Re: OT: Wash hands after computer use.

[Juerd]

Or, well, CLEAN YOUR KEYBOARDS. Just a wild guess. :)

Here's a rough guide for weekly/monthly cleaning:

1. Blow out as much as you can with canned air.
2. Clean the surface of the keyboard as you clean any surface, but make sure no liquid drops into the keyboard.
3. Let it dry.

And for 6-monthly/yearly cleaning:

1. Pop off all keys with a screw driver or key remover.
2. Do the canned air trick.
3. Dip all keys in a solution of a strong cleaner (I've used biotex and ammonia), stir.
4. Wash off the keys with lots of water.
5. Let everything dry.
6. Put the keys back on the keyboard in Dvorak order.

And washing your hands *before* you use a keyboard greatly helps keeping it clean. Oh, and don't smoke!!! Smokers have filthy hands and ditto keyboards.

If the uncleanliness of keyboards scares you, don't touch door knobs, as those too are often not cleaned! And think about phones, especially mobile ones. What about your car keys? Think twice next time you fill up the car - who's touched that hose before?

It's time to buy lots of soap!

Update: hey, where's my sig?

[zentara]

Actually, your solution makes me think! Why not have multiple keyboards, and swap them daily and clean them in a "rotational schedule". This would be cheap and easy to implement in places where it counts, like hospitals, nursing homes, schools,etc. Keyboards only cost a few dollars, and how hard is it to swap one?

[Juerd]

Keyboards only cost a few dollars

While keyboards costing around $5 exist, no typist would want to use those for longer than ten minutes. For in hospitals, the problem with the things is that they're not as reliable as you'd want them to be. I've always wondered why people still buy these crappy things. By coincidence, today I even saw someone clean such a cheap thing. I wouldn't even have bothered. In fact, I sometimes get used keyboards from people who think they can be of use to me, and I throw most away because cleaning them thoroughly is too much work. And I still have over 50 keyboards in stock. Does anyone want to buy a dvorak keyboard by any chance? It's okay, they're clean!

[zentara]

I have an idea, if you want it, you can patent it. :-)

How about a "fast keyboard cleaner", which would be a handheld device, and could clean a keyboard "like a fast car wash". It would be about 10 inches wide, and would be moved slowly from left-to-right across the keyboard. The first stage would be a rotating wet bristle brush, kept soaked with a germicide-viricide mixture. It would be fed to a wet-dry vac for collection. That would be followed by a strong UV light and hot air blow-dry section. It probably would be a 2-part tool...first wet-brush-vac the keyboard, followed by a 2 minute UV-blowdry under a shoebox-size cover.

I bet you could sell millions of them to health care organizations.

Ok, I'll retire now. ;-)