I'm only a beginner down the rabbithole known as mech-keebs, but I thought I'd source some thoughts here. Apologies if this has been expanded on in other ~hobbies threads.

Those of you who have been in the mech game longer, what switches have you tried? What do you find are your personal preferences on switches and why do you think that is? Have you ventured away from the very popular Cherry MX switches?

What about keycaps? What are your favourite profiles or colourway designs? Preferred material? I am currently rocking a DSA set of keycaps from one of my favourite designers, MiTo: https://mitormk.com/legacy-dsa/ I got the blue/black Tron-inspired set. I gotta admit, I was a little skeptical of ABS caps, but they're really nicely textured in a way that's reminiscent of PBT, but without that powdery grippiness.

Tell me about some of your favourite layouts too! I hear some pretty aggressive proponents of tenkeyless layouts, but I just really like my numpad for lots of numeric input. If it were just a gaming keyboard, I probably would be pretty happy with TKL though.

Are you working on any new projects right now?

Looking forward to all the responses!

The back story is that I’m currently deciding whether to get a PS4 or a Nintendo Switch.

But instead of just a “what’s your fave” thread I want to take this opportunity to turn it into a proper discussion which console you think is filling the casual gamer needs better, why and how. Including the games

Now, my personal feeling – and I never owned a game console before myself, but have gamed on the PC before – it seems to me like Nintendo is trying to cater to the casual gamer who wants to wind down and perhaps play some fun games with friends during a party. While Sony and Microsoft seem to me to aim more at gamers who want a more immersive experience and play either alone or if with others in a more competitive/rival way.

A while ago there was a post comparing e-books and hard copies. After chatting with a few people, I was convinced to spend the money on a Kindle to replace reading on my laptop.
It's an amazing difference and I'd recommend it to anyone who reads on a "normal" screen. My eyes don't get tired, night reading is more comfortable, I've got 40 books in my pocket, the screen really is glare free, and I've charged it once in a week and a half.
So if you read e-books, get a reader with the e-ink screen. It's worth it, and thanks to those who convinced me.

I have a gaming laptop that I mostly used as a desktop (bought used, was a good price) with external screen and devices attached. This past Sunday, I was wiping the dust off it and noticed that the trackpad felt oddly curved, then I also noticed that entire device body was slightly bloated as... which led to the discovery that the battery is swollen and that it needs to be replaced.

But I wouldn't have noticed it otherwise if I hadn't been cleaning my desk that day. It's placed on the far side of my desk on a laptop stand (although well ventilated) so I rarely pay attention to it, if at all. It might have gone on for much longer and eventually led to a disaster before I even caught on to the problem.

So, my question is: how does one track these potential hardware problems without having to manually inspect different parts of the device every now and then?

(While my device is a laptop with W10 OS, the question isn't limited to just that. Inputs for Mac and other related products are also welcomed.)

Hi all,

In light of our recent conversations re quality, I'm sorry that this is more of a "nothing" post. But I trust you all and I think you could give me some good advice. I've tried Googling, but it's hard to find anything I feel is trustworthy.

I'm searching for a few tablets on which I can have employees view training videos and or SCORM training content. I believe all of this will be sourced from web-based companies with mobile platforms built-in. I know very little about tech stuff, so I don't know if a basic tablet would do, or if I need any certain specs.

I believe our wi-fi is good enough to support this. We'll be purchasing 2-8 of these for intermittent trainings.

Needs:

• Cheap-ish
• Durable (We will be buying industrial Otter-box type cases as well)
• Good volume/accessibility (Avg employee age is 52)
• Standard video playback (don't need super hi-def anything)

I posted in ~talk rather than ~tech or ~comp because I didn't think it would fit there. Thank you!