One thing I've learned: Hardware manufacturers may not have noticed, but we users care deeply about our keyboards. To be more specific, our keys.

    Take Douglas Abrams, a 49-year-old American based in Singapore. Mr. Abrams' work may be cutting edge -- he runs an online bank called FirstMeta supplying credit cards to the users of virtual world SecondLife -- but his keyboard isn't. It's one of a pair of IBM Model M 1391401 keyboards he's been using since 1989 -- the year his chief operating officer, Aileen Sim, turned 6. She, by the way, is not impressed: As she taps away at his computer demonstrating how their MetaCard works in SecondLife, she complains loudly above the racket his keyboard makes.
Mr. Abrams is unrepentant: 'Over that 18-year period,' he says about the time he's used his IBM keyboard, 'I have had more computers than I can count or remember, but I have never found a keyboard that compared to the IBM 1391401.' Its main appeal? Exactly what drives the young Ms. Sim nuts: 'The tactile feedback that I get when I type. It feels very firm when I press one of the keys and I can very clearly feel the keys snap back after pressing them,' he says.

    Mr. Abrams, it turns out, is not alone. The world is full of fans of the old-style keyboard. Indonesian entrepreneur Jerry Justianto swears by his IBM PS/2 System 70, from a line that was introduced in 1987, for similar reasons. So does Chris Riemer, a U.S.-based consultant: 'It had just the right degree of resistance,' he recalls, 'and the right amount of click.' Indonesian blogger Budi Putra loves the noise, too, and wishes that keyboard makers would 'create a keyboard sound like the old machines.' Not a bad idea.

    The clicking sound they so love, by the way, is because of the 'buckling spring' mechanism, where the spring buckles under pressure from your finger until a lever hits a sheet below.

    This, according to a review of the IBM Model M keyboards by technology writer Daniel Rutter , not only provides the reassuring sound but also ensures that the user knows when they've actually hit the key: 'When you use a keyboard that doesn't have a good positive click,' writes Mr. Rutter, 'it's hard to tell when you've depressed a key properly.' The buckling spring method, unfortunately, has long been replaced by the 'rubber dome,' where little sticks on the underside of the keys press down on rubber domes laid on a plastic underlay. This is why you don't hear so much clickety-clack in offices these days.

    Of course, not all of us have seen the value of good keyboard action. As Mr. Rutter points out, in the days before mice, we, and manufacturers, tended to give a lot more thought to them. Nowadays, for many of us it's an afterthought, often after spending $100 or so on a fancy mouse. Most of us think nothing of sitting in front of an office computer all day, our fingers dancing across a substandard keyboard that we would never think of replacing for a better one. According to a U.S.-based distributor of refurbished and unused Model M keyboards called clickykeyboards.com: 'The computer keyboard is among the most under-appreciated components of the computer. In reality, the keyboard is the one part of the computer that gets the most physical contact.'

    The passion of Mr. Abrams and others, woke me up to the fact that while we tend to focus on the look of a keyboard, it's about the touch, response, action, whatever you want to call it, of the keys themselves that really matters. If we like the action, we like to type. I've long loved my ThinkPad keyboard, for example; it's probably no accident it was also designed by IBM, back when they owned the brand.

    There are other options, and it's worth trying out a few to see whether they may suit you better than the one you've got. I admire Microsoft's keyboards which are well designed and solid. My latest was a simple affair, less than $15, with reassuringly tough keys and a good clickety-clack response. Sadly, I had to sacrifice that side of things when people I interviewed over the phone started asking what the weird rustling sound was -- turned out it was my typing their answers, the sound of which was getting picked up by my headset. It sounded, apparently, like a ship full of rats scurrying for the exit.

    Instead I've opted for the diNovo Edge from Logitech, a company which has always pushed the boundaries between keyboard and command console. This one is black, sleek and is the first keyboard I've tried that actually connects seamlessly by Bluetooth, as opposed to those that only claim to. It even comes with a sort of stand-alone slot to recharge the keyboard batteries. I'm not usually a fan of extraneous controls, but those on this model are quite useful: a slider you drag your finger along to change volume, and a circular pad you can use to scroll up or down pages with your finger. Not rocket science, but neat. Unfortunately the price isn't: Expect to pay at least $150 for it. Still, it has great action and is about as quiet a keyboard as I've come across.

    Sean Foley, a Laos-based consultant, has also found the Logitech diNovo keyboard the best of the bunch, so much so that he carries his 'to and from the office each day and everywhere,' he says. He's not alone in packing a keyboard: Phil Baker, a U.S.-based technology entrepreneur and columnist, says he carries 'a full-size keyboard around with me because I prefer it over the laptop keyboard. But maybe I'm weird.'
In a minority, yes. But not weird. Given how much time we spend on them, maybe a bit more passion about our keyboards from all of us wouldn't go amiss.

    我认识到的一个事实是：电脑使用者对键盘非常在意，说得更具体些，是键盘的按键。但电脑硬件制造商们却可能一直没注意到这点。
就拿49岁的美国商人道格拉斯•阿布拉姆斯(Douglas Abrams)来说吧，他在新加坡经营的业务可能属于高端──一家名为FirstMeta的网上银行，向网络游戏SecondLife的玩家提供信用卡服务。但他的电脑键盘可就不是了。这是一个他从1989年起就一直在使用的IBM 1391401键盘，那一年他的首席运营长艾琳•赛姆(Aileen Sim)刚满6岁。但艾琳对这个键盘却不感冒，当她用阿布拉姆斯的电脑演示SecondLife的玩家如何使用FirstMeta推出的信用卡MetaCard时，禁不住对电脑的IBM键盘抱怨连连。

    但阿布拉姆斯却仍对这个键盘一往情深：“在过去18年里，我用过的电脑数不胜数，但我从没发现哪台电脑的键盘能比得上我的IBM 139140。”而这款键盘的主要诱人之处恰恰是让艾琳小姐气恼不已的地方，用阿布拉姆斯的话来说就是：摁下按键后能明显感觉到它反弹的力道。他说，这些按键按上去感觉很硬，人能明显感觉到按键的回弹。

    广告与阿布拉姆斯有同样偏好的不乏其人。当今世界上老式键盘的“粉丝”还真不少。印度尼西亚企业家杰里•加斯田托(Jerry Justianto)就非常信赖他的IBM PS/2 System 70键盘，他从1987年买下一台IBM电脑后就开始使用这个键盘了，喜爱的理由与阿布拉姆斯相同。美国的咨询师克里斯•雷米尔(Chris Riemer)也是同道中人。他评价自己用过的IBM老式键盘时说，它的硬度恰到好处，敲击时发出的滴答声不高不低。印尼的博客写手布迪•普特拉(Budi Putra)也喜欢听敲击键盘发出的滴答声，他希望键盘厂家能生产出像老式电脑那样在敲击时答答作响的键盘。这个想法不错。

    老式键盘之所以能发出他们如此着迷的答答声，要归因于其“座曲式”结构。按键的弹簧在手指的按压下不断弯曲，直至弹簧连接的一个杠杆触及按键底部的一层薄膜。

    用科普作家丹尼尔•普特尔(Daniel Rutter)评论IBM Model M键盘时的话说，这种结构不仅能使按键发出令某些人心旷神怡的答答声，还能让打字的人明确知道自己是否已经将按键摁到位了。普特尔写道：如果使用的是一个不能明确发出答答声的键盘，你就难以判断自己是否已经把按键摁到了位。不幸的是，这种“座曲式”结构的键盘早就被“橡胶圆点”式键盘所取代了。后者的键帽下附有小按棒，按键被摁下时按棒就会触动分布在一层塑料薄膜上的橡胶圆点。正因为如此，如今的写字间里再也难闻一片答答声了。

    当然，并非所有的人都那么在意键盘的好坏。正像普特尔所指出的，在鼠标发明以前，电脑用户和制造商们对键盘要比现在关注得多。而现在，我们许多人常常是在花100美元买了个时尚鼠标后才想起要给电脑配键盘。我们大多数人对于整天坐在电脑前办公已经习以为常，我们日常用的键盘很可能质量不佳，但我们却从没想过要换个更好的。美国一家专卖翻新和库存IBM Model M键盘的企业clickykeyboards.com称，键盘在电脑各部件中最未得到应有的重视，而它实际上是电脑与人身体接触最频繁的部分。

    阿布拉姆斯等人对键盘的锺情使我意识到，虽然我们往往看重的是键盘的外观，实际上真正重要的却是按键的触感、反应，或随便你怎么称呼的那种感觉。如果这种感觉良好，敲键盘对我们来说就是乐事一桩。比如说我就一直很喜欢自己ThinkPad笔记本电脑的键盘，而如此好的键盘设计出自IBM恐怕也并非巧合，我买这部电脑时ThinkPad品牌还为IBM所有。

    其他公司也有些不错的键盘，不妨尝试一下，看看是否比你现在用的强。微软(Microsoft)的键盘以其良好设计和坚固耐用博得了我的好感。我刚淘汰的就是一个只花15美元买的微软键盘。键盘的按键结实耐敲，敲击时还能发出清脆的答答声。遗憾的是，这一悦耳享受在我进行电话采访时常常不得不忍痛牺牲，因为被采访者往往会隔着电话问我那些古怪的声音是什么，经查证那是我记录他们回答内容时的打字声，而我的电话听筒又起了放大这些声音的作用。这声音在电话那头听来就像是一艘船上成千上万只夺路而逃的老鼠发出的叫声。

    我于是转而选用Logitech出产的diNovo Edge键盘，这家公司的键盘越做越像控制台。这个键盘颜色纯黑、外形圆滑，是我第一个真正使用蓝牙(Bluetooth)技术的键盘。它甚至还有一个专门给键盘电池充电的插槽。我虽然对电器的各种新奇功能一般不太感兴趣，但这个键盘的一些小功能却很有用，比如一个可用手指拖动的音量调节器，以及一个方便你在电脑屏幕上翻页的圆形旋钮。这些都算不上什么高科技，但很实用。但遗憾的是这个键盘的价格可不实惠，至少要卖150美元。不过它按上去的手感很不错，而且在我见过的键盘中大概是敲击时最安静的。

    在老挝工作的咨询师肖恩•福利(Sean Foley)也认为Logitech的diNovo键盘是最棒的，他对这款键盘的喜爱程度达到了与之形影不离的程度。随身携带键盘的并非只有他一个人，美国企业家兼专栏作家菲尔•贝克尔(Phil Baker)说，他到哪里都随身带着一个大号键盘，因为他用不惯笔记本电脑的键盘。但他也怀疑自己的行为有点怪。

    像他这样的人确实不多见，但他这种行为却不能称之为怪异。鉴于我们每天要与键盘打如此长时间的交道，对键盘的关注超乎寻常一些恐怕不算有毛病吧。