Crying over spilt coffee

Yeah so, just before we left for our vacation last week, I had sat down to do some work on my computer and dumped my just-brewed-fresh hot coffee all into my very expensive keyboard.

I am not proud of this but I did throw a FIT.  Not mad at anyone but myself.  a) I had just gotten up, b) I had just made a fresh pot of coffee and poured myself a cup, c) I dumped said coffee into my favorite (relatively new) keyboard.

I don't know if I have posted this before, but I love mechanical keyboards, especially if they are well-made.  I also have a terrible habit of spilling things into them and ruining them.  I've gone through several keyboards over the past 4 years.  This particular keyboard was my favorite, a special edition ducky that weights over a pound, has a special key switch I had to wait an extra month for, etc.

So yeah, I screamed and stomped around the house berating myself and just behaving like a rampaging two year old.  But I did have the HOPE (as I have in the past but it never worked out) that I could somehow rescue the keyboard and I grabbed a bottle of distilled water and poured it into the keyboard, turned over and drained it, and repeated the process.  Then I laid it upside down somewhere to dry.

I honestly KNEW that would not work.  But today, two weeks later I decided that before I threw it out I would plug it in and see what happens and... it came on!  And it works!  Lights are on, no glitches, keys all feel fine...  honestly I could cry.  Anyway, I am now quite pleased.  I could put my loud blue switch keyboard away and return to this smoothly performant, relatively quiet mechanical keyboard that has plenty of back pressure but not enough to over tire your fingers and it is also good for gaming.

So yeah.

OH!  Also, I pre-ordered the blue-ray of Godzilla: King of the Monsters from Amazon.  Yay!

Review of KUL ES-87 Cherry MX Brown Keyboard

My new keyboard arrived today.  I had been using another keyboard that incorporated Cherry MX Blue keys but because of the feel and the usage of inferior components, I did not really like that keyboard.  It was backlit, which was nice... but it did not satisfy.  I replaced it with a Matias Quiet Pro mini keyboard which I liked, but I took it into work to use there.

This keyboard is very nice.

This keyboard is a little wider than my other two, having only lopped off the keypad section of the keyboard.  In my cramped workspace this does not leave much room for my mouse, but it leaves enough.  I am tempted to switch my mouse to my left hand, except it is designed for right-handed people, with thumb buttons.  I still may do that.

I will start by saying about the only thing this keyboard could benefit from is backlighting.  But that is a feature some people like, others do not.  Adding backlighting also increases the potential for some sort of failure.  So I understand the simplicity of this keyboard in that regard.  The key caps themselves are nicely shaped and your fingers magically find their way into them as you type.

Pressing the keys is akin to slicing into a delicious piece of chocolate cake.  Or firm butter with a warm knife...

Either way, key presses provide enough resistance and feedback (halfway through their is a soft "bump" to let you know you are activating the key) that allows a typist to feel comfortable to type without bottoming out all of the time.  With this particular keyboard, being made of some heavy materials, the bottoming out sound is not harsh and rather deep.  Both aural and tactile feedback is a wonderful experience.  Really, I cannot explain how nice this keyboard feels.  I would heartily recommend it.

My previous keyboards in order:
Matias Tactile Pro 2
Happy Hacker Keyboard Pro 2
Matias mini pro quiet
And now this, KUL ES-87 (Cherry MX Brown keys)

The HHKB was probably the nicest, and most expensive keyboard I've owned.  The Topre switches are very nice.  But I would say this rivals the HHKB and, according to the manufacturer, this is much more solidly constructed (which I believe as my HHKB connector broke in just over a year).

The KUL is close to 1/3 the price of the HHKB and the actuation, while perhaps a little more harsh when bottoming out, are very similar in feel to the topre switches (in regards to force and bump).

Anyway, I recommend this keyboard.