Learn on someone else's mistakes...

    Do you ever eat or drink next to your computer? I sure do.

    I have [had] a very nice ghetto black keyboard from my original Compaq. About every half year, my keyboard becomes about half a kilogram heavier from all the small bits and pieces of food that fall into it. Because of all the stuff inside it, I call my keyboard "Chips Ahoy!". But who likes to work on an extremely dirty keyboard? That's where washing comes in. You should wash your keyboard clean from time to time. Just be sure to disconnect it from your computer first. Last summer I have successfully washed my keyboard in my pool - just dipped it in and stirred the water around with it to get all the chunks out. All the small crap that fell out of it was later picked up by the skimmer later that day.

    I was finishing up a hot dog while happily burning a CD when all of a sudden ketchup dripped on my keyboard! Nothing terrible I thought - I'll just wash it. I went on to remove the top of the keyboard along with all the keys. I then proceeded to wash the keyboard top under warm water in the shower.

    After about a minute of washing, all the ketchup was gone, but the abovementioned Chips Ahoy! crap remained under the keys. The decision to remove all keys with the help of a kitchen knife was made. After the removal, all keys were put in the sink and soaked in warm water with some dish detergent for several minutes.

    After the washing, the keys looked almost brand new! It was time to rinse the keys and put the keyboard back together. That's where I did something that makes me deserve a kick in the butt.

    After the rinsing, I put the keys onto a towel to dry for 10 minutes. When I got back, all the keys were dry, so I started putting the keyboard back together only to find that my space bar, along with few other keys wont fit!

    Not realizing it myself, I have rinsed keys with VERY hot water, which caused them to warp and bend. This is an irreversible process. I have tried warming the space bar key up with a hair dryer and then trying to straighten it out, but I just ended up warping it even more.

    I'm now typing this on a extremely bad keyboard purchased for $1 at a computer show. the keys are so hard to press down that my fingers hurt. If I don't get a better keyboard within several days, I'm sure ill end up with carpal tunnel decease.

    Oh well, idiots learn on their own mistakes. I wanted a new wireless keyboard anyway...

    I'll be sure to burn or otherwise do something terrible to the remains of this keyboard... Making some sort of device to project all the buttons I have left from it into heads of the people nearby would be pretty cool too...