The Braun Blog

I have a Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro that is probably close to 10 years old and really until last night was starting to show it’s age.  Dust, dirt, and grime (and probably several strains of H1N1) had gathered on the majority of the keys and the wrist rest.  Things were so grimy that no level of computer cleaner would take it off; no matter how hard I would scrub.

I had read online all the different options for cleaning keyboards including popping all the keys off (take a picture of it before you start) and wash them in the silverware basket, to using harsh straight alcohol and a toothbrush.  The other method I had seen quite a bit was throwing it in the dishwasher.  A little scary, but I figured it was worth a try.

I put the keyboard in the top rack.  It seems like the temperature and proximity of the heat source would cause problems if I placed on the bottom rack.  I wasn’t willing to have to scrape a heap of plastic out of the bottom of the dishwasher, or worst case, have to buy a new dishwasher.  Also, the extreme heat could cause the case of the keyboard to warp.

Here are a couple of pointers when it comes to using your dishwasher for cleaning your keyboard:

1. If you really, really love your keyboard and don’t want to risk wrecking it – then don’t wash it in the dishwasher.  There is a chance that it may not work when it is done.

2. Wash alone.

3. Use only about 1 tbsp of dishwasher detergent.  Less is more in this case.  For reference, I used Cascade Complete powder detergent.

4. After washing, shake the keyboard out and dry as thoroughly as possible with a towel.  Then place it keys down on a towel to finish drying for a couple of days.  Don’t plug it in till it has completely dried.  If you lack patience, refer to Pointer #1.

5. I didn’t do this, but others have also recommended to drill a couple of small drain holes.

I was really impressed with the outcome.  I am still waiting for it to completely dry, but the washing definitely makes it look like a new keyboard and given me a new germ-free surface for typing.  I wish I would’ve taken a picture of the grossness before I started.

Update (11/12/2009)

I waited about four days and the keyboard was completely dried out.  I plugged it in and everything worked flawlessly.

There is no option in the preferences to connection to the console session of Windows machine from Remote Desktop Connection for Mac. So how do you do it?

It’s pretty simple. Just add ‘/console’ after the name of the server that you specify to connect to.

One of the challenges has always been trying to manage bookmarks (or favorites in Internet Explorer) across multiple computers. You may have bookmarks that you use across a couple different computers at home, some that you might want to share at work, and it’s even more challenging if you have both a PC and Macintosh mix.

I have a mix of PCs and Macs. I want to share my “Home” bookmarks across those PCs and Macs, and a separate list of bookmarks for “Work” on my work laptop. Windows Live Favorites worked great for my PCs, but required the Windows Live Toolbar, Internet Explorer, and therefore a PC. It didn’t help take care of my cross-platform needs.

Till Xmarks. Xmarks in the new name of the product previously known as Foxmarks. Foxmarks was a Firefox add-in that would handle the synchronization of bookmarks across computers using the Firefox Web Browser. When Xmarks was born, they expanded support to not only include Firefox, but also Internet Explorer, Safari, Mac, and Linux too.

How it works is an agent is installed on each platform and you provide an account username and password. Your bookmarks are stored on Xmarks servers (traffic can be fully encrypted) but the agent communicates with the server to perform synchronization. When a change is detected on one of the clients, it is synched back to the “cloud” and then the other agents pull the change down.

Xmarks also supports sync profiles. This means that I can have my “Home” and “Work” profiles which allow me to keep my bookmarks separated from each other. I don’t want my home bookmarks at work or vice versa. In addition, my iPhone can access all of my synchronized bookmarks by going to http://my.xmarks.com so I am always in sync no matter what device I use. A mechanism for backup and recovery of your bookmarks is also included and accessible from the Xmarks website.

The product is completely free and as far as I know doesn’t have a limit to the number of computers that are synched as long as it is for personal use.

This is exactly the solution I was looking for. It has worked great and keeps my bookmarks synched and ready to go whenever and wherever I am.