[bdunbar]

I've used a machine gun. Keyboards are a lot quieter, and have way less recoil. But your friend has a point.

Have you ever used a late-model IBM Selectric typewriter? Now that is the acme of keyboarding. IBM knew their users would spend hours at the keyboard, designed with that assumption in mind.

An IBM model M (now made by Unicomp) is the Selectric of keyboards.

[jgeorge]

The old (late 70s/early 80s) IBM 5211 Terminal used to include a large solenoid in the keyboard that fired a metal rod into the metal base of the keyboard as a mechanical "clicker". Holding down the spacebar was very akin to the sound of a machine gun!