What is SpaceFN and why you should give it a try
The SpaceFN concept - setting up your space key as a layer switch when held - is probably one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby. Let me explain how it works. My SpaceFN article on kbd.news made some rounds recently - quite surprisingly given the age of this concept. This piece you're reading is a condensed version of the full post. If you're left with unanswered questions, you'll most likely find the info you're looking for in the original write-up. On my imaginary top list of the most useful keyboard features, tweaks and hacks, SpaceFN would deserve a podium finish for sure. But what makes it so special? In short: SpaceFN is easy to implement, easy to learn, costs nothing, can be used with any keyboard, and can improve your productivity instantly. I will list its benefits below, but can state right at this point that the SpaceFN concept, setting up your space key as a layer switch when held, is clearly one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby....
Apr 30, 2024
but, i thought most of the older boards used PBT, be it dye sub or double shot? like the model F and M, or big PDP11 admin boards, or
don't get me wrong, PBT is great.. but it is kind of old fashioned at this point, as are most plastics in use today. unless their dye sub process is like... hecking amazing? i'd seen stuff saying SP constantly work to get sharper dyesub legends, are these guys similar? (though either way i find the marketing copy a little odd)
i thought as keyboard heads we understood that newer isn't always better. old keyboards are still built like tanks when modern mechanical keyboards usually aren't. they use really cool switches like hall effect or beamspring, which have rated lifetimes that leave ALPS and cherry MX in the dust. some of them have hugely thick circuit board traces, made of silver or gold because longevity and quality of use in an industrial setting was the top priority.
no matter how you slice it, injection moulding is an old fashioned process now. it was pioneered in the 60s. it's so well-optimised that it's one of the cheapest (in the economics sense, not the judgmental-about-quality sense) ways you can manufacture things today, even though in the 60s injection moulded plastic furniture cost more than handmade wooden or metal ones.
lots of us keyboard fans also like things like old hifi equipment. the best cassette machines are the ones from the 80s and 90s, not recent releases. lots of us know how older equipment that was built with heavy toggle switches and clicky stepper dials is satisfying. lots of us miss vacuum-fluorescent displays being on every electronic device, or will build nixie tube project clocks.
old stuff is really rad, actually. people say modern things are built "more efficient". certainly in terms of waste products like CO2 or slag. but there has been a trend since the late 80s to build things to cost less to build, instead of to be efficient over the product's lifetime. even though 70s hifi tape decks will still work a charm, many 90s DCC or DAT systems are completely broken today. unsurprisingly, they're from the era of rubber dome membrane keyboards taking over, the era where it was cheaper for the manufacturer to build an entirely new keyboard than to replace a switch.
i do find it interesting how you injected aesthetic judgments, like mechanical keyboards being "bulky" instead of, say, "sturdy", or calling a new dell board "sleek" instead of "hollow and creaky", and seem to have decided that i hold these views.