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Do-It-Yourself Steampunk Keyboard
An anonymous reader writes "Who said there's no use for your old IBM "M Series" keyboards anymore? This creative fellow shows us step by step how to convert the keyboards of yesteryear into keyboards of an even further distant, fictional time. H. G. Wells would be proud."
It reminds me a lot of something you'd see in the movie "Brazil". Pretty cool. I like the "Shift Freedom" key.
I've been looking for one of those for ages, I want to use it standard. Modern keyboards just don't make the right noise...
Matthew Sparkes
Since I already can't get to the site...there's a mirror dot here.
"I still clunk away at my IBM model M keyboard every night...
Only problem is my neighbors complain of the noise"
How do you get your keyboard to moan, "oooh, oooh, like that, give me more?" That's quite the hack.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
I'm trying to remember the name of the finest keyboard, I actually own one but I don't use it because I use a laptop these days... Northstar Omnikey Ultra, that sounds right. Supports XT, AT, Tandy, and Amiga with interchangable cables. Has dip switches for keyboard mode, to switch keymap to Dvorak, and to swap caps and lctrl. It actually came with a key cap remover so that you could switch your keys to match your layout. Very sexy. But just as importantly, it has that clicky feel (a little softer but with excellent feedback) and every key switch is replacable. They use an Alps part you can order from digi-key.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
not that I want to be pedantic, but the model M's are about the only old keyboards worth not cutting to bits.
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
But does it still make that super loud clicky noise when you type?
Even if it doesn't, it would definitely go a long way to training people to avoid the carpal-tunnel-inducing-typo-generating bad habit of resting their wrists on the keyboard.
For anyone who never learned to type in a typing class on a real typewriter, I'll point out that most everyone who finishes such a course ends up typing at about 90wpm. I enrolled on a lark (to meet girls, actually, but they all ended up resenting me because I typed faster than they did), but the habits drilled into me I keep to this day.
Take that Mavis Beacon. Now get off my lawn.
Great looking keyboard at any rate. What's missing is a big magnifying screen like those found in Terry Gilliam's Brazil. And some pneumatic tubes. Gotta have pneumatic tubes -- you can impress your friends and family and have fun scaring the shit out of the dog at the same time.
You've made a good point. I still consider the keyboarding class that i took on a whim in high school to be one of the most useful classes I took there.
This guy's the limit!
Where do you load in the coal?
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
I guess that keyboard goes with this case.
"You call it a new way of thinking; I call it regression to ignorance!" -- Operation Ivy
I spent my time harassing the teacher by writing BASIC programs on the Apple ]['s that made the computer beep and pause and repeat. Installing it on 25 computers to go "BEEP" all the way around the room and then start over again was fun until I got an hour of detention for each computer.
The only thing I learned in that class was that programming in BASIC sent you to detention.
As well it should.
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!