6 ms·
I have a Model M at home, and while I find that the sound helps me keep my rhythm while typing, it can be really annoying in an office environment. At my last
by krylon 10y ago
I have a Model M at home, and while I find that the sound helps me keep my rhythm while typing, it can be really annoying in an office environment.
At my last job, being unhappy with the keyboard I had, I brought the Model M to work one day (it was just gathering dust at home). While typing was much more pleasant, I quickly discovered I had to stop typing whenever my coworker's phone rang. This, in turn, quickly became annoying for me, so at the end of the day, I packed it up and took it back home.
The Model M is one of the best keyboards I ever had the pleasure of using, but I would not like to inflict that level of noise to coworkers at the office.
(The best keyboard I ever used, interestingly, was a Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 made by Microsoft. I am not a big fan of Microsoft, but they really know how to build a great keyboard. Unfortunately, this was the only keyboard I ever managed to spill tea on... and on its identical replacement. I took that as a hint that some higher power might not want me to use Microsoft keyboards.)
- douche 10y agoIf you are so close to your coworkers that typing on your keyboard will disrupt their phone calls, you're too close. If you have a real office, anything short of blasting Slayer won't disturb anyone else.
- Nursie 10y agoHave you ever used a Model M? With a decent amount of enthusiasm, a Model M can disrupt phonecalls being made in another room entirely. Best keyboard ever, but I also don't take mine to work any more, out of consideration for my coworkers. Also it's really big and heavy...
- bogomipz 10y agoAdd to the Model M the acoustics of a typical open office plan found at most startups and its unbearable. Its not uncommon to have a startup in a concrete loft type space with a group of people who insist on using whatever the modern $200 hipster version of a "buckling spring" keyboard is. It's "cred" man.
- falcolas 10y ago> using whatever the modern $200 hipster version of a "buckling spring" keyboard is Those would be Topre switches. Which makes the keyboard worth more than $200. ;) They are good switches, and do rely on a spring, but they are quieter. And more expensive.
- peatmoss 10y agoUnicomp sells actual buckling spring keyboards. They bought the tech from IBM -> Lexmark. Not bad keyboards, and pretty cheap compared to some of the hipster keyboards. I got mine with hardware Dvorak layout.
- tomjen3 10y agoA model m is just slightly less loud than a typewriter and you can type faster on it.
- jcbeard 10y agoWAIT, my Model M blasts Slayer at every keystroke. Doesn't yours? It also has Metallica's Kill 'Em All pre-loaded in ROM. I heard if you achieve a fast enough rate it'll go straight to Seek & Destroy :). Seriously though, these keyboards are LOUD. Most of the folks at my office use very loud keyboards, but we don't mind. We all know that we type faster with them, and we all have noise canceling headphones.
- mdellabitta 10y agoPissh. A sufficiently sophisticated keyboard is capable of playing arbitrary music of the user's choice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG83krAsXO8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG83krAsXO8
- krylon 10y agoI do have a coworker I currently share an office with who would actually like blasting Slayer. ;-) (Interesting thought experiment: Can I type faster than Dave Lombardo can play the drums?)
- jypepin 10y agoI always wanted to try the model M. What does the sound compare to, to be so loud? Cherry mx blue?
- aroch 10y agoBuckling springs are more of a deep clack instead of the sharper click you get from the MX blue / red, or a dull click you get from clears
- fzzzy 10y agoMuch louder than the cherry mx blue. There's a spring inside which buckles sideways. The point at which it buckles provides the physical and audio feedback.
- creshal 10y agoWhich is the big difference to all the Cherry switches: Those are inherently linear (and quiet), some variants just have plastic latches glued to a side to emulate the clicking noise and tactile feedback (both of which useless, because they're decoupled from actual actuation).
- tomjen3 10y agoA typewriter. Not quite as loud as a mechanical typewriter, but slightly louder than an electronic typewriter and, since you don't have to wait for the keys to come back, there is practically no limit on how fast you can type.
- infodroid 10y agoIf open plan hadn't dismantled our offices and cubicles, we might still be typing on good keyboards at work.
- beedogs 10y agoI still can't understand the impetus behind open plan. It's abominable.
- pshc 10y agoTheory I heard: We're stuck with open plan due to the ratchet effect. The high price of office square footage in cities locks it in.
- jsymolon 10y agoCheaper than partitions which was cheaper than permanent construction.
- EliRivers 10y agoIt's cheap, and at one point it was hip.
- krylon 10y agoWith the right combination of people, it can actually be quite fun and encourage communication, IMHO. However, if people have to make or take phone calls, it can become really annoying quickly. Try to focus with two or three people sitting around you talking on the phone. Especially if one or more of these people talk to people who are on construction sites or inside industrial plants, so you have to talk rather loudly so they can understand you... On a few occasions (rarely, though), I have just put on headphones and listened to white noise to drown out their talking.
- vonmoltke 10y agoThe right combination of people doing the right combination of work. One of the ostensible purposes of open plans is to facilitate communication and collaboration. Unfortunately, every collaboration session throws off those around who are not involved.
- amelius 10y agoIt seems there is a market for a silent version of Model M.
- derekp7 10y agoOne way to make it quieter is to put a bit of grease under the keycap -- that softens the sound that the spring makes when it buckles. However after a while the grease can leak down into the keyboard membrane. Another method is to put a piece of dental floss down inside each spring. Supposedly that reduces the sound quite a bit.
- creshal 10y agoIt's hard, because the Model M relies on a steel spring buckling, which is inherently noisy. You can dampen some other sounds (like the keycap hitting the key's fixture, either with grease, or permanently with rubber rings), but with how little space there is in a key, it's hard to silence that particular sound. IBM themselves went with regular rubber domes for their "quiet touch" Model M variants, which are unpopular due to not being mechnical.
- zodPod 10y agoIt's funny you mention that Microsoft keyboard. I was reading your story about the Model M and thinking "Yeah I'd love to switch to a mech keyboard again but I love my Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 by Microsoft too much." It has pretty much saved my shoulders because, instead of having to put them together to type on a normal keyboard, I have space to angle them out. It's great!
- aphistic 10y agoI have an Ergodox I picked up from MassDrop that I absolutely love. I used to use an MS natural keyboard for some of the same reasons you mention and now I have the best of both worlds!
- krylon 10y agoOne thing I liked about the 4000 was that it was loud enough to give a reasonable feedback while typing, but not annoyingly loud (at least when alone - I never tried it in an office environment). And that pad to rest the palms one was amazing.