Sometimes, if you wait long enough for something you want, it will come to you. Whether it’s the law of attraction or just plain laziness, it has finally happened — there’s a keyboard meetup happening within a 500-mile radius of me. As far as I know, it’s the first one ever in Kansas City. I’m going, I’m bringing weird keyboards, and I might even have some Hackaday stickers to sprinkle around.
Although the event was originally planned to take place in the side room of a coffeehouse in the historic northeast, it was quickly moved to a much larger, co-working space downtown to accommodate all the maniacs like yours truly who want to bring a whole bunch of keebs. I’m even bringing some tables, y’all.
This’ll be more than just a show and tell, because what kind of object-focused nerd gathering would be complete without a swap meet element? You’re probably going to find that all kinds of keyboards and keyboard accessories are for sale, but you also might get lucky and win a cute bag of switches from Kinetic Labs, or a 3×4 macro pad from Boardsource (who will also have stickers on hand).
Come for the cool keyboards, and stay for the conversations you’ll strike up with the awesome folks who brought them. Who knows, maybe we’ll all infiltrate the slammin’ ice cream shop down the street.
Questions? Comments? Just want to share your excitement? Come join the Discord! If you’re planning to show up on Saturday, please take a second to fill out the head count document. If you do, it’ll probably net you a deli sandwich when you get there.
If you can’t make it, that’s okay — stay tuned for coverage of the event, and start planning for the next one, because hopefully, there will be many more to come.
Main and thumbnail images by Mingwei Lim on Unsplash
Oh that sounds like so much fun! I love all the new-build activity going on in the keyboard space. I’m sickened by seeing historical artifacts stripped of their unique keyboards without which they cannot operate.
I hope the keyboard community is able to see the distinction and apply social pressure accordingly. Trashing a historic machine to loot its keyboard should be shameful just like ivory and fur coats.
You know how some people say “I don’t understand why guys are so crazy about cars!!!”
Yeah, that’s how I feel about the keyboard thing. I get they are fun hacks, I’m all for hacks, but the keyboard specificity of it, when/why did that became a thing?!!! LOL
It boggles my mind how many articles pop up around here about keyboards of all things…
Seriously, no bashing on my part, of all things, why keyboards?!!!
Out of curiosity, did you use a keyboard or your voice to leave your comment?
A whole lot of people spend a whole lot of time at a keyboard. It’s a tool for communication that happens to use your body in an oddly specific way that can easily cause damage. Reminds me of the adage about not cheaping out on things that come between you and the ground: tires, shoes, mattresses. I would modernize it by saying that you shouldn’t cheap out on things that come between your body and the desk, either. If you have never tried a mechanical keyboard of any vintage or price point, I beg you to do so.
As for cars, it’s sort of the same, at least from where I stand. They are common tools, but they can also be toys. Anything can be a toy if you’re interested enough. And even if you don’t drive or care what you type on, many cars and keyboards are just plain easy on the eyes, so there’s that.
You didn’t mention “which” Kansas City!
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The first one. https://kchistory.org/faq/why-there-kansas-city-both-kansas-and-missouri
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Oh! THAT Kansas City!
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I have spent all day at a PC for almost 30 years now. I’ve used all sorts of keyboards, cheap ones, ergonomic ones, expensive ones, old new, etc. Never needed anything special. I’ve used a couple ones that barely did the job, but those were there just in case someone really needed one and nothing else was around.
Then you are one of the lucky ones.
I love my IBM Model M. Noisy as heck, but it feels great and I love the stepped keys. I have a Dell AT101W that is almost as much fun to use.
Keyboards are very personal things.
Indeed. A real very personal biotope with thousands of species of bacteria (way more in diversity and quantity than a random bar toilet), skin and hair pieces, and a variety of food samples. This un-hygienic event is a unique opportunity for those bacteria strains personal ecosystem to get closer to others, and, why not? exchange some unique genes that makes the ecosystem stronger, like antibiotic resistance.
I have both of those! Stepped keys are great, as are keys with embedded LEDs.
Yes, yes. I’m rocking a DAS keyboard Model S myself. The lack of a “windows key” caused me to give my Model M up many years ago. Still have such fond memories and my fingers miss the touch of that marvelous keyboard.
With all clickclacking going on, will earplugs be needed?
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I never had a keyboard I didn’t like. Well the keyboard on my Radio Shack Color Computer wasn’t great, but I added a surplus keyboard at the end of a cable.
So I sure don’t give much thought to keyboards.
Ah, I moved away from the KC metro to the Tampa, FL metro almost 2 years ago, or I would probably go check it out. I’ve been planning on building a Planck keyboard for awhile, but would like to test out a few in real life before I choose key switches and other parts.
Heck yeah KC! I’ll try and make it out.
Good luck in the meet up and your touch of humor in the podcast is awesome!
Thank you! My write-up should be coming in the next couple of days. And super-duper thank you for that assessment! :D