Thread View: alt.folklore.computers
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Started by tee... Matthew Moore
Thu, 22 Mar 1990 18:33
Re: Key placement and touch typing (was Re: Mice, Etc.)
Author: tee... Matthew Moore
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 1990 18:33
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 1990 18:33
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Brian Herzog says:
>
>Um, most keyboards in this era are *designed* for the keycaps to be popped.
>I currently work in a city with a strict no-smoking ordinance (which is
>great), but in previous lives I have salvaged many a smoker's keyboard
>by popping the caps and cleaning out the gunk (okay, I confess - I still
>occasionally have to clean popcorn bits out of my own keyboard, too).
>
Woe is me! They may be designed that way, but some manufacturers sure
make a mess of their design. Only last week there I was cleaning a
Tandon keyboard, when I broke the 's' key. The reason it broke was
that the key top is solid enough, but the widget underneath which
fixes it to the press mechanism is rather flimsy. Oh dear! I thought,
I'll have to borrow one from somewhere else, like the numeric keypad
'+' key, but unfortunately, that broke too. (First time I have ever
broken keys, in ten years of happy tinkering).
--
><{ (`> <') }><
Re: Key placement and touch typing (was Re: Mice, Etc.)
Author: al... Allon Stern
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 1990 11:49
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 1990 11:49
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In article <1990Mar22.1...@isis.educ.lon.ac.uk> tee...@isis.educ.lon.ac.uk (Matthew Moore) writes:
>Brian Herzog says:
>>
>>occasionally have to clean popcorn bits out of my own keyboard, too).
>>
>Woe is me! They may be designed that way, but some manufacturers sure
>make a mess of their design. Only last week there I was cleaning a
>Tandon keyboard, when I broke the 's' key. The reason it broke was
>that the key top is solid enough, but the widget underneath which
>fixes it to the press mechanism is rather flimsy. Oh dear! I thought,
>I'll have to borrow one from somewhere else, like the numeric keypad
>'+' key, but unfortunately, that broke too. (First time I have ever
>broken keys, in ten years of happy tinkering).
Heh heh...where I work, the keyboards often get grimy, and I occasionally
clean them out. I pop off all the keys, put them in a hot soapy water
solution (in a beaker), and put it in our ultrasonic cleaner. Gets 'em
nice and clean. Then I vacuum out the keyboard, and wash it down with
general purpose cleaners.
One of the guys upstairs had a keyboard he wanted to clean, and he remembered
the ultrasonic cleaner bit -- except that was all he remembered. He ended up
removing all of the keycaps, and putting them in the ultrasonic cleaner --
IN METHANOL!!!! He wound up with melted and pitted keycaps that were pitiful
and were completely ruined. Heh heh...when he tried to order new keycaps,
he found that he could get only blank ones from DEC, or somesuch...I think
he eventually got a new keyboard.
- -= Allon =- -
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