[jyl]

We all get OCD about something. For me, that includes keyboards.

I spend most of my waking hours at a keyboard. I didn’t give the keyboard itself much thought. A bout of carpal tunnel got me paying attention. A Microsoft Natural Keyboard took care of that. Then I started paying attention to the feel of the keys, and found them wanting.

A thirty-five year old IBM Model M keyboard eventually appeared on my desk. The crisp, definite keyfeel - authoritatively clicky, haptic and aural feedback, long key travel and firm weight - it was a revelation.

I started learning about legendary keyboards of days past. What might be even better than a Model M? Whatever it was, I had to try it.

For a year, I thought about getting the Model M’s ancestor, the Model F. Then I learned about an even older, more storied, keyboard.

A working IBM beamspring keyboard costs $5,000, and the key layout is archaic. Stymied, I was, for another year.

I learned of a company that was going to make reproductions of the famous beamspring switches in keyboards with modern layouts - that is to say, the Model M layout which remains the standard full-size layout today. Another year spent mulling and hemming, saving my pennies, contemplating therapy.

Today I finally pulled the trigger. In a few weeks, my beamspring keyboard will arrive. Complete with the solenoid that hammers the case with each keystroke, apparently to soothe typists used to the machine gun rat ta tats of their Selectric typewriters.

Yes, I work alone. Yes, I have stepped over the edge.