[TriLUG] keyboards

[Ken Mink via TriLUG]

I didn't know any one else here was an AnyKey fan. They were great 
keyboards. I've got 3 in working order now. Though, I too have switched 
to CherryMX keyboards. We moved about a year ago and I was forced to 
dispose of a stack of 'to be repaired' AnyKeys.

Funny story. I was a Unix SysAdmin for Gateway when they were selling 
the AnyKeys. They were what we had at our desks. The training department 
was telling new employees that it was a good idea to just create a macro 
with 'userid<tab>password<enter>' and assign it the extra F11 in the 
upper left of the keyboard. It was convient. But it also meant that you 
could walk up the any one's desk and hit F11 and log in. When the data 
security guy heard about it, I he had a fit. The training department got 
a talking to.

Ken

On 03/01/2015 11:44 AM, Jeff T. Riffer via TriLUG wrote:
>
> There's a ton of good advice on mechanical keyboards. I'm surprised no 
> one mentioned the awesome Gateway AnyKey keyboards though! I used 
> those for years, periodically replacing them until about 2 years ago 
> when it was becoming harder and harder to find a unit that was in 
> decent, working condition.
> They weren't mechanical but they had a ton of extra keys, and the 
> firmware of the keybaord allowed you to not only remap a specific key 
> to another key (thus allowing pretty much total remapping of the 
> keyboard at the hardware level), you could create macros mapped to a 
> specific key, and some other cool things. And this didn't require any 
> drivers so it worked with whatever OS or application.
>
>     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_AnyKey
>
> I ended up replacing mine with a Roccat gamer keyboard, which is 
> marketed to gamer dweebs, but actually has some comparable details. 
> I'm currently using a Roccat Ryos MK Pro
>
>     http://www.roccat.org/en/Products/Gaming-Keyboards/Ryos-Series/Ryos-MK-Pro/ 
>
>
> It's bulky and full of useless crap but has several nice features:
>
> 1) Hardware macros and remapping, though special software is needed to 
> initially set them up
> 2) USB hubt built in (2 ports)
> 3) Built-in headphone and microphone jacks
> 4) Illuminated keys, useful for when in "dark room" mode
>
> They offer is in multi Cherry-MX switch colors.
>
>