Geekhack has a bit of competition. OCN to open a Mechanical Keyboard Forum

[keyboardlover]

Would be nice if they didn't steal our ENTIRE wiki...

[elservo]

Do they at least give credit where credit is due?  Is there a shout-out to us, the smartest people in the world?  Also the most hygienic?

[Konrad]

Why wiki then? Write a book, go for the big bucks! I can see it now.

And today we'll have a special guest; Ripster, writer of the best-selling book, "Keyboards for Retards".

Aaah - didn't OCN already have a lot of sticky/wiki stuff about keyboards already?  That's how I found GH, heehee.

[Lanx]

i just made my first post there last nite too!

[Konrad]

I don't get many but they keep deleting my posts.

lol, I can't imagine why.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

How many "Is my G19 a mechanical keyboard" threads do you think there will be?

Should prove interesting, to say the least. More people being interested means more people interested in making/retailing them, so it should be a net benefit to us.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

Mechanical keyboard board is already open for business apparently.

[Konrad]

You could always poison the well.  Or employ devious tricks like Steinlaus encoding.  If they shamelessly copy the wiki then revenge will be sweet mwoohahahaaa!

[Konrad]

Do you spam GH shout-outs at OCN just as much?
 
[Edit]
 
lol, Runeazn, dumbass.  My G19 has 17KRO.

[Konrad]

Do you spam GH shout-outs at OCN just as much?

Omg, you do :mod:

[Konrad]

Seriously though - most of the people GH would lose forever to OCN would be the undesirable (ie, stupid) sorts we wouldn't really wanna keep around too much anyhow.  We only need to keep a few around to feed the trolls.
 
How much d'ya think we could get from OCN if we traded them welly?

[Konrad]

There ya go!  Just write your GH wiki in such a way that every sentence somehow violates OCN's restrictive terms.  And stick a copyright (or copyleft) notice somewhere on every entry.

[kip69]

You make a whole thread just to troll OCN.  Rip you are a  cacophonist.
This thread is 3 hrs old and you have been posting on OCN for weeks.  OCN has faults, but we never steal your users.  Once someone gets more than a casual interest in boards they are usually recommended to come here.  But if your going to spend so much time there that might not be necessary

So now they are adding tools to help sort out your problems with the big thread and organize it.  I fail to see how this is a problem.

[microsoft windows]

They're really starting to like me over at OCN.

[Konrad]

I loved how OCN dissed a senior researcher at Microsoft and still didn't believe him about PS/2 versus USB latency being a non-issue
...
OCN needs to be more open to discussion.

Well ... I do agree with you. For different reasons than you have, I think.
 
On the face of it, by announcing that he's affiliated with (employed by) Microsoft this engineer essentially becomes an ambassador and spokesman who represents Microsoft. Reading the OCN threads, I happen to believe this guy was legit ... but ... again ... hard to overlook that he represents Microsoft.
 
Microsoft - like any other big evil megacorp - would not necessarily be above dirty tactics like deploying their "engineers" onto the internet to feel out a little clandestine low-cost market research or advertising or initiate (or halt) a publicity stunt. Again, I happen to believe this particular instance wasn't corporate trolling ... but only a fool would believe the devil is being honest (even when he is being honest).
 
So having said all that - OCNs criticisms don't seem particularly outrageous. As always it just takes one popular smartass to speak aloud something decisive and break the ice and set the context ... and all the rest of the little sheep in the crowd will automatically bleat to the beat behind him. OCN is no better or worse than any other crowd in this regard, nor is GH; it's just that the obvious trends are accelerated at OCN because of their higher volume of active members.

[Konrad]

I followed your links, that's really all the info I have on it.

[Pylon]

At least I can talk about rubber dome boards here.

[kip69]

Actually I was mainly posting on two technical topics there.  USB versus PS/2 and NKRO.

It just took a while to turn that battleship around.

I loved how OCN dissed a senior researcher at Microsoft and still didn't believe him about PS/2 versus USB latency being a non-issue.




OCN needs to be more open to discussion.

Did you quote the right quote there.  What does that have to do with ps/2 vs USB?  That was a ghost vs Nkey post?

[Konrad]

I still maintain that actually spending an extra buck per keyboard to get a more manly MCU with many more I/O lines will solve most of the problems they waste their engineering time working on. I guess Microsoft figures that the corners they learn to cut today will multiply profits over all the millions of keyboards they'll make in subsequent models and future decades.

[Konrad]

You can add all the circuitry you like into the key matrix.  Trying to plug 100+ discrete keyswitches into 28 I/O lines will require a lot more compromises than if you used 40 I/O lines.  You've said it yourself - 2KRO is basically good enough for most consumers, so they're not really driven to do much better.  Even $200 "antighosting" gaming keyboards are laughably limited in this regard.

[Manyak]

Lol - Manyak had permission to use my pics for the "All About Keys" section.    However I was a bit surprised how surprisingly similar the text was as well.  Never really brought it up since OCN gets so much traffic it would bring a lot of people into the mechanical keyboard fold.   That Guide is gonna be at 1M hits soon.

When he was learning he hung around here a lot.  Terrible, terrible avatar though.

Show Image

You'd be surprised how much I still hang out here, just without posting. Same with my own damn guide :/.

I just got tired of the same old conversations:

JoeSchmo: "Hi all! Looking for a keyboard! I want something clicky but quiet, and backlit, and I don't want to spend more than $20!"
Me: "Try a Model M, they're cheap and you'll probably get over the noise, and learn to touch type you nub."
JoeSchmo: "Ok! Thanks!"
...one week later...
JoeSchmo: "Well the Deck I ordered just got here, and it feels like total ****!"
Me: "I thought you said you wanted clicky...."
JoeSchmo: "But that IBM you told me about turned out to be ancient junk!"

:frusty:

[sixty]

I made an account there now too. This will further let me show of my stuff to boost my ego to feel less stupid for wasting my entire income on keyboards.

[Manyak]

I made an account there now too. This will further let me show of my stuff to boost my ego to feel less stupid for wasting my entire income on keyboards.

Don't feel so bad, I'm about to spend about 10 times as much on a camera as I did on all my keyboards put together

[Konrad]

lol, obsessive love of keyboards ... teclaveophilia?  (not a real word, btw)
 
I waste my income on stupid microcontrollers and electronic bits.
 
How come we don't waste our money on normal vices like gambling, booze, and women?

[lam47]

Intellect.


Manyak asked me a lot of questions many moons ago. Then all the answers popped up on OCN. A lot of the GOOD pictures are mine too.
Although I might have posted them myself. I can't remember.
What can you do.

[Manyak]

Intellect.


Manyak asked me a lot of questions many moons ago. Then all the answers popped up on OCN. A lot of the GOOD pictures are mine too.
Although I might have posted them myself. I can't remember.
What can you do.

Actually, you put them in the second post back when the guide was only 1 post long, and I had to delete them so I could get 10 posts right after each other :/

[Konrad]

Y'know, rip ... your sig lists about twenty different "fave" keyboards.  If you had to pick just one keyboard (while stranded on a desert island, etc etc) - which would it be?  You'll understand if I don't feel like reading all of your 20,000+ posts to find out what you've said about your preferences already, lol.
 
Seriously ... which keyboard?  Which switches?  Which tactile force?  etc

[Manyak]

I'm surprised.  Your keyboard knowledge seems a bit rusty.  Ya know, that whole PS/2 thing.

Hey, it is faster. Ever try programming before RTCs and HPETs? Every ms counts!

[lmnop]

ever try writing a operating system in ASM?

[Manyak]

ever try writing a operating system in ASM?

part of one . But then I stopped working on it because I figured I'd use it for my senior project in college and I'd have all the time to finish it then.

I loved using assembly when programs were simpler - when writing a virus was as simple as hooking an interrupt by exploiting MS-DOS's TSR routines, and dial up BBS's and null modem gaming were all the rage.

But now my virus writing skills are obsolete

[lmnop]

oh? well part deserves something..

[Sam]

ever try writing a operating system in ASM?

As a matter of fact, I did, and succeeded.  But curious why you're asking about this?  Have you?  Thinking of starting an OS designer forum?

Ok, I probably don't belong in this thread.  I was a bit bored and decided to make my first venture into the off-topic section and this thread happened to catch my eye.  Sorry to have butted into your conversation.  Carry on.

[WhiteRice]

part of one . But then I stopped working on it because I figured I'd use it for my senior project in college and I'd have all the time to finish it then.

I loved using assembly when programs were simpler - when writing a virus was as simple as hooking an interrupt by exploiting MS-DOS's TSR routines, and dial up BBS's and null modem gaming were all the rage.

But now my virus writing skills are obsolete

You should check out corewars...

[keyboardlover]

Haha nice ripster - Black Sheep is a great flick!

[Manyak]

You should check out corewars...

Hey, that actually looks like fun, I'm gonna try it out for sure

[lmnop]

Ah, bar jokes.

Two Prolog programmers walk into a bar. The first one goes up to the bar and asks "Can I have a pint?". The barman says "Yes."

If you get that one, you probably need to get out more.

prolog only returns yes if the query is true.

I always felt that it kills the joke when you explain the punchline

the moderator gonx asked if I was interested in the mechanical keyboard guide. I passed because I learned programming before grammar

ripster has the intelligence and experience writing articles. it's OCN so he would have to drop the loose talk and humor but I think he would surprise everybody.

[lmnop]

this is a weenie!

[Senor_Cartmenez]

mhhhhhhhhhhhhhhm 69$ hot dog

[microsoft windows]

There's no chance of OCN beating us when it comes to having a keyboard forum. First off, we don't have a million mods who are a bunch of retarted ten-year-olds who block things like this. The completely over-the-top moderation and censorship there gives us a very strong advantage over OCN. We also have a community where most peoples' age is in the double-digits.

In addition, if there's a copyright on our Wiki articles, we can go yell at the folks at OCN if they copy them (Hey--they even ban talking about "hackintosh's" because of EULA violations so how will they feel about copyright infringement?).

Basically, there's nothing to worry about.

[Konrad]

lol, mw, that's one *****in' graphics card.  Or it would've been, 10 years ago.

[Arc'xer]

Thanks for the compliment but  I have a Geekhack Mechanical Keyboard Guide For Beginners I'm preparing for here.

I hope this comes to light. Honestly I think the guide has not only gotten way outdated but it be nice to have it much more informative and in depth a long with pictures. I agree too many "I don't read the guide and then asks questions just ask questions like WTF is a mech keyboard". Speaking on that, I think "mech" has gotten to be too much of an umbrella term.

Seems too many people revolve around "Why the **** is that keyboard cost so much what's so special about it". It's like the external is seen too much over the guts and brains of the device. Sorta like key caps I know some people would love to buy key caps out of plain view because it looks pretty or whatever without realizing that these custom key caps are so much better built. More pictures would be nice that's what I mean.

Hopefully, it turns out well.

[lmnop]

geekhack is a keyboard forum. people come here for a reason. you don't have to 'sell' mechanical keyboards to people. I don't think a beginners guide is necessary. overclock.net is another story. the goal there is to increase mechanical keyboard awareness which has been achieved.

[ch_123]

There's no chance of OCN beating us when it comes to having a keyboard forum. First off, we don't have a million mods who are a bunch of retarted ten-year-olds who block things like this.

Definitely. The swearing filter, and the particularly strong enforcement of it doesn't make much sense to me. The odds are that if you're not mature enough to see the word "****" written down on an internet page without being traumatized by it, you probably don't have anything useful to say anyway.

[lmnop]

geekhack is the wild west

[ch_123]

We don't have raving lunatics who go on epic rants if you don't quote posts. I think I'd gladly have MW over that...

[lmnop]

I respectfully disagree.

Wait until you see it before you decide it's not needed.

at overclock.net we try to convince someone the advantages of mechanical keyboards and why they should buy one. at geekhack it's "Filco Majestouch Linear Force or steelseries 7g"

[keyboardlover]

Definitely. The swearing filter, and the particularly strong enforcement of it doesn't make much sense to me. The odds are that if you're not mature enough to see the word "****" written down on an internet page without being traumatized by it, you probably don't have anything useful to say anyway.

Neinnnn! Keine schlechten Wörter! ('No bad words' in German).

This German kid isn't very old but knows every swear word in the book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlRR7YQMtpU

He calls his mom a 'kleine fotze' which means 'little c***'

[ch_123]

Well, that's kinda obvious because the mouse and keyboard PS/2 ports are different (on older mobos, serious **** would go down if you mixed them up and plugged the wrong peripheral into the wrong port)

[lmnop]

We also get Adult new members that come here.

It happens.

good point.

/me turns over a steelseries 7g and launches a barrage of keycaps by judo chopping the middle row.

[ch_123]

I wonder what happens with these newer ones?  Autosense or BIOS?  And how would you get into the BIOS?

Show Image

These are questions I'd worry about more if I gave a rat's ass about PS/2.

Some of them use cables. I think the ASUS ones are set in BIOS. I think the frying of things was limited to older ones for reasons I'm never sure of.

Why IBM didn't design something like the ADB is far beyond me...