Re: Single User

On Thu, May 19, 2022 at 7:16 PM Steve O'Hara-Smith <steve@sohara.org> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 19 May 2022 18:59:34 +0000
> Waitman Gobble <gobble.wa@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > My key has like a weird t, an E with the top cut leg cut off, and a
> > little piece of the left leg of an N. Is it just me or are keyboard
> > lifecycles shortening? I remember the tank IBM keyboards on the Mini
> > terminals back in the 80's. I'm pretty sure the printing on the keys
> > is still legible on any of those tank keyboards that are still around
> > today.
>
>         There are two basic options for making keycaps, the cheap option
> involves printing the captions the expensive option is double shot moulding
> where the caption is part of the keycap.
>
>         With the cheap keycaps the captions wear off, usually starting much
> as you describe. The only time I've seen the legend worn off a double shot
> moulded keycap was when we were attempting to test the key switches, 10
> million operations they were rated for! The test rig ran for months and
> destroyed a good many keycaps completely, a couple of cam timers and no key
> switches.
>
> --
> Steve O'Hara-Smith <steve@sohara.org>

Thanks, I'll check it out. It seems like the keys wear off in less
than a year. That's not so bad, I don't have to see the letters, and I
didn't really notice much until my step-daughter tried to use the
keyboard and couldn't figure it out.

But, the keys themselves are degrading, causing missed keystrokes more
often, so it's time for a replacement.

-- 
Waitman Gobble