I have had the same Compaq keyboard for ten years and I really don’t want to give it up. Under each key is a small soft rubber pad that makes typing a nice tactile experience. Other keyboards I find are generally too clunky. Once a week I shake upside down and you wouldn’t want to see the crap that comes out of it. Rarely done due to the risk of damage, I give it a wash and it comes up like new… You may be thinking “WTF” at this point 😉
In my last job, a former editor of the magazine and now safety editor for the same publication (let you guess that one) almost every month wrote to the internal intranet/staff magazine site about keyboard hygiene. It seemed to be in his view that eating at one’s keyboard was an insane and an insanitary thing to do. There is some research I believe that shows a higher level of bacteria if you do. Far better then to leave lunch for the canteen.
To me it always seemed a good quality of life excuse to bunk off and have a chin wag for an hour. Who then is just too buy to care about bugs or not?
In my past life I have had to change keyboards soiled with coffee and hair, sorry but ladies are the worst due to (*statistically) having longer hair dangling round the ivories. It is a bit 
to be honest.
By: Paul F - 6th December 2007 at 10:21
Surely it’s not beyond the whit of computer manufacturers to fit “fluff catcher” ( Switches to best Frankie Howerd mode…oooh er Missus!) meshes over cooling intake vents on the external casings of laptops and full size CPUs ? The larger fibres could then be filtered out of the intake airflow at that point, and the build up would be both readily visible and easily removed by mini-vac (other cleaning products are available) without any need to disassemble the PC casing and get inside the beast?
Are PC Manufacturers unaware of the “real worlds” in which their products are used these days, do they still think we still all use our PC’s in special airconditioned, near sterile, working environments…?
(Switches to best conspiracy theory whisper) Or maybe they intentionally leave such obvious improvements out of their products in the hope that x% of PCs will get their cooling systems clogged up every year, then over-heat, get damaged beyond economic repair as a result of being gently cooked to death, and thus generate a steady “replacement purchase” market stream…..
Also, fitment of effective fluff ‘n fibre filters might also rapidly put their far eastern “USB Mini Vac” manufacturing colleagues, and their authorised PC repair agents out of business I guess….
I hate to think what microorganism nasties many domestic PCs are harbouring inside their darkest nooks and crannies given the likely build up of carpet fibres, pet hairs, clothing fibres, human hairs…. yeeeuch, don’t even go there…. Might be safest to fumigate the machine before removing the case, or it’s resident colonies might try and fight back 😀
Paul F
By: Newforest - 6th December 2007 at 08:18
Just returned from Spain after buying a USB mini vacuum for 3 euros from a Chinese ‘we have everything’ emporium. Works well with a booster button, don’t forget to take the cover off your CPU on your laptop to remove that insidious fluff.
By: Tillerman - 18th November 2007 at 17:24
On the subject of bacteria it is known fact that there is more bacteria and nasties inside your mouth than inside your anus.
Time to change your eating habits then? 😮
Tillerman.
By: BlueRobin - 18th November 2007 at 01:06
What is, the fluff? 😉
By: Norman D Lands - 17th November 2007 at 11:53
My local Tesco’s has a “Keyboard Hoover” powered by USB in it’s novalty christmas gifts section. Right next to the water powered Clocks, kinetic torches and Keyring weather stations.
Handy stocking filler for Christmas.
By: mike currill - 16th November 2007 at 10:07
I ebay’d the crap that I found in my keyboard….
😀 😀 You didn’t have a bidder offering the crap they found in their keyboard as a bid against it did you?
By: Portagee - 15th November 2007 at 22:16
My local Tesco’s has a “Keyboard Hoover” powered by USB in it’s novalty christmas gifts section. Right next to the water powered Clocks, kinetic torches and Keyring weather stations.
By: adamdowley - 15th November 2007 at 21:55
I ebay’d the crap that I found in my keyboard….
By: mike currill - 15th November 2007 at 09:21
There was a time when most self respecting computer shops sold them but I haven’t seen one for ages. That could well be because I haven’t been in a computer shop for ages though.:)
By: Newforest - 15th November 2007 at 07:31
Very interesting. Certainly food for thought and a good reason to get the side cover off your computer case once in a while and get in there with one of those diddy little usb powered minivacs that no-one seems to sell any more.
Let Google be your friend, don’t bid for it, I want one!
By: mike currill - 15th November 2007 at 07:09
Very interesting. Certainly food for thought and a good reason to get the side cover off your computer case once in a while and get in there with one of those diddy little usb powered minivacs that no-one seems to sell any more.
By: Jonesy - 14th November 2007 at 14:56
Keyboard excavations can be quite instructive I’ve found – in a previous job as accolyte to a very large IBM mainframe I, during a fit of unaccustomed boredom, started cleaning the crud out of the keyboard controlling the diagnostics terminal in the main equipment suite. By the time I’d finished I’d produced a ball of carpet tile fibres 2 inches across – no word of a lie!.
Amidst my disbelief that the keyboard could still function in such a state a dawning realisation struck that, if the keyboard could be so affected, so could a lot of other things!. Hard drive units, tape units, fan trays etc, etc – sure enough all showed signs, when we stripped ’em down, of fibre ingestion and several were close to fail point with drive motors heating through shaft resistance. Smiles all round that we’d dodged the bullet.
Moral of the story. Keep an eye on your keyboard!
By: FMK.6JOHN - 14th November 2007 at 14:32
On the subject of bacteria it is known fact that there is more bacteria and nasties inside your mouth than inside your anus.
Which proves my theory that some people do talk utter rubbish:D 😀 .
John.
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November 14, 2007 at 1:05 pm