Keyboards are the new bane of national security!

ROFL @ silverfish´s patent pending technological wonder of greatness I <3 FreeLancer

Ahh Amedeus, that´s where you´re wrong <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> You see, my silencer uses state of the art cheeson-macaronix processors (also patent pending) that creates over 3000 distinct movie silencer noises randomly whenever a key is pressed. Therefore, the only way to decode the device is to take it apart, rip out the CM Processor, and create some sort of un-silencer to attach to the silencer already attached to the keyboard. I for one, will not be letting anyone near my keyboard. Besides, the new device also has telepathic powers...Yeah, that´s cool - telepathic powers. That doesn´t allow it to be used for evil and all that such. Besides, they´ll come in over 30 cool colors. You <b>know </b> you want a glow in the dark one. EDIT: BTW, if the US Gov really wants to spend half a billion dollars (hint, hint, *cough*iwantmoney*cough*), then they should simply buy a quarter billion of my silencers. Only two dollars each! A real steal! Edited by - Sylverfysh on 9/20/2005 8:53:32 PM

How can their methods possibly work without first establishing a profile of an individual keyboard? I don´t see how my ´a´ can sound the same as any other ´a´ out there. Also, does this apply to the rubber keyboards now out there for laptops (the kind with all the keys in a thin sheet of rubber, just roll it up and take it with you wherever?). Great idea, but I agree simply using a keylogger would be much more practical, though the mic idea is somewhat more sinister.

anyone ever seen or heard of this, the <A href=´http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/´ Target=_Blank>Optimus</a> keyboard... looks great doesn´t it? you want one, don´t you? sorry... turns out it´s just a pre-production mock-up, not even a prototype. I actually spoke to these guys, because I was gonna get a few hundred of these in and try to become Uk distributor, but it´s not even made yet! They even asked <i>me </i> if I knew someone who could make it for them. I pointed them at some German firms that manufacture in E. Europe. Can you beleive they were seriously thinking of retailing it at US$400? hopefully I talked them out of such a crazy scheme, after all you can get a di Novo 2 or an Eluminex Auravision for 130 dollars (or even less I think) oh btw FD, those Gyration keyboards and mice you recommended a while back? great idea!

BAd part of the Gyration Keyboard, the batteries run down too fast. Then you hit h and get a c. I put it on the shelf for now.

@ Taw: You are serious about lebedev studios ? I´m asking because I have seen a real hype almost everywhere where someone posted about this keyboard. I have seen many posts declaring they would buy it for 200 euro. So it´s hard to believe that no inv

I´m quite serious. I spoke at length to Dimitri himself. well, strictly speaking my daughter did ´cos she speaks Russian. I find it odd that they wouldn´t have the technology, after all, it is only a keyboard, not a nuclear reactor or anything cpmplicated. I think the problem is that they can´t find anyone to make it cheaply enough and maintain the build quality, and that their business model has too high a retail price. I told them to bring the price down to well under US$200, I certainly wouldn´t buy it for sale at any higher price. where they´re at now with manufacturing I don´t know, its only 3 months since I spoke with them and it takes at least 3 months to get the tooling done. it may also be that no-one is prepared to make it and maintain the design integrity. I find that less credible but it´s not unknown, having come from a design background myself I know how precious designers can be and how they can refuse to compromise their ideas. 200 US is about £120-£130 which if you recall was approx the price of the di Novo when it came out. Lebedev was talking 400 US which is about £250 which is insane, for all the hype and coo-ing over this design, who´s going to pay that much for a keyboard, even with all those functions? bear in mind as well, no-one knows if those functions will even work, what you see on that link is a mock-up, a model. yes, I was surprised too.

@ taw: Did you see this cr*p ? <A href=´http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000073059478/´ Target=_Blank> Link </a>. If people´d pay 299 $ for <b> that </b> they even might pay 400 for Lebedev <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=

My geeky uncle (he better not be reading this <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>) ordered this baby: <A href=´http://www.daskeyboard.com/´ Target=_Blank>I´m talking about this one</a>.

zazie:- that´s a lot, but I´m sure people will stay pay it. I was amazed that anyone bought the di Novo for about the same price but they did, it was and still is a big seller. Got to admit though, that´s a nice looking keyboard. Interesting that although the Optimus made all the news, other manuf´s will benefit by ripping off the concept while Lebedev struggle to get their design made. They should have stayed schtumm until they were ready to launch, or sold the design to someone else. Which is what I told them to do! Why does no-one <i>ever </i> listen to me? wiz:- now <i>that´s a nice </i> keyboard - simple and to the point but lots of features. if my PC looked prettier (which it don´t) I´d go for that or an Apple wireless USB keyboard - because they work perfectly with PCs too! sadly my PC is all content and no style...

Das Keyboard is one of those fad gadgets, overpriced and almost useless... except for those who claim to be the uber geek or uber techie that this keyboard is supposed to represent. But they cheat because the centering ridges for the &quot;f&quot; and &quot;j&quot; keys are still on the board. <img src=smilies/icon_smile_tongue.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> A true uber geek shouldn´t need any help. Total ripoff but if anyone buys it, the manufacturer deserves credit for spotting the opportunity and exploiting it. It has to be cheaper to make, don´t you think? And yet the selling price is over the top. Pure profit making cream.

*starts leeting* more style on my pc - apple usb keyboard *stops leeting immediately* We live in a world where some people spend incredible sums just to give the impression they are richer=better than others. Example: <A href=´http://www.matbe.com/actualites/11349/l-asus-en7800gt-dual-disponible/´ Target=_Blank> French site announciong Dual 7800 GT for 999 Euros limited to 2000 pieces </a>. I imagine a couple of CEOs would LOVE to have a REALLY expensive keyboard in their desk just to make the difference to the rest of the world. The same clientèle buying some of the 4000-or-more-$-handys - or 200´000-$-cars &gt;: Indy11 : agree about Das Keyboard. But i had to smile that the company itself announces their product for &quot;ÜberGeeks&quot;. That´s some style. Edited by - zazie on 9/26/2005 8:35:00 AM

Indy And here all this time I was thinking they put ridges on the &quot;f&quot; and &quot;j&quot; keys for people like me that don´t see so good.

I´m with Indy, what a way to charge a fortune for a keyboard! mine cost £8 - mouse came with it too, both work perfectly. <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>But they cheat because the centering ridges for the &quot;f&quot; and &quot;j&quot; keys are still on the board. <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> I thought those were supposed to make g33ks keep on task at work and not dream about girls - fiddle with the keyboard nipples and have a smutty smirk.

manufacture costs on most retail products are usually a quarter of the standard retail price, ergo if costs 19.99 to but it probly cost under a fiver to make. the extra comes from the distribution chain putting their mark-ups on, hence why it´s cheaper to buy direct if you can. how do i know? well, I know what stuff costs in the computer trade, and also I was an industrial product designer, and I invariably had to work to a cost/retail ratio of 1:4. and ease of manufacture is greatly aided by simplicity of form which is why so many electronic goods now are very simple shapes. these uber keyboards are more expensive not because theyre that much more complicated to make but because they have more parts and more assembly operations. even automated production has increasing costs for more operations, plus as quality control has to be higher, tooling tolerances are more stringent, production is slower, and there´s probly been more effort put into the packaging. Even so, i agree that prices in the hundreds for a keyboard probly do not reflect what it cost to make - i can´t see a keyboard costing $50 to manufacture, can you? so there must be a large element of perceived value - *designer* peripherals as it were, a la S+arck mice by Philippe Starck, or Macs.

Another option is to learn how to type on an old Davorak style keyboard (it´s a different key layout). That´d confuse them. Many moons ago, when I was a young lad and the idea of a megabyte of ram was a glint in the milkmans eye, I remember learning to type on a Davorak and it turned out I was quicker on a Davorak than a Qwerty. What made it all the more harder to learn though was that my actual keyboard was a Qwerty, so I had to memorise from diagrams where all the keys were. Confusing. Freeworlds Mod Developer Author of Modular Station ´There is no Good nor Evil in the universe, just perceptions and circumstances.´

http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/ Optimus keyboard Here´s the site, go look for yourself. If you all think it is a fake, never to be made, then maybe we should make it. Yes, no? &quot;This is Liberty hall, you can spit on the mat and call the cat a bastard.&quot; Commodore John Grimes, Rim Worlds Naval Reserve

i never said it was a fake. it´s a pre-production mock-up, a model. they´re designers, they don´t <i>make </i> anything.