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A Condensed History Of The Keyboard
An anonymous reader points to this overview of old (good) keyboards versus the cheap and nasty kind which begins "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's which allowed 'em to be thrown off a 3-story building and still work - barely dented. Yes those were the days." Not a lot of new information, but some good visuals.
In those days, 'audiovisual feedback' actually meant something. Long rolls of dead tree recording every single charxxxacaaxxxx ^h^h\H^H^H/d/d ^C^C^Q^Deof.DAMN...
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Quoting the story: Key caps allow one to reconfigure their letters without actually prying off the keys from the keyboard. This was implemented due to the aforementioned QWERTY/Dvorak controversy.
I loved the ability to remove the cap keys, every few weeks I would remove all the cap keys from my keyboard and clean each one by hand using a bleach solution, inside and out. It's great for all us obsessive-compulsive cleaners.
The other great thing about them was the ability to play practical jokes, all one had to do was change around a few 'key' keys and watch all the non-touch typists in a computer lab get pissed off at the computer. And with Windows 2k, I'd change the insert and delete keys around, (makes it hard to use CTRL-ALT-DEL to get to the login screen)
Accentuate the positive, don't waste your mod points on the negative.
No new information in a history of something? How surprising!
Ah yes, the keyboards of old could be thrown from a 747 into the middle of the Pacifac, and when they washed ashore, they would still function... but they didn't have an E-mail button. After all, what good is a keyboard without an E-mail button?
"It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
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You can have my IBM Model M when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
This is quickly going to turn into a lovefest for the IBM M keyboard.
I have several of them stashed away on the off chance that the one I've been using for the past 13 years breaks. Which it hasn't. Hoping to sell it on "Antiques Roadshow" in about 40 years.
heh, 10 function keys, 10 commandments.. that can't be a coincidence :P
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
I am a die-hard M Fanatic. So is a buddy of mine.
:)
We scour local flea markets, garage sales and auctions for people getting rid of them.
This year, I scored three at three seperate garage sales. $5, $2, $2 !
I've got about 10 now, and I put one with every computer I use.
My co-workers used to rile me about the noise, but after I started hitting them over the head with it, they stopped complaining.
"...In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true..."
"Today's websites aren't what they used to be, no sir! Back in my day, we had our caching technology; our wesites had redundency which allowed 'em to be slashdotted and still work - barely dented. Yes those were the days."
[Please type your sig here.]
Don't get me wrong - I code for a living, so I can certainly appreciate the value of the keyboard as a user interface peripheral. A good friend of mine who had RSI in his wrists really bad switched to using Dragon speech recognition software exclusively. Listening to him attempt to code (in Perl) was pretty funny, e.g. saying "twiddle" for "~" and such.
Mod me down for being off topic, but I cannot resist mentioning the Star Trek (#4 - with the whales) movie where Scottie attempts to use the computer from the past by talking to it.
It just goes to show how far off we are in terms of a truely intuitive user interface.
What a coincidence -- I actually had to take my work KB (a new IBM mush-model similar to the one in the article) aart to fix it Monday because the 'P' key was getting less and less reliable, and my tying was steadily getting worse.
When I oed the 'P' key off and looked underneath, the rubber contact mat was off center, like it had been stretched underneath so the contact didn't line u under the key. I ulled a few screws, blew out the dust and the rubber sring mat that lies on the contacts was misaligned by, like, 1/4 inch in areas. I ulled it off and tried to re-align it roerly when I realized that the lastic/mylar/whatever contact sheet on the bottom wasn't flat either - like a rug that wasn't quite cut the correct shae for a room, there was a hum in it. I loosened the screws around the contacts to the CB and I was able to then flatten the contact sheet and retighten, then realign the rubber sringmat and reassemble.
Voila! erfect. I want to oint out three things.
1) It's still not a model M. If you find an old one GET IT, even if it's missing a few keys. Your neighbors' neighbors will hate all the clicking, but your fingers will be very, very hay. I ersonally have one of these as well as an original Northgate Omnikey Ultra urchased by me from Northgate Inc. in 1990 which was in use until March of this year. I relaced it because I bought a new C and wanted a wireless KB. Every collector's shelf should have a Northgate on it, too.
2) This new IBM has way more contacts inside than keys. I realize this is so they can roduce one electronic assembly to suort 15 languages, but I wonder what the other contacts would do if I hit them. Maybe I'll get bored later today.
3) IBM's subassembly quality control has really hit the can. I realize this is a $5 keyboard, which by its design exects a certain number of defects, but if you could see how badly aligned the sringmat was in this thing... SHEESH!
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