Maybe we need some better mouse pointing options. How about a little tool/extsension that makes the mouse pointer blink or turn into a circle or glow or something when you hold down some key combination and click?
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Also, dirt and stuff is ugly and un-neat, but it’s not worth it to worry too much about every last germ on your stuff. Humans have pretty good immune systems. Try to avoid catching things, but don’t try to use antibacterial chemicals to try to do the job of your immune system. Your immune system is a highly tuned defensive system. Antibacterial chemicals (toxins to bacteria) are a blunt nuke of all microorganisms on your hands or whatever, benign along with the possibly bad.
(not that you shouldn’t use any soap – actual soap (not detergent and other chemicals, which often pretends to be soap by being placed with all the real soap in the market) to wash is great)
We are apes with a penchant for scratching our arses, picking our noses and putting one anothers urinary genitalia in our mouths. We are dirty dirty little apes. Trouble is, some of us can get more than a little bit cranky at times and it seems like a majority of that crankyness works in programming.
Your keyboard is an input device - you don’t look at it so why bother what it looks like, so long as it works. You are much germier than your keyboard no matter how filthy or hairy it is. Mine has a nice lint of hair and fluff between the keys which is very effective in stopping the crunchy bits from getting back of the keys and gumming up the works. The key faces are polished bright and even parts of some letter legends are wearing away, but around the key edges is like a little crust of grime which tends to connect with the lint matt. My keyboard is nearly ORGANIC and without question must support a diversity of life forms. So what? So do I, every cell of the human body is outnumbered 10:1 by the life forms that infest and cohabit our bodies. But then - we are dirty dirty little apes.
Your screen is a communication device - mostly communicating with just you granted, and also a visual communication granted, so you need to be able to see what is displayed on it in order for that communication to be effective. But communication is not just visual. The human animal chatters to itself almost continuously and when thinking problems though, pointing and touch and hand gestures are an integral part of effective communication.
So when someone comes to talk a project through with you, remember to encourage them to touch the screen (touch it yourself to give then permission and encouragement)as part of their communication process and try to pay attention to them, not the fingermarks - that’s what they are there for - you are being paid to communicate, not to get all anal about YOUR space and YOUR screen. Afterwards you can be cranky and get the wipes out to remove the smudges.
You might be brilliant at coding, but if you fail to communicate then you are a crap programmer because programming is 90% communication (and you can’t communicate if you are getting up your arse about fingerprints)
Are screen touchers the same people that touch photos?
Why? Why do you need to touch the photo? I know it’s a picture of you and that you were fatter/thinner/drunk or whatever, but I don’t need your fingerprint in the middle of the photo!
I personally use a plastic cover for the keyboard… i mean you have to get used a little bit but surely it keeps the keyboard clean, avoiding the oily and shiny spots that get on the buttons after you eat pizza while update your bookmards.
you can buy it everywhere for not that much, i mean its always an option.
Regards…
Donnie
You want to see some ‘potential health hazards’, you should see the gunk in my mouse. lol
Still, I’d never replace it. It’s the kind where you control the mouse with both the index- and middle-finger – while the thumb does left-click and the ring-finger does right-click. Way more precise than those whacky thumb ones or the pseudo-videogame ones I’ve seen. Besides, fits my hand in a natural way.
i have special toothbrush and microfiber cloth for cleaning keyboard. You can’t clean every little corner with cloth, so that’s when toothbrush becomes handy.
Toothbrush is also good for cleaning dusty motherboards/memory chips etc!
My son vomited on the keyboard. I disassembled and washed, didnt work again. This was one of the fancy ones with extra buttons on the top connected to a little pcb with an elastomeric strip.
Given a do-over I would wash it assembled and then leave it in a hot car to dry out.
I just use a damp washcloth to clean my laptop screen. I’m not even sure how the smudges get there because I never touch it. Like glasses, screens seems to just be a magnet for funk. I can’t enjoy using my laptop if it is smudgy. Much like “Clean house, clean mind”, the same principle applies to one’s computer as well.
I’ll vouch for the dishwasher method personally - I’ve washed several keyboards this way and never had an issue. I never felt the need to disassemble them either.
It does generally take several days to dry completely, as you mentioned, so be sure you have a spare before doing this. If you’re in a pinch, you can lean the wet keyboard up against a box fan on high to speed up the process dramatically.
One thing I haven’t tried is washing an IR or Bluetooth keyboard, but I wouldn’t expect that to be much different in practice.
After a year at my current job I was able to talk the powers that be to purchase me a Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite (my all time fav keyboard). Unfortunately, after about a year of use it crapped out on me. For a replacement, I was given a Logitech wireless model from a former employee. Let me tell you, scientists probing the ocean depths looking for new life forms could probably save a lot of time and money by simply directing their efforts to the hand-me-down Logitech I was assigned. Pieces of food, hairs, dried liquids, unnameable gunk…I was forced to disassemble the entire mess, key by key and give it a thorough cleaning.
People are gross. Just monkeys with buttons and hair products! That’s why I keep a bottle of hand sanitizer close by.
IMHO, if you’re going to point at something on the screen, that’s fine - just don’t actually “touch” the screen. It’s not hard.
In those rare cases where I have to point more precisely and actually touch the screen, I flip my finger over and tap ever so gently with my fingernail. That way, no disgusting smudges. Ahhh, compromise!
When it comes to my work computer, it can be annoying to have someone walk up and touch the monitor, but that’s really not the worst thing they do. Someone (or some group of people) seems to think that if you’re out of the office (for whatever reason) and they need to leave you a message, the best way to do so is to put a sticky note in the middle of your monitor. This is especially wonderful if it’s a long trip and the sticky note sits there long enough to just stop sticking and fall behind the keyboard, leaving a nice strip of dirt and grime the width of the note on the screen (not to mention their grimy fingerprints and streaks from placing the sticky note there), and the note often unseen for days.
I still use old Model M keyboards (plus one recent Unicomp one). I avoid all the problems with dirt on them by using (and keeping a stock) of keyboard covers. They are cheap, can be washed in an abusive manner that would trash regular keyboards (but probably NOT Model M ones ), and when they’re worn out can be replaced in a matter of seconds. Problem solved!
WRT monitors, I’m just as anal as Jeff. Whenever someone puts a finger on my monitor, I stop whatever I was doing (usually explaining something to said person), take out the microfiber cloth and clean the smudge while looking at him/her with an annoyed look.
Besides, fits my hand in a natural way.
), and when they’re worn out can be replaced in a matter of seconds. Problem solved!