Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with keyboard

UK ergonomic keyboard

nam3d — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:54:35 -0800

Whilst looking to purchase an ergonomic keyboards like the Kinesis or Goldtouch keyboards they all seem to be in the US layout which is a bit of a problem as I'm used to the UK layout. Could anyone recommend me an ergonomic keyboard with a UK Qwerty layout?

How can I compare laptop keyboards?

futility closet — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:48:01 -0800

Is there a website that presents keyboard layouts for various laptops, to faciliate comparison? Or can anyone recommend a store in Raleigh that has a good selection of laptops on display? My wife is looking for a new Windows machine and wants to find one that's easy to use.

Sun Type 6 Keyboard in Windows

gzimmer — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:35:11 -0800

I came into possession of a Sun type 6 keyboard and want to see how much use I can get out of it in Windows. Having dedicated cut,copy,paste keys is just awesome. After exhaustive googling, i've seen others asking about drivers come up empty. There was a half english half japanese website that I found that tried but only got about halfway.

Is there any software that I can use to see what keys windows is even seeing as a first step to using them in macros or such?

Typing: from 60wpm to 90wpm

ekpyrotic — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:54:03 -0800

From a reasonably good [60wpm] looking-at-the-keys typist to a reasonably good [90wpm] touch typist. I currently type at ~60wpm. I have to look at the keyboard every 3-or-so words. I want to touch type for 2 reasons,

1. To improve speed,
2. So I can copy text effectively, i.e., not have to look at the keys now and again.

Where's the best place to go from here?

Keyboard for my HTPC setup?

petah — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:17:11 -0800

Recommendations for a good HTPC (home theater PC) keyboard? I've got an old laptop I've hooked up to my television, and I'd like to be able to browse the web and operate my computer from the couch.

I was wondering if there were any dedicated keyboard/mouse combos for this task?

Quality of thinkpad t500 keyboard ?

Kevin S — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:46:52 -0800

Want to buy a lenovo thinkpad t500. Is the keyboard as good as on older model thinkpads? I am concerned that early problems for the t500 keyboard may not have been resolved. Supposedly the early t500's had a problem with keyboard springiness, but then supposedly that problem was fixed. Surfing around, I see some relatively recent complaints.

Just wondering if anyone has direct expérience with the keyboard on a t500 purchased in the last few months.

This will be a replacement/upgrade for my current t60, which I like a lot; don't want to be disappointed with the kb on a new machine.

Thanks

If you were a G1, and you were born today, what cell phone would you be?

Greg Nog — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:10:38 -0800

I would like to buy a nice new cell phone with a physical keyboard to replace a broken G1. Please help me with any knowledge about the Droid or the Cliq or any other suggestions you may have! So my G1 recently died a horrible death, and although I quite liked both the phone itself and the Android OS, I'm wary about getting another G1 to replace it, given the age of the product.

I liked the G1 mainly for the easy access to my gmail account, the web browsing, and the easy access to Google Maps, which I used pretty much daily and which I was utterly delighted by, whenever they added new bells and whistles to it.

I've looked into the Droid (which seems like a nicely high-tech update), but I find typing on the keyboard to be unpleasant; the keys are all flat and flush, leading me to accidentally push buttons I didn't mean to press with my GIANT APE FINGERS. Is there some way I could mod these with, like, a tiny dab of clear epoxy on the center of each key to lift and separate them? (I realize this sounds like a five-year-old's solution to the problem, but that's generally how I roll in this lifetime.)

Another alternative might be the Cliq, but if my basic research is right, it's on the earlier iteration of the Android OS, yes? Will it be updated to Android 2.0? The keyboard looks much better on the Cliq, although I don't really care about all the social apps and whatnot that it seems to excel at. And if all I want is an old iteration of Android with a comfy keyboard, wouldn't I be better off getting the cheaper G1?

I'm also receptive to a caution that I should just wait; that soon enough, some new Android device will stroll along to replace the Droid, and that it may well have a better keyboard and physical push-buttons on the front.

I'm out of my t-mobile contract now (FREE, FREE), so I'm happy to switch to any carrier that will do a nice job of being good to me.

Keyboard going crazy

SallyHitMeOntheHead — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:44:53 -0800

Help! Keyboard going haywire – behaving as if Control key is locked ON. But it’s not the hardware (same problem occurs with 2 keyboards.) I’m on deadline and at a standstill. Anybody? System: Lenovo 3000 V200. Windows XP Pro.

Also: Windows hangs when opening. In Configuration Mode, I can’t use the up and down arrows – meaning I can’t go to last known good config or even Safe Mode. Last change to system: Began update of Quicken, which failed due to keyboard issue.

Wireless keyboard for a home theater PC?

thewalrus — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:30:24 -0800

Please suggest a quality wireless (RF) keyboard that has an integrated touchpad, trackpoint or trackball for use with a home theater PC setup. There's a lot of different things available from Newegg ($35 to $150+) and the other usual sources, but I'm wondering about some first-hand experiences... I'd like to keep the cost to the lower end of the price range if possible, without getting something that is a total piece of junk. It seems that wireless keyboards designed specifically for desktop use usually don't include a pointing device. I don't want to have a separate mouse and keyboard, the pointer should be integrated.

Stupid Keyboard Question

misanthropicsarah — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:49:19 -0800

Got a new computer and it only has USB hookups, no ps2 hookups for a keyboard or mouse. No problem, I already had a USB mouse and it came with a USB keyboard (whatever generic one Dell ships). But I really liked my old keyboard which had a ps2 connector. So, I got a couple of ps2/usb adaptors figuring that would solve my problem. It didn't. The computer didn't recognize the keyboard when it was plugged in. Why? Since I'd bought two adaptors (buy one get one free) I tried both figuring one might be dead, but neither worked.

At this point I had just unplugged the USB keyboard and plugged in the ps2-with-adaptor keyboard, so thinking that might be the issue, I turned the machine off then turned it back on with the ps2-with-adaptor keyboard plugged in. As the machine was booting an error message came up about a keyboard error (no keyboard recognized?).

I gave up and plugged the USB keyboard back in and have been using that and sulking. Do I need to buy some kind of fancier ps2/usb adaptor? Install a driver or something (the keyboard I want to use is the 5 years ago version of whatever Dell was shipping, but I really like it!)? Resign myself to this ridiculous keyboard?

I realize that this is a stupid question, but this keyboard has been bothering me for a couple of weeks and I have not gotten used to it as I thought I would. Forgive me my absurdness.

troubleshooting a (mostly) broken laptop key

needs more cowbell — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:23:08 -0800

My Thinkpad's n key doesn't work most of the time (but does work sometimes if I hit it in the right spot/from the right angle and hold for a bit)...what troubleshooting/fixes can I try before I give in and replace the whole keyboard? Additional details:
1) I have already pried the keycap off and looked to see if anything was stuck under it (no)
2) this does not seem to be the result of spilled liquid (I have spilled stuff before, but nothing recently)
3) no need for workarounds or advice about how cheap/easy it is to replace Thinkpad keyboards - I've done it before, and will again if needed. That seems silly, though--the circuitry must be intact since it does work sometimes.

Painted into a corner, I fear

flabdablet — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:30:54 -0800

Did I just brick this computer? This hand-me-down K7T266 based PC had previously been diagnosed with a faulty PS/2 keyboard port, and the owner had been advised that this was not worth fixing and that he should just use a USB keyboard, which he was doing. Windows XP Home ran just fine this way. However, there was no obvious way to get to the BIOS settings as the BIOS didn't recognize the USB keyboard, and thus no obvious way to boot from CD.

No problem, says me cheerfully; we'll just reset the CMOS settings, which should make it enable legacy USB keyboard support from powerup, and let us get to the BIOS settings screen using your USB keyboard. So I do the usual jumper dance.

Bad move. On startup, it now announces that that the CMOS settings are wrong (fair enough) and prompts to press F1 to enter Setup or F2 to load defaults and continue - but it still won't accept USB keyboard input, so it just sits there. It never gets as far as trying to boot, either from disk or anything else.

We tried plugging in a PS/2 keyboard but that does, indeed, not work. We also tried plugging the USB keyboard into one of the mobo USB ports after I noticed that it was attached to a PCI add-on card; no change. The owner says that he seems to recall being told that the mobo USB ports were faulty as well, which is why the add-on card was installed. Sigh.

So it seems my helpfully helpful help has cost him the use of his old computer. Anybody got any good ideas for getting it going again, or have I just obligated myself to find, supply and fit a replacement K7T266 mobo?

I realize that there are no shortcuts in life, but...

kjackelen05 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:52:37 -0800

When I use Grooveshark, I can no longer use Firefox's standard keyboard shortcuts. How can I fix this? Greasemonkey, maybe? I'm a habitual ctrl-tabber to switch tabs, ctrl-t to get a new tab, ctrl-shift-t to open a recently closed tab, etc. But when the active tab is Grooveshark, these commands don't work. This is especially frustrating when I'm trying to ctrl-tab my through a bunch of tabs, and I get stuck in Grooveshark.

I feel like this is something that might be solvable with Greasemonkey, but I don't know where to start. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Why does my laptop think I'm pushing ctrl?

Pope Guilty — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:50:34 -0800

My Inspiron 1545 thinks I'm pressing ctrl and I don't know why. I picked up a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop awhile back, and the only problem I've had with it is that it frequently activates the ctrl key regardless of whether or not I'm actually pressing it- or even have my hands on the keyboard! Sometimes this is just annoying, like randomly crouching in an FPS or tab-targeting grabbing friends instead of enemies in WoW, but if I type a "w" while it thinks I'm pressing ctrl, I lose the Firefox tab I was working in! If I hit tab in Firefox, I frequently go to the next tab instead of the next field. Perhaps most bafflingly, it is only ctrl that this happens with; it never randomly types another character, nor does it ever wrongly activate shift or alt or any other key.

So far, I've talked to Dell about it; they sent me a replacement keyboard, but this did not resolve the problem. Googling indicates that many people are having this problem, but nobody seems to have any solutions (besides one suggestion, bizarrely, to reduce trackpad sensitivity, which did nothing).

Anyone out there know what's going on or have any ideas?

Türkçe....!

ryanbryan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:52:02 -0800

How do you program foreign (namely the Turkish ones - ı, ş, and ğ) characters into a laptop keyboard....? I currently have my laptop keyboard set to United States-International, which allows me to type, for example:

: + o for ö
' + a for á
Ctrl + Alt + W for å

It seems however, that the Turkish characters ı, ş, and ğ (and their capital equivalents) are not programmed into this keyboard layout as standard. Does anyone know of the key combination for them, or any other alternative for programming these characters into similar keyboard shortcuts? Would be happy for a solution that required installing supplementary software, but before anyone suggests, installing the Turkish keyboard is out of the question.

Suggest me a keyboard please

DarkForest — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:12:23 -0800

Software developers: what keyboard do you like? I'm not happy with my cheap HP keyboard. The keys seem a bit sticky and resistant, especially if I hit them a bit off-center. I'd like something with a higher quality feel. Smooth, but with some degree of tactile feedback.

I've never used one of those wave or split keyboards, so I'm not sure If I want to try one of those now.

PC-Compatible. I like media player controls. Are there any other features useful for the software developer? Is wireless really worthwhile?

Not too expensive. $70 or under is best. Fancy design (like those flat white Apple keyboards) is not a consideration.

Also mouse suggestions are welcome, though I am not really unhappy with my current wired optical mouse.

What would you recommend?

Yahoo! Mail on Wii + USB keyboard = what gives?

FarOutFreak — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:56:39 -0800

Anybody out there checking and writing e-mail on the Wii Internet Channel with a USB keyboard? Is anyone out there successfully using the Wii to open Yahoo! Mail (or any other web mail client, for that matter) and using a USB keyboard to write e-mail?

I just recently updated my firmware and the Wii Internet Channel to make use of USB keyboard support, and I was able to log on to Yahoo! Mail by clicking with the Wiimote and using the keyboard to logon. But when I tried to test typing up an actual e-mail on the form, clicking the Wiimote on the form area and pressing A wouldn't enable me to start typing using the keyboard. Clicking on fields for username and password would bring up the keyboard interface on the Wii, but as for clicking on the post area, I can't see anything that indicates that I can start typing away, and after pressing on a few letters, nothing did register onscreen.

I couldn't see any settings as far as what could enable me to start typing on the mail form, so if anyone is able to do this, please enlighten me on what your setup is, and if I'm missing anything in particular as to how this might be done.

How long will it take me to learn the keyboard?

DMan — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:38:25 -0800

Is it reasonable to expect that I can develop reasonable proficiency at piano/keyboard with 30 minutes to an hour of practice each day for a few months? Longer version: I consider myself to be musically inclined; I played French Horn in high school, picked up drums when I was in eleventh grade, and play guitar with a Christian worship band now. I really, really want to learn the keyboard, but what concerns me is that it seems like people spend years and years learning to play piano and even after that time, they seem skilled but not as much as I would expect if someone had been playing drums or guitar for as long.

So do the keys have a really long learning curve? My schedule is fairly busy and I know realistically I'll only be able to spend an hour at most per day practicing it. Is it reasonable to expect to be able to play through some songs after a few months of this, or am I looking at jumping into years of study?

Bonus points for recommended learning materials, but I realize other AskMe questions exist for that purpose.

I need a new wireless keyboard and mouse. Suggestions?

suburbanrobot — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:27:04 -0800

Are there any good "laptop like" wireless keyboards out there? Bonus for wireless keyboard/mouse combos. I have an MS Wireless Optical Desktop Elite keyboard/mouse combo, and I absolutely hate it. The main issue is that the keys are very heavy, and take a lot of effort to push. This slows down my typing and causes a ton of errors. The mouse is pretty bad as well, mostly due to its enormous heft. It's time to upgrade both.

Here are my criteria for a new keyboard:

1. "Laptop-like" keys -- easy to push, not much noise. I like the flat keys as well, but that's not a necessary.

2. I don't like having a ton of extra buttons. Just the basics. I would like a number pad, but I could even live without that to be honest.

3. The mouse should not be huge, and ideally would have an option to switch from smooth-scrolling to click-scrolling. I love the Logitech VX Revolution that I use with my laptop.

4. Both mouse and keyboard MUST BE WIRELESS. The PC itself is a fair distance from the desktop, so the connection should probably be some sort of receiver that hooks to the PC via USB. Unless a USB receiver can plug directly into the back of the PC and get reception to keyboard and mouse without direct line of sight.

I love Logitech but the keyboard/mouse combos I have found are lacking. Price is not really a concern though obviously less money=better. I'm really not asking for a lot here, am I?

Apply BT Keyboard & Mighty Mouse with slim PS3

omidius — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:46:24 -0800

Will an Apple wireless (bluetooth) keyboard and mighty mouse work with the new slim Playstation 3? I have read conversations that go both ways, but they were mostly from 2007 -- something about PS3 not installed with a standard BT keyboard profile, which is what apple's keyboard uses. I'm wondering if anyone has definitive experience with this...

Thanks

That's Bluetoothwang!

cmoj — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:48:28 -0800

Help me get a wireless/bluetooth keyboard and mouse that don't suck. I have MacBook Pro with 10.5.8. I have it hooked up to a home theater screen and want to be able to use either from anywhere in the room (no more than about 30 feet, almost always more like 15).

Theoretically, bluetooth should have plenty of range for this, but the Rocketfish bluetooth combo I have now ranges from annoying to unusable. It lags. I assume this partially has to do with varying interference. The scroll wheel on the mouse and the volume, etc. buttons on the keyboard don't work unless I use the bluetooth dongle it came with, but the connection gets randomly dropped when I use it. This happens anyway, but less often when they're connected directly.
I know the Rocketfish wasn't meant for use with the Mac.

What I want: The number one consideration is reliability and accuracy. I game only moderately, but it makes me flip out when I lose something because my mouse is acting wonky. After that, things like extra mouse buttons and volume/playback control on the keyboard are preferable, but not the top consideration.

I don't care if they come as a combo or not, and within reason I care about quality over price.

Estranged pieces of metal in an Organ from the 1960s are the topic of the day

tmcw — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:33:36 -0800

Fixing an old transistor organ: how do I fix these switches that seem to rely on the springiness of metal in order to make contact? So, I'm working on fixing this big ol' Doric organ (previously), and I stumbled upon a big break: it appears that the voices, as well as the vibrato, may not be broken, but just the switch activating them. However, this switch seems to rely on the exact same principle as the key contacts, and that principle is failing hard fourty-something years after this thing was built.

See this picture for a quick hint.

Basically, two wires, one which is the contact and stays at a certain place, and the second which is supposed to spring onto that contact when the key is depressed. Unfortunately, the second one is no longer very springy and I believe that these contacts are a bit rusty/bad.

So, contact cleaner is obvious solution #1, but the other problem is that with a few of these buttons, the piece of metal which is supposed to move onto the other just doesn't, and I don't have much of a way of bending it, since the furthest it can travel right now is the other contact. Also, just rebending this wire is a temporary fix, I'd guess, since, after all, it'll bend back like it has over all these years, leaving the next aspiring electrician thinking that the vibrato circuit is broken.

So, please let me know your thoughts! I am not even sure what the term for this 'keying system' is called, so my google-powers are weak. And any help would be so, so appreciated!

Thanks!

Bugs in the system

Iteki — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:36:55 -0800

Mass sterilisation of keyboards, what are my best options? Have about 50 computers in my care, and in use by the public. Having just seen yet another user sneeze into their hands and then continue typing I am reminded that my keyboards must be beyond gross by now.

While I thank my filthy workplace for my robust immune system, I would still like to be able to sterilise the keyboards about once a month or so. Apart from the boogie-men of msrs and the piggyflu, the Norwalk-like winter puking bugs are a genuine problem where I am.

If worst comes to the worst I guess I will just throw them all in the dishwasher once a year, but I am hoping omone can shed some (UVC?) light on a better solution. Any truth to those magic wands for example? If so, where to get? I only find dodgey looking yahoo-store links

Magic Chord-O-Matic Machine!

phrontist — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:04:20 -0800

I was playing around with a keyboard at a Guitar Center that had an auto-harmonize feature. Below a certain note pressing a key would play a chord instead of a single tone. What was interesting was that playing chromatically (white and black keys) it played chords that retained a firm sense of key (C major) - if you jumped around randomly or did chromatic runs it didn't sound like there were a bunch of modulations taking place. What formula do you think it used to do this?

Synthfilter: Sequential Circuits Prophet 600, keys not firing issue

Charlie Lesoine — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:36:13 -0800

Synthfilter: Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 giving me problems: keys not playing notes, but silicone contacts are clean and working. Looking to be directed to the right person/place/forum to ask or maybe someone here can help I have recently become the owner of a Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 which has been in a box since 1987. It is having an issue with the key mechanisms properly hitting the keyboard contact strips. When I powered it on, only three of the highest far right keys worked so I opened it up and cleaned the contact strips then plugged the keyboard circuit board back into the synth without reattaching the actual keys in order to test it. The rubber keyboard contacts fire notes just fine when depressed with a finger but for some reason when attached to the actual keyboard mechanism, most but not all are failing to fire. The top couple and the bottom three play and a few in between but that's it. The plastic keys don't seem to be warped or anything, it just looks like when they push the plungers down that they aren't descending far enough down in order to complete the circuit. I suspect this has something to do with it because I am able to make more of the keys play if I push down on the end of keys nearest circuit board, in other words the end of the key opposite to where you would normally hit it. I'm thinking maybe I can attach little pieces of cardboard to the bottom of the keys where they touch they silicone contacts so that they push down a little more, but I don't want to screw this instrument up...Anyone seen this issue before or know a better place/person/forum to ask? Any ideas?