I’ve been a PC guy since I bought my first IBM PC in 1983. I have some familiarity with Unix, but mostly through its PC-friendly clone, Linux. But I decided I wanted a Mac Mini.

After a few weeks I took my Mini to the genius bar at the Apple store to because it frequently injected doubled characters into my typing. This happened in TextEdit, in Terminal, in other applications. Here is what would happen:

there is noot any chance I’m hitting the keys twwiice, it is just doubliing on

more or less random keys.

I was using the cool transparent lucite Macintosh keyboard. I want to use that keyboard; its minimalist aesthetic completely outclasses anything available from the likes of Microsoft, Dell, HP, or even Logitech.

I did all the usual things to fix the problem: rebooted, messed with the keyboard repeat settings, even tried a PC keyboard. Nothing worked. I was sure I had a defective Mac. Google found a few others with the same problem, though nobody reported a solution.

The guy behind the genius bar was patient and reassuring at first. He executed recondite procedures and invoked obscure modes (Macintosh zealots like to pretend that Macs don’t have that sort of thing) but the problem still occurred. It even happened once or twice while he was typing.

But after consulting with even more exalted “geniuses” at the back of the store, he pulled out a battered Mac laptop and said “try this.”

Surrounded by concerned “geniuses” and curious customers, I typed a few lines on the laptop only to find that double characters happened there too. The laptop was known to be good, so it must be that I was defective: incompatible with the Macintosh. I left the store with a puzzled frown and my useless Mini.

I don’t know what the problem is. Perhaps I let the keys linger at a critical point, resulting in a bounce that sends two keystrokes instead of one. I don’t think so. Perhaps Macintosh keyboard de-bouncing routines are subtly different, but everyone who uses Macs accommodates to the difference.

But I’m not one to give up. I thought things over: Anything Macintosh combined with me results in doubled keystrokes. My system was as Macintosh as you can get – Mac keyboard, Mac mouse, Mac computer and operating system. I could tell that I would need to introduce a little of my own world into the mix to achieve a solution I could work with.

Most everyone has probably figured out the solution by now: I had to add a little PC-ness, for example a PC keyboard, to tilt the system in my favor. But not just any PC keyboard would do: I had already tried a generic USB PC keyboard and it hadn’t helped.

The solution is probably the finest keyboard ever made, an original IBM PC AT keyboard. On the back it says “(c) IBM 1984”. This keyboard is so old, it takes two generations of adapters just to connect it to the Macintosh. It has a heavy, coiled, rubber-covered cable leading to its large DIN connector. Over half an inch in diameter, this connector looks like it could supply power to a small subdivision. A PC/AT to PS/2 mini-DIN connector makes this keyboard compatible with modern PCs, and a PS/2 to USB connector is required to use it with a Macintosh.

That’s a lot of connectors, but it’s worth it. Each key in this keyboard has a key cap with a separate label cap over it. Beneath each cap assembly is the spring and precision mechanism needed to create a perfect key press: increasing resistance followed by a mechanical break that tells your fingers the character has been typed. It makes a clackety-clack noise that makes typing feel like achievement.

And it’s an IBM. The blunt IBM logo reminds me of the generation of engineers who made the computer part of our everyday lives. It’s overbuilt like almost nothing is overbuilt these days: not ostentatious but simply. I like this keyboard, better even than the slick transparent Macintosh keyboard I used to envy. And it never, ever, ever types two characters when I only want one.

(note: this is a repost; I accidentally deleted the original while doing maintenance)