen very nice rubber dome keyboards that I would sell for cheap. And I won't start on how I love blue Montereys even though all their host boards suck.

Buckling springs satisfy my physicality (did I mention that I earned my black belt in Tae Kwon Do in my mid-50s?) and I collected a few Model Ms and bolt-modded my favorites. The pride of that lot is an awesome 1986 1390131 with metal badge, heavy plate, and 2010 Unicomp springs (thanks demik).

I have come to consider the dental floss mod essential to buckling spring keyboards. It attenuates the sound just enough to stop the ringing in the ears and echoing down the hallway, making for a satisfying but soothing experience overall, without messing with the feel at all.

However, you haven't reached keyboard nirvana until you have used a Model F. The 83-key XT feels exquisite, but the layout is just too too weird. The 84-key AT has a much-improved layout but still is just not "right" ......

When the awesome Soarer presented his Teensy mod, it opened the door for the incredible big-ass bad-ass Model F 122-key terminal board to plow its way onto the scene. By taking it apart and moving some springs, you can create a very-near-standard ANSI layout, with a bonus set of function keys to the left plus some more goodies.

Many keyboard enthusiasts abhor the monumental size of these behemoths, and I can certainly appreciate the cute handsomeness of tiny minimal boards, but I have come to love using keyboards that approximate the size and weight of my children at birth.

After becoming accustomed to a bolt-modded, flossed F-122, anything else simply feels like plastic junk. Even a Model M feels wimpy in comparison.

I have 2 immaculate backups in storage, but I am dreading the day when the "latest and greatest" iteration of some "modern" OS finally renders these dinosaurs unusable. There has never been another keyboard like these Reagan-era juggernauts, and may never be again.

[486]

Hi my name is 486 and I started looking into keyboards around 2009-10. I only joined recently because I lurk alot and that this was the first forum I really register for.My name is based of my custom built 486 of which I test my AT keyboards and use for gaming. In '09, an friend gave me an XT compatible computer and it came with a keyboard. The feel was so perfect. It turned out later to Blue Alps. However it was not until later that I got really into things. It was december of that same year, christmas was just coming, a time for giving and recieving. At this time of the year, everybody was throwing out all their old stuff. I threw out some old Pentium 3 Hp e-pc Vectras and some modern rubber dome chicony keyboards. I was walking along the street when I heard a clicking noise under my feet. Not joking. I actually stood on Model M. Although i didn't know that at the time. I bent down to pick it up as I was interested becuase it felt like my Blue Alps keyboard at home. I picked it up and soon realised that their two more there. I certainly did recieve! I took them all home, cleaned them and then went to find out what they are and that is how I found my way to geekhack.

[Icarium]

Hahaha, even stepping on Model Ms turns people into keyboards freaks.

[tadbitnerdy]

My name is Tad, hence the alias 'tadbitnerdy'.

I've been a computer nerd since the early 90's when I was teaching my grade school teachers how to use their first computers. I've been working as a statistical programmer for almost 6 years now, and just got into keyboards a few months ago when I bought my first: a black Leopold TKL with Cherry Browns. I'm now an addict. I own a Choc Mini and a Poker now. The main thing that attracted me to this hobby was the customization that is possible. It as been slow for me, but I've managed to convert my Choc Mini into a removable cable design, and I've added some new keys (though only ABS) to my Poker. I've also created wrist rest for work out of some extra hardwood flooring we had.

I believe I signed up for this forum and GH around the same time, but because of a GB for Pokers I hung around GH a lot more. Now I'm looking to contribute to both... that is once GH comes out of surgery

-Tad

[JaccoW]

Hey there, my name is Jacco and I am a Dutch guy living in the city of the international crime court.

I got into keyboards march 2010 when I got my first mechanical; a Déck Legend Frost with cherry clears. When my old Logitech G15 started showing signs of breaking down I looked for a better keyboard and found it in the Déck.
Loved it ever since, but it was only until I had to work outside at my internship when I noticed how much I liked these keyboards. I work at a store that sells outdoor gear and study business engineering. Hence the love of materials and expensive goodies.

After trying a few different boards I now have my second board with clears, a Keycool 87 LE 2012. With the added comfort of o-rings it may be my favourite board as of yet and it allows me to indulge in buying little add-ons and looking for ways to improve it.