I started a summer internship 4 weeks ago in New Mexico, and they provided brand new apple keyboards (the box just says apple keyboard on it, so i don’t think it is a pro). the keyboard is nice enough, though i am used to microsoft’s split keyboard design and miss it a little since it seems to make more sense for keeping ones wrists straighter. Anyway, my office mate and I have identical keyboards which were purchased from the same place and opened for use at the same time. He has no problems, but I have the exact problem you describe for a variety of keys. I have not tested this much, but i have a strong suspicion that it is just an unfortunate combination of this particular keyboard design and my typing style since the problem is sporadic and the keyboard is so new.

I have though about calling apple and asking them to send me a new one because it really is annoying but I don’t think it will help, and your story makes me even more convinced of that.

I guess the key attachments have changed since I looked last, which has been a long time. I just pulled of a key on this older keyboard and found what you described.

By the way, I just pulled out this keyboard from “stock” to replace one that I’ve been using 5 or 6 years, which finally failed — one shift key went completely dead. Mechanical stuff… fails.

I don’t think RSS feed is the path that existing before — as I did get notifications, I’m almost certain, but I have no idea still how to subscribe to a feed. Well, good luck sorting it out.

If I remove the keycap on the Delete key, I see a structure in solid plastic that does not move. The part that moves is deep inside the centre of that solid plastic structure, and cannot be pressed without a sharp object mimicking the protruding piece in the keycap that presses on it when the keycap is on. So I cannot really try to reproduce the problem without the keycap.

I thought that Betalogue should automatically send you notifications of new comments added to posts where you have already posted your own comments. But I must admit I haven’t looked into this in a long time. I am trying to check this right now, and I cannot find anything about it. Maybe you actually have to subscribe to the RSS feed for the post (or to the general RSS feed for comments). I am not sure :-/.

I may have mentioned that I’ve programmed a keyboard, written the firmware to make it work with a Mac, using ADB to be sure, but the principles are very similar, just the transmission layer differs (I think). What I recall about that work a million years ago is that making a keyboard work is, well, very simple and generally foolproof, so I’m really surprised at what you are seeing.

Hmmm, I wonder: Can you make it fail if you remove the keycap on the “worst” key and press the little stub instead of the key/

Off-topic: Do I remember that Betalogue did or does send a notification of a new post on a subject in which I’ve participated? It isn’t doing it now, and I’m absent-mined, so I’m worried I’ll ignore something… Please feel free to continue via direct email.

One can have a program check to see if a keystroke is available, and do something or not until it is. Or you can have it wait for the next keystroke. Insert delays here and there. I don’t know for sure, but it is likely there’s visibility into the low level of the keyboard input, for example, you might be able to read keyboard status and/or individual key-down and key-up events.

Henry

ssp: I am only stating the obvious. Just like there can be pairs of shoes that will never quite fit you and feel comfortable, no matter which size you try on, it looks like there are keyboard designs that are simply not a perfect match for certain typing styles. It certainly seems to be the only reasonable explanation for this. I don’t see the point of blaming the keyboard if no one else is able to reproduce the problem. It’s not going to get me anywhere.

That must be the most absurd thing you could write on the topic… I mean a keyboard has a very clearly defined task of sending exactly what you type to the computer. And if the keyboard decides to duplicate some of your keypresses, it is run by broken software or has shoddy mechanics.

I don’t think that the mechanics of Apple’s newer (post Extended-II) keyboards are particularly good. In particular the larger keys can be quite sensitive to where exactly you hit them (some just sound bad, others need extra force or even stick a little when not hit right in the middle). So you should definitely blame the keyboard first and yourself second. It’s hard to use a keyboard in a ‘wrong’ way. And the only ‘wrong’ ways I can image tend to include food or drinks that are spilled on the keyboard… which I’m pretty sure is not what you did.

Have you tried booting the Mac into single-user (unix) mode and typing at it? Or into Open Firmware? If the problem shows up in those modes, it will give you further confirmation that the keyboard is at fault. Or suggest the problem is at a higher level in the MacOS — the process of getting keystrokes from the keyboard to programs is quite complex.

Henry