Behind the Scenes of Issue 68

Keyboard Builders' Digest / Editorial

Behind the Scenes of Issue 68

Refugee crisis, visit at the border, donation options, February stats, new acquisitions, one more extreme keyboard connector.

dovenyi
Published March 7, 2022

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Hey y'all,

I'm still Tamás Dövényi from Hungary, trying to keep an eye on and write about keyboards while crazy Russian war criminals keep killing civilians in the neighboring Ukraine. So sorry for not being able to answer all the inquiries and emails this week but things got pretty busy lately.

Donations & Refugee situation

Thanks everyone, together we've helped a lot of Ukrainian refugees! I'll continue transferring the money landing on my PayPal account to charities so consider donating.

I can't monitor your donations to all the alternative options I listed in last week's editorial but almost $400 arrived to my PayPal account. Special thanks to Benjamin Calderon and @kaleid1990 for donating a big chunk of that money. And ofc thanks to everyone with smaller amounts because every little donation counts.

After adding my share, I transferred the whole sum (worth half of my monthly wage) to three charities:

These are the three most active charities helping the refugees crossing the border from Ukraine to Hungary – 180,000 people thus far. They are well-known charities here in Hungary with a decent track record so 100% no scam. (Sorry, I'm not familiar with charities in Poland – the main route of refugees.)

You can support the charities above directly or I'll keep transferring money landing on my PayPal account if that's easier for you e.g. because you are confused by the local fintech providers or unfamiliar payment options.

Eventually, I chose these three charities because they are not just well established in the region but they are also very active, some of them have been present on both sides of the border for decades, with Hungarian and Ukrainian coworkers and activists alike.

Other than providing food, cloths, sanitary products, information, legal aid, etc. 0-24, they've set up permanent physical bases at each of the three main border crossing points and in nearby schools and community halls to welcome and temporarily accommodate refugees.

Even though I went to the border to visit relatives there, we were discouraged to take food and cloths because of the logistical difficulties on-site, and donated money instead. Charities know better what they need and can buy stuff cheaper in bulk anyway.

Despite the pathetic maneuvering of our despicable government, everyday people, local municipalities and charities do a pretty great job.

As a neighboring country to Ukraine, understandably, the war and the refugee crisis get a lot of coverage in the local media. Sorry, these reports are mostly in Hungarian (many Ukrainians speak Hungarian too) but are maybe interesting to see how charities operate and spend your money: here and here.

February stats

If anyone is interested, I've updated the About page with new visitor stats.

Considering February was a 28-day month, the numbers are acceptable.

New acquisition

I bought a lot of vintage staff recently but none of them arrived yet. Better said, I wasn't able to pick them up because I bought everything locally. One of the seller has Covid-like symptoms and the other one has to collect the item first, because he has a dedicated house for his stuff outside of the city. :D

This time I fell in love with the connector:

It's an Orion terminal, I'll post more photos once I've put my hands on it.

Thanks, Tamás

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Published on Mon 7th Mar 2022. Featured in KBD #68.

Keyboard Builders' Digest / Editorial