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Showing posts from September, 2013

Sacrifice

Today is the last day of work for my wife. She served her 3 month notice already. Starting tomorrow, she will work half day for her current company as she transition her work to the new guy. This arrangement will be until 31 Dec 2013. After that, well, we are not sure what's next. The reason she is doing this is because she wants to take care of the kids. Her mother is having a hard time coping with the eldest, which has proven a handful to handle. I don't think I've talked much about the eldest kid but she's quite difficult to handle as she has a huge and unreasonable tantrum. There are many terms for the cause, we are also not sure how true they are. Some called it hyper sensitive, some called it insecurity, some OCD, some said she needed anger management. Not sure what, but she is giving us a lot of stress. This caused me to think of the sacrifices that parents made for their children. All of us have the same story but how many of us appreciate the sacrifice and ...

Addiction

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It's madness. The only way to explain it is addiction. Or maybe just irrational. I am hooked to this mechanical hobby and I am not the only one. There is a whole community in the internet. What's worse, I am now expecting another rare keyboard to arrive from USA: This app I am using is called Parcel. It tracks deliveries of parcels. The bottom two are interesting packages. Someone was interested in my old keyboard and wanted to take it off me in exchange for another mechanical product in his company store! I exchanged a 20 year old keyboard for a new one worth US$150! No brainer right? I have since received the other keyboard and love it! There was this particular keyboard that I have a heart for, it's called CODE Keyboard  and it was sold out before it was launched due to the huge demand during pre-order. Reason being they are using a ultra-rare Cherry MX Clear switch. Yesterday, the website opened to say they had a couple of keyboards left from people who cancell...

Cherry Blacks vs Blues

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One good thing about PC, and I am sure it is the same as Mac, is that you can plug in two keyboards and type them. Makes it easy to switch from the Razer to the Choc Mini for type testing. A photo of the setup is required. Just by looking at the photo, one can tell that the Choc Mini looked solidly built than the Razer, isn't it? Maybe it is because of the key caps. The Choc Mini is made of POM - I don't know if it is better than what Razer has but it has those textured feel and gives out a pretty serious vibe. This is no keyboard to fool with. So, Cherry MX Black. How was it? I could really tell the difference between a tactile switch and a linear switch. A tactile switch would provide you the slightest bounce and feedback. It feels extremely good. As of this moment, I didn't really like the Black linear switch. I have a feeling I need to bottom out when using the Black. I am not a touch typist and I typically punched keys with my index fingers and thumb but I stil...

Mechanical Keyboard Thoughts

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I'm crazy. That's how you can describe me this past week. Over the years, I have been looking for a keyboard to replace my old Acer mechanical. The ThinkPad USB Traveller keyboard didn't quite make it. It is rubber dome, not mechanical. My next keyboard has to be mechanical like the Acer but as I ventured into the mechanical keyboard world, I find myself going through a looking glass. It's a whole new world! This is not going to be a cheap hobby! So, over the past few days, I bought two mechanical keyboards: the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate 2013 (read my thoughts in this link)  model from a friend, brand new, at a discounted price. This is based on Cherry MX Blue switch. At the same time, someone posted a Choc Mini mechancial keyboard for sale in lowyat.net forum. And this guy owned 3 Choc Mini in Blue, Brown and Black switches. He didn't like the Cherry MX Blacks, so he decided to sell it. It's brand new, in a way, but it is a 2011 model, meaning still 2 ye...

Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Elite Review

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I have been on a quest for a good keyboard. Many years ago, I have the impression that Apple made the best keyboard and so I went and bought the Apple Pro Keyboard , the one with the white transparent plastic at the bottom. That turned out to be a disaster! It was one of the worst keyboard that I have ever used. I didn't read any reviews. I just went with blind faith. Never again! I thought that the ThinkPad keyboard was the best because after using many models of ThinkPads for the past 17 years, I have grown accustomed to the keyboard and was used to it that I thought this must be the answer to my keyboard quest. I bought a USB ThinkPad keyboard for my home desktop (ala gaming needs). It served me quite well for a couple of years. I am actually pretty happy with it especially the fact that it also has a TrackPoint built in. Very convenient when you are surfing and didn't want to take the hands off the keyboard. But there is still something missing. It's like you wer...