When people begin to get agitated while working with computers, they start treating the input devices roughly, reducing their expected lifetime.
The keys of the Be-Gentle keyboard all have little holes on the faces. Under normal usage, the keys have the travel and feel of any other keyboard, but with a little added pressure, the keys will travel even further, allowing a needle to poke up through the hole, delivering a painful sting to the abusive user.-- jimfl, Aug 20 2000 A neat idea but I'd rather have a keyboard retro-designed to re-create the response of an old-time 'standard' manual typewriter - long-stroke, heavy touch, lots of wrist and arm-action, and thriving on pounding, the more the better it seems. My wife, aged 79, can bash out an A4 page letter in fraction of the time I can with all my costly computer gear - and moreover her indestructible Imperial typewriter is about the same age as she is. As for over-use syndrome, she can open jar-tops as well as I can, admittedly five years older. Is this dreaming of retro-design definable as halfbakery? I don't know. But I do know to keep out of my wife's way when she's angrily thumping out a letter to some politician who's offended her! Pin-pricking? No way.-- rayfo, Aug 20 2000 I learned to type on a beat up old manual, and I do type fairly heavily. My first keyboard lasted almost seven years, and what finally wore out was the 4 and 6 on the number pad, from using them as directional keys in shooters. I bought a brand new one for less than 20$. Why bother with pissing off users who will then break the keyboard in earnest?-- StarChaser, Aug 20 2000 Related to this (sort of). The best keyboards, ever, were the ones that IBM shipped with their early PCs. They were so nice.-- bristolz, Feb 20 2001 I'm against this idea for a couple of reason, first of all, I don't want to suffer from blood loss after a few minutes of gaming. I also don't want my keys to stick together because of my blood thus causing me to hit harder. And mostly because I don't like poking little holes in myself-- tierrie, Feb 20 2001 As I have all the finesse and keyboard technique of a herd of stampeding elephants, I'm definitely against this idea. Pounding away on the keyboard really let's it know who's boss, even if it isn't very efficient and has given me fingers like spatulas.-- DrBob, Feb 21 2001 and no one's even mentioned AIDS...-- Grog, Sep 17 2002 I want a nerf one so I can beat the hell out of it and not bleed.-- jerry4703, Jan 14 2003 Must say, far and away the worst idea I've seen on this website.-- Blumster, Nov 29 2004 Although haemophiliacs may be less impressed.-- etherman, Nov 29 2004 I personally would like to see how the cat that always walks across the key board would deal with this one. Can anyone say Be-Gentle Piano????-- Blumster, Nov 29 2004 Keep looking, Blumster.-- yabba do yabba dabba, Nov 29 2004 Public keyboards, but using electricity instead of needles.(+)-- bluebeaversscrubbingourfloors, Apr 05 2009 I suggest, if the keys are hit too sharply, they behave like an old manual typewriter and stick in the down position - you have to carefully pry each one back up if you want to use it again.-- phundug, Apr 05 2009 IBM "M" types: a 20 year old one and a 15 year old one ... the 15 year old one is still NIB and it's just in case my great-great-great-great grandchildren manage to misplace the first one. [-] silly.-- FlyingToaster, Apr 05 2009 This may cause a problem when you receive the chain mail instructing you to type your name not only with your fingers, but with your elbow, nose and forehead . . . Or you could just not open the chain mail, but where's the fun in that?-- SocialSuicide, Apr 05 2009 random, halfbakery