Hardware Bible

Even then the keyboard will probably remain unapproachable for speed and accuracy for years to come. The keyboard also is more suited to data entry in open offices, airplanes, and anywhere your privacy is not ensured and your sanity not beyond reproa...

The keyboard concept—a letter for every pushbutton—is almost ancient, dating back to the days of the first typewriter. The design seems fixed in stone. Actually, it's the product of something even more immovable—human inertia. The basic layout and fu...

Today the principal dividing line between keyboards is not technology but touch—what typing actually feels like. A keyboard must be responsive to the touch of your fingers—when you press down, the keys actually have to go down. More than that, howeve...

Each key on a keyboard bears a legend identifying the letter, symbol, or function it activates. These legends are usually applied using one of three technologies: Double-shot keycaps have the legend molded in. Making each keycap is a two-step ...

On a full-size keyboard, the spacing between the keycaps for individual character keys is 0.75 inch (19 millimeters), center to center. The keycaps themselves are about 0.5 inch (12.5 millimeters) across at the top, dished to help you place your fing...

In the realm of microelectronics, however, switches are not so certain in their first steps toward changing state. As a switch makes contact, it hesitates, letting tiny currents flow and then halting them; then letting more flow. These initial jitter...

As computers merge into entertainment systems, you're apt to sit farther and farther away from the display screen. A home entertainment computer, for example, fits into your living room more like a television set, at one end of the room with you at t...