RE: Quiet workplace

[Mailing List <mlist -at- ca -dot- rainbow -dot- com>]

One thing about workplace noise that was brushed aside 
is that it is a "pressure". Even if it's not an intelligible 
or grating sound -- and therefore distracting -- it is 
still an oppressive force that takes a toll.

With that in mind, I spent some money on a silent power 
supply and a quiet processor fan, and some insulation 
panels for my home PC. The decrease in noise was remarkable. 
I hadn't realized how stressful it was to be next to 
that jet engine for hours at a time, until it was 
effectively silenced (thanks to www.quietpc.com -- I bought 
from the Canadian sub-site).

At the office, I contend with our own noisy product, 
wailing away in my cube, when it was intended for 
server-room rackmount.
Oh well.

BUT... one of the most obtrusive PC-related noises is the 
clacking of keyboard keys. There's a certain amount of 
thunk-thunk from the downstrokes, that travels through 
furniture, but it is controlled by foam under the keyboard.
That leaves the clatter-clack of the keys themselves. Mine 
and other people's.  It's amazing how a neighbor's constant 
backspace/typo-fixing can pull you out of concentration on 
a technical topic.  At home, it's amazing how it requires 
closing two doors to muffle the clatter so that other people 
can sleep.  Even if I could comfortably type with the 
keyboard in my lap, that does little to muffle key-clatter.

Why, oh why, does it seem to be impossible to get a good-quality, 
good-typing-feel QUIET keyboard?  I finally got a chance to try 
one of those roll-up membrane thingies, and it was just not a 
comfortable typing experience. Nice gimmick, but I'm not going 
to type dozens of pages on one -- and I rarely need to type 
in the shower. 

The last time I raised this, a few people smugly told how 
they had saved closets full of old keyboards from 1980s vendors 
who don't even exist anymore. 
Bully for you, but that doesn't get me any closer to a 
keyboard that I can buy.

Google searches on various keyword combinations around "quiet", 
"silent", "low-noise", etc., etc., yield plenty of message-
board cries for a less noisy keyboard, but almost no reference 
to product that satisfies the need. At least, not in a form 
that a tech writer would use all day for touch-typing.

I've seen hints that Cherry produces some relatively quiet 
keyboards, but they all seem to be special-purpose, industrial 
units. I don't find retail vendors, only business-to-business 
for attachment to POS cash registers and industrial equipment.

Anybody know anything helpful?

Thanks,

/kevin (clattering away in Ottawa, Canada)