Dishwasher--use it or lose it

[mm]

LOL

[willshak]

on 9/8/2009 8:51 PM (ET) mm wrote the following:

Being in charge of the computer system in a low-tech environment where people ate and drank while at the computer, spillage was a common problem. We had extra keyboards, so I would take the offending keyboard and just rinse it under the sink faucet using a soft stream and lukewarm water for a minute or so, blow most of the water out with a hair dryer set at low heat, then hang it to dry for a day or so. Very few keyboards failed to operate after their 'shower'. I would never wash a keyboard in a dishwasher. There are too many small and soft parts that might not take the rugged spray.

[The Daring Dufas]

A plastic safe contact cleaner is what I use.

TDD

[aemeijers]

How much does your contact cleaner cost? At work, the junk keyboards they buy are about six bucks apiece in bulk. I pull them out of dumspters all the time. (the name-brand ones, at least, that get pitched along with the generics) An external cleaning with windex and couple of paper towels, and most of them look and work fine. I then turn them back in to the supply guy, who puts them on the shelf.

Wish they weren't so anal there. Thousands of bucks worth of stuff goes in the dumpster every year, but they say it is a firing offense to take any of it home. (Yes, I do carry a briefcase every day- why do you ask?)

At home, I'm still using up a couple of milk crates worth of beige keyboards, from when the state govt used to sell computers at auction. (This was before Dell, et al, decided it was worth it to kill the secondary market by buying up all the point sources of cheap used machines.) Getting kind of hard to make them work on modern machines, though. First everyone went to PS2 connectors, now newer machines are USB only.

-- aem sends...

[willshak]

on 9/7/2009 5:42 PM (ET) Gary H wrote the following:

I thought we were just talking about washing dishes, but if you want to bring up costs for cooking, how about the gasoline to go get the food?

[The Daring Dufas]

I don't remember what a big can of the cleaner costs but that, along with a paint brush, usually keeps my keyboards working. I don't clean mouse balls anymore since I banished balled mice from my desktop in favor of ball-less mice.

TDD

[Gary H]

Washing dishes. The food is this dishwasher's power source.