Tearing Things Up

Last weekend when the family popped into our neighborhood Goodwill store, I made a little purchase inspired by Gever Tulley: a computer keyboard. It cost me $2. I didn't know if it would work or not when we got home, and I didn't care. 'Cause I wasn't going to use it.

We were gonna crack it open and see what was inside.

All the kiddies gathered around as we popped a few keys off, and then went gonzo on every exposed screw we could find. Layer after layer came off, and I was very surprised at what we discovered. I thought I knew how a keyboard worked, but boy was I wrong.

The spongy feel of the keys is caused by a layer of plastic that they keys bounce into when they're pressed. No springs anywhere! Peel that off, and there's a couple more layers of plastic sheets that laminate the circuitry. Nifty-orama.

Zach asked me a few hard to answer questions about how this and that worked. I had to answer honestly, "I have no idea." But as Gever would tell you, that's not the point. The point is to show a little mind that these mysterious electronic boxes around the house "are knowable".

We've got our eyes on the VCR that just stopped working [maniacal laughter].