so who else is buying keyboards for their looks?

[panda-R]

sigh... this hobby (addiction) is becoming more superficial...

but the peking ducky of doom is so beautiful...



but why do i need more than one keyboard with the same switch type? maybe i should sell my peking ducky of doom.

[fssbzz]

one of the reason i go for ducky.
they really looks better on design.

[db_Iodine]

Not really buying them for their looks. Not yet at least. Instead I want to buy more keyboards with different switches to try them out myself. I don't really care about the look, but I do like them as small as possible.

Thankfully I'm already fully accustomed to the US ANSI layout so buying new keyboards is a thousand times easier.

[RoboKrikit]

I dunno.  But I'm considering duplicating this for myself.



I think I want to eat it.  It looks like it'd taste like cookies 'n cream.  With oreos.

[db_Iodine]

I actually like the Ducky logo on the space bar. I'd still like to see those white keys on a black casing.

[db_Iodine]

A HHKB clone with MX browns would be ideal, but I didn't fancy the fantastic Topres enough to justify spending almost 300$ on a HHKB.

[Twitchy]

I wanted a Topre anyway but I'd be lying if I said that the biggest reason why I chose the 91UBY wasn't the yellow keys.

And people who buy HHKBs based on looks and then post about DIP switches are not worthy of the keyboard.

Well of course, the HHKB must be maintained as a badge of superiority

I pray that the day may come when I will be worthy!

[Azuremen]

A bit, yes.

But they make photos nice!



Really, my favorite for aesthetics would be the MiniGuru...

[woody]

Thankfully I'm already fully accustomed to the US ANSI layout so buying new keyboards is a thousand times easier.

Ahaa, properly converted. Older. Wiser.

[db_Iodine]

I was actually surprised how easy it was to move to using the layout. I always thought it would be impossible to get the дце etc working efficiently with this layout. Good thing I was wrong, since basically every keyboard is available in this fabulous layout.

[woody]

There are more GHers who should listen to your experience.

[kidchunks]

If buying for beauty

Really, my favorite for aesthetics would be the MiniGuru...

Shame they never dropped. I still wonder how they thought they would not sell well unless they were going to be charging $500 for them. :tongue:

[keyboardlover]

Yeah...the 91uby is just hot

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

I would hardly say the looks was the entirety of my decision making for my first mechanical keyboard.

My first concern for upgrading from a rubber dome was the durability of the key print type. I hated how the fonts kept fading out.

Next came accuracy like no ghosting or any of the defects rubber domes have that you press one key and it actuates another (i've had problems like this before). I wanted something more responsive and nicer to type on. Also i liked the idea of NKRO so i could finally play games like O2Jam and not be impeded by a keyboard that is limited by 6 or less key presses.

Then finally the looks. I liked both the Filco and Ducky but finally decided on Ducky because they had better keycaps available.

But then came along the geekhack custom doubleshots MO.... so Filco wasn't so bad after all but by then it was too late. And besides Ducky could disable the windows key via FN+F9 which I NEEDED !!! because i have a bad habit of pressing the windows key. plastic keylockers is a pain to use; and i didn't like the idea of removing the windows keycap like some gamers do. So the Ducky way of doing it works pretty good for me.

All that remains is trying it in person and hope i don't regret getting ducky over filco :X

PS: i also bought the ducky wrist rest. Not really for the looks but for practical reasons. Usually i tend to rest my palms on my wooden ikea computer table; so thought maybe leather would be a nicer change this time around.

[kidchunks]

All that remains is trying it in person and hope i don't regret getting ducky over filco :X

Your wallet will be happy you made that choice. :biggrin:

[db_Iodine]

The Ducky sure has some interesting advantages over a Filco.

[panda-R]

The Ducky has more features than the Filco.

And so does the Razer Blackwidow.  It even shares the Gold USB Connectors and GLOOOOOWS.

Show Image

imma buy the blackwidows because it GLOOOOOOWS!

[db_Iodine]

That's confusing. I thought black widows aren't supposed to glow.

[taswyn]

And so does the Razer Blackwidow. It even shares the Gold USB Connectors and GLOOOOOWS.

And I'd buy one in a heartbeat if they'd used browns instead of blues =( Or even blacks, I could always cannibalize my G80-8963 for springs, since the arrow/home/etc key placement isn't nearly as tolerable as I'd hoped it would be =(

Oh well, there's always Deck, but... even pricier for the full size ones =/ Someone should really make a G80-8200 with NKRO and backlighting (and keep all the nice programmable keys) =^,^=

That's confusing. I thought black widows aren't supposed to glow.

Not to mention... BLUE!

[theferenc]

Ripster, what is your problem with the happy hacking keyboard?

For a certain niche, they are the perfect keyboard. Just like the datahand, or the kinesis, or any number of other keyboards I can't think of right now, or will never see due to niche use.

[WhiteRice]

The one thing I don't like about the ducky 1087s is the unfinished look created where the case meets.

Probably the only reason I would get a filco over a ducky.

[theferenc]

Sure, it would be nice, but for the most part, it's perfectly fine how it is.

But, if that's your thing, then go for it. Personally, the Miniguru always struck me as being small, and not much else. Sure, it's programmable, but for most people, it's a set once and forget kinda thing. And the layout is wrong. And putting ESC and ` on the same key? That's absolutely absurd for anyone who is an actual programmer/UNIX beard.

They did get the embedded arrow keys almost right, though.

Besides, it's ugly, and looks unfinished.

[8_INCH_FLOPPY]

Anyone who bought a set of extra replacement keys is guilty of buying 'just for looks'.  Of course, that's still not as bad as buying a whole keyboard 'just for looks'.

[db_Iodine]

Anyone who bought a set of extra replacement keys is guilty of buying 'just for looks'.  Of course, that's still not as bad as buying a whole keyboard 'just for looks'.

Guilty as charged then. I'm waiting for my Cherry doubleshots from sixty.

[mr_a500]

I buy keyboards for their looks - but they must still be mechanical keyboards.

I bought this for looks:



It's quite useless to me otherwise.

[db_Iodine]

I buy keyboards for their looks - but they must still be mechanical keyboards.

I bought this for looks:

Show Image

It's quite useless to me otherwise.

It seems you bought everything in your command centre just for the looks.

[mr_a500]

It seems you bought everything in your command centre just for the looks.

Not quite. Some were bought for looks (Kaypros, TI), some for nostalgia (Ataris, Commodores), some for their ultra awesomeness (Amigas, Model F keyboard) and some just because they were ultra cheap or free (Apples, PCs).

[NamelessPFG]

I don't, but someone I know does.

However, our aesthetic preferences diverge massively. He's into tacky/gaudy/ricer boards like the Logitech and Razer offerings, and couldn't get into mechanical 'boards because of his perception that all of them were dated-looking Model Ms or something. Then I showed him a picture of Das Keyboard Model S and the Razer Blackwidow to show that some of 'em do look flashy, though I'd prefer the plain "just means business" look of a Filco, Ducky, Realforce, or the cancelled Miniguru. I don't like the hump that Das Model S has in the upper-right (while he does), and the Razer Blackwidow's choice of font for the keys turns me off. (On the other hand, I must admit that I'm interested in Kinesis and Maltron boards BECAUSE of the appearance brought on by their sculpted designs, with a bias toward the black-cased Maltrons due to their retaining the numpad in the middle.)

Also, he's definitely in the backlit keyboard market, while I don't see much point in backlighting for the standard extended keyboard layout that IBM brought with the Model M. I can feel my way around, and I shouldn't have to look at the keyboard in the first place. (Notebook keyboards tend to be a different matter, due to their non-standard layouts and oddly-sized keys, but I can live without it.)

Same thing with computer cases; he likes the gaudy Cooler Master HAF line in terms of styling, while I'd rather take one of the more plain-looking Lian-Li or Silverstone offerings on a pure aesthetics standpoint.

Where do you folks stand there?

[theferenc]

Flashy = bad!

My computer and peripherals are to get work done, not to look shiny on my desk. Flashing lights, gaudiness, etc. is all just distraction from the purpose of the machine.

I guess if I was a pro gamer, and my "rig" was on TV all the time, those would make sense.

Right tool for the job, and all that.

[Pylon]

I like laid back looks. The epitome of non-flashiness:


I actually think they look great. Sadly, I don't own one, though my Dell Latitude is fairly close quality wise.

[taswyn]

However, our aesthetic preferences diverge massively. He's into tacky/gaudy/ricer boards like the Logitech and Razer offerings, and couldn't get into mechanical 'boards because of his perception that all of them were dated-looking Model Ms or something. Then I showed him a picture of Das Keyboard Model S and the Razer Blackwidow to show that some of 'em do look flashy, though I'd prefer the plain "just means business" look of a Filco, Ducky, Realforce, or the cancelled Miniguru.

I can't stand gaudy or tacky, personally, but I really do like the things on my desk to look nice. I think a lot of people fall into the trap of thinking that form and function are somehow separate, even when it comes to aesthetics, when really they're two halves of a whole that are completely intertwined when it comes to usability. I'm more likely to want to use and enjoy using something that both works well AND looks good than something that fails at either. Often times aspects of achieving either one will complement the other too. Of course, I feel like a good interface (software or hardware really) should fade into the background mostly in a pleasant way, rather than come between you and what you're using it for.

That said, I almost never buy keyboards (or mice) purely because of looks, there are certain functionality aspects that absolutely must come first for me, but I also *won't* buy certain products that look completely awful. Most of the time I feel like I'm compromising anyway, nothing on my desk looks the way I'd have it if I could design it myself, but at least it doesn't look bad (to me) I just tend to prefer soft colors and organic/curved designs.

Good luck finding that in a "men designing for men" hardware world =P It's still better than what you get from the "men designing for what they think women want" lines... hi, no, I don't want my keyboard to look like someone vomited neon pink (or worse, pukegenta) all over my desk. And the less said about some of the attempts at "cute" the better--I want a nice looking keyboard, not an overpriced children's toy. At least black is elegant, and easy to keep everything the same general style. And nearly everyone at least agrees on that, too, usually, so it's easy to sell ^,^ And so it's what my desk's theme ends up being mostly =)

[theferenc]

I have a mix of beige and black stuff on my desk, and honestly, I don't notice any of it. The keyboard is just there, blending in. The monitors are fairly small bezeled, and the screen overwhelmingly dominates.

Now, the vintage space themed legos, on the other hand...they tend to stand out. They kinda live all over my desk. Green, blue, black, white, red, orange. Overwhelms the actual hardware in terms of visual style.

But I get REALLY bored waiting for code to compile sometimes, so I gotta have something to do, right?

[Sam]

I buy keyboards for their looks - but they must still be mechanical keyboards.

I bought this for looks:

Show Image

It's quite useless to me otherwise.

That's a very nice looking keyboard.  What is it?

[MyNameIsDan]

All that remains is trying it in person and hope i don't regret getting ducky over filco :X

you've been waiting on that ducky for as long as I can remember... are you sure your ducky is still on its way?

[isp]

I never buy stuff just for their looks.  Oh wait........

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Speaking of looks; has anyone seen the kbtalking light keyboards?

http://www.iqmore.idv.tw/kbtalking-light-backlight-keyboard-review


Some pics at the link.

[woody]

But I get REALLY bored waiting for code to compile sometimes, so I gotta have something to do, right?

I used to go and have snacks or drinks on 2.5 hour compiles. Glad this was for a short while. What are you compiling that much nowadays?

[itlnstln]

I usually buy keyboards based on technology (switch), but when all other things are equal,  looks is always the tie-breaker.

[theferenc]

I recompile MPICH2 about 7-8 times a day. Part of my dissertation involves making changes to the I/O subsystem, and the geniuses that wrote the build script (which is VERY fragile) included a 'make clean' as the first part of the rebuild.

Takes about 25 minutes each time around, followed by a 30 second test, and usually 5-10 minutes of debugging.

Isn't compiled code fun?!

[woody]

Go higher number of cores and cache. Does wonders for compilation.
Also check for brutally stupid things like using temporary files on a real filesystem.

[mr_a500]

Show Image

That's a very nice looking keyboard.  What is it?

It's a DEC VT-100 keyboard, but with unusual colours. I've never seen another one like it - and neither have the DEC people on the Vintage Computer Forum. I got it thanks to the kind assistance of Parak. :thumb:  (damn eBay seller wouldn't sell to Canada)

I got my Kaypro for looks. (I like it so much that I constantly spam geekhack threads with this picture :wink:)


What you can't really see from the picture is the lovely persistent phosphor screen. When you erase characters, there is still an afterglow that lasts a few seconds. I love printing out characters and watching them fade away. (very satisfying... in a "retro freak" way)

[theferenc]

Unfortunately, even -j2 causes it to fail. Like I said, it's a very fragile makefile. Change even the smallest of parameters to make, and *boom!*.

This is running on a high end research cluster, too, so I'm definitely not hurting for resources. It just takes forever.

And brutally stupid like running make clean on the whole source tree when I've only changed a single file? Yeah, unfortunately, with how they wrote the makefile, subsystems can't be rebuilt without rebuilding the whole system.

Oh, and before you mention changing the makefile, it's been tried, and it doesn't work  properly. Not only that, the upstream maintainers refuse to accept patches if they find out you modified the makefile. And since this is for a phd dissertation, everything has to be documented.

[sethstorm]

I like laid back looks. The epitome of non-flashiness:

Show Image

I actually think they look great. Sadly, I don't own one, though my Dell Latitude is fairly close quality wise.

The Lenovo ones are only a shadow of the original.  Not sure about how cut-rate they've made their keyboards though; they've incrementally took tons of other good things out to not raise too much alarm.
(mostly due to having a Flexview T60p, T42p, and a regular X31)

[woody]

Unfortunately, even -j2 causes it to fail.

That's weird. The way parallel building is handled shouldn't matter ... except if they were really ingenious and use some fixed-name temporaries for more than one target. But at least their web site is glorious.

Oh, and before you mention changing the makefile ...

Nope, I won't. I understand more than it seems.


Stock on some more interesting stuff on the desk.

[sethstorm]

While it's not from my best set of M13 keys, the black M13 would be a good example:




Never mind that Terminal boards do have some of that kind of appeal:

[theferenc]

Yeah, it's horridly broken. But, this is what I get to work with. Hence the legos. And geekhack.

[ricercar]

When looks are part of function they matter a lot to me.
- Backlighting
- WASD caps different than the rest.
- Special keycaps on Reload and Heal keys

A touch typist would answer differently.

[MartinLau]

Does any body have any idea how to buy a miniguru?

[thegunner100]

First post, and you necro a 1.5 year old thread; and it's an off-topic post too!

[Deekin]

First post, and you necro a 1.5 year old thread; and it's an off-topic post too!

LOL Im new aswell and read through the whole thread with entusiam like it was some new thread and then I get to see this.

How I laughed