Clicks and Tweets

I haven't been posting enough lately, so this one is going to catch up a few topics that I've been thinking about:

Clicky Keyboards
The younger crowd is going to groan at this post. Back in the day, and by that I mean the period from 1980 to 1994, IBM (and later Lenovo) manufactured superb keyboards that had keys that provide what we in the industry call tactile feedback, otherwise known as clicks, when you type on them. Then quiet keyboards seemed to take over, probably because they are cheaper to make and IBM became less of a player in what was at that time called the "PC Compatibles" market.

Clicky keyboards utilize a mechanism called "buckling spring." Each key is supported by a spring that gives off a click when it is pressed past the point where it collapses. Quiet keyboards use a collapsing rubber dome under each key. I have actually worn through the rubber dome on the original iMac keyboard.

Anyway, here's the place to get your own clicky keyboard. These keyboards are heavy, built to last for 10,000 years, and they don't have any of those silly Windows keys that nobody uses anyway. If you want the extra keys, yes they sell that version too.

Twittering with Obama
A year ago I got interested in Twitter, but I discontinued using it because my cell phone's plan only allowed 50 texts a month and Twitter was blowing through that with ease. Recently I decided to take a second look at Twitter because I have a better cell phone plan.

If you don't know about Twitter, it's a service where you can subscribe to others' "Tweets" and receive, or follow, the messages they send. Likewise, anyone can follow you. You can choose to read Twitter on your cell phone, on their web site, in an RSS feed, or in an IM program.

I decided to see how many people I could find in Twitter. First I searched for a few people who I thought might be there and added them. Next was Barack Obama, thinking how his whole campaign has been very net-oriented from the start. Yep, there is an Obama feed. Then I looked for news organizations and found CNN which sent me a Tweet about a tornado on the ground in Oklahoma shortly afterward.

Back to Obama for a moment. As I said, his campaign has been very net-centric from the start, something that has given me a feeling that he shares interests and concerns with me. Whether this is a correct perception or not will just have to wait until he gets sworn in next January. When I told Twitter I wanted to "follow" Obama, shortly afterwards I got an email back from Twitter saying Obama was following me.

Now this is kind of weird, I thought. Not that I actually believe he's reading the Tweets sent from the tens of thousands of people he's following on Twitter. But what if he did? Here's a man who's just a candidate for office today, but next year he's likely going to be President. Will he still have a Twitter presence then? Would his Tweets become discoverable under FOIA? Right now, having him on Twitter is kind of fun, like saying "see how cool one of my Twitter followers is!" Once he's President, he he can't possibly still be just another cool friend on Twitter. What will happen to our perception of him? Will he be able to remain One of Us and not become One of Them? Do we even want him to?

This month's Atlantic features an excellent article on Obama's amazing communications machine. It doesn't focus enough on his netroots efforts, but there is some interesting information there. Check it out.