How did you first come to geekhack?

[erricrice]

Alright, so I'll go first.

I had already bought the DAS and was using it for a few months, but then I saw that the ABS had dropped way down in price and wanted to try it, but I wanted to be sure that it was a decent keyboard to try(if they had actually solved the N-key problems, but it didn't end up mattering anyway)
Every time I searched something the first result was always a thread from here.
I decided to join up and have some fun!

...Now the addiction has spread to the rest of my body, and every day I wish I had never learned of geekhack...tragic story really...

[itlnstln]

I was looking for a mechanical ergo 'board.  I found the Northgate Evolution, and I ended up sticking around.

[timw4mail]

I was already interested in mechanical keyboards, and decided to see if I could learn more.

[wellington1869]

I was shopping for a keyboard and wondered if the ibm keyboard -- which I remembered fondly -- from 1984 that came with our first ibm "PC" was still available.

It was!!! Though I discovered that by trial and error and learned with surprise that there was a whole industry (and community) dedicated to mechanical keyboards.

I'm sure I landed on geekhack from googling, like most people. Back then (about a year ago) geekhack was still a fairly small site  Once I realized there were different types of mechanicals I had to find out which one was right for me  So the shopping spree and comparison analysis began.  And then the modding kicked in. Ugh. 12 months later I'm still here

The nice thing about entering the keyboard world is you get these little self-contained procrastination projects with each keyboard, lol.

[ironcoder]

Another deja vu thread....here goes:

I saw Manyak's excellent keyboard thread on a not-to-be-mentioned overclocking site just about the time I smashed 2 Chiconys in a row all over my office floor for jamming and dead keys. I realized I needed some good keyboards quick or I would be out of a job.

Of course this site has so much information and so many opinions I still haven't bought a new keyboard yet. I'll have to soon, my only serviceable one is starting to cake up again and I write code for a living...

[timw4mail]

Another deja vu thread....here goes:

I saw Manyak's excellent keyboard thread on a not-to-be-mentioned overclocking site just about the time I smashed 2 Chiconys in a row all over my office floor for jamming and dead keys. I realized I needed some good keyboards quick or I would be out of a job.

Of course this site has so much information and so many opinions I still haven't bought a new keyboard yet. I'll have to soon, my only serviceable one is starting to cake up again and I write code for a living...

Judging by the Chicony keyboard I've got they certainly aren't high quality.

[Hofy]

I was looking to retire my Focus 2001 KB and was not happy with any of the offerings in the stores.  A Google search later, here I am.

[Kraicheck]

I was looking for a keyboard with trackpoint and the wiki article showed up in my google search.
I stayed for lowpoly's keyboard and eventually got seduced into trying out mechanical keyboards.

[rdjack21]

Well I was a lurker for a long time before I joined. What finally dragged me in was the announcement of the 87U. While lurking I missed out on the black 86U board and I did not want to miss out on the 87U. While lurking I purchased oh about 6 boards I found here since joining I've acquired another 10 or so and have at this point pretty much tried all the switches I wanted to try. I think I will be moving onto mods now once I finish filling out my collection.

[hyperlinked]

I was looking for info on the upcoming Tactile Pro 3 and hit a review for the Tactile Pro 2 on here. Me and my hands have been waiting for the TP3 for two years and I got to the point that I didn't trust any projected release date put forward by Matias anymore. I was willing to try another high end keyboard, but I didn't know what else there was out there until I found this site.

• I love arcane knowledge.
• I needed advice on keyboard shopping.
• I'm a productivity freak.
• I've always been fascinated by ergonomics and input devices
• Input devices and ergonomics are topics that tie together my old career (Physical Therapist) and my current one (Freelance Web Developer)
• I prefer smaller online communities

Therefore this site was an instant hit.

[wellington1869]

Well I was a lurker for a long time before I joined. What finally dragged me in was the announcement of the 87U. While lurking I missed out on the black 86U board and I did not want to miss out on the 87U. While lurking I purchased oh about 6 boards I found here since joining I've acquired another 10 or so and have at this point pretty much tried all the switches I wanted to try. I think I will be moving onto mods now once I finish filling out my collection.

i think thats the classic gh career-path

[rdjack21]

i think thats the classic gh career-path

The classic path to empty wallet syndrome you mean

[lowpoly]

[thread=5896]How did you happen to find geekhack.org?[/thread]

[rdjack21]

You know lowpoly this subject is destined to be continuesly repeated as new members join.

[lowpoly]

Didn't complain, just linked to the answers of the older members.

[Shawn Stanford]

I was trying to decide if I could adapt an old 3178 terminal keyboard to my PC at work and landed here. Even though I'm not a hardware guy, I got enough information here and on kbdbabel to determine that if it was doable, it was beyond my abilities.

[itlnstln]

That's what we do best here at GeekHack.  Shatter your hopes and dreams.

[ch_123]

Sometime during summer 2007, I learned about Model Ms. I found Unicomp, and was considering getting one, but didnt have the money at the time. A year later, I did have the money, and was trying to figure out whether to get an Endurapro or a Das. Despite some very positive reviews of the Das that were around at the time, I made the right choice

[talis]

I hit my head on a rock, and when I woke up, I was here.

[SCTony]

I was in Barnes & Noble looking for a book and I went to their computer terminal to do a search.  As soon as I typed on the keyboard, I thought 'wow this keyboard feels great!' I turned it over to see what brand it was - Cherry POS. Google searches brought me here to the land of fine keyboards.

[wellington1869]

I was in Barnes & Noble looking for a book and I went to their computer terminal to do a search.  As soon as I typed on the keyboard, I thought 'wow this keyboard feels great!' I turned it over to see what brand it was - Cherry POS. Google searches brought me here to the land of fine keyboards.

thats interesting. B&N would be the last place i'd expect to find a mechanical keyb, but i guess it makes sense with cherry's saturation of the pos market.

by the way, was it clicky blue or tactile brown that they had in b&n? probably one of the silent ones (brown or black) given that its a bookstore.

[SCTony]

I think it is the equivalent of the G80-11900 with black or brown switches. I need to go back and see now that I am a little more aware. Maybe I will even take my key puller.

[InSanCen]

I acquired a Wang for £10, and wanted more info about it ;-)

I was already "Bat**** Insane" about keyboards (To quote my manager), with Model M's being brought into work after £5 POS rubber dome's got smashed from the top of the warehouse roof after yet another typo (Similar to ironcoder's experience).

Most people stay away from the back counter now, as the Model M "lurks" there to attack the unwary with weak fingers.

I saw the Forum would be right up my street, and now, 100+ posts of Drivel later (In just over a month. It took me 6 years to rack up 700 on a tech site I frequent), I'm happy I found it.

[InSanCen]

I think InSanCen is a Russian Spy and I have proof.

See!  Commie Pinko.  TWO keyboards with pinkys and Cryllic lettering to boot.

****! Rumbled... now, where did I put those passports?

[wellington1869]

I think it is the equivalent of the G80-11900 with black or brown switches. I need to go back and see now that I am a little more aware. Maybe I will even take my key puller.

hahahaha be sure to video tape their reaction and the arrest and trial :-D

[roaduck]

Just stumbled on an article mentioning an "IBM model M" whilst looking up something on completeplanet and it piqued my curiosity.Subsequently I came across numerous glowing acolades for old IBM's and spotted the very comprehensive wiki model m article.

Looking down the list of model Ms to find a British layout, full-size keyboard,there was the 1391406 which seemed to be suitable.

Whilst scouring meta search engines I saw geekhack references and reviews of the 102 key keyboard.It was only a matter of getting a few quotes from B2B computer surplus sites and a big cardboard box landed on my doormat a week ago.I immediately recognised the IBM from similar ones I used college in 1981-2.I still remember my tutors - one was an ex-ICL guy and the other one was an oxford graduate and former systems analyst.Programs in those days were crazy - assembly, cobol 80, Fortran and early BASIC - fond memories.

This keyboard is spot on for me - nice and big, with plenty of feedback and no superfluous buttons.

I probably will try other mechanical keyboards but with certain stipulations.I want a firm key >55 gm ,a spring to push my fingers up, audible key activaton, UK layout and full keypad.That narrows my choice down considerably to a model F and a few others.

Importing unicomp models would be prohibitively expensive and these two fantastic products should last me decades - if I live that long

[1839cc]

I was looking for information on NKRO although I didn't know its name. I had always contended with not having it on various old games and wanted to know why keys were blocked. That brought me here and lurked for a week.

And that's the story of how I found GeekHack.

One week later I found a Dell AT101W at a goodwill store, so I bought it and I joined the next day.

[microsoft windows]

I remember finding an old clicky keyboard in the garbage, except, unlike any other I have seen, it had a trackball. So, I began using it on my computer and wanted to find more information on it. That's how I came here.

[TWX]

I was looking for any info on modding my Kensington Expert Mouse Pro...  Google is your friend...

[pseudolobster]

I was looking at model M's on ebay when I saw a 122key terminal board and thought to myself "I wonder if anyone's ever made any progress getting one of those to work on PS2"... I did a google search for the model number, found Kishy's thread, was surprised to find that the info was only a couple months old, and joined. Since then I've had a look around the site and found out there are people even more obsessed than I over mechanical keyboards, making me feel better about my addiction.

[msiegel]

Dangerous logic.  The "Flat Earth Society Forum" has almost 8400 members.  That is either a LOT of trolls or our education system needs some work.

we should send webwit in there. that'd be a hoot
http://www.threadless.com/submission/231672/The_Horde?streetteam=fatheed

[AndrewZorn]

Dangerous logic.  The "Flat Earth Society Forum" has almost 8400 members.  That is either a LOT of trolls or our education system needs some work.

im about to register

i heard about FES but didnt know there was a forum
this stuff is great

Bishop doesn't believe in anything he hasn't seen with his own eyes. Which one would imagine limits his capabilities in day to day life.
On the other hand, I suspect he believes everything he does see. In which case he must think David Copperfield is possessed of amazing godlike powers. Because everything your eyes show you can be trusted, right Tom?

to maintain their theory, they also say that sustained spaceflight is impossible, that anything more than a few seconds of microgravity on film is just as fake as the moon landing

[itlnstln]

I hope they are a bunch of trolls.  Either that, or they are a bunch of people that like to a take a running joke a long way.
 
If not, well...

[JBert]

It started by reading a post on Coding horror, appropriately titled Have Keyboard, Will Program.

After some reading, I was researching the ins and outs about the Das Keyboard. Googling for it led me here because quite a lot of people here were mentioning transposition errors. So I chose to stay away from the Das after all and just lurked here for interesting keyboard tips.

Reading some more about mechanical keyboards, I started digging for those few Cherry G81 I spent my youth on. Those weren't really interesting. After a little while though, I ran into buckling spring discussions and how those keyboards made noise. I remembered my dad once brought home a barely working IBM PC XT and how fun it was as a kid to mash all those keys down and give the impression you were doing some serious business.

I registered here soon after when Chloe started a review about a disassembled model F PC/XT. The rest is history.

[JaccoW]

I came across an article at benchmarkreviews about mechanical keyboards and at XtremeSystems.org, which reminded me about the keyboards of old.

So I went and was researching about different models, since my own keyboard is slowly dying and came across this place.

[JaccoW]

I was also researching different models and googling for quality action, nipples and double shot, and somehow geekhack was corrupting the results.

That is so bad. :biggrin:

[Hak Foo]

I think I was looking for a model M USB conversion.

I wanted a SDL cable with the USB adaptor inline for maximum tidiness.

I ended up buying $100 in keyboards and going.

[itlnstln]

I was also researching different models and googling for quality action, nipples and double shot, and somehow geekhack was corrupting the results.

This is classic.

[itlnstln]

It's only laser-etched keys for me now.

[elbowglue]

I was also lead here by the thread on the Das Keyboard transposition error issues...

[msiegel]

i found this place by scouring the web... i had poured a glass of water into my model m space saver and it stopped working after giving it CPR and open-heart surgery, i pronounced it dead and sent it along to a buddy of mine. the people here were supportive, and i'm glad it happened, because it started me on this whole journey