A mechanical keyboard 06/14/21
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The kids bought me an inexpensive mechanical keyboard for father's day
(and  a ball  mouse, but  I'll get  to  that in  just a  bit.) It's  a
Sunsonny with MX blue copies.  I've enjoyed mechanical keyboards since
the old IBM XT days, but I've never bothered buying a modern one.

This one has white LEDs. There was  no way I was getting one with some
psychedelic rainbow light-show in my face. The keys are a mix of black
and gray. I think it cost about $30.

A few observations:

1. I  enjoy the multi-colored  keycaps in  black and gray.  Maybe it's
old-fashioned of me (the IBM's  had multi-colored caps), I don't know,
but I just appreciate the visual. I don't think it makes the thing any
easier to  use (I don't look  at it, so  why would it matter?),  but I
like it anyway.

2. The MX Blue copies are, in  my very uneducated opinion (I use retro
keyboards, remember?)  quite nice.  Especially for the  price-point. I
don't know  how they'll wear  or hold up, but  out of the  box they're
great. People online complain about these being loud, but I'm guessing
they're not comparing them to anything retro. To my ears, they're fine
(even though I  was coming from a logitech wireless  on this computer,
which made no noise at all.)

3. The Fn-keys are  good. They did a great job.  Easy and intuitive to
control the lights, for when they  get annoying. Quick and easy to get
a simple on or  off with the lights too (even  though there's a stupid
amount of  light-show-esque settings as  well.) Media Fn-  combos work
out of the box too.

4. Font on  the keycaps is dumb.  I guess they were  trying to impress
gamers or something,  it looks like a wannabe Call  of Duty mess. It's
both blocky  and rounded at the  same time, and is  surprisingly ugly.
Certain  characters  are hard  to  read  quickly (c'mon  people,  font
readability matters,  even if  you're not looking  most of  the time!)
That said, it doesn't matter much.

5.  Base as  some  good weight  to  it. Keycaps  are  easy to  remove.
Switches look  like they'd come out  pretty easily too, but  I haven't
tried. Angle of typing is good. Slight curve is good.

Five stars,  for the  price, and  for someone  with nothing  to really
compare it to.

***

Ok, the trackball  mouse, real quick. It's a  simple Kensington Orbit,
silver  ball. The  ergonomics  aren't  great on  it,  but they're  not
terrible. It's been  years since I've used a trackball.  From the feel
of it, I think I'll enjoy the break from a normal mouse.

Had to turn the sensitivity way  down with xinput. Still not sure I've
got those settings quite right.

It has a  scroll ring that works exceptionally well.  Very loose. Easy
to flick it and go to the very bottom of the page (some websites still
have a "bottom of the page"! I think I'll probably have to explain the
concept to my grandkids though.)