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Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
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Tamar Weinberg
03/11/09

In reply to Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
My keyboard is almost identical to what the pictured keyboard looks like. Yes, the keys are worn down. I cannot see the A, S, D, E, M, or L keys anymore. But "broken?" The survey isn't consistent with the photo from what I gather -- the keys work fine, but they're just not visible.

Regardless, my worn-down keyboard is only 1.5 years old and I'd really like another one.
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strider_mt2k
03/11/09

In reply to Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
That is gross.

Who uses beige keyboards?
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Curves
03/11/09

In reply to Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
I learned to type (back in the stone ages of middle school) on a manual typewriter and then worked on an old Western Union Telex machine (where it punches holes in a paper tape) and so I type really hard, and have never been able to break the habit. I regularly wear the letters off the keyboards.
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TheHeartless
03/11/09

In reply to Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
That's not dirt, it's the aluminum paint being scratched away by nails on the most frequently used keys. Happened to me all the time on my PB. Now I'm rocking a plastic-keyed Macbook.
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ttech10
03/11/09

In reply to Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
Broken? From typing "too hard"?

Or 'wore down' from typing 'too much'?

The first sentence, no. The second... yes.

To me it just looks like Brian uses A, S, D, and E a lot, and quite often.
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Jason Chen
03/11/09

@ttech10: What can I say, he's a huge Sade fan.
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Brian Lam
03/11/09

In reply to Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
btw, this computer is less than one year old. I USE IT 16 hours a day!
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twoeightnine
03/11/09

@Brian Lam: Mine will be exactly a year old at the end of the month and while I don't have this problem, the paint on the body to the right of the pad is flaking. It's right where my wrist rotates.
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Rich Jeffery
03/11/09

In reply to Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
If it was typing too much wouldn't the R and W keys be a lot worse than the V key?
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twoeightnine
03/11/09

@Rich Jeffery: It's from pasting. Every time Blam block quotes a key loses it's sheen.
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IN THE FACE!
03/11/09

In reply to Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
Looks like a chop to me, but I dunno I could be wrong, that's the problem with shit painted plastic.
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infmom
03/11/09

In reply to Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
I've never broken a keyboard. Worn the paint off the letters on more than one, though. I touch type, I don't care if the keys are blank.

I used to be the supervisor in charge of the public computer area at a large urban public library and some of the knucklewalkers there would pound on the keyboard so hard it would just about bounce it off the table. I never saw damage like that, though. I think someone needs to cut his fingernails. :)
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soccerpro100cn
03/11/09

In reply to Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
my desk from ikea (its fake wood, time for upgrade) has this black residue stuff on it. it's sticky, but it's from my old dell mouse. it uses a trackball and i always find this black stuff inside the mouse too. my keyboard is clean and all. wtf dell why can't i move my mouse 1 inch without it shedding?
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Michael Wolz
03/11/09

@soccerpro100cn: MAH ROFLCHOPTA GOES SOlsolsolsolsolsolsolsolsolsol... but srs i nvr rlly likd dell tht much i build mah 0wn comp5 n shiz and use microsoft/razer peripherals... err... and a monitor from whoever ish cheapest for teh quelety
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badhatharry
03/11/09

@Michael Wolz: Dude, type in fucking words. It should not have to be like cracking a fucking code to read what you wrote. Half of it looks like you were disemvowled. And what does your building your own comp5 n shiz have to do with whether or not you broke a keyboard or Soccerpro's mystery black stuff?

I broke the E key on my 17" Powerbook. Just typing normally, and off it came.
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Adnan Khan
03/11/09

In reply to Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
Guessing from the keys that had the most damage, does he play a lot of FPS games? Sweat can definitely cause that.
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Brian Lam
03/11/09

@Adnan Khan: none. I blog. and email. and IM. a lot.
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YaffaBabali
03/10/09

In reply to Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
He needs to cut his finger nails. That is what the marks are from. As a guy I am kinda disgusted by other guys with long nails like that. Kinda **y.
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Brian Lam
03/11/09

@YaffaBabali: hello, piano fingers. They're cut!
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Purple Dave
03/11/09

@YaffaBabali:
Yeah, that's all it is. Whenever I can hear my nails clicking on the keys, I know I let them get way too long. The only real solution to this problem (aside from improved grooming) is to get a keyboard with molded-through letters, like Saitek's Eclipse II keyboard (black keys with translucent characters that are designed to be backlit). My other keyboard is still in pretty nice shape (no actual fingernail gouges, though I have actually seen them on other keyboards), but even just regular typing is enough to burnish the texture right off of them and wear away at the paint as well. The "A" key is getting to the point where you can just barely make out a faint ghost of a "/".

Anyways, that appears to be a laptop keyboard, which doesn't have the depth of keystroke that a real keyboard has. If you ever spent any significant time using a real keyboard, it's not uncommon to over-press the keys on laptops and those crappy laptop-like keyboards.
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soccerpro100cn
03/10/09

In reply to Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?
wtf? how do you do that? i can see that's a last gen mbk pro, but does he really have such sticky smudgy fingers?! ewww. that's a first.
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the_sidewinder
03/11/09

@soccerpro100cn: I don't think that's grunge, more like worn out paint
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Brian Lam
03/11/09

@the_sidewinder: exactly.
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David Reynolds
03/11/09

@soccerpro100cn: I'm surprized no one has said this but It looks like he's a gamer. The W key is usually always pressed down and you moves with A S D E hotkey with CMD C F V. No doubt his guy is absurdly hardcore..though games for us are sort of sparse, he's probably playing warcraft.

And who knows, It might be a first gen Alu Power Book from the 'olden days'.
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Ghede
03/11/09

@David Reynolds: If he were a gamer, the w key would be worn down too. As it is, ASDF is the home row for the left hand, and e is the most common letter in the english language.
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Ghede
03/11/09

@Ghede: And control C+V are for copying and pasting. He is a typist.
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Have You Ever Broken a Keyboard By Typing Too Hard?

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