Computer keyboardAside from the Spectrums and Commodores we’d had as kids, my brother and I got our first proper PC in the mid-1990s.

I don’t know whether it was the increased power of the machine, or the wider ranger of software we had, or because we were older, but whatever it was, that one, a 286, always sticks in my mind as our first computer because it was the first one we owned that could be used for something other than just playing Paperboy.

Still, despite the word processor and other such joys it held, we mostly used it for playing games. Our favourite game, for a long while, was a pinball game which used the ALT keys to work the flippers. Before long, the worn out ALT keys fell off. So we changed the key map to use the CTRL keys instead. And ditto. And so on, until we rendered our first computer keyboard pretty much useless.

I don’t go in for such abusive gaming these days but given our computer-based lives now, John and I still end up with broken keyboards from time to time, or just spare ones when one comes free with a new computer or something. When they’re still in working order, we give them away to friends or family in need, or the local computer recycling place, but any suggestions of what we can do with broken ones, or their parts?

(Photo by annaink)