A Typewriter For Me, Please
Mon, July 30, 2007
Filed under: Geekyness
Up until I started working seriously (i.e. 8 hours a day), I’ve never really considered the quality of computer keyboards. I mean as long as I can type with them, I was fine… right? Apparently not, as I’ve discovered a guilty pleasure in hearing the keys clank.
Dad’s laptop’s keys don’t make a sound, not to mention that they react to the barest touch. They just seem so… easy to use. Like the difference between a real piano and an electronic keyboard.
Back when I was in 2nd grade, I took piano lessons for 3 years1. My parents, not being well off, couldn’t afford a piano, or even a pianino, so they got me a keyboard from a family friend who was a composer. Not only was the keyboard much shorter (fewer keys) than a real piano, but its keys were incredibly easy to “enable”. The result was, that half of my piano lessons were spent being told to hit the keys harder.
I suppose ever since then I had a sort of odd pleasure in hitting the keys hard and hearing them produce a satisfying song (or clank 
). Of course, as luck would have it, the new keyboards all but react to one’s thoughts *grumbles*
Oh well, I suppose as long as I don’t start pushing my monitor back and forth on the desk, I can still be considered safe.
Question: Do you have odd preferences when it comes to your computer settings/components? If so what are they?
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1 I can still read sheet music and play the first half of Fur Elise (only the right hand part though) :razz:
I like it when the keyboard keys are really smooth.
I remember going back to use the school computers a few days after we got our new comp and getting completely flabbergasted as to why the keys were so damn tall. I keep asking my friend if they school got new computers
I echo Crystal. I like smooth keyboard keys. That’s why I love laptops. Umm and I also prefer touchpads over mouse, cause it’s… smooth?
Yay for real pianos :cool:
I totally understand what you mean about the difference between the piano and the electronic keyboard… It’s just not the same. You don’t get the same “ohmygod my ears!” sound when you bang the keys of a keyboard. And I also can’t play the keyboard with my bum, like I can the piano. There’s just something about it…
As for laptops, *cries*, it’s dead. Before it died, though, what settings did I have… Erm, I had the screen really dark. I hate bright screens. I like dark screens with 1024*768 resolution. I also like the keyboard, though my favourite keyboard is that of my old power mac. The keys were really spongy, so whilst you got the thrill of pressing each one down from a great height, you didn’t get the ‘click click’ sound that’s annoying.
@Rachael:With your bum? I’ve had enough problems playing it normally
let alone use other body parts…
Yep, there’s this great pleasure in being able to feel that key being hit, as opposed to just brushing it “tenderly” :razz:
I like to have two keyboards. I like having a standard one so I can type one handed when I want to. I got really really good at that last summer. And for whatever reason, I like a standard keyboard when playing video games. But for everything else, I prefer an ergonomic keyboard (one that is split down the middle). They really do help with wrist problems.
Laptop keyboards are really weird
I much prefer my own keyboard, and my own mouse xD
And I prefer to have my second monitor slightly behind my first monitor. Because I consider my first monitor my “main monitor” and do most things on it xD
Two monitors or two keyboars? OK I’m officially relieved
I’m normal.
I like the sounds the keys make too.
Oh, and I took piano lessons, went up to a time when I played a four-hand piece (two-person piece), and then I quit. Sort of. So now I can’t play the piano.
Hurrah, I can play the first half with the left hand ASWELL as the right hand! Booyah! Haha, I had a keyboard aswell… I just used to set it to “song bank” and pretend I was playing.
Odd settings? Not sure, but I can’t have anything other than my hard-drive on my desktop. Does that count?
I have this program on my computer called Sound Pilot which copies the sound of a typewriter whenever you press a key. I’m quite addicted to it.
Ellie, I have to (dis)agree with u. Well, i love them too, but when you’re typing thousands of pages (especially in the night) you really really get to love the silence.
So I’m off the “noisy” keyboards for good years and … that’s fine by me.
I like the traditional computer keyboards that are oh-so noisy when you type. (To fill the silence in my room.) Whereas laptop keyboards tend to scare me off because they are flatter and don’t depress so much when tapped, making me wonder whether I’ve actually hit the key properly or not.
Anyway, the clanking sounds that are produced when we type seems to provide us with some form of rhythm, doesn’t it?
As for mouses, I like them small - and cute. I was eyeing this particular mouse from Logitech a month ago and regretted not buying it - it was small, and white with little black pawprints all over it. Awwww.
I can’t play piano, I can only play the violin. As for odd computer settings… I want my keyboard to make the clanky sound. I also like them to provide more tactile feedback. lol Most people like their keyboard ’soundless’ but the sound actually makes me feel satisfied. Weird.
You linking your keyboard preference to a childhood memory was very Dr. Phil of you :razz:
I really don’t have preferences…but I like using one machine at a time. I don’t like switching between the computers in my house because they’re all slightly different.
You know I don’t even really like smilies but I love all of yours. I just want to click them all!
:buckteeth: 
I’m not exactly very musically inclined, or talented. So, I couldn’t care less what sound my keys make as long as they do the job!
I like the sound of the keys - but in a quite way. At work last year a guy was sitting across from me and man - he hit them hard! It actually got me really annoyed at times because… it’s so loud!! I was just happy that he needs to use the mouse a lot
Für Elise is a piece I also can still play. Unfortunately I stopped playing years ago and only play like… six times a year?
I might start playing again 
yay ehem
I like the sound that really old keyboards make. That clankity-clack-clack-clack is music to my ears. You know, those obscenely ancient tan/white computers with the tiny monitors and the keyboards that look as if they get stuck as soon as you look at them.
And also. I don’t like when computers are set to remember what I’ve searched. Reasons are because I don’t like to look at the really stupid things I’ve searched for, and I don’t like to look at my typos that appear so often when I search for something.
I really can’t stand when desktop icons aren’t aligned left and aligned to grid. I know it’s no biggie, but I’ve got a terrible habit of reorganising people’s desktop icons if they are all over the place.
I’m a big fan of a keyboard that clicks. The clicks may annoy coworkers, but they’re like little sounds of affirmation that I’m being productive.
As a left-hander I have several preferences. I like my keys to be really big - so I can spread my fingers as much as possible - that makes my wrist hurt less after a long day at work
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I like how the computer keys make the click/clank noise that they make, too. That’s cool you got to take piano lessons and was able to play songs. I never could play a piano!!! Thanks again. Bye, Lindsey // Summer-Treats // Streviews
I love the sound when hitting the keys on a normal keyboard. On my laptop they are so numb
I like the different clanking sounds of different keyboards (laptops, PCs..) Someone should make a song using those & only those!
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