What is the world coming to?

[Billyray]

Many times when wet electronics dry back out they start working again. I've seen several keyboards come back to life after they dried out for a few days.

Yeah don't give up on that keyboard. I spilt coffee all over my keyboard last month. Keys weren't working and that sticky touch was annoying. Took it to the sink and ran hot water all through the keys (about 30 seconds), let it dry for two days and then it was back to normal.

[Mullen]

The multimedia keyboards are everywhere these days. I bought one a few weeks back, it does have additional buttons but I don't think they work (I never installed any additional software, I just plugged it in).

I should plug in all my old keyboards which I thought were dead because I spilt water over them, I'll probably find they're all working.

[Todd W]

Cell phone in rain for 4 hours it auto-turned off (shorted i`d imagine).

Hair dryer, day later,... worked.

Chris you sound like me, I finaly found a mouse pad I love and got 3 of them! LOL.

[Chris]

So I bought one and shipped it next day air, then a case of 5 and shipped ground... the ground case actually arrived the next day, and an hour before the air shipment.

[Cutter]

Where they shipped from somewhere nearby? When I order cigars from cigar.com in Chicago they usually arrive the next day from normal shipping where as other cigar retailers take at least a week.

[dc dalton]

Gee I use those keyboards too... Guess I'm going to have to scarf up a bunch the next computer show I go to... I can barely type on a normal one

[Erin]

I bought one of those multi-media keyboards a while ago because I somehow believed I was missing out on something. The one I bought (a Logitech) was well-reviewed on Amazon, so I got it.

I do NOT use any of the multi-media keys at all. And the one I have steals the function buttons, so when I go to hit F5, it performs some action (a bookmarked page) that I don't want. I always forget to turn off the custom function keys.

Right now my preferred keyboards are the simple black ones that come with new Dells, the cheapest ones. They work fine for me.

[Giles]

I'm not quite a touch typer, but im pretty fast.
I'm happy with my chunky white Apple keyboard, or any other simple no-frills job. I've always despised multimedia shortcut buttons, I hardly use the Function keys either.

[Blue Cat Buxton]

Ive got a multimedia keyboard on this pc - never used the buttons, never. Don't even know how to assign them a useful function. They are there just taking up space on my desk.

That said, a collegue has just got a new Dell and that has a horrible keyboard - as small as you like but really 'clicky'.

[r2d2]

Its amazing the difference a quality interface (Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor) can make to a computer.

People moan about MS's software, but I love my basic, quality MS keyboard and mouse.

[Giles]

Im a spacial Mac user!

[mini]

umm...I agree with Chris. Ergonomic keyboards are good for you (especially if you're a touch typer). I have few colleagues and friends who suffer from RSI (Repetitive Strain injury) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetitive_strain_injury

It's pretty severe, some of them cant type or use their hands at all. One of them even crippled her top half of her body - couldnt do anything, took 6 mths for her to get better. It's not a curable disease. BEWARE if you use computer a lot.

[KLB]

These look good, do you have a mouse wheel equivalent?

Yes, it is the right hand edge of the track pad. There is also a horizontal scroll using the bottom edge of the track pad. The left hand edge of the pad is for changing font sizes and the top edge is for navigating forwards or backwards through web pages. The upper right hand corner is used for left mouse clicks although I usually use one of the buttons.

One hack I do to these keyboards when I buy them is open them up and cut off the post to the power switch and then superglue the power switch so that it is inoperable. I've bumped the power switch many times by accident which caused my computer to shut down at really inconvenient times.

I sent them a suggestion once to add the ability to disable power switch and they replied back in a positive fashion so maybe they'll add this ability at some point in the future.

[r2d2]

Ah that sounds cool, maybe I shall look at that seriously for a replacement.

Thanks for the tip on the power switch if I do get one