Do you wear out your keyboards?

[Ennis Ray Lynch Jr]

I type the letters off in about 18 months. I usually go to new contracts before then so I usually get new keyboards all the time. But AFAIK, they all still work. (If you know how to type)

Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost

[Mike Hankey]

I go through one about every 2 years. It's not that we pound on them or abuse them they are just junk and made to break down to keep the economy strong. (Yeah right)

VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.0 ToDo Manager Extension
Version 3.0 now available. There is no place like 127.0.0.1

[lewax00]

Luckily I have most of that! :-D (I've got a steampunk costume, been collecting various pieces about a year now)

[Slacker007]

charlieg wrote:

Any of you beat your keyboards to death?

I break them. I posted this a while back and the community thought I should be fired for damaging company equipment. :)

"the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "But you probably have the smoothest scrotum of any grown man" - Pete O'Hanlon (2012)

[Scott Serl]

No, I buy high quality keyboards: daskeyboard[^] I buy the "silent" (not silent at all, but quieter than the clicky ones) professional (has letters on the keys) version. It weighs as much as a laptop and they last a looooong time.

[Brisingr Aerowing]

Awesome! I am going to make one when I have the time!

public class SysAdmin : Employee
{

 public override void DoWork(IWorkItem workItem)
 {
      if (workItem.User.Type == UserType.NoLearn){
         throw new NoIWillNotFixYourComputerException(new Luser(workItem.User));
      }else{
           base.DoWork(workItem);
      }
 }

}

[Brisingr Aerowing]

:laugh: Cool!

public class SysAdmin : Employee
{

 public override void DoWork(IWorkItem workItem)
 {
      if (workItem.User.Type == UserType.NoLearn){
         throw new NoIWillNotFixYourComputerException(new Luser(workItem.User));
      }else{
           base.DoWork(workItem);
      }
 }

}

[Lost User]

And a deer stalker! I can just see Sherlock Holmes sat there updating his Facebook status after he's chucked Moriarty over the Reichenbach Falls.

[Gary Wheeler]

I have the distinction of having once destroyed the keyboard for a DEC VT-100[^] terminal through, er, assertive typing.

Software Zen: delete this;

[Michael Kingsford Gray]

My (ancient) injection-moulded Hewlett-Packard keyboards are still working flawlessly since 1979! But these were/are military-grade beasts.

[Harrison Pratt]

Find an old IBM keyboard with PS2 connector, buy a PS2/UBS adapter and you have a great clickity-clickity keyboard that lasts forever. May not be so great if you don't work alone!

[BrainiacV]

Gee on mine it's AWSD ;P

Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.

[Stefan_Lang]

I do have a keyboard where the keys formerly showing 'W' 'A' 'S' and 'D' are now completely black. The other keys were in varying states of legibility. I suspect painted-on key labels don't mix well with eating peanuts and playing... A long time ago the keyboard of my AMIGA 2000 crashed on the stone floor, resulting in the [enter] and several other keys breaking off. I tried to glue them back on, with varying degrees of success, but they kept coming off. Since the AMIGA keyboard was non-standard (and quite eypensive), and at the time C=ommodore was already out of business, getting a replacement was difficult. I eventually gave up and got myself a PC. I did regret the switch, but at least I never had any more trouble getting replacement keyboards...

[charlieg]

Definitely the older ones are more rugged. I just happen to like the tactile feel of the *older* style of Dell keyboards. Think logitech keyboards and you know what I mean. Unfortunately, there seems to be a move to chiclet style keyboards, which I despise.

Charlie Gilley You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house. "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759

[BrainiacV]

I have old Gateway 2000 AnyKey keyboards on all my computers (except my laptops) and I program the keyboard to do repetitive tasks. Now I have worn out the surface on my laptop's right-click bar and repainted it with some nail polish I bought for that task and the nail polish has lasted longer than the original surface has.

Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.

[Member 8374640]

hi, i still have that (by then pricy) wireless logitech. its very old, with a 2 buttons wireless mouse with a ball. it went through several moves, gravity tests but works perfectly beside, most my keyboards (on other machines) last long, very long. on the other side, i have to buy 3 or 3 keyboards per year per machine for my wife & kids. mostly killed by the mug or the soda even a rather expensive one sold as 'spill resistent' did not last long the P O R N keys by me are ok, the G A M E S ones show more usage ;-)

[SteveDean]

I punish my keyboard almost daily, both at work and at home, and I don't just let my keyboard to the brunt of my anger, but my mouse gets it too. Not only do I punch it, slam it and bash it, I also slam my mouse onto my desk, and went through 3 mice at my last contract, (and I had all 3 hanging from my PC tower as a warning to all future mice!) I get incredibly wound up when a piece of code doesn't work for illogical reasons, (although they always turn out to be logical) and beat my keyboard to teach it a lesson. At home things get worse, not only does it get a beating, but it gets cigarette ash dropped on it, beer and vodka spilt on it, (I now own a waterproof keyboard with special holes for liquids to drip through). I thought that I was bad, but I got up one morning to find that my wife got so wound up at the snails pace that my PC was churning out spotify tunes that she proceeded to punch my monitor, and due to the force of the punch, it just moved the screen back a few inches, so she proceeded to get one arm around the screen, (in the form of a head-lock) and beat the screen so much that her hand was bleeding, and to this date I still have a fine ingrained line of her blood on my screen that won't come out!

[kmoorevs]

On my main dev pc, I am using an HP keyboard that came with my first windows PC back in 1998. I take it apart about once every three years for a deep cleaning. I dislike working around loud typists...it's just not necessary. The sound of fake nails against plastic is probably the worst, though I might be able to tolerate it depending on whats on the other end, but only for so long.

"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse

[JimP_07]

I'll wear out the little nubs on the home 'f' and 'k' keys. Without those, I'm typing blind.

[Zot Williams]

I don't beat them to death, but I've worn away many a letter and actually wore my way through a ctrl key to the point where a hole developed in the surface. Luckily the key tops are easily replaced:-)