',.,oaeooooujj b uiiixxxxk xb bxx kjj jqjtmwzzccrcrc.,eo.eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee542184518526939647152/*= \LSGCTGHU.e:

    • cybervegan@lemmy.world
      3·
      6 days ago

      Can confirm. Back at the beginning of my IT career (mid 1980’s), I worked as a temp for a computer manufacturer in their refurb repairs department. In those days, kit was so expensive that everything got repaired if it went wrong, and one of my jobs was repairing keyboards - PC keyboards, and dumb terminal ones - and the first part of the process was stripping and cleaning them. There was a lot more room for crumbs and dust back then, too, and man did they get full. Crumbs, staples, paper clips, hair grips, all sorts. I had literal mould growing in some of them. I remember the ones coming in from Italy were the worst for that for some reason.

      • snoons@lemmy.caOPEnglish
        1·
        5 days ago

        A couple months in a shipping container is likely the cause of that.

        • cybervegan@lemmy.world
          2·
          5 days ago

          It didn’t quite work like that. They used to arrive boxed in batches. The keyboards were worth about £100 back then - so would be worth a lot more in today’s money - and they were looked after with care whilst in transit. It was the end users (in offices) that put the gunk there.