Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Saturday, March 3, 2012

YouTube trend manager: Why videos go viral

Ben Her - Tattoos



Kotaku has a nice article about tattoo artist Ben Her, who went to Japan to become a tattoo-apprentice.
(Photo found here and here)

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Keyboards

I've got the keyboard-bug.

It started a while ago when I started reading about mechanical keyboards (sometime last year when I was looking for components for a new PC). Back then, I was debating whether I should get a Das Keyboard Ultimate or a Razer Blackwidow Ultimate. I opted for the latter and am using that at home right now.
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to buy a Das Keyboard after all and use it at work. I went with the "Ultimate Silent" model (blank keycaps and quieter brown Cherry MX switches).
Both keyboards are a delight to type on.

I discovered geekhack.org, a forum for keyboard-nuts. It's crazy what's out there!
Some pics: [pic 1] [pic 2] [pic 3] [pic 4] [pic 5] [pic 6] [pic 7]
(most of these have custom keycaps, meaning some of the original keycaps were switched out for different ones)

Many years ago, a friend would often have visitors from Asia over at his house. When I saw their laptops, I loved the Chinese characters that were printed on the keycaps underneath the latin characters. I was reminded of that when I saw a picture of this keyboard on Geekhack. This one is sold in the US, but, of course, without the Chinese characters. And all the shops I checked only had it with Cherry blue switches (a Cherry red version supposedly exists as well). Luckily, someone going by the name of "qtan5370" runs an online-shop (he also sells on eBay) where one can get the Chinese version of that keyboard. Ordered! :) (with black switches)

Some helpful links / online-shops:

- The ultimate keyboard and switch guide
- Cherry-compatible keycaps on eBay (cheap and OK-ish quality, but nothing fancy)
- Elite Keyboards
- WASD Keyboards (custom keyboards and keycaps)
- Deskthority (another forum)
- Keyboard Lover
- Pimp My Keyboard
- Fentek
- Keycaps Direct

On the watch-list:

- KBT Race 75%, with white LEDs and black or red Cherry switches
- Vortex Pure 60%
- Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2