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Old-School Keyboard Makes Comeback of Sorts
CharlotteShma writes "Some old writer once said that in order to keep going, he needed to hear the scratch of the pen on the page. Some self-proclaimed keyboard aficionados would make the same argument for computer keyboards. Is it possible that the old 'clicky' keyboards are making a comeback? Now that we've replaced the old buckling springs with rubber domes, our keyboards are only getting quieter and quieter. According to the people at Unicomp Inc., all keyboards made since the early 1990s are, frankly, no good. They still use and produce vintage IBM Model M keyboards in their small factory in Lexington, Kentucky. The IBM Model M keyboards are ugly, built like tanks, and, most importantly, have a spring under each key which clicks when you press it." Not sure what's ugly about them — most other keyboards are ugly, when you shut your eyes.
Not sure what's ugly about them most other keyboards are ugly, when you shut your eyes.
WTF kind of sentence is that?
But I'm too used to using LCD miscellany on my logitech G15. If I can't see my ethernet traffic when I glance down I get rather confused. >_>
Ezekiel 23:20
Clearly IBM is in a conspiracy with the people attempting to sniff your keystrokes!!! http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/26/1947246
I have my Unicomp and I love it. There's nothing that gives you the same feedback in the fingertips as you type as a nice clicky board. My wife, on the other hand, hates it because - the bedroom is next to my office, and she can hear me at all hours of the night typing away. But... totally worth it.
As a bonus, I honestly feel that I get less cramping and fatigue when I'm typing happily on this rather than the crap you get most times today. Not sure if there's anything to back that up with, but I graduated from a Microsoft ergo keyboard to this and I'm far happier now.
I wish there was a choice that said "Factually Wrong -1" when I mod.
Is this company sponsoring slashdot?
Anyway.. there is definately something about feeling, but it's only really about what you are used to. I prefer a fujitsu 8725, a modern cheap-ass keyboard to more exensive ones, simply because I am used to it.
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Esobofh - Currently drinking fresh mango juice.
Good to here. I was trained as a touch typist, and quiet keyboards have screwed with my accuracy. I know I had an ancient IBM keyboard with the heavier, clicking keys and after a few attempts, I managed to get upwards of about 70wpm (in high school, I topped 80 a few times). On the newer keyboards I think I get stuck around 60wpm, mainly because errors count against you, and old-fashioned typing is as much about *hearing* mistakes as feeling them.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
They suck. I do NOT want to have sounds in my environment if it is not neccesairy. I simply hate the standard behavior of IE to produce audible feedback each time I click a link. I know I clicked the link and I know I pressed the key and I do not need the confirmation in the form of a click. I am not a retard and I do not wish to be treated like one.
The IBM model M is dead, game over and it won't be missed.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
The keyboard I use weighs nearly five pounds. It has a great action and I can type for hours without tiring. When it eventually quits working I have several more waiting to replace it.
No, you can't have one . . . . . . . for any price.
By a coincidence, I just received a new keyboard from them on Monday. It feels much like the IBM Model M I'm typing this on now, but the keys feel 'looser' - there is a little more back and forth wobble on the new Customizer keyboard from Unicomp than there is on my Model M. Too soon to tell yet whether I will find it distracting or not; the new keyboard is on my game machine at home and I don't use it as often as my I use my work machines.
This news is about 12 years old. They have been in Lexington, KY using the same old equipment that IBM used to make the Model M keyboards.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
Frankly this sounds more like neophobia and/or nostalgia than a legitimate concern about keyboard quality.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
(and some older keyboards had as well):
A mechanism to absorb the energy exerted on the keystroke.
Without that the energy ends up being dissipated in the muscles, tendons, and (especially) joints of the hand.
This is one of the factors leading to repetitive stress injuries and perhaps also accelerates arthritis.
I'd like to see a keyboard design that "catches" the key after it's pressed far enough to be detected as a "press" and consumes the energy.
If it does it by making a sound (especially if the sound has a one-to-one correspondence with the detection of the keystroke) it also provides feedback. All the better for typing accuracy.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
But the tactile feedback of buckling springs is absolutely perfect. Also the nigh-invulnerability, the beverage-spill-drainage holes on later models, the resistance to stickage even after spills, the removable/cleanable keycaps, the correctly shaped enter key, lack of extraneous doo-dads, pretty much everything about them. /hugs my Model M. Seriously, I really just did, because I love it so much. I also have one at home that I love. And they don't even mind, because Model Ms are secure in themselves and not prone to jealousy.
The enemies of Democracy are
I have a Das Keyboard, based on the original Model-M design. Definitely recommended if you're sick of typing into a soggy sponge.
There is something incredibly satisfying about solving a particularly complex problem, and hitting "enter" for a crunchy click. No other keyboard satisfies my lust for tactility the way this one does.
"In the absence of the ability to establish the attribute of truth they tried to establish the noble attributes."
I am still using an IBM model M keyboard made in 1985. It doesn't have the Windows key, which is one more reason for me to like it.
You cannot beat the touch of a model M, and the tactile feedback helps me limit the number of fat-finger typos.
One downside of a model M is that the clicky noise might annoy coworkers in open space offices. But I have few complains. Complains are generally going like this:
Cow orker: "Eric, your keyboard is sure loud".
Me; "Yup."
Cow orker: 'Err..."
Me: "Heavy too. All metal. Feel this."
Cow orker: "Wow. At least three pounds".
Me: "Almost five, actually. And reliable, too. You can wield it as a baseball bat, whack someone's head, clean up the brain bits from the bottom, and it's still good for years of service."
Cow orker: (Gulps, retreat hurriedly.)
See why I love it?
Fantasy: http://ferrisfantasy.blogspot.com/
In the 90s, I got used to typing on an NMB mechanical keyboard. Back then, clicky was taken for granted, and "quiet" keyboards were the unusual ones. And then one day, it finally broke and started typing gibberish...
Over the course of many years, I went through a bunch of the sucky membrane keyboards, always buying the least-bad one I could find, but my typing speed and accuracy were never as good as when I was on my old NMB. I just recently came across one, and snagged it, and it's really eye opening how much more pleasant it is to type on this one. The sound is satisfying, a light click instead of the Model M "chunk", but it's the touch that really matters. There's a subtle resistance, and then falling away just as the key makes contact, and then a hesitation and snap loose when it breaks.
I never did get into the Model M (now Unicomp) craze. They're too loud, and the spring pressure is way too high. The NMB mechanism is very light, but very tactile. My fingers feel like they're just brushing over the keys, instead off banging on them.
The only thing I don't like about this one is that the \ is in the wrong place, to the left of the backspace instead of under it. I'd be in heaven if I could find a keyboard with similar touch and an IBM-standard layout. Anyone know of one? Das Keyboard III is looking like a likely contender, but I'm reluctant to drop that kind of money without being able to test drive it first.
"I found the Matias Tactile for my Mac a few years ago, and was willing to shell out the $100 for it. Have never regretted it, either."
Tactile feedback improves performance and accuracy. There is good reason aircraft controls and switches are designed to provide it.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
It's certainly better than the keyboards in Naked Lunch...
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
I'd been looking for an adapter to use an old IBM keyboard with my Mac. I'd never liked "squishy" keyboards, or ones with short key travel, and Apple keyboards seem to get squishier and shorter as time goes by. Then I found the Unicomp. My fingers are happy now.
The only downside is that you need to do a little prefs-setting and key swapping to put the option and command keys in the right place, but that's no big deal.
Get one. It's 70 bucks well spent.
I use an Apple Extended Keyboard II (ADB) with a Griffin iMate adapter. Terrific keyboard; it should be, costing $169.00 originally. Funny thing is, the power key, removed from current Apple keyboards, still works on the latest Macs.
It's a geek badge of honor. I own a few and I love them like my children (okay not really, maybe like my pets) but part of that comes from the effort I put in to scrounge them and clean them up myself. I do like the feel of typing on a Model M but what I love is the feeling of gravitas (figuratively and literally, it's really heavy).
Vintage hardware is neat but most of it is of no practical use today. Is there any other part of a 20-year-old computer that you could still use for day-to-day tasks? A Model M lets you feel old-school without actually having to live in the bad old days of floppy disks and 300 baud modems.
I type on my wife's Mac keyboard and it's fine. I type on a rubber dome keyboard at work and it does the job too. Maybe I would feel differently if my job required pumping out hundreds of thousands of words very quickly, but for most people (and, I suspect, most Model M owners) that's not the case.
Nostalgia is fun. It's okay to have a "throwback" keyboard if that's what you want. Not every technological choice we make has to be justified by greater efficiency or superior ergonomics. Relax and feel the Model M love.
Never approach a vast undertaking with a half-vast plan.
Ah the classic model M, the only keyboard you could beat a user to death with, then sit down and use it delete their account.
come to the dark side, we have penguins.
Typing this on an original MNK, the crown prince of keyboards, accept no spurious imitations.
Now wash your hands.
. . . well, that's at least my opinion, after three decades of touch typing. I learned to type back in my teens in the 70's on my mom's Underwood mechanical portable. It was a model that you see international corresponds and sports reporters lugging around in old movies. It had a light touch, but you got a certain feel for full motion of the stroke. It just felt right. Like when I do a full motion backhand in tennis, and I just know that I hit it right.
My high school had an IBM punch card machine, electric, of course, which I used to type out FORTRAN II programs. It had a small footprint, and the keys didn't have much motion at all. It just didn't feel right.
On the other hand, those Teletypes, for the time sharing BASIC system, with the round keys, and the crisp, light touch, and just the right amount of motion were great.
In the meantime, I have typed on all types of varmints and critters, whether I had a choice or not. I don't care about the noise, for me, it's the feel. And I believe that's because of that good old Underwood portable.
Oh, and to disappoint typewriter aficionados, I was never really impressed with the IBM Selectric.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Despite popular belief, IBM did not design the Model M as a melee weapon with keyboard functionality. Rather, it is a keyboard with melee weapon functionality, as required by their DoD contract .
Also, although legendary for their durability, they are not indestructible. A few well-placed armor piercing rounds from an anti-material rifle or a single high explosive antitank charge are often sufficient to disable one.
-Proud owner of a 1986 IBM Model M (pulled from a pile of keyboards scheduled to be scrapped).
10 Bits= $.25
100 Bits= $.50
110 Bits= $.75
1000 Bits= 1 byte
What comeback? I never stopped using buckling spring keyboards. The defective non-tactile feedback keyboards that come with most computers go straight into the recycle bin in my office.
And ugly? I think whoever wrote that left a "to me" off the end of the sentence. They do not seem ugly to me. To me they look pretty much like any other keyboard, a flat thing with lots of little rectangular keys.
I learned to type on a royal manual typewriter and I still miss the action in some ways, but the IBM selectric had the greatest action of all time, this article gives me some hope for the future!
My own opinion as reinforced by comments on Slashdot whenever the subject of keyboards comes up is that anyone who hasn't learned to type on a manual typewriter, or was taught or otherwise learned to type correctly, doesn't know what what they're talking about and most likely doesn't type very well.
That said, your comment is interesting for two reasons. First, it's a reminder that while the effort required to type on manual typewriter is wholely uncessary in this day and age, it did offer the opportunity for one to actually develop good technique and strength in one's fingers and hands. Both are required for efficient and fast typing. When I see people using those so-called ergonomic keyboards, I imagine someone sitting in a bean bag chair whining about their back problems or complaining that sitting in an unpright chair is just "too hard".
Secondly, the IBM selectric did probably offer the best "action" of any keyboard. Musicians understand that term, and evaluate their instrument based on that criteria. What they don't do is complain about the time and effort required to develop strength and good technique, or the ergonomics of playing. They just play, and do so effortlessly for hours on end. On the other hand, what is an ideal "action" for one person may not be the same as for another, so it's unrealistic to expect people to agree on One True Keyboard.
Given that most keyboards today suck, I think we're all stuck making compromises. I have strong hands and fingers but prefer a very light action. If given the choice between an IBM Model M and my Thinkpad, I'd opt to use my Thinkpad. For anyone that doesn't already know how to type fast and accurately, that choice would be absurd.
When I started working at my present company, they had an old Unicomp keyboard lying around that no one else wanted to use. I was happy to give it try. I love the way it feels to my fingers and it definitely improved my typing speed and accuracy. I'm a heavy emacs user, and I appreciate that the Ctrl key is as solid and responsive today as it was months ago. This is the first keyboard I've had that could stand up to heavy coding and writing.
The noise made me feel a little self conscious at first but my neighbors are used to it, and the guy in the next cube tried mine out and ordered his own. He's as happy with his as I am with mine, but he ordered the Mac caps to switch out.
I run an Iogear USB/DVI and switch between three Linux boxes, a Mac Pro and a Windows XP box and all work great with the Unicomp as well.
[-- Trust the Monkey --]
aah... the 'click click click' that goes with posting on slashdot...
...That's *IF* I decide to be generous, and don't have it buried with me...
The day I can't connect my genuine 1980s Model M to my PC is the day I give up PCs.
Of course, this will never happen: In 300 years time, my great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren will be squabbling with each other over who gets the great family heirloom - the indestructible and still fully functional Model M. The family Jet will collect dust and the collection of sportscars will go unnoticed as all fight singlemindedly for custody of the great Model M.
The Model M is the greatest keyboard ever, and no other keyboard could ever possibly live up to it. Simple fact, case closed. If you disagree, it means you're not qualified to make a judgement.
It's great to see that someone is still producing them - perhaps the 5 Model M's I've been hoarding as spares are superfluous...
Actually, they *are* superfluous; not because Unicomp is still making them, but because they are Utterly, totally, completely indestructible. This is a keyboard which can easily be used as a murder weapon. This is a keyboard of such impressive durability that when you throw your keyboard at the wall in a fit of rage, the wall gives way rather than the keyboard. If NASA had the sense to use Model M keyboards as heat shielding for the space shuttle, we'd still have Columbia. In the distant future, archeologists will only be able to speculate on the possible function of most of man's inventions, because they'll have trouble reverse-engineering the heavily-decayed skeletons of cars, planes, computers, and other artifacts. The Model M won't suffer this problem, because they'll just dig them out of the ancient ruins and plug them in.
An alternative theory of mine is that they won't have to speculate on the nature of the Model M, because it'll be their religion.
I have spilt coke, coffee, orange juice, cigarette ash, tomato sauce, sweat, blood, and tears into my model M. You don't even have to stop typing to turn the keyboard upside down and shake the liquid out - you just keep typing, firm in the knowledge that the coffee will dry up sooner or later, and that will happen long before it will do any kind of damage to your Model M.
Model M keyboard owners do not fear burglary by armed intruders, or even raids by SWAT teams, because they know that a thrown Model M is far more deadly than an armalite ar-10 carbine gas powered semi-automatic weapon, and far more bulletproof than that piddly body armour those soldiers wear.
There is no meta key, and it bothers me because my thumb tends to hit ALT because the meta key moves everything over. So the spacebar is smaller.
The bottom row is:
CTLR ALT SpaceBar ALT CTRL
- - - - - - - - - - -
I am a programmer. I am paid to produce syntax not grammar. Deal with it.
I have to admit my favourite keyboad is Apples current aluminium full wired keyboard.
The keyboard chassis does not flex or creak like a plastic one, it is slim, so is really only as big as it needs to be, and I find the fact it is so flat means I don't have to arch my fingers so much and the keys don't require much effort to push them, but enough travel that accidental presses are rare.
It's also easier to clean than a regular keyboard, simple wipe down with an antistatic cloth with a little LCD screen cleaner on the cloth takes care of marks and finger grease of the keys very easily.
Also having no Windows key appeals to me. "clover-leaf symbol" is much more OS agnostic 8) and tons of Funtion keys that are easily mapped to useful things.
I just wish the USB ports were powered or USB2 8( or the wireless option included the full key layout with the number pad etc.
Five miles. In the snow. Uphill. Both ways.
I have a Model M on my office desk, and one here at home -- S/N 3111818, dated Jul 87.
They're nice to type on -- I type much more faster and more accurately on one than on any other type of keyboard -- and they're also handy if someone breaks into your house. They deflect bullets up to a .38, and you can commit homicide with one, if necessary.
The keyboard that I'm typing on now is an IBM model M from 1984. That's right; 25 years of very hard use & abuse, and it's still doing fine.
I've slaughtered lesser keyboards provided to me by employers. Now I have a model M at the office (much newer; it's only twenty years old) and doing fine.
$70 for a brand new one with a USB connection and the extra "Windows" keys is a steal.