Sort of tangent - but I've always thought there would be physical stores in big cities (like NYC, where I am) where I could try a number of different keyboards and keys since it's such a tactile experience.
But there seems to be no stores like this? So... is everyone ordering keys and keyboards, returning them, trying others, etc.? I know there are key switch samplers... is that it?
Yup was touring some historical stuff in Tokyo and thought I’d look for an HHKB, checked their site and sure enough there was retailer a 10 minute walk away. Tiny shop in a more residential area a block or two off the main street.
i live in the largest city on the west coast of the USA and the only stores i've found where i can press keyboards is Office Depot and the like, and at least in the stores that i have visited, they have not had mechanicals.
even when Frys was around, i don't remember them having keyboards out and about.
Microcenter is probably the most consistent place. Not a huge selection, but some of the maintstream ones, to get a feel for switches on Keychron and some of the other big brands. Depending on where exactly you are, it's likely +/- 30min of an hour drive, which is only sorta "far" in US terms.
Frys predated the "mainstream" mechanical keyboard boom. If they were still around I'm sure they'd have even more (they were always larger stores).
wow, i had no idea at all there was a Microcenter in Socal! not too far, i'll be visiting, thank you. i went to a Microcenter in Dallas decades ago and was blown away.
The Keyboard Speciality shop you linked is great. It is always surprisingly crowded for such a niche topic. The have good test boards with different key switches.
Note that in the area are quite a few other good shops. Tsukumo has various hardware across many floors and also keyboards, in b1 they also have a razer store. Then there is a shop across the street Galleria or something, more targeting esports, if you are into that.
I've been there, but it definitely felt like more of an enthusiast experience. Someone who's just looking into getting their first mechanical keyboard would do better at a larger shop stocked with cheaper keyboards and a greater variety of common switch types.
That being said, the shop is located in a surprisingly quiet area, surrounded by other small enthusiast shops. I especially liked "High Beam" a few stores down, which specialises in handheld PCs.
I'm not sure if there are better shops, but I've been to Syntrend Creative Park and they have a floor with all kinds of gadgets, including various keyboards. There are mechanical keyboards to try out (IIRC there are for example ducky keyboards), and they are also selling some good keycap sets.
for sure, that's probably the best option here in NYC/Brooklyn
but it definitely feels limited when compared with all of the options available online (that probably applies to most things)
there's a specialized store in Brooklyn for modular synths [0] - obviously they don't stock every module but still... I'd assume that a keyboard store would be... popular? maybe? haha
(((((((((should I start a keyboard store ahaha - I swear this was not market research)))))))
It is such a niche market that even in a big city it doesn't make much sense to have physical shop dedicated to it. Most people into it are into custom dwsign and color, it would be impossible to stock everything and people would just go to the shop trying the keys and layout then order cheaper online to have the exact combo they want.
> So... is everyone ordering keys and keyboards, returning them, trying others, etc.? I know there are key switch samplers... is that it?
It's pretty wild the degree to which our lives and economy depend on cheap shipping/trucking. Why have a store when a truck can deliver a 100g trinket for someone three States over.
I mean, you still need a truck to get the item to the store...
Delivery is actually more resource-efficient if the store isn't within walking distance of its customers. If instead of making 10 people get in their car and make a round trip to the store/warehouse, you put 10 packages in one vehicle and deliver to everyone in the same neighborhood with one trip, you're looking at an order of 90% less wasted emissions.
I'm actually not, but the person I was replying to clearly was given the "three states over" comment. I explicitly specified the statement was conditional on customers not being within walking distance.
Peak east coast US! You can travel three states of distance and back in a day or less on the east coast.
Three states over and back would be a day or two minimum, but potentially nearly a week on the west coast. (Depends on start and stop locations obviously, but if you start from eg Portland, three states over could be the Dakotas).
I want one for HiFi headphones / IEMs! I feel really bad to order two or three models that I want and have to return all but one, because I can't really tell the difference just by looking at the specs sheet. My ears should be the ultimate judgement.
Stores, no, but there are meetups of keyboard nerds where people bring a bunch of them. There’s one in NYC run by a former coworker of mine: https://nyckeyboardmeetup.com/. Schedule is somewhat sporadic, and unfortunately you just missed the most recent one, but you might enjoy checking out their next event.
In Seattle we have a sizeable mechanical keyboard community that does a monthly meetup. It's a great way to try out different switches/keycaps/layouts/etc. It's worth seeing if there's anything similar near you.
There is a Keychron store in Bangalore that lets you do this. They even have a computer with a USB C wire sticking out so you can take any keyboard to it and type on Monkeytype. Since the keyboard community is a small one, it’s never really crowded. However, in my experience it takes at least a week of continued use to be able to judge whether a switch is good for you.
Probably Microcenter in Brooklyn is your best bet, but still limited selection. It really feels like there should be a hole-in-the-wall gaming PC shop in LES - maybe we should just open one?
TL:DR Ultimately I settled on incredibly smooth, linear pre-lubed hall effect/TMR switches, and that’s what I strongly recommend to others.
I played around with different mechanical switches for a bit, getting a few switch testers and hemming and hawing about which would be my chosen one. Honestly most all of it will be better than your typical $20 rubber dome dell e-waste. I got a Leopold keyboard with tactile mx clears as my first “real” keyboard and it was definitely an improvement and enjoyed it for a few years.
However after my final xbox gamepad once again started getting stick drift, I moved one with Hall effect sticks (gamesir). It was so much better that it resulted in me wanting to try a hall effect keyboard with more customizability. Took a chance with a Keydous NJ98-CP V3 HE (pale green) because it was well reviewed and priced well enough to take a risk on. I love it so much I got my sister one.
It turns out what I truly loved about old IBM beamspring switches wasn’t so much the click, but the smoothness. Typical mechanical linear switches with electrical contacts feel scratchy to me which I find repellent. Oddly enough, having a tactile bump to overcome somehow hides that. But a lubed Hall effect switch is as low friction as you can get and I love them. It’s literally fun to type on, and works great for gaming. As a bonus, it’s pretty quiet too, making it less obnoxious for others to be around.
You’ll need to adjust the activation point to prevent accidental activation when resting your hands, but that’s basically it as far as doing things differently.
As a side note, my mouse is a keychron M5, a “vertical” mouse, which works quite well and supports the higher polling rates I’m looking for. Also highly recommended if you need to give your tendons a break. Personally I think Razer has slightly better algorithms for smoothing and accurately translating my movement intentions, but this is only something I notice when “playing” Excel, and it’s not enough that ergonomics don’t easily win out.
There are tens (hundreds?) of keyboards but only a handful of different switch types and manufacturers-with some study and preparation you can narrow down the switch feel pretty quickly.
Then it’s a matter of choosing the style, so yes, many simply collect keyboards of their favorite switch type - and often don’t even return the ones they don’t use.
The elites don’t want you to know this but the keyboards are not free you can take them home I have 458 keyboards.
One of the fun type mix the various key switches to have different feel and different locations (easier/lighter switches at the edges for example).
If there isn't a keyboard selection at somewhere like B&H's location on Manhattan's west side, it's unlikely for there to be retail display space for similar anywhere else. Setting aside even 50 square feet of standing height display tables with sample keyboards, as a product, is not cheap in terms of retail display space that could be better used for other high-volume, higher profit margin products.
In an ideal world we could have something along the lines of a ca. 2002 era Fry's Electronics in size and concept of broad selection of products. But you'd need something the size of the largest Costco to have a really full array of every type of electronic gadget/product that's available online, and as we know, Fry's went famously bankrupt...
I think that it's very unfair to call the development of a CLI [0], TypeScript & Rust SDK's & starter examples [1], a desktop simulator, and a seamless deployment infrastructure, as "slop".
As noted in the article - and in the related article [0] by Stephen who goes in-depth into the development of the custom CRT display adapter - some of the constraints/wishes were: wanting to go beyond 18-bit color to avoid color banding, and also to have a generic USB interface so that the CRT could be driven by a laptop or any PC.
I also think that the people involved in this project enjoyed inventing/creating/coding just as much as they wanted to "get it done" - and so, there's definitely a healthy/heavy mix of "we took this existing thing" and "we invented this completely new way of doing things".
it's mostly only accessible to folks who are part of the Recurse Center - but there are public events at Recurse such as https://luma.com/localhost-rcade -- which is a talk about the RCade..! (it seems to be waitlist-only at this point unfortunately)
If anyone wants to attend but can't, we'll post the recording of the talk to the Recurse Center's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RecurseCenter (Where you can also watch recordings of all of our previous talks!)
Coming here virtually/in person to confirm that even though it’s a bit rude to “rank” people, I basically struggle to understand how incredibly good Frank is - extraordinarily fast, deeply capable, and kind to a fault. A very uniquely, typical, amazing Recurser.
Huge congrats! I have been getting the instagram reels/ads targeted at me these past few days! and was really bummed to have missed you at nyc tech week last year.
I plan on porting my number to you soon - very quickly, I read in your FAQ that international roaming gets throttled after 5gb (which I already get with t-mobile when traveling). Would you mind confirming - does it get throttled to ~256kbps or something more sensible?
And should the service work with an iphone 13 pro? Finally, any plans for esims? (if the service isn't already esim-only)
Yeah - these [0] kinds of cables are so extremely scary.
"The O.MG Cable is a hand made USB cable with an advanced implant hidden inside. It is designed to allow your Red Team to emulate attack scenarios of sophisticated adversaries"
"Easy WiFi Control" (!!!!!)
"SOC2 certification"? Dawg, the call is coming from inside the house...
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