Formal letter of introduction

[Robstero]

Salutations Deskthority!

A quick small note here to say hiya all.

Am a noobie here of course, although have been lurking hard for a little while now.

In a frighteningly short space of time, something strange has come over me - I appear to have become, umm, a wee bit obsessed by keyboards. I think my other half is staring to think I've gone a bit insane (and I'm all, "no way! i've never been more sane man!" )

All started just a month or so back - I remember mushing in some more text on my crummy Logitech K270 and thinking, "This is really not very good, this creaky flimsy, sticky thing. Time for something better." And I guess that was the beginning of the rabbit hole there.

I used to skate a while back, and something occurred to me the other day - typing on a crummy bubble dome seems akin to skating on a Variflex board or some toyshop brand or something... if any of you skaters/ex skaters out there remember those. It serves a purpose I think - but in hindsight is just so wrong!

Anyways... am rambling like a madman now. In conclusion: amazing forum, exciting times, humbly happy to be here. Cheers all

[Mrinterface]

Welcome!

What keyboard are you using or planning to purchase?

[codehead]

Hi Robstero!

Have a look at my reviews! You might find them, well, at least entertaining because I have quite recently went through the same In a frighteningly short space of time, something strange has come over me - I appear to have become, umm, a wee bit obsessed by keyboards.

[dirge]

Welcome to the club. What do you want to start with and where are you from?

Are you after full size boards or smaller?

[nathanscribe]

Haha, it's a slippery slope. Watch out. Before you know it you'll have splashed half a grand on keycaps and springs, and your other half will be on the phone to the men with the van, and the jacket, and the electrified noose on the stick.

[Robstero]

Thanks everyone, most kind

Am currently on a Compaq MX11800 which I picked up on eBay the other week. MX browns in it which I'm enjoying very much - that was the main reason for getting it really. Have read and watched (thanks Mr interface for your full frontal nudity) lots about switches but had to try em out really.

I like them. They feel very nice when typing quite quickly (or at least as quickly for me). Certainly a million times better than its predecessor.

A sidenote: The integrated trackball is interesting. I semem to end up looking for ways to minimize the distance my hands have to move to get stuff done, and having the trackball embedded in the board... kinda makes it feel like you've not left the board to use the mouse - a nice bonus.

One of the keys doesn't work, so I'll try to replace the switch. Or swap it with scroll lock maybe. Am presuming that I should be able to desolder and resolder them OK? (my poor soldering skillz notwithstanding). Still to investigate that though.

As for keyboards i'm interested in... Am a bit of a minimalist type generally. Or attempt to be at least. Very interested in tenkeyless and subtenkeyless. Some of the Pokers here are amazing. That said am also having a bit of an Uk ISO/ANSI debate with myself (he says using one arm to deflect the incoming cattle prod).

Am likely sticking with ISO for now though. Hence a filco ten key less perhaps?

Siig minitouch looks interesting too. I am currently 'Alps curious' I guess!

Quite enjoying my cheapo Compaq for now though

A slippery slope it is indeed I attempted to resist the group buy for all of about 3 seconds. I shall soon own more key caps than keys by a large margin !

Codehead, cheers for the heads up, I shall check em out, excellent

[Robstero]

Oh, Dirge, am in the UK - Scotland to be slightly more precise. Yeah, definitely like smaller keyboards. I rarely use the numpad - my thinking is partly that my typing should be good enough that I'm fast enough with the normal num keys. Better get stuck into a marathon sesh of typing of the dead then.

I try to keep an open mind though... never say never to numpad!

[fossala]

More guys here from the UK, soon we will have more than the Germans on here.

[webwit]

Last week, 8% of the visits were from Germany. Also, 8% from the visits from the UK.

[Robstero]

Interesting. And a mixture of Europe and US - at a completely uninformed guess of course?

Gotta love stats.

[webwit]

US share went up considerably since the gh downtime. Last week half of the visits came from North America (US + Canada), Europe 37%, Asia 9%, Oceania 4%.

[Robstero]

Thanks webwit. More from non Europe/North America than I'd presumed. A good mixture.