geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: runeazn on Tue, 21 September 2010, 15:44:35
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lol i post another thread since my other thread had a fail title,
so i cna get the keybaord for a total of 65$ shipped to me, so is it worth this keyboard??
btw if i get people of geekhack that want too i maybe can get some deal for bulk order :)
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If you mean the TVS Gold, then yeah, that doesn't sound bad for MX Blues. A couple of people on Typeracer have said they like it. Otherwise I don't know about TVS keyboards.
http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:7268
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Build quality is meant to be shoddy. At that price range, you can get something like the Adesso which is relatively well built AFAIK.
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i liked my tvs gold. if it had a normal shaped backspace and enter key i'd probably have kept it. I only paid $25 btw.
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Its a good keyboard. Certainly it isn't up to the same build quality as that of Filco or Cherry boards. But it has been working well for me so far.
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lol i post another thread since my other thread had a fail title,
so i cna get the keybaord for a total of 65$ shipped to me, so is it worth this keyboard??
btw if i get people of geekhack that want too i maybe can get some deal for bulk order :)
I had the misfortune of typing on an older TVS Gold keyboard that was manufactured a few years ago and it was truly a piece of crap. The keyswitches were clicky but were rather poor copies of genuine Cherries. The key caps had poorly laser etched labels and did not seem to properly fit the tops of the switches. You had to strike the keys directly on-center to get them to register.
This iteration of the TVS Gold is much improved and is probably the least expensive Blue Cherry switch keyboard in production:
(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=12579&d=1285138015)
(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=12580&d=1285138097)
A manager from my Indian subsidiary brought this one over for me in his suitcase last year. It was manufactured in August 2009. The price in USD at last year's exchange rate would have been about $27.00. I did not have to pay for it...it was a gift. Take THAT you wacko cheapskate miser Mo Fo MS Windows (and your retarded friend eIBM). This keyboard was NIB and FREE!, yes, I said it was FREE!
The TVS Gold is a very light keyboard. It feels flimsy when picked up, but seems stable enough when typing. The labels on the key caps are laser etched and the white paint is much better applied then the previous generation. Welly or someone else pointed out that the plastic key caps on the TVS Gold are extremely thin compared with genuine Cherry board key caps. IMO, the TVS key caps feel thicker than the key caps on the Filcos. My Blue Cherry Filco keyboards generally have a higher overall quality feel, but the TVS Gold provides a lot of bang for the buck.
Cherry Corp was acquired by the German multinational conglomorate ZF Group who has formed a joint venture with TVS Electronics in India. My guess is that unless the key layout is changed to the standard US ASCI 104-key layout, the TVS Gold will never be a big hit with the US market. Most Americans (and certainly most American geekhackers) have no tolerance for the large inverted L Enter key and small Backspace key.
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I will be ordering one or more such keyboards soon because it would be a shame if people wouldn't buy a mechanical keyboard 1) for such a good price and 2) from such astoundingly polite and kind people as the lady who replied to my e-mail.
I feel I just have to have one.
However, I'm thinking about stocking up on those for gifts for those of my family and friends who type a lot but use OEM keyboards, too, so I too would be interested in hearing some opinions before buying a couple of 'boards I've never touched.
Also, are there any options to customise the TVS?
Oh, by the way, I love the inverted L key. I grew up with a UK M. I kind of miss it when I don't have it. And I totally dislike the horizontal enter that I always miss.
My M has a big backspace, however. I don't like small ones, it's a murder even on my pinky, which is longer than most (10 cm / 4''). For a person with normal palms, let alone small ones, it could be a nightmare. Then again, I suppose some of the real gosus could pull off a mod on it (it's been done with other keyboards). Or, one can simply learn to get the palm up slightly instead of strething the finger. I'm thinking about using a voice command for backspace altogether to avoid either having to reach out with a pinky (in which case I get a short instance of light but numbing pain in the radius) or lift the palm up (distraction, slowing down). (Incidentally, Home, End, PgUp, PgDn etc. could perhaps be better handled this way too, as well as many chars that require an unfamiliar Shift combo).
Also, isn't the TVS 'board simply pretty in it's own way? It looks just the way a black M should, if only the TVS logo could be on a dark background.
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Where are you buying it from?
1 word : eBay
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Why does it look like your avatar is sucking the bowl off?
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two word, india ebay
its english too :) double owange XD
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Where are you buying it from?
Mailed TVS, got a reply, they will ship.
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Well, looky that. (http://cgi.ebay.in/TVS-Gold-Keyboard-Black-TVSE-1-Year-Warranty-/390229645553?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_203&hash=item5adb7fd8f1)
Damn, next stop Dehli!
ebay guy send int for the item price = shipping price rofl so double the 1400 rupeees :/
u contacted TVS and they will ship, how u can talk indian O_O?
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ebay guy send int for the item price = shipping price rofl so double the 1400 rupeees :/
u contacted TVS and they will ship, how u can talk indian O_O?
I don't believe there is such a language called 'indian'...
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True rofl,
I dunnow then
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Mailed TVS, got a reply, they will ship.
TVS will ship directly?
What are the prices for shipping to the US? Maybe Geekhack could do a bulk order, hell for $30, I'd buy a cherry blue, even of low build quality, just to try it and give it away to an interested friend as an intro 'board.
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TVS will ship directly?
What are the prices for shipping to the US? Maybe Geekhack could do a bulk order, hell for $30, I'd buy a cherry blue, even of low build quality, just to try it and give it away to an interested friend as an intro 'board.
Yes, they will. A very kind executive replied to my e-mail and said they had recently had a customer from France and provided him with a quotation (they use a courier service), he paid in advance (bank transfer, I think) and off it went. They will do the same for me (Poland). I haven't got my price yet but I remember reading somewhere that someone paid $35 for the keyboard itself (actually, prices with the retailer linked from the TVS website seem to be lower after conversion from rupees) plus just another $35 for shipment. Not sure it was a US user, though. I'll let you know when I get the quotation, should be tomorrow morning.
I suppose it would be the best to order a couple of pieces to split the shipment between friends or just get a spare, a handy Dvorak or blank one, or simply mod one of the things. I'm thinking about flames or jaws, like on some cars or fighter aircraft. Or metallic blue. Or golden foil (real). Or fake golden glitter and blatantly fake sticking out gems just for the kicks. Or wood. Or acrylic. Or, better, mosaic tiles (e.g. smoked plexiglass cut in the dimensions of the original case plus a catode or two in inside). I'll come up with something. My sister fitted her keyboard out with nail varnish and it has flowers painted on by hand. It runs in the family. Why don't you try too.
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OT but I love Lego blocks. They're as cool as the Model M.
Wait, Mod idea...
And yeah, there's a reason I don't buy an M from the States. Ten bucks keyboard, forty bucks shipment. Better than whatever new keyboard 50 bucks will buy but still. This is just wrong.
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OT but I love Lego blocks. They're as cool as the Model M.
Wait, Mod idea...
Something like...
(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=8138) ?
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Looks painful...
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Looks like it needs some of those smooth finishing tiles on top.
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Indian goes like this.
"What do you mean, WE go over that hill, Kemosabe"
Actually, there are hundreds of languages and thousands of their dialects in India. Official language is Hindi, though government operates using English mostly.
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Actually, there are hundreds of languages and thousands of their dialects in India. Official language is Hindi, though government operates using English mostly.
Out of curiosity, is Sanskrit ever still in use these days? My mother used to learn it (she studied Oriental languages)... I ekhm... tried, but the number of different characters scared me.
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Bro, your avatar looks like a bowl of Rice Chex.
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It's a bowl of M key tops in Dishwash Solution(tm). I brushed each of them with a toothbrush and toothpaste afterwards (whitening one, no less).
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kenobi -- would a bluecube connector help in your case? (if you dont already have one... i havent been following these threads consistently lol). It tends to magically solve connection problems with the M.
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I use the first active converter I came across, nothing fancy yet. It works fine except some key combos inexplicably don't work or work e.g. with one Shift key but not the other. But typing is perfectly manageable. I just still have to unlearn bottoming out.
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Out of curiosity, is Sanskrit ever still in use these days? My mother used to learn it (she studied Oriental languages)... I ekhm... tried, but the number of different characters scared me.
There are few families that use Sanskrit at home. But those are very very few, and isolated in a few places. I learnt Sanskrit in school for three years.
Languages based on Sanskrit are most widely used in India (Hindi, Marathi - my mother tongue, and many more).
Sanskrit doesn't have that many characters. Marathi has a larger numbers of characters than Sanskrit.
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whats scary about sanskrit is the number of declensions and conjugations. Its a lot like latin in that regard (the two are supposed to be related anyway).
The modern languages derived from sanskrit have much simpler declensions and conjugations. (not unlike the modern languages derived from latin).
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There are few families that use Sanskrit at home. But those are very very few, and isolated in a few places. I learnt Sanskrit in school for three years.
Languages based on Sanskrit are most widely used in India (Hindi, Marathi - my mother tongue, and many more).
Sanskrit doesn't have that many characters. Marathi has a larger numbers of characters than Sanskrit.
Thank you.
I was under the impression that you needed to know three pages full of characters to be able to do anything in Sanskrit and that scared me away because I wasn't ready to undertake such a study. But I learnt ancient Greek for a while.
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Thank you.
I was under the impression that you needed to know three pages full of characters to be able to do anything in Sanskrit and that scared me away because I wasn't ready to undertake such a study. But I learnt ancient Greek for a while.
I hear that chinese scripts have 10000+ unique characters.. can anyone confirm that ?
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Talk to the Japanese and they'll tell you the Mao simplification drive has ruined the Chinese language.
You can get by fine on 4,000 Kanji but it's a mishmash of Kanji, Hirgana, Katakana.
Anyway, it's all being replaced by technology. The Asians will slowly lose the ability to write the traditional way. (http://www.tofugu.com/2010/08/27/kanji-amnesia-and-why-its-okay-to-forget-kanji/)
Someday I'll post a "how to use a Japanese keyboard" guide - it's fun to type katakana/hirigana and get a bunch of Kanji choices pop up.
I wonder how many of them are included in standard code pages for text - utf-8, utf-16, whatever else :)
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whats scary about sanskrit is the number of declensions and conjugations. Its a lot like latin in that regard (the two are supposed to be related anyway).
The modern languages derived from sanskrit have much simpler declensions and conjugations. (not unlike the modern languages derived from latin).
Sanskrit is the oldest Indo-European language. The origins of virtually all European languages (including Latin and its deriviatives) are not merely "supposed to be related", but rather can be directly traced back to Sanskrit.