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101 Keys Soaking Wet: The Flexboard
There may be other answers to that eternal, burning question, but the only one of which I am aware is the strange and intriguing keyboard (hooked to an Amnet laptop on loan from Roblimo) on which I type ths review. It's called the Flexboard, available in the U.S. from Man & Machine. And yes, it works fine with Linux -- in this case, with a semi-functional installation of Corel Linux 2.4. Nothing unusual about it, in fact, except that it's banana yellow, has no moving parts, can be rolled to the approximate dimensions of a stromboli, smells a bit like a paint store, and can droop becomingly around a user's naked thighs. Other than that, just your run-of-the-mill PS/2 keyboard.
With a design straight out of '70s Sweden, or perhaps the personal computer division of Fisher-Price (but actually manufactured in Germany by a company called Kota Technologies, this is not a keyboard you're likely to to find around the office. First of all, most offices do not need keyboards that cost as much as a passable 15" monitor -- and at $129 for the standard Home / Office version (the one I'm bumping away at), it's pretty close. (In case you're wondering, it is available in other colors, including neutral grey.)
Your $129, though, gets you an interesting, very specialized piece of equipment. This keyboard can withstand treatment that standard mechanical ones cannot, to put it lightly. (Turns on spigot -- not too hot, but not too cold.)
Add $100 for the even tougher "Industrial" version, and you can happily drench your keyboard in oil and many chemicals; the Industrial version also features a 2-year warranty vs. the standard edition's single year, and will withstand a wider range of storage and operating temperatures. For factories, laboratories, workshops and such it seems like just the ticket. Even the standard one, though, shrugs off both water and hot chocolate at point-blank range just fine. Rinse off, towel dry -- no need to wring.
The sensors which enable the keys are hidden beneath flat-topped projections in the one-molded-piece-of-rubber which is the keyboard. The letters, numbers and functon keys are perfectly round, while space bar, enter, and other special characters are elongated ovals. (Lower drain plug.)
The keys are adequately labeled; the printing is a little lighter than I would expect -- grey-brown rather than black -- but in practical use provides plenty of contrast. (Adjusts water.) Not that I'm giving it any practical use right now.
How well does it work? In short, a) better than I expected and, b) not bad. It takes some getting used to the feel of a rubber keyboard (and adjusting your typing style to its response), but it's not the awful, toothgrinding experience of "typing" on the flat-membrane surface of the old family Sinclair Z-80; it's really possible to type at a decent clip on this thing. Slower than my regular keyboard, but OK. Even combination keystrokes (shift-plus, alt-plus) work fine. However, if you're used to clacking along on a mechanical keyboard, especially if you crave the audio and tactile feedback of an IBM desk-dominator, the feel of this one will come as a surprise, though not necessarily a rude one.
The loudest you can make this keyboard roar, in fact, is closer to a Sunday School whisper than to, say, normal conversation. Unless you really want to swing your fingers, it is utterly silent. (A little more Hot, please.) A gentle squeezing motion is all it takes to actuate the keys. Even after acclimating myself to it for a few days, though, I find that a few keys (F, J, and a few others in the bottom row) simply do not work as well as others. Disconcertingly, the key which causes me the most trouble is the spacebar. I am generally a right-thumb spacebar thumper; I find that by switching to my left thumb my success is much improved. Overall, the engineers did an admirable job balancing sensitivity with oversensivity. I end up hitting backspace more than I'd like, but less than I feared I would have to.
So who would want one of these? With not a sharp angle or hard surface to be found, I can think of various institutions which might order it for those characteristics alone, and of which I know only by thorough reading. (Ouch! Too hot!) Any environment that could be wetter or messier than you'd subject an ordinary keyboard to (anyone who's gotten cat hair or soda in their keyboard will know what I mean) might be well-served with the Flexboard. Office klutzes everywhere -- we know who we are -- still would have to go through quite a few $30 keyboards from the local office supply before one of these makes sense for that reason alone.
It does seem like this would be a great keyboard for children, since not only are there no pieces to break off and chew on or swallow, but more importantly it cannot be used as a bludgeon against other children. And for anyone in a situtation which truly requires a spillproof, particle-proof keyboard, the generous cable allows you to better protect the PC itself, placing it in a cabinet, say, or otherwise out of your particular "splash zone." For situations where quiet is more important than input speed, this board would shine.
Having typed this review from the comfort of my bathtub, I can also attest to the Flexboard's resistance to Freeman Botanicals Apple Nectar shampoo as well as Dove moisturizing soap. Better close before I find out what it can't shrug off and get myself into even more hot water.
Many thanks to Clifton Broumand of Man&Machine for graciously providing this review unit.
Hey, this was easy until you mentioned the PS/2 cord. It made me think. What kind of a self-respecting dildo would have use PS/2?
They're USB nowadays. *shrugs*
Who sees the possibilities here. Some kind of waterproof pointing device and lcd (that doesn't fog up) and you've got a really nice shower-mastur^H^H^H^H^H^Hresearch device.
pckeyboard.com bought IBM's keyboard division from Lexmark a few years ago. They still sell the IBM keyboards and a few similar models of their own. Fricking expensive, though.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Especially UltraWide.
*groan*
This sig is false.
I've read a lot of PDA users who swear by the third-party keyboards that attach to Palm and similar PDA's. Is there anyone making a flexible keyboard for that market?
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Weblogging Considered Harmful:
That's positively disgusting.
My journal has hot
I believe from my electronics days that this is wrong, that any voltage will--not can--kill at sufficient amperage. We used to say that it's not voltage that kills but amperage. As an example, a car battery has less voltage than two nine-volts in series, but far far far more amperage, and it can melt out pieces of the terminal.
If RSI has a god, it must be one of the Great Old Ones. __ (oO) (It's the Great Old Ones, Charlie Brown!) /||\
--The basis of all love is respect
You know, everywhere I go, where computer access is needed, and the enviroment is dirty (oil change place, mechanic's, auto zone, checker, etc - hell, any car place - many hospitals, warehouses, etc), there seems to always be a VT100 terminal sitting around, working just fine. Many have missing keys, or the printed characters on the keyboards are rubbed off - or they are covered by a rubber skin over the keyboard that is an ugly brownish yellow. Are these terminals nearly indestructable?
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
They actually wanted it back after you sat in the bathtub with it on your naked thighs. What are they gonna do with it now? Resell it?
I shudder at the mere suggestion.
Sheesh, how many ants do we have on /.?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Hmmm, another ant! [grumbles] :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I saw this a few weeks ago, it's probably been around awhile. Before I saw it, though, I had this same idea. I didn't really have the resources to implement it though. I think the best thing about it is not the everything-proof-ness, but the roll-up-ability (doncha just love my new vocabulary?). This makes it perfect for a wearable if you don't want to get and learn a twiddler. The withstandability is nice if you drop it in a mud puddle, though. I guess the quiet is good if you're in a library or something sitting down to type something. The one advantage I can see that the twiddler has over this thing is that you can twiddle standing up (dunno, maybe you could duct tape this to your waist, but that would be an ergonomic nightmare...).
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Seeing is believing; You wouldn't have seen it if you didn't believe it.
Many thanks to Clifton Broumand of Man&Machine for graciously providing this review unit.
Which he now has to donate to slashdot, since it's been in the tub with timothy and (shudder) on his naked thighs.
It may be marketed to 'industrial' audiences, but what about the home user who always seems to be making a 'mess' from what he or she (probably he 99% of the time) sees? I think we'll see a lot more banner ads for this one in odd places. Easy clean up, and rubber fetish fufilling. An odd combination, almost as odd as cybersex.
The keyboard you're thinking of is the Sinclair ZX 80, the worlds first sub £100 home computer. The Z 80 is the CPU. :)
Syllable : It's an Operating System
You're missing the whole point. This is an important breakthrough in the field of geek hygene. Apparently you've never worked with hackers who refuse to leave the keyboard for any reason except to go to the bathroom or (perhaps) sleep.
With this innovation, you could either:
a) Convince them to leave the desk for the tub, arguing that it will no longer mean being bored for five minutes, or
b) Hose them down where they sit. If they complain that you're disturbing their compiler hacking/Command and Conquer playing, intimate you're surprised that something like this would disturb their powers of concentration. This will generally shut them up, and on future occasions they will do their damnedest to act like they don't notice, and like it's not even slowing down their typing.
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." - Alexander Hamilton
man 2 son
but it didn't find it.
oh, you mean it wasn't a unix man page reference? then why did you put a section number after it?
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
The "Man and Machine" store cites lab use as one of the primary reasons why you might want waterproof/chemicalproof keyboards and mice. But, really, if you're working in a lab where you routinely spill chemicals all over the place, don't you have bigger issues to worry about than what kind of keyboard you have?
When I become Dr. Evil level rich, I think I will make a pool with a glass window, in which I will put a large screen monitor. Attached to the side of the pool will be this keyboard, and some sort of touchpad mouse. That way I can access the web to look up the rules for "Marco Polo" if there's ever a dispute.
s/[BW]ill(y|iam)?( H\.?)?( G(ate|8)(s|z))?(,? ?v?(III|3)(\.\D)?)?/Girly-man/gi
Ever see those terminals where you get your oil changed? If those things resist 10W30, they're worth the money. Manufacturing, auto service, and maritime uses abound.
--The basis of all love is respect
SON(2) System calls SON(2)
NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
RETURN VALUE ERRORS CONFORMING TO RESTRICTIONS SEE ALSO Linux July 12, 1997 1I am quite civilized, and I should be brought a beer immediately. -- Bruce Sterling
Let's see: a flat-panel video display on a wall mount, a flexboard mounted on the counter (or on a cable so I can plop it anywhere I'm not using for mixing bowls), a wireless ethernet card and a SMALL case I can mount in the corner of a kitchen cabinet, and I have the recipe database access terminal design. Cool.
Before I went to college I payed my bills by working as a service writer in an autoshop. They had just computerized and I had the responsibility of helping everyone get used to the new system.
//
The mechanics would log parts requests and services preformed at a terminal in the shop and service writers would do the billing and restocking operations. We went through quite a few terminals in the shop because even with a membrane the keyboard would get damaged by spilt oil or the plain old greasy finger syndrome.
Automechanics aren't in general the most tidy of folks. The system would be tortured by various shop disasters. But I remember the keyboard and monitor were forever covered in a thick layer of slime. Fortuantely we had the sense to put the system box in another room.
I'm sure this rubber keyboard idea would have saved a few bucks... well, at least the keyboard would have been happier.
--// Hartsock
Live to Code, Code to Live!
I reckon we should put this in a little room with the ohsodamngroovy Happy Hackin' Keyboard and watch them fight it out.
BTW, this is 49.53 cm long with a 2.1336 m cable. There are real pictures of the thing at http://www.man-machine.com/keybrd1.htm.
ok, the REAL question is, can it handle HOT pizza sauce/cheese, and HOT coffee???? Cause thats what REAL hackers eat. God knows theres tons of crumbs, and coffee stains on my keyboards. I can envision working from a hot tub now.... Does it come in a wireless version?? I could hook up the monitor to be a huge, theatre sized tv screen, and type with the wireless version, all from a hot tub... ahhhhh...
Moments after posting this story our beloved timothy did the one thing that will trash any system.
Opened an email in Outlook. ;)
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We don't want to hear about your naked thighs!
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Ant. (but not the one at the antfarm)
And I thought the Swiss were so big on ergonomics. This thing looks great, but personally, I'll sacrifice a keyboard to the God of Pepsi long before I'll sacrifice a wrist to the God of RSI :)
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I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
Is it good for computer sex? Can the poor lonely geek-type with only an online girlfriend finally say good-bye to the Sticky Keyboard Syndrome forever? Inquiring minds want to know...
--Jim
Not a cent.
:)
Since this post is at 1, more people will see / will have seen it than the ones marked down as flamebait or trolls.
But since you raise the issue, I would like to make clear the sequence here: I saw this because of a submission to slashdot. I looked it up, and saw that it had been mentioned in the quickies before, but never explained in greater length. I arranged to receive a review copy because I like playing with new hardware (esp. keyboards, since I am a keyboard nut), and this just looked kind of wacky. The folks at Man & Machine hadn't even heard of slashdot, as far as I could tell.
I haven't heard from them and don't even know or particularly care whether they've read it, except for the fact that I hope they note my thanks to them at the bottom for letting me experiment with it.
But the suggestion that the makers have somehow compensated slashdot for the review, or even that they had a hand in it, is inaccurate. We don't even get to keep it!
I thought it was a neat product, but certainly not my ideal keyboard. Specialized product, limited audience, but neat.
That's all:)
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
IBM makes a flat-panel display for food-preparation areas (mostly in fast food) that can be hosed down routinely without damage. But it comes with either a touchscreen or a miserable membrane keyboard. Paired with this keyboard, it could be a nice device for difficult environments.