Harpsichords sound pretty. Look pretty too. You can build your own. Even from Lego. (previously) But don't make it your trade.
posted by Joe Beese on Jan 6, 2010 - 16 comments

Glenn Gould plays Clavier Ubung bestehend in einer ARIA mit verschiedenen Veraenderungen vors Clavicimbal mit 2 Manualen - also known as the Goldberg Variations. (previously)
posted by Joe Beese on Dec 26, 2009 - 44 comments

Fold him off, Keyboard Cat.
posted by Fiasco da Gama on Aug 25, 2009 - 25 comments

Ctrl is an NBC webseries starring Tony Hale (Arrested Development's Buster, Chuck's Emmett Milbarge) as an office drone who suddenly finds that, thus far, CTRL-Z lets him undo recent events in his own life, and CTRL-B emboldens him to stand up to his boss and confess his love to the source of his crush. It was based on a short film, Ctrl-Z, starring Hale's Chuck co-star Zachary Levi as the boss. Not exactly a new concept, but nonetheless well-executed by a fairly good comic team ... [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Jul 18, 2009 - 38 comments

From the satisfying click of its keys to its no-nonsense layout and solid steel underpinnings, IBM's 24-year-old Model M is the standard by which all other keyboards must be judged. (previously)
posted by Joe Beese on Jun 22, 2009 - 106 comments

Play Helen Hunt off, Keyboard Cat! So he does. And then he jams. It's a single link to YouTube, and you may skip it if you want. But you're missing out if you do, because as I type this I think this opus is the pinnacle of human achievement.
posted by Mayor Curley on Jun 22, 2009 - 131 comments

Play him off, keyboard cat. [more inside]
posted by Greg Nog on May 6, 2009 - 146 comments

Vangelis: The Man And His Music (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) profiles prolific Greek keyboardist and composer Evanghelos Odyssey "Vangelis" Papathanassiou in a rare 1984 television interview. [more inside]
posted by hippybear on Apr 30, 2009 - 36 comments

QWERTY rock. [more inside]
posted by dhammond on Feb 27, 2009 - 25 comments

Fellow Mefites: I see your 13 year-old Japanese girl drumming to Rush's seminal prog. class "YYZ" and raise you an 11 year-old Japanese girl playing the whole damn thing on a synth (SLYT). [more inside]
posted by bardic on Jan 20, 2009 - 39 comments

Keyboard wizzard and Jerry Garcia Band collaborator Merl Saunders dead. More in the Wiki entry.
posted by fixedgear on Oct 24, 2008 - 25 comments

In 1975, armed with a big pile of 8-track car stereos and a whole lot of moxie, Dave Biro set out to change the sound of rock music. He failed spectacularly. This is the fascinating and tragic story of one of the rarest instruments in rock music- The Birotron. [more inside]
posted by 40 Watt on Oct 1, 2007 - 19 comments

Shift Option Rinse A charming video of a woman testing the keyboard-cleaning abilities of her dishwasher.
posted by milestogo on Sep 18, 2007 - 11 comments

“There has never been a massively successful consumer device based solely on a touch screen” ...designers and marketers of electronic devices centers are having a spirited debate about whether consumers will have the patience to overcome the hurdle that will be required to type without the familiar tactile feedback offered by conventional keyboards. Any significant number of returns of the iPhone could conceivably undermine what until now has been a remarkable promotional blitzkrieg that culminates in the phone’s release June 29.
posted by wfc123 on Jun 13, 2007 - 52 comments

Dasher is text input informed by information theory. It's also trippy. David MacKay recently gave a talk in the Google TechTalks series. You can download a prototype at the official site. Plenty useful, but perhaps also a new metaphor for writing?
posted by ontic on Jun 2, 2007 - 33 comments

Antique Keyboard is the newest work from SteamPunk Labs.
posted by fandango_matt on Feb 22, 2007 - 36 comments

Multilingual Keyboard Emulator.
posted by anticlock on Jan 8, 2007 - 15 comments

The Colemak keyboard layout. Colemak is a new alternative to the QWERTY and Dvorak layouts. Designed for efficient and ergonomic touch typing in English, Colemak places the 10 most frequent letters of English (A,R,S,T,D,H,N,E,I,O) on the home row. Z,X,C are preserved in their QWERTY positions for easy copy and paste operations. It gets rid of the Caps Lock and replaces it with Backspace so you no longer need to move your hand off the home position to correct errors. Available for Windows/Mac/Linux/Unix it works with all standard keyboards, including laptops. [via: Projects], [Previously]
posted by Mitheral on Jan 8, 2007 - 91 comments

You may have never heard of it, but you've damn near certain heard it. The Mellotron (FortuneCity link) is a keyboard instrument; each of its keys triggers a tape with a pre-recorded instrument on it. It was effectively the world's first sample player. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Sep 7, 2006 - 38 comments

Extremists are trying to kill our beloved Caps Lock! Mefites unite! CAPS LOCK DAY IS UNDER ATTACK! (via)
posted by spiderwire on Aug 16, 2006 - 74 comments

OCTOBER 22 IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY!!!
EVERY YEAR WE GET TOGETHER AND MAKE SALMON FOR TOAST, EVERY YEAR WE GET A CROCKETY BLOAT, EVERY YEAR WE GET DRUNK ON THE DOCKS, AND EVERY YEAR WE HAVE SEX WITH OUR CAPS LOCKS!!!!
posted by Jairus on Oct 21, 2005 - 504 comments

Croatian keyboardist Belinda Bedekovic is quite a spectacle (video). According to her biography, "on her public appearances with her virtuosity and performance she 'demolishes everything in front of her', and they are regularly accompanied by enthusiastic applause, sometimes even leading to euphoria."
posted by mert on Apr 5, 2005 - 58 comments

A fantastic example of old meets new, a man spends weeks crafting the perfect Christmas gift for his wife, with spectacular results. I give you the typewriter-keyboard conversion: a true labor of love. Makes me want to dig up my grandpa's old Underwood and give it a go.
posted by Igor XA on Jan 25, 2005 - 27 comments

Some computer peripherals are better then others.
posted by Vaska on Jan 6, 2005 - 35 comments

Keyboards Are Not Like Nibs: Fountain pens - or writing instruments in general - rule. Lately though, the main manufacturers have stooped to ballpoints, gels and other madnesses. Just as the stupid calligraphy fad killed proper handwriting, the main fountain pen manufacturers have been their own hangmen. I love Pelikan but my main hearbreak is Rotring, whose rapidograph 0.10 and 0.18 and isograph 0.20 (this latter line now sadly reduced to college sets) are my favourite scratching sticks. Are you holding a torch for any of those legendary manufacturers (Parker, Waterman, Cross, Schaeffer, Aurora, Lamy et caetera) who have gone down the drain? What glides your writing hand? Is the pseudish, unpardonably expensive and increasingly naff Montblanc the last pen manufacturer to uphold its own standards? When you do put pen to paper - if you still do at all - what's your stubborn choice? Damn it, you must use something to log into your Moleskine!
posted by MiguelCardoso on May 1, 2003 - 96 comments

Redefining the keyboard. CPUs have gotten smaller, monitors have gotten wider, chairs have gotten ergonomic. Technology has resized our machines to fit our lifestyles, business needs, and personal comfort. But for the past 128 years, the mechanics by which we input text into machines has been dictated not by technology, but by the limitations of our hands. Soon, this era may be over if retired engineer John McKown gets his way. McKown has invented a palm-size one-handed wearable keyboard. Should we embrace this giant leap into mobile computing? Or are we not able to part with a century of QWERTY? (Via NYTimes. Similar ideas have also been discussed here previously.)
posted by PrinceValium on Aug 12, 2002 - 19 comments

Just click "Fun" ... and you're ready to rock. I'm guessing this is an idea that came from Japan.
posted by ph00dz on Jul 18, 2002 - 17 comments

I've been using a folding, portable keyboard with my Visor for about a year now. Very handy. On Monday, Siemens unveiled an even more portable one at CeBIT. (My first post. Hope it's appropriate.)
posted by dobbs on Mar 22, 2002 - 32 comments

Goodbye QWERTY, Hello ',.PY !!! [Or, One Writer's Love Affair with the Other Keyboard Layout.] From Slate.com
posted by adrober on Feb 6, 2002 - 31 comments

Who needs 204 keys? I know I do. Damned shift keys. [via the big H.]
posted by jcterminal on Aug 22, 2001 - 19 comments

a work of art? this site confused me at first, until I saw the drawing section. you can create works of art using shockwave and your keyboard. feel free to create your own and let me know! doodling has become fun again!
posted by aekastar on Nov 20, 2000 - 3 comments

Dan Bricklin of VisiCalc fame, has had a weblog for some time. Recently, he picked up a stowaway keyboard for his palm and has been keeping another log of his thoughts on using it.
posted by mathowie on Dec 12, 1999 - 0 comments