deskthority

I've been thinking for a little while that a podcast about keyboards (or about input devices in general) could be an interesting format for presenting keyboard news, as well as maybe interviewing various people in the keyboard world.

One thing that led me to this is having been a listener to the Open Apple podcast for quite a while. It's a ~1.5 hour monthly podcast about the Apple II, and there's enough news, events, and people to interview in an ostensibly "dead" market for that podcast to actually work. Meanwhile, high-end input devices are an extremely active and growing market. I'm thinking there's enough in this market to reliably pull together, oh, half an hour every month?

Essentially, Open Apple's typical format is, they have two regular hosts, and a guest from the community, who participates in all of the discussion (effectively being a third host for part of the show), and a segment is dedicated to interviewing them. The overall format goes along a structure, but the conversation is kept fairly informal, typically.

Anyone else think the idea sounds interesting?

Great idea, count me to your listeners

This is a subject that's close to my heart. I've been listening to podcasts for donkey's years (probably 10…) and I've long thought about getting involved in making one. You're right that the keyboard community could really use a good regular show. I'm a fairly confident public speaker, and have a decent microphone already, so you can definitely count me in.

The best part of podcasting is establishing a voice. Like a lot of people, I listen to shows for the people who're on them as much as the topic. Good editing really counts as well. A solid regular cast is the right way to go, so listeners can always count on the personality of the show; while there's a good selection of guests in this community who often have projects of their own which will be ideal to talk about.

So if you want me as a (mostly understandable, slightly Scottish sounding) regular, I'm happy to volunteer for that! I could also try my hand at editing. Because the difference between a bad show and a good show is often just the pacing.

Love the idea. I would definitely be a regular listener, but would also be willing to contribute to the shows.

If you guys didn't know, we made two Geekhack livestreams of around 2½ hours each:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18pFLgS9RzM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3fRy5-Cet0

Of course if we do one again, I'd be happy to have some of you there as well, or I could help organize a seperate Deskthority livestream (since there's definitely some different interests on DT and GH). Of course a livestream would be something different than a podcast, so just throwing that idea in.

Yeah, I'm thinking something edited and ideally a nice tight little production with single topic episodes, so people can pick exactly what to listen to.

Also: timezones can wreck recording schedules. We have to be record at the same time, which usually means crazy late hours over here to sync up with America. Easier to do that occasionally for interviews, I think, instead of as a routine. Unless someone in the US is a morning lark and wants to record at 5 am or something!

That said, I am a regular night owl, as my frequent overlap puzzles Xwhatsit, 12 hours away.

In any case, we'll have to work some magic to get 002 on someday.

It's worth noting that east coast US and UK time zones are a better sync, there's only a 5 hour difference. And, there's always weekends, too.

I already spend about 5 hours every Sunday night chatting to my brother on the west coast! It's that stuff that reminds me of the power of a topic and a deadline…

I would listen the heck out of 002's Topre rants!

Topre: Is it really mechanical? Discuss.

The flamewar episode!

question is not is topre mechanical but what is classed as a mechanical ? Do you just class it as a momentary contact device that uses electrical contacts ? if so only alps and cherry and the likes would qualify.

I would personally classify any switch that uses discrete components for each key ( as in no rubber mat) a mechanical switch.

It is fun to poke fun at topre however

Yeah, I've heard someone argue on this forum that Model F capsense buckling spring "isn't mechanical". I had to go lie down…

or an even more simple classification is

not a rubber dome POS

how does it matter? I would probably pick a good rubber over any MX brown keyboard.

Yeah, like your FC660C!

(I enjoy playing devil's advocate for a change. Topres are among my faves. The real problem is "mechanical". It really just means MX to anyone who's half interested, and hasn't jumped in the deep end with us lot yet!)

There's a reason I used the phrase "high-end input devices", to neatly sidestep the "mechanical" issue.

Although, there are rubber domes that I like, and Topre is not among them...

There were some podcasts from user kmiller8 from GH available, but which seem to be not online anymore. I think i heard some interviews if i remember correctly - for example one with Bro Caps. I love to listen to speaking people (and not music) when driving by car and so i would really like keyboard related podcasts.
Interviews would be nice - R. H. Harris for example