Over my 25 years of computing, I’ve come to enjoy the little details that make the experience better. Terminal emulators for example. Mine always have a black background and green foreground, because that’s how I learned DOS. It’s just a nice reminder of where I started. In the same vein, for the past year and a half, I’ve come to enjoy typing on mechanical keyboards. You might say, “That’s a strange interest, mechanical keyboards…” If your profession revolved around you spending 8+ hours a day on a keyboard, you might think differently.

My interest in this hobby has gone to a bit of an extreme, to the point of me starting a keyboard club here in Portland, PDXKBC. I’m also running a group buy over at geekhack.org for over 100 people! Check out what I’ve been doing below and on the two sub-pages: “Artisan Keycaps” and “Previous Builds”.

MaNiFeX

Group Buys

Barebones Stormtrooper – ACTIVE

Group Buy 01: GMK Black on White Keycaps

Current Decks

GoN NeRD 60/LeandreN Round 4 HHKB Plate

GoN NeRD60 Black PCB, LeadreN R4 HHKB Plate, lubed and stickered MX Blacks, clipped MX stabilizers, and GMK Dolch keycaps.

HKP Two-tone cyan/grey keycap.

HHKB Professional Stock

HHKB with HKP Clear Red Artisans

Varmilo VA68M

Varmilo VA68M, Gateron Blues, PuLSE Zambloos.

Active on:

– Great site for beginners, good wiki, great photos.

– a bit hard to navigate, but is the meat of the knowledge/activity of this hobby.

– a bit of a mix of both of the above sites. Very clean interface, European users, mostly.