worst keyboard ever?

[huha]

Simply the worst keyboards I've experienced were Apple's "chicklet" keyboards. Right after that: The Macbook Pro's "old-style" keyboard. They're quite bad on their own, but as soon as you start so have a non-us layout, they're just an abomination.

But why is that so? Simply put, Apple puts design over functionality, decides to waste the space on their Macbooks (or Macbook Pros) and cram in the extra key instead, thus making the keyboard look like this:


(Source)

(Source)

L-shaped Return keys are normal in Germany, but half-width return keys are certainly not. I had incredible problems typing on an (old) Macbook Pro thanks to their absolutely idiotic keyboard layout. At least the key feel was halfway decent. It gets even worse with their new keys which offer no sort of curvature at all, making you constantly misalign your fingers. You really have to wonder what went into creating these horrible keyboards--in my opinion, they did just everything wrong. Bad layout, horrible feel and non-sculpted keycaps. That might be horrible for Apple users, but as always, stupid marketing dictates everything created by Apple looks cool and should be copied without giving any thought whatsoever, so we're now increasingly seeing these great pieces of pure idiocy pop up on otherwise decent products.

-huha

[kyamei]

I don't blame Apple for making ****ty keyboards, I blame the people who buy them.  If people are buyin them, why stop makin them?  That isn't to say I like them, I hate this whole chiclet key fad.  Sure they look nice, but that's about it.

As for me, I work at an Office Depot (it pays for college) and I can't help but to punch a few keys as I walk past the keyboard aisle.  I absolutely hate just about all of the Microsoft keyboards, I don't think its possible to get any mushier.

[FKSSR]

Only if they know what quality is...Even professors need a bit of "education" sometimes.

[keyb_gr]

Hey, all our local libraries use that Dell.

They're also found aplenty in PC pools at my university. Not an incredibly enjoyable experience indeed (that also includes the workers in the Chinese factory spitting them out, as we've seen), the old NMB-made 'boards are halfway decent to type on at least. Seemingly the Fujitsu-Siemens 'boards (type unknown, prolly cheaper model) that also were seen for a while have now largely disappeared, they didn't feel bad at all but the key bounce was horrible. Possibly the strategy is to replace keyboards periodically since they get kinda nasty at some point anyway... and no, they're not being cleaned ever. *yuk*

Lately I read a Cherry G80-3000 user review from the beginning of the decade, which stated that these were a standard workhorse keyboard in PC pools known to this guy. Those were the days... I've only ever seen a G80 as a "profboard" here.

[huha]

We also happen to have some of the Dells at my university. I think they're absolutely unremarkable, standard keyboards. Not too great feel, but also not too bad. You can type a short e-mail on them if need be, but that's about it.
In other PC pools, we have some standard Cherry 'boards (I think they're white Cymotion), which have a tad better tactile feel, but nothing to write home about, either.
On a select few PCs, Keysonic keyboards (with anti-static spacebar!) can be found; they're the best of the keyboards at my university I've typed on so far, but still rubber dome (I haven't checked, though).

-huha

[Hyperion]

Welcome to geekhack Hyperion.  Any "relation" to the Belgian software company (Hyperion Entertainment)?

As an Amiga admirer, that's the first thing that popped into my head when I saw your username.  

Nah no relation. I was doing some research on the das keyboard as i was buying one, so I decided to join.

Welcome! I think we can all agree with you on the AAK and the Dell boards. Also, are you another fountain pen user> I notice you have a nib in your userpic.

No, but I appreciate fine quality things in everything in life (food, hardware, clothes) and that includes pens. I have a really nice golden fountain pen that doesn't look like that one, but it's pretty close. Also I write a lot on my computer, and that picture was a metaphor of a magical pen (except I type).

[cchan]

Nah no relation. I was doing some research on the das keyboard as i was buying one, so I decided to join.



No, but I appreciate fine quality things in everything in life (food, hardware, clothes) and that includes pens. I have a really nice golden fountain pen that doesn't look like that one, but it's pretty close. Also I write a lot on my computer, and that picture was a metaphor of a magical pen (except I type).

Ah.Personally I do most of my writing with a Parker fountain pen, and most of my typing on either my ThinkPad's slightly messed up internal keyboard (spacebar doesn't always register) or a Cherry G80-3000. I would use a Model M if it were USB.

[o2dazone]

Saitek Eclipse I & II (haven't tried a III).

I got this keyboard (the first series), and after about a month, I convinced my brother to buy one. He got the II. It's a cool keyboard for finding a home row, but it was more about the ambient light it casted that allow you to do simple tasks in a dark room. After about two months, my brothers failed, and a month after that, mine failed. The backlighting would flicker and more and more, the keys would just stop failing. My dad also grabbed one up and it failed on him too - same manner. The switches were rubber dome, nothing fancy, but I threw up about $70 for mine. After that I bought a pos rubber dome from Best Buy (because having a crappy board is better than having no board) and it lasted longer than my Saitek did.

There's something to say about the longevity of a keyboard, but it just comes assumed that it will last you a very long time (at least long enough until the peripheral plug technology expires) as long as you treat it right. I don't eat at my computer, or spill stuff...hell I even be sure to pop keys off and clean stuff inside, just for fun. But yeah, I was pretty upset when I found out that despite paying out the ass for a rubber dome, it didn't last any longer than crappy ones. I guess thats when my search for a reliable keyboard started lol

[Mikecase00]

I would use a Model M if it were USB.

 While some PS/2 to USB adapters don't work right, there are plenty of adapters that will allow PS/2 Model M's to work correctly with USB.  For instance, I'm using a ZioTek dual PS/2 to USB converter as I type this.  A $10 adapter may be all that stands between you and keyboard perfection.  Don't let it stop you

[cchan]

While some PS/2 to USB adapters don't work right, there are plenty of adapters that will allow PS/2 Model M's to work correctly with USB.  For instance, I'm using a ZioTek dual PS/2 to USB converter as I type this.  A $10 adapter may be all that stands between you and keyboard perfection.  Don't let it stop you

Yeah... I'm going to do that as soon as I'm able to.

[dfrey]

Hey, all our local libraries use that Dell.  

You would think of all professions that librarians would rise up and demand a quality keyboard.

- Ripster

I'm typing on that same Dell keyboard at work right now and I am a software developer.  It's not good, but I don't think it's the worst keyboard of all time.

The keyboards that came with the original iMacs (posted earlier in this thread) are the worst keyboards I can remember typing on.  I don't think many people even complained about the keyboard at the time because the mouse was so much worse.

[ch_123]

Those Dell keyboards on the last page are on the computers I use in college. They're just about passable. However, in another lab they have those older black rubber-dome Dell keyboards which are horribly worn out, causing some of the keys to stick about half way down...

[Hyperion]

I saw a review of the AAK on youtube, just because I wanted to know how others felt about it and it seems that people like it. How could they? No tactile feel, shallow as keys, made by apple, thin but weighs a ton, f19....they aren't even scissor switches for some durability and click. People used to dome switches with a 5 year old dome keyboard for their mac would buy it. Also the mac mice just fail, they have about a 10cm cord, which must be put into a usb hub because it is so damn short. I hate macs also because I can't find how to switch off the mouse acceleration in the MOUSE OPTIONS box, how lame. The only thing about mac stuff is that it looks good, but I don't look at the monitor, I look at the stuff in the monitor. I don't look at my mouse, I just glance over at where it's supposed to be so I can grab it. I don't look at my keyboard, I just home my fingers in and then start typing. Pretty obvious why I hate apple. iPod is so simple that if they do screw it up then they should just die as a company.

[Hak Foo]

I think the reason Mac mice have ridiculous cord lengths is because ADB was always a daisy-chain bus, and then USB supported hubbing.  They figured the mouse would always be connected to the keyboard.

The iPod has pretty much always sucked.  Any other brand (except possibly the Zune) gives you more storage for the dollar, and ANY other brand gives you more features (Just because I have 550 tracks on the player doesn't mean I'll never want to listen to something else, say, a built-in radio). Its primary gimmick was the tight integration with a shop, but now AmazonMP3 does what iTunes does without the annoying bits.

[ch_123]

Well, now that practically every manufacturer has moved over to flash memory, leaving us with MP3 players with ridiculously small capacities, the Ipod classic probably provides the best capacity of any readily available new MP3. That said, I hate mine...

[Hak Foo]

Ridiculously small?!

$100 easily gets you an 8Gb flash-based player.  That will easily store 1000 tracks.  At an average length of 3 minutes, that's 50 hours of music.

1.  The battery will give out long before the music does.

2.  You can always swap out the songs for different ones.

3.  Many players (except, of course, Apple) offer MicroSD slots.  For $50, that 8Gb-16Gb player turns into a 24Gb-32Gb player.

[Hyperion]

Apple is for idiots and musos, Linux is for nerds, and Microsoft is the happy go between.

[Busty]

Apple is for idiots and musos, Linux is for nerds, and Microsoft is the happy go between.

Apples and Oranges!

Apple: Hardware with fitting software
Microsoft: Mainly software and some accessories
Linux: Only a software platform

[vyshane]

Apple is for idiots and musos, Linux is for nerds, and Microsoft is the happy go between.

This is geekhack, not slashdot

[ch_123]

Apple is for idiots and musos, Linux is for nerds, and Microsoft is the happy go between.

I would argue that when you consider the amount of **** you have to go through to keep a Windows machine working, that Linux is actually easier to use once you get used to it.

[lam47]

apple is for idiots and musos, linux is for nerds, and microsoft is the happy go between.

sweeping

[eugenius]

Apple is for linux nerds with lives.

And for rich people that just don't care about the computer religion, they just want to use something and when they don't know, someone is there to hold their hand.

[cmr]

i don't think i've ever typed on a better rubber dome board than this

[huha]

Apple's products work like a charm, if you follow one simple rule:
Buy everything from Apple.

Really, if you're using Apple stuff in an Apple ecosystem and nothing but Apple stuff, user experience is great. Apple follows the design philosophy of "worse is better"--you have a very limited amount of choices based on several usage scenarios Apple creates and elaborates on. If you happen to fit into one of their usage scenarios and have the money to buy everything from Apple, chances are you won't find any better user experience anywhere else.

But if you don't fit, well, then you're basically screwed like everyone else. I don't really like Apple, but credit where credit is due: If you do as they wish, user experience is just great.

In my opinion, differences between OS X and Windows are negligible; they're following different philosophies and one might be better suited at doing certain things than the other and vice versa, but give or take, they're equal. Linux, from my experience, is "not quite there" yet, although it's getting better every year. That being said, I have nothing against Apple's hardware. I don't like their current company policy, because they focus way too much on creating more or less good-looking things and throwing away functionality in the process. Because they're so incredibly popular everywhere, they can basically do as they wish, introduce incredible policies (think iphone!) and get away with it! I think Apple's downfall started when they began catering too much to consumers and neglecting the professional crowd. Consumers, especially in markets Apple operates in (basically fashion accessoires!), are happy-go-lucky and will buy everything as long as it's en vogue. Adding this and Apple's long history of missing new trends just sounds like inviting disaster.

-huha

[lexicon]

I would argue that when you consider the amount of **** you have to go through to keep a Windows machine working, that Linux is actually easier to use once you get used to it.

Mine is.  Seriously, what I like about Ubuntu is that I never have to think about it, and annoyances are minimal, certainly compared to Windows.  I like Open Office better than Word, Thunderbird is simple and steady, Bluefish is great, VLC is great, GIMP is fine for what I do, etc.

My ancient PC runs faster than a new one burdened by antivirus paraphernalia, updates update everything on the machine, what's not to like?

My wife has an iMac and I dread trying to untangle her occasional problems.  Apple "Help" is a horrible joke, and the arrangement of options makes no sense.  I'd almost rather deal with Windows.

[DesktopJinx]

Awful keyboards I've used --

Commodore CBM.
I learned BASIC on this beast -- when I wasn't playing Midway. Technically a full-stroke keyboard, after a while you could feel keys wiggle and scrape their way down... and after a while longer, press one wrong and it might not come back up on its own. I think the foley for every movie and TV show computer keyboard in the early 80s came from this thunker.

IBM PCjr
I once had to support a lab with twenty of these execrable machines, each with the memory upgrade and parallel port sidecar modules. And when the lab was first set up, the keyboards were left wireless. Not a good idea. Fortunately, I only had to use these disasters when the machines were screwed up; unfortunately, that was often. But that's easily forgiven -- most of the time I got to use an IBM PC, XT, AT, or PS/2 Model 25. Those were happy days, indeed.

Trash-80 CoCo.
My first computer. Had it for two weeks, during which I wrote a "track and field" game which involved "running" by pressing two keys back-and-forth as fast as possible. Maybe the worst keyboard ever, but I Did Not Care, because I Had A Computer. Then I got a real computer with a real keyboard (alas, not the IBM I wanted, but at least it had springs.)

Apple IIgs.
Sure, vastly superior to its contemporary IBM PCjr, and some people actually thought it was better than the noisy heavyweight IBMs... those people were wrong. I don't know if it was Apple that began the assault on the spacebar, but they certainly popularized it.


BTW, I've at least briefly used eight of the ten keyboards on that PCWorld list. (Timex Sinclair 1000 and Mattel Aquarius are the holdouts.) Yes, even the Commodore PET with the built-in cassette drive.


It's hard to remember specific awful keyboards since then -- such an auspicious beginning tends to reduce everything else to a vague blur. My first clone had a Chicony, I didn't think it was awful at the time; I gave my second keyboard a wicked-cool Make It Stone! paintjob. Then I bought an M15, and another one for work, and... well, there's been a lot of really good keyboards made, but the intersection of adjustable-ergonomic and buckling-spring is a pretty small space, and once you're in it you don't want to leave.

I do remember when the entire industry made the shift from mechanical to rubber-dome switches -- for a while KeyTronic held out and commanded a premium based on their name, but eventually even they caved. Dark times. Almost overnight, nobody gave a damn about the keyboard anymore.

Sigh.

[D-EJ915]

the layout of the C64 is wonky but I don't remember the key action being bad, never did type much on it though.

[DesktopJinx]

I used a couple of C64s, but not much, and they were pretty new at the time. They didn't feel so bad. The CBMs were just dead slammers.

[Hak Foo]

Mine is.  Seriously, what I like about Ubuntu is that I never have to think about it, and annoyances are minimal, certainly compared to Windows.  I like Open Office better than Word, Thunderbird is simple and steady, Bluefish is great, VLC is great, GIMP is fine for what I do, etc.

Almost every app I use on my Windows box is open-source (the only commercial software, aside from Windows itself, are drivers and a $20 shareware TV tuner app which was simply better than anything else I could find)

But I don't use Linux because of the driver mess.

Any given distribution may or may not support any given wireless card.  Often, there's the whole "you must install package X", but you can't well download package X until the network is up.

My TV card will work but not completely.

The video drivers tend to require seperate install for decent performance.

I had, honestly, much better results with Linux on older machines, when I didn't have to guess about support.

I think there's perhaps a less cavalier attitude about some stuff too.  Notice how some of the big distributions won't play MP3s out of the box, or various video files.  I'm thinking, was this so common years ago, or did they basically say "let the patentholder complain first?"

[cmr]

funny enough, the driver mess is the very reason i prefer linux to windows. any sound card, any NIC, pretty much anything i put in i know it's going to work. on windows it's upgrade this firmware, install these hacked brazilian sound drivers, etc. etc.

wireless, well, that's a heap of garbage everywhere anyway.

[IBI]

Shall we move these Apple/Linux/Windows posts to their own thread?

I'm surprised so many people dislike the AAK. It does have very little in the way of feedback but it's crisp and doesn't have any problems. For awfulness it's not a patch on the cheaper laptop keyboards like those on the cheap acers.

The eee PC keyboard is actually fairly good, it's main problem is that it's springs are too weak so you lose all sense of feedback when typing on it at any speed. (although it is too small for conventional touch-typing)

[huha]

The Eee PC's (I'm talking about the 701/4G here) keyboard is actually halfway decent. The layout is a bit weird at times (right shift key, anyone?), but the key action itself leaves nothing to be desired. Yes, it is incredibly small. I waited until a friend had a 701 to try out the keyboard before buying my own, but I have fairly small hands, so I can achieve an adequate typing speed on it. It certainly is not the best keyboard out there, but given the external constraints, i.e. size and cost, I think it does compare fairly well.
The only real grudge I have against it is the somewhat bad idea to use US layout for non-us languages and effectively shift the numbers one position to the left (technically, they're not shifted, but the buttons are somewhat misaligned, so in reality, they are shifted)

-huha

[Hyperion]

I'm surprised so many people dislike the AAK. It does have very little in the way of feedback but it's crisp and doesn't have any problems. For awfulness it's not a patch on the cheaper laptop keyboards like those on the cheap acers.

Add 10 bucks and you get a nice Scorpius M10 or even an Illuminated Keyboard.

[Manyak]

Out of actual PC keyboards, the worst keyboard I've ever used is the Adesso AKB-230:



I bought it because I could use a keyboard that portable, but its absolutely terrible in every way you can think of. You have to hit the keys in the dead center, and hit them hard. Absolutely impossible to use if you need to type anything other than a username and password.

[keyb_gr]

That's typical for a membrane(-only) keyboard. That's why they never really caught on (or were quickly superseded) except in very special applications.

[Manyak]

That's typical for a membrane(-only) keyboard. That's why they never really caught on (or were quickly superseded) except in very special applications.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna find a special application for this one if I ever get a jacuzzi or something

[IBI]

The Eee PC's (I'm talking about the 701/4G here) keyboard is actually halfway decent. The layout is a bit weird at times (right shift key, anyone?), but the key action itself leaves nothing to be desired. Yes, it is incredibly small. I waited until a friend had a 701 to try out the keyboard before buying my own, but I have fairly small hands, so I can achieve an adequate typing speed on it. It certainly is not the best keyboard out there, but given the external constraints, i.e. size and cost, I think it does compare fairly well.
The only real grudge I have against it is the somewhat bad idea to use US layout for non-us languages and effectively shift the numbers one position to the left (technically, they're not shifted, but the buttons are somewhat misaligned, so in reality, they are shifted)

-huha

Actually, I prefer having the right shift key up against the edge. I find it much easier to locate that way compared to having it hidden within a mass of buttons like on so many keyboards that have to shorten it. I got used to it a lot quicker than I did with my raptor which is the other way.

The numbers are shifted by half a key, and I do find myself hitting the wrong one in the dark but I don't think that's got anything to do with the US layout since that has the same number row as most. I'm not sure about the hash/enter key transposition though, they may have chosen correctly as the enter key would have been rather narrow if it was upright.

My main annoyance with it is the lack of a \ key, having to press fn+z every time is annoying.

Add 10 bucks and you get a nice Scorpius M10 or even an Illuminated Keyboard.

The normal one is actually fairly modestly priced at £28 over here, although the wireless one is typical apple at nearly twice the price for half the keyboard.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna find a special application for this one if I ever get a jacuzzi or something

It would make a good underwater seat if you suspended it from something.

[Hyperion]

The normal one is actually fairly modestly priced at £28 over here, although the wireless one is typical apple at nearly twice the price for half the keyboard.

AAK is 50 bucks here, while Scorpius is $65 and Illuminated is $60.

Typing on Dvorak is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo slow. Need to have so much patience with it if I am doing anything but training my dvorak.

[Special K]

Show Image

School keyboards....

Show Image

School keyboards in the music centre.

I'm currently using a Wireless keyboard 3000 that is nearly halfway through its life in just 5 months, although I am expecting my Das III in 2 days.

We have those Dell keyboards as our default keyboards at work and I don't think they are that bad.  I have a different model Dell rubber membrane keyboard at home that feels much worse.

On the other hand, we have a wireless version of those apple keyboards  in our conference rooms here and typing on those is just awful.

[Rajagra]

there are some pretty creepy people surfing the internet at our library.

I wonder if this is one of them:

[pcross84]

Apple's products work like a charm, if you follow one simple rule:
Buy everything from Apple.

Really, if you're using Apple stuff in an Apple ecosystem and nothing but Apple stuff, user experience is great. Apple follows the design philosophy of "worse is better"--you have a very limited amount of choices based on several usage scenarios Apple creates and elaborates on. If you happen to fit into one of their usage scenarios and have the money to buy everything from Apple, chances are you won't find any better user experience anywhere else.

But if you don't fit, well, then you're basically screwed like everyone else. I don't really like Apple, but credit where credit is due: If you do as they wish, user experience is just great.

In my opinion, differences between OS X and Windows are negligible; they're following different philosophies and one might be better suited at doing certain things than the other and vice versa, but give or take, they're equal. Linux, from my experience, is "not quite there" yet, although it's getting better every year. That being said, I have nothing against Apple's hardware. I don't like their current company policy, because they focus way too much on creating more or less good-looking things and throwing away functionality in the process. Because they're so incredibly popular everywhere, they can basically do as they wish, introduce incredible policies (think iphone!) and get away with it! I think Apple's downfall started when they began catering too much to consumers and neglecting the professional crowd. Consumers, especially in markets Apple operates in (basically fashion accessoires!), are happy-go-lucky and will buy everything as long as it's en vogue. Adding this and Apple's long history of missing new trends just sounds like inviting disaster.

-huha

Hmm.. I absolutely love BRAND NEW PC's, and Macintosh systems manufactured before 1997. Am I odd?

I think that Mac OS 9 has one of the most "technologically" elegant interfaces. French blue FTW.

[pmyshkin]

I think that Mac OS 9 has one of the most "technologically" elegant interfaces. French blue FTW.

OS 9 was technologically years behind other available OSes at the time. As I understand it, OS 9 didn't even have a real scheduler. Instead, applications had to manually give up control of the processor, which was why the OS froze so much.

[pcross84]

You have to admit though, the style of the buttons and titlebars looked retro-fabulous!

[pmyshkin]

You have to admit though, the style of the buttons and titlebars looked retro-fabulous!

Yes, the pixel art was very pretty.

[pmyshkin]

The OS is definitely not dead. First, there is a lot of work being done in the areas of advanced filesystems, security, networking, etc. that, while not "seen," directly impact the end user experience as well as determine what kinds of software developers can write. In terms of UI, it's not all about window border decorations. For example, OSX's Expose greatly enhances the user's ability to organize a large number of windows, and there seems to be a small movement toward tiled window management forming on the *nix front. Look at for example, xmonad and wmii.

There are still a huge number of problems to be resolved in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. The UI should definitely get out of the user's face, but that's not as straightforward as having no window borders.

[Eclairz]

The evolution of the OS will be browser based in my opinion. Browsers offer standardization such as common interface languages (html,xml, xslt). But they also offer customization and extension such as java applets, flash and silverlight. The offical face of the OS is still about operating systems but more and more operational duties will be taken over by the browser.

We will still need a basic OS to handle more heavy duty software like 3D gaming and photoshop or for more personal information like word and excel. But as bandwidth, compression techniques and cpu speeds continues to increase and better use of browser through these extensions to take advantage of both server and client power, even high end applications may eventually move onto the browser.

Browsers are found on all sorts of devices so even computers may not exist as we play with them today. Instead of windows certification there maybe a different sort of standardization such as browser certification imagine something being firefox compatible only, it maybe depressing but browsers will need to start differentiating themselves to become more effective at merging the normal application with the browser based application. In some ways it is already here with the many different plug ins like java fx, silverlight and flash.

The only drawback of this proposition is that people will have to become more connected than ever and that is a drawback because its continuous stimulation which is never a good thing.

Browser applications which are able to be run offline are starting to crop up more often, although a security risk in their own right they will also end up providing most if not all the interactions people have with their systems.

At the end of the day, unless you have more complex needs browsers will become the defacto OS for most people. But considering our forum are full of geeks it will never be enough for us as we compulsives, but for the rest of the world it may just be enough.

[DrunkenDonut]

The worst keyboard we have at work was a "Zoom 110M" keyboard. It's an ergonomic style keyboard with quite a bit of weight. Not as heavy as a Model M, but hefty. The number pad and cursors are all skewed funny, but the worst thing are the keys on both sides of the spacebar. Sorry for the crappy pic, it was from a cell phone.



While it's hard to see, the keys on the left are "Close Application" and "Explorer". The keys on the right are "Maximize" and "Minimize". Guess which key gets hit the most, just when you don't need to? Yep. Close Application.

I tried to use it while repairing another workstation, since it was conveniently available. It lasted less than five minutes before I switched it for a Keytronic.

There's a runner-up at, also at work, which types just awful but at least it won't close your applications. It's an Adesso slim keyboard with trackpad. The only reason it was bought was because of the integrated trackpad. I try not to use it if at all possible.

[ynggrsshppr]

I really dislike the Bloomberg keyboards. It's a membrane keyboard with very short key travel. It feels awful and when you throw food crumbs into the mix (as traders often like to eat at their stations) things get even uglier. The keys may even sometimes stop working when the food gets under them. I'm guessing they're also bloody expensive.

[DrunkenDonut]

Yay for food and gunk. At our office it's mainly staples with some food and a whole lot of dust (it's an office attached to a warehouse). Some people seem to love removing staples over their keyboards or sweeping them off their desks into the keyboards. After they do this enough, they jam keys and complain that their keyboards don't work and want a new one.

Other people take a bit more care of their keyboards, although it's more of a "tough love" kind of care. Out of the blue, you will hear *crock*crock*crock*tap*tap*tap* sound coming from a corner of the office, where someone will be hitting their keyboard on the desk upside down in order to get crap out of them.

[sixty]

I just got one that ranks up pretty high on the scale of the worst keyboards I have used so far.

"Review" is up here: http://clicks.t.oomuch.info/2009/08/26/just-in-east-e-701/