"Geir Harris Hedemark" wrote in message
...
"Ted Byers" writes:
The ONLY way your keyboard is going to be really safe is if a) you ban
liquids from within a metre of the keyboard, or b) you install a
keyboard
condom (a flexible plastic envelop molded to the shape of your
keyboard -
flexible so that you can type with it in place, but guaranteed to keep
liquids out of your keyboard unless it is torn or punctured).

Keyboards are inexpensive. I keep a spare, and this one get to take a
shower
with me (no, really) once in a while. When it dies, it will get a
proper burial in the dustbin before I break out the new one.

Yes, keyboards are inexpensive, but a keyboard failure due to shorts caused
by liquid can prove to be quite expensive. I gave one example in which
precisely such a failure destroyed every printed circuit board in the
machine. In such a failure, everything that is in the computer needs to be
replaced and in such a case, the cost can run to several thousand dollars.
The reason this is a problem is that the circuit in the keyboard is
connected to circuits in the motherboard which in turn is connected to
everything else, and the mere existance of such connections puts everything
in the box at risk. NB: there are multiple ciruits in most of these
devices, so there is a random element in that a given spill may not affect
some ciruits and therefore some devices might escape damage in some spills.

Keyboard condoms are only an option in kitchens where you want your
keyboards to be _clean_. But why are people typing when they should be
cooking my food?

I don't agree here. Keyboard condoms are an option in any office where
there may be liquids near the keyboard. The alternative is to ban all
liquids from proximity to the keyboard (possibly to the point of requiring
drinks such as coffee or soda to be on any other desk where there is no
electical device to even banning any liquid in the entire working area). I
KNOW, from first hand experience, that software developers (and presumably
others) are quite productive when they have their coffee close at hand, and
so if I employed other software developers (or if I had a need for office
workers), I would ensure that all of the keyboards in use had a condom in
place, just in case of an accident.

Also, I would say that computers can have a useful role in a kitchen. As an
example, I recently designed and implemented a consumer software product
that allows the user to enter and store any recipe in a database, as well as
store dietary limits for each member of his family (e.g. food allergies,
limits on fat or salt intake, &c.) and prepare meal plans that take dietary
limitations into account (and produce a shooping list that supports full
implementation of the meal plan). Clearly, unless your cook or chef has
memorized all of the recipes he or she ever uses, it is useful to have such
a product in which the recipes to be used for a given meal can be sought and
displayed. A related suite of products will involve recipe databases that
can be used with this consumer product, and of course they will be of
interest to anyone who might buy a recipe book. With such software
products, one would not want to waste paper by printing out the recipes
every time it is needed (or to print them and then have to store or file
them away for later use). It is most convenient to have such a product on a
computer located in or adjacent to the kitchen. I will grant that the
keyboard can be done away with (as can the mouse) by resorting to a touch
screen, but that makes entering a new recipe tedious at best. With software
products such as those I described, it becomes easy and practical to
experiment with recipes since each variant of a recpe can be stored (and in
a planned premium version, annotated). NB: I am talking here about
supporting and enhancing processes that belong in the kitchen, not importing
tasks that don't really belong in the kitchen.

Cheers,

Ted