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A Selective History Of The Keyboard

Posted by timothy on from the triumph-of-the-louse dept.

Anonymous Gimp writes "Today's keyboards aren't what they used to be, no sir! Back in my day, we had our BS technology; our keyboards had chassis which allowed 'em to be thrown off a 3-story building and still work - barely dented. Yes those were the days. Now we've got these newfangled Wireless Ergonomic E-Mail button membrane keyboards. To heck with them, I say!"

7 of 436 comments (clear)

  1. The ultimate keyboard.. the C-64!!! :) by Wraithlyn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yessir, back in my day we had these incredible keyboards. I have a VIC-20 keyboard and and Commodore 64 keyboard. Some people claimed they were kind of big, but for keyboards, they were sure packed with features! Like computers! :)

    --
    "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
    1. Re:The ultimate keyboard.. the C-64!!! :) by Te1waz · · Score: 3, Funny

      Actually, the C64 keypad wasn't bad, as long as you put a pillow in front of it.

      Yup, there were no wrist pads in those days.

      The advantage of the pillow is that you could also put your head on it and take a nap while waiting for things to load off tape.

      --
      From my Autobiography - "Lifestyles of the Sad and Desperate"...
    2. Re:The ultimate keyboard.. the C-64!!! :) by DaveHowe · · Score: 3, Funny

      Nah - probably didn't see them in the states, but we had something here in the UK called a ZX spectrum - the keyboard was a single, molded piece of rubber; if you had dropped one from a three-story building, you could probably have caught it on the first bounce :)

      --
      -=DaveHowe=-
  2. and put the control key back where it should be by SgtChaireBourne · · Score: 3, Funny

    Too many of the new keyboards have the capslock key where the control key should be and used to be. Correcting this would make the keyboard more ergonomic. How often does anyone, aside from people writing Nigerian mail scams, use the caps lock? Odds are not as often as the control key, even for MS-Windows users.

    --
    Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
    1. Re:and put the control key back where it should be by FunkSoulBrother · · Score: 5, Funny

      How often does anyone, aside from people writing Nigerian mail scams, use the caps lock?

      My friend, you've obviously never spent anytime on the AOL posting forums.

      Not that that is a bad thing.

  3. dishwasher safe by _ph1ux_ · · Score: 3, Funny

    we used to run them through the dishwasher when they got too dirty - and they would work fine afterwards.

    reminds me of an urban legend/ it horror story about some IT guy telling some chick that she needed to clean out her machine and she ran it through the dishwasher.

  4. Re:Small enter, big pipes by wirefarm · · Score: 4, Funny

    Small enter, big pipes

    I think there's a lubricant you can get that will help with that...

    (sorry.)
    Cheers,
    Jim in Tokyo

    --
    -- My Weblog.