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A Warm-Feeling Wooden Keyboard (Video)
Plastic, plastic everywhere! Except on most surfaces of the Keyboardio ergonomic keyboard, which started as a 'scratch his itch' project by Jesse Vincent. According to his blurb on the Keyboardio site, Jesse 'has spent the last 20 years writing software like Request Tracker, K-9 Mail, and Perl. He types... a lot. He tried all the keyboards before finally making his own.'
His objective was to make a keyboard he really liked. And he apparently has. This video was shot in June, and Jesse already has a new model prototype under way that Tim Lord says is a notable improvement on the June version he already liked. || Note that the Keyboardio is hackable and open source, so if you think you can improve it, go right ahead. (Alternate Video Link)
His objective was to make a keyboard he really liked. And he apparently has. This video was shot in June, and Jesse already has a new model prototype under way that Tim Lord says is a notable improvement on the June version he already liked. || Note that the Keyboardio is hackable and open source, so if you think you can improve it, go right ahead. (Alternate Video Link)
From TFA:
Heirloom-grade craftsmanship
From the best mechanical keyswitches to aircraft-grade aluminum construction, this is a keyboard that will last.
If that's "wooden," I must ask: What kind of tree do you get aircraft-grade aluminum and/or mechanical keyswitches from?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I like the ergonomic style, pioneered by Apple (AFAIK), who abandoned it, then taken up by Microsoft, which has made ever cheaper and more bloated versions of an originally nice product.
The bottom arced keys on this thing are a complete horror-show, though. And all of the keys are the same size?
I've seen a lot of alternative keyboard designs come and go. I'm not sure this one will come before it goes. /cue Blazing Saddles sketch
God no. Someone actually offered to sell us some endangered hardwood for the keyboards the other day. The plan is for something reasonably, pretty, reasonably hard, reasonably sustainable and reasonably inexpensive. N
Hi, jesse of keyboardio here.
As of this week, the editors actually have it more correct than our website. We'd been prototyping in wood. In between when the video was shot last month and when this got posted, we finally got our first "finalish" aluminum prototype made. The aluminum prototype was what we talked about publicly on Highway1 (highway1.io) demo day and what we hoped to launch publicly. Once we had it in hand, we discovered a bunch of reasons we're not going to go with aluminum for production. (Mostly, cost, Weight, looking too much like an Apple product, weight, and weight.) We went back to the drawing board and believe we've got techniques, technologies and costs for commercial manufacture of a milled wood enclosure. We've been at OSCON this week, but should get the website updated soonish.
I do a bit better when I've had a decent night's sleep and haven't spent the day on a trade-show floor. This was "Timothy finds Jesse standing around and asks him stuff" and not "interview with an agenda."
That being said, I totally need to learn a bit about concise speaking. Also, thanks :)
Bamboo.
Hard - check
Pretty - check (beauty..eye..beholder..blah)
sustainable - check
inexpensive - check
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)