Sweet Sweetback's Clicky Keyboard
More work, more deadlines, more trips, less blogging.
I continue to be exceptionally glad I purchased the MacBook Pro. During my most recent trip, I realized I’d likely be doing a lot of source code reformatting, as well as construction. While the MBP keyboard is quite a good one, the small arrow keys and function keys tend to wear out my fingers during extended editing sessions. Thus, I decided to splurge on an external keyboard.
This led me to my keyboard dilemma, getting my hands on a decent keyboard quickly without paying a fortune. I have always been picky about keyboards and monitors, after all I frequently spent hours upon hours a day typing and staring, using cheap stuff is just plain silly. In this day and age, however, now that computers are a cheap commodity rather than several thousand dollar investments, keyboards have become one of those peripherals that seem to suffer from a race-to-the-bottom syndrome. Even if you go into a computer store, the $80 keyboards are just as crappy to type on as the $12 keyboards, they just have a bunch of extra buttons and useless features.
I wanted a good keyboard, which meant I wanted a mechanical keyboard. At the same time, I was working on-site in an open plan office, which meant I wasn’t going to subject those around me to the sweet sweet clamor of an IBM Model M, or equivalent. Since it was going into a MacBook Pro, I also wanted USB native.
A little searching with Google didn’t turn up anything promising, except for one no-name keyboard from an OEM manufacturer I’d never heard of: the Scorpius-M10 Mechanical USB Keyboard. No word on whether or not the have a Crichton-M9 bluetooth mouse. I decided to take a stab in the dark, roll the dice and give the M10 a shot. Two rolls of the dice actually, since it was so obscure none of the usual suspects (Amazon, Newegg) stocked it.
I was pleased with the results, the online retailer (Cyberguys) promptly shipped it and I had the new keyboard in my hot little hands. And then I realized that I had made a most unfortunate assumption. Years of Mac usage had conditioned me to be used to the convention of ADB, and later USB keyboards having pass-through connectors so you could plug your mouse directly into the keyboard. This never caught on in the windows world (remember that lowest common denominator?), although it isn’t surprising since unlike Apple, it was a long time before PC keyboards and mice ended up using the same physical interface (Bus mice? Serial mice? Ah, the bad old days). I now had one mouse to plug in, one keyboard to plug in, and one devkit to plug in, 3 USB cables, 2 ports on the MBP, and not a single USB hub in the office. It’s only February and I’m already glad I ponied up for Amazon Prime.
The keyboard itself gets a thumbs up. Purely functional visually, with the sole fashion concession being its matte black appearance. No stupid useless keys, I actually wish it didn’t have the Windows key, but I’ve come to learn to live with it in 2007 (control-escape forever). Thankfully, it is quieter than an old-school clicky keyboard, which was one of my major concerns. I’d put the noise level right about midway between a normal keyboard and a Model M. The tactile keypress feel is pleasant. My only quibble is that the keys have a bit more ‘jiggle’ to them then on a Model M or my Matias Tactile Pro. The up and down is fine, but resting my fingers on them, the keys don’t quite have as solid a lateral feeling as I’d like. That said, it still beats the heck out of any non-mechanical keyboard and I’m glad I bought it.
I continue to be exceptionally glad I purchased the MacBook Pro. During my most recent trip, I realized I’d likely be doing a lot of source code reformatting, as well as construction. While the MBP keyboard is quite a good one, the small arrow keys and function keys tend to wear out my fingers during extended editing sessions. Thus, I decided to splurge on an external keyboard.
This led me to my keyboard dilemma, getting my hands on a decent keyboard quickly without paying a fortune. I have always been picky about keyboards and monitors, after all I frequently spent hours upon hours a day typing and staring, using cheap stuff is just plain silly. In this day and age, however, now that computers are a cheap commodity rather than several thousand dollar investments, keyboards have become one of those peripherals that seem to suffer from a race-to-the-bottom syndrome. Even if you go into a computer store, the $80 keyboards are just as crappy to type on as the $12 keyboards, they just have a bunch of extra buttons and useless features.
I wanted a good keyboard, which meant I wanted a mechanical keyboard. At the same time, I was working on-site in an open plan office, which meant I wasn’t going to subject those around me to the sweet sweet clamor of an IBM Model M, or equivalent. Since it was going into a MacBook Pro, I also wanted USB native.
A little searching with Google didn’t turn up anything promising, except for one no-name keyboard from an OEM manufacturer I’d never heard of: the Scorpius-M10 Mechanical USB Keyboard. No word on whether or not the have a Crichton-M9 bluetooth mouse. I decided to take a stab in the dark, roll the dice and give the M10 a shot. Two rolls of the dice actually, since it was so obscure none of the usual suspects (Amazon, Newegg) stocked it.
I was pleased with the results, the online retailer (Cyberguys) promptly shipped it and I had the new keyboard in my hot little hands. And then I realized that I had made a most unfortunate assumption. Years of Mac usage had conditioned me to be used to the convention of ADB, and later USB keyboards having pass-through connectors so you could plug your mouse directly into the keyboard. This never caught on in the windows world (remember that lowest common denominator?), although it isn’t surprising since unlike Apple, it was a long time before PC keyboards and mice ended up using the same physical interface (Bus mice? Serial mice? Ah, the bad old days). I now had one mouse to plug in, one keyboard to plug in, and one devkit to plug in, 3 USB cables, 2 ports on the MBP, and not a single USB hub in the office. It’s only February and I’m already glad I ponied up for Amazon Prime.
The keyboard itself gets a thumbs up. Purely functional visually, with the sole fashion concession being its matte black appearance. No stupid useless keys, I actually wish it didn’t have the Windows key, but I’ve come to learn to live with it in 2007 (control-escape forever). Thankfully, it is quieter than an old-school clicky keyboard, which was one of my major concerns. I’d put the noise level right about midway between a normal keyboard and a Model M. The tactile keypress feel is pleasant. My only quibble is that the keys have a bit more ‘jiggle’ to them then on a Model M or my Matias Tactile Pro. The up and down is fine, but resting my fingers on them, the keys don’t quite have as solid a lateral feeling as I’d like. That said, it still beats the heck out of any non-mechanical keyboard and I’m glad I bought it.
Posted by Nathaniel Trost on
Thursday February 22, 2007 at 10:17am