In news:Xns9C85F2E256724noonehomecom@74.209.131.13,
Larry typed on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:52:35 +0000:
> "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in news:h8jkdc$c2v$1@news.eternal-
> september.org:
>
>> So they say. My Micro Innovations keyboard claims they can take 10
>> million keypresses. I don't have a counter, but it is the one I use
>> most of the time. And I don't have a problem replacing a keyboard
>> every 5 to 10 years. But it hasn't happened yet. <grin>
>>
>> --
>> Bill
>> Gateway MX6124 ('06 era) - Windows XP SP2
>
> I go through a keyboard every 6-8 months, here. I wear a saddle in
> the middle of the spacebar plastic so smooth it shines like a mirror.
> I wear the top off many keys, especially rstlne so you must be a
> touch typist because most keys have no lettering on them left.
>
> Thank goodness people keep turning in perfectly nice keyboards to the
> local thriftshops that look like they never typed on them...no wear
> at all. I'm typing this on a Dynex multimedia keyboard with lots of
> little command buttons down both sides that come in handy. It boots
> WinXP's calculator from a special key that calls it up, etc. Even
> Firefox has a key! I paid 99c. It's a USB keyboard, so if I'm going
> to use my Samsung NC-10 for long documents, or my little Nokia N800
> Linux tablet, I simply plug it in and type. Duhh...(c;]
> Larry

I have seen many keyboards like yours. lol Although that doesn't happen
to none of mine and they stay looking just like new for decades. Pretty
strange, eh?

My Micro Innovations keyboard also has the Calc, Mail, My Computer,
Home, Back, Forward, Player, etc keys on them. I use the play and pause
and the volume up and down keys the most. The keyboard and the mouse are
wireless which is also very nice IMHO.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 702G8 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

"BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in news:h8lovm$38s$1@news.eternal-
september.org:

> The keyboard and the mouse are
> wireless which is also very nice IMHO.
>

I type too much for wireless. Keyboard's in a typing tray at home,
anyways. I didn't do well with wireless mice....they died too often.



--
Larry

In news:Xns9C8682C331125noonehomecom@74.209.131.13,
Larry typed on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:51:15 +0000:
> "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in news:h8lovm$38s$1@news.eternal-
> september.org:
>
>> The keyboard and the mouse are
>> wireless which is also very nice IMHO.
>
> I type too much for wireless. Keyboard's in a typing tray at home,
> anyways. I didn't do well with wireless mice....they died too often.

Wow, that is something Larry. I also don't have any problems with
wireless at all. They just seem to work forever with me. I did have to
add a third battery on my keyboard though. I noticed it would only work
reliable if the two batteries were 1.5v or higher.

And that didn't work more than a week with fresh batteries. So I added a
third one and now it works until all three batteries drop downs to 1v or
less. Runs about 6 months without a battery change now.

My favorite wireless mouse does shutdown after x amount of time which is
normal for most wireless mice. Although it sometimes also shuts down
well before the timeout and won't turn back on unless you reset the
batteries or cycle the tiny power switch. Happens about once or twice a
day. Not annoying enough to replace it yet. lol

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 702G8 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

In message <h8j6bj$u6d$1@news.eternal-september.org>, Barry Watzman
<WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> writes
>the Acer Aspire One has a speaker located next to the hard drive. If
>driven with the wrong songs at high volume, it can corrupt or destroy
>the hard drive. There is at least one known song that will do it every
>time if the volume is turned up all the way (it's a real song, not
>something created for this purpose, but I recall it's "heavy metal").
>It's not a problem at normal volume levels. The mechanism isn't clear;
>it could be magnetic, or it could be acoustical.

I wonder if this is the same phenomenon as I was investigating, but gave
up on.
Briefly, if you played audio tone of, say, 1kHz through the internal
speaker off a file on the hard drive at reasonable volume, it would play
with gaps in the sound or in extreme cases freeze the laptop with the
audio playing forever. Playing through the headphones, or playing from
CD thumb drive or external HD was fine, as it was if you turned the
volume down. I ran a machine with the internal HD removed and on
extension wires and that made no difference, so this wasn't a magnetic
or vibration effect.

This happened with a whole bunch of laptops, and I started to make a
database of those affected. This got out of hand, and I suffered two
mainboard failures, so advised my contacts to stop testing.

My theory, based on some correspondence with one of the main developers
on the Vista audio development team (his laptop did this), was that this
was some function of power management code or hardware within the
machines starving the HD of power. My theory is a guess. Some machines
were Intel, some AMD.

I'd be very interested to know the piece of music that triggers this.
--
Bill

Apparently U2's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" played at full
volume can reproduce the problem on demand, on any older Acer Aspire One
(I'm not suggesting it does not happen on newer ones, I just don't
know). The problem is due to some not fully understood interaction
between the right speaker and the hard drive.

Bill wrote:
>
> I'd be very interested to know the piece of music that triggers this.

In message <h8pqvf$s3o$2@news.eternal-september.org>, Barry Watzman
<WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> writes
>Apparently U2's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" played at full
>volume can reproduce the problem on demand, on any older Acer Aspire
>One (I'm not suggesting it does not happen on newer ones, I just don't
>know). The problem is due to some not fully understood interaction
>between the right speaker and the hard drive.
>
>Bill wrote:
>> I'd be very interested to know the piece of music that triggers
>>this.

I've now located and imported a copy of this audio, and will look at it
over the next few days. If anything interesting comes out of it, I'll
report back, probably in a new thread.
--
Bill