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DIY Ambient Light Keyboard Kit

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the why-the-hell-not dept.

An anonymous reader writes " Do you envy new Apple 17" PowerBook keyboard? Here's keyboard light kits for all most any keyboard no matter which OS you are using. There's NINE choice of colors (Light Blue, Deep Blue, Hot Pink, Yellow, White, Purple, Neon Green, Lime Green, and Red) available but unfortunately not coming with light sensor. "

14 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. Yikes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Bloody hell. The product looks good... but the overall design of that web site is horrid. And they have you send your credit card number unencrypted. Christ, they should use Pay Pal if they don't want to get a secure server of their own.

  2. google cache link by haedesch · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:fzTelghCGyoC: www.neontrim.com/keyboard.html+Computer+Keyboard+L ight+Kits!&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8

    both the cache and the link in the article appear to be extremely slow

  3. Ask Permission Before Submitting Story? by EllF · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are 5 comments up as I post this, and the site is already being slashdotted -- it's horridly slow. Last night I noticed on the Guerilla News Network story that the poster had gone out and asked the site admins if he/she could link to them prior to submitting it to the editors.

    It is relatively well-understood that /. cannot mirror sites, for a large number of reasons. Moreover, the admins here are taxed (well, maybe...) as is, and aren't willing to fire off emails asking permission to post a link to someone's site every time they get a story that ends up on the frontpage. Nor should they have to.

    Perhaps, though, we as posters could be mature and responsible? Asking for permission before DOS'ing someone's site via a link here would at the least be polite.

    --
    We who were living are now dying
    With a little patience
    1. Re:Ask Permission Before Submitting Story? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The Ethics of Linkage

  4. here is a mirror by xombo · · Score: 5, Informative

    The server seems dead, but here is a mirror, be nice to it. http://www.moderngeek.com/keyboardlights/ This does not compare the the powerbook lighting at ALL, it looks cheap :p The powerbook lights up the lettes on the keys, and this just lights up behind the keys.

  5. Image mirrors by Isbiten · · Score: 3, Informative

    Close up

    Neon

    Keyboard

    --
    I fought the corporate America, and the corporate America bought the law.
  6. pic mirror by carpe_noctem · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ok, take it easy on me here...

    pic1
    pic2

    --
    "Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
  7. check thing-geek's by DrSkwid · · Score: 5, Informative

    fully illuminated keyboard, $99

    Auravision EluminX Illuminated Keyboard

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
    1. Re:check thing-geek's by Neck_of_the_Woods · · Score: 4, Informative


      I have 3 of these and for quite some time now, well before they made it to thinkgeek.

      Here is the stinky.

      They are very low profile. They have no "pop" legs in the back to increase the angle, and the keys are very short. I would say have as tall as a normal keyboard.

      With all that said, it has one of the best a really good fell to the keystroke. It is about 1/2 as load keystroke wise as a normal keyboard and durring the day or in a well lit room you can't even tell that it is "glowing". As soon as you start to dim the lights you get the glow effect and in a very dark room it is very sweet. We use them as server room keyboards which we keep the room dark 90% of the time and it helps with finding keys and general light/ "wow" factor for the execs.

      I use one at home and love it.

      I would recommend them to anyone that enjoys a standard keyboard layout and is looking for something that does not have the "shitty" keyboard feel to it. It will take you about a day to ajust to the different angle on the thing, but after that I also found the low profile helps with keeping me from getting tired around my wrist which was a bonus I did not expect.

      Enjoy.

      --
      Neck_of_the_Woods
      #/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
  8. Ambient light? by nochops · · Score: 2, Informative

    OK. Excuse my if I wrong, but wouldnt ambient light be well, ambient light?

    This is NOT ambient light. This is backlighting. Hell, my keyboard is being lit by ambient light right now, and it has been since I bought it. And so has every keyboard I've ever owned.

    In fact, everything in my house is lit by ambient light. Well, you get the idea.

    For a website that touts itself as "News for nerds", maybe a little lexical verification would be in order, since fact-checking is apparently out of the question.

    arrrgghhh...[struggles with demon hand]....must....change....urls....argggghhh

    --
    "A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
  9. Re:Bah, manufacturers have no imagination by Clover_Kicker · · Score: 5, Informative

    >I'd really like to see a keyboard with a few programmable LEDs, or even
    >better, a LCD screen. It'd be cool to have the memory/CPU use or
    >something like that there.

    Are you good with a soldering iron + dremel?

    http://www.modelm.org/mboard/almost.JPG

    http://www.modelm.org/mboard.html

    Here's a list of utilites to use your keyboard LEDs as status indicators for various things: http://www.modelm.org/thing.htm

    >But all I see instead is keyboards with annoying power buttons I tend
    >to press in the least inconvenient moment. I just don't get it,
    >what's the point of having it there? As if I needed to turn the
    >computer on and off every 5 minutes.

    Go to an electronics surplus store and buy an 80's IBM or Compaq keyboard. Nice feel, no superfluous keys. Real keyboards aren't made from plastic, any keyboards weighing less then 10 pounds is a toy.

  10. Re:Bah, manufacturers have no imagination by Brummund · · Score: 2, Informative
    To turn off that annoying Caps Lock and use it as a control key instead, I have this in my ~/.xmodmap:


    ! Change Caps Lock to be a control key
    ! keycode 66 = Caps_Lock
    clear Lock
    add control = Caps_Lock


    Try it out with xmodmap ~/.xmodmap


    If you really, really want to customize your keyboard, take a look at this
    xmodmap extravaganza

  11. the good-bad-and ugly by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Informative

    first off these look the best on a black keyboard..

    BUT, if you are the type to leave your computer on all the time I would paas on it.. these "light wires" have a very VERY short lifespan. they will start to get dark-spots and even lose sections of the "wire" to darkness..

    I have used lots of this stuff, and seen even more of it in poser cars that after only 100 hours of on time they start looking like crap. In this use as indirect lighting I would gather that the darkspots and other "failure" modes of the wire will not be as bothersome.. but when a customer comes back 3 weeks later with their trick case bitching that the light wires you routed a nice slot around the edges for and looked Schweet when they pickked it up look like hell.... you stop reccomending a product..

    I personally reccomend staying away from this light wires based products until someone starts manufacturing something that has a much better lifespan.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  12. Re:Bah, manufacturers have no imagination by jez9999 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I got my keyboard brand new from Trust - the Power keyboard. Nice feel and NO superfluous keys... well, as long as you don't consider the Windows key superfluous anyway :-)

    --
    == Jez ==
    Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.