Post your desktop.

JBert · 29 Jan 2014, 13:48

Aleksander wrote:Nice board, Compgeke, what is it?

Looks like a trackpoint keyboard made by Desko. Sadly, it's not on the wiki (hint hint), and the only thing I can find is this: Desko from McCarran Airport.

Aleksander · 29 Jan 2014, 16:12

Does not look the same as the one Compgeke has.. :p

Compgeke · 29 Jan 2014, 16:35

It is a Desko. Mine's a bit different than that in that it has the mouse entirely in the front piece, pad printed caps and black caps with a blue front mouse piece rather than grey.

I'll upload some pictures to the wiki whenever I get a new camera in the next few months or if I end up borrowing a school camera again.

HaaTa · 30 Jan 2014, 23:45

It's one of the Deskos that Didjammatic was selling NIB. I used it for a few days, tooks some pics then put it back in a box for a few years

tuxsavvy · 31 Jan 2014, 03:51

Apologies for poor camera quality, used camera phone and taken the photo at night time.

mr_a500 · 01 Feb 2014, 19:54

I got tired of standing for a while, so I'm back to the regular (Commodore brand) desk:

Desk.JPG

Here's what it looks like from the back:

Back.JPG

At the top, you can barely see the Mac SE (with orange ALPS M0116).

Viewed from another angle, you see the PowerMac G5 with AT Model F in the corner, along with a 2 disk SE, Classic 2, orange ALPS AEK with SGI keycaps.

Desk2.JPG

The pictures aren't great because of the bad lighting. (dark and snowing at the moment)

mr_a500 · 01 Feb 2014, 20:24

Keyboards in my above pictures:

IBM 3278 APL - beam spring
DEC VT100 - "stackpole"
Honeywell (Bud) keypad - hall effect (NOS)
Atari 800XL - vintage (metal switch case) ALPS (NOS)
TI-99/4A - vintage "T" ALPS
IBM 5155 - buckling spring
Apple M0116 - orange ALPS
IBM AT Model F
Apple M0115 (SGI keycaps) - orange ALPS
Japanese IBM (TRS-80 Model III keycaps) - vintage "T" ALPS (NOS)
Victor 9000 - Keytronic foam & foil
Kaypro II - Maxi switch (NOS)
Kaypro "New 2" - Maxi switch (NOS)
TRS-80 Model III (Japanese keycaps from IBM board) - vintage "T" ALPS

and MacBook Pro - boring rubber dome.

(other vintage keyboards and computers not pictured)

nourathar · 02 Feb 2014, 00:17

wow.. some very nice ones there

I've noticed that the longer I stay on DT, the more my taste shifts to older boards:
first mechanical and current, then nineties, now around 1980...
where will this end ?

mr_a500 · 02 Feb 2014, 00:33

"Vintage" keyboards were "current" when I first became interested in computers. I lived through the changes. I experienced the mid-80's "beigening", the late 80's cheapening and then the 90's "rubber dome invasion from hell". Every change degraded what I originally liked. So I've only ever liked keyboards from the 70's and early 80's.

nourathar · 02 Feb 2014, 01:11

When I got my first computer, the transition from 'beigening' to 'cheapening' had just started, I guess. I only recently realised that my first computer (an Atari ST2) must still have had a relatively decent keyboard, actually, and probably my second (an early Mac) too. And I remember using the occasional IBM board and terminals in various places.
But it has been downhill since, until not so long ago, and now I realize I'm mostly looking for seventies and early eighties boards and less interested in Cherry MX or even Alps...

and I really like the looks of that Victor board or that DEC board, even if they are probably not the best to type on ? (compared to beamspring that is..).
Can't wait to connect xwhatsit's converter, still waiting for the pcb's to arrive so that I can start soldering.

mr_a500 · 02 Feb 2014, 03:27

nourathar wrote:and I really like the looks of that Victor board or that DEC board, even if they are probably not the best to type on ? (compared to beamspring that is..)

The Victor is very smooth and light. I'd love to convert it someday. Sadly, the DEC is quite stiff and rough. It looks great, but typing is not so great. Still, I'd want that converted too just because I've always loved the VT100 look.

This guy made quite a nice little converter box:

Compgeke · 02 Feb 2014, 08:39

Playing around with the XT and an InPort Mouse. Rolling carts make decent desks.

Muirium · 02 Feb 2014, 10:31

That's not an XT.

THAT's an XT.

collector of junk · 02 Feb 2014, 16:14

mr a500 your desktop spot-on .very jealous good photo's too

mr_a500 · 02 Feb 2014, 17:12

collector of junk wrote:mr a500 your desktop spot-on .very jealous good photo's too

Thanks!

There are 3 keyboards there that I'm not yet able to use (will convert eventually), but the rest I use occasionally so it's not just display. I play with the Kaypros and B&W Macs once in a while. I've got another 800XL (with SD reader) connected to the TV downstairs, so the ALPS one is mainly to pick up and appreciate.

(photos previously posted in other thread)

In the basement, I've got my glorious accelerated Amiga 500:

...and beside it, attached to the same monitor is a Commodore 128 with SD card reader.

All the other computers and keyboards I no longer use are in the closet, for eventual sale. (but I'm not a "buy & sell" kind of guy, so I haven't gotten around to it)

mr_a500 · 02 Feb 2014, 17:14

Compgeke wrote:Playing around with the XT and an InPort Mouse. Rolling carts make decent desks.

You're using the XT for IRC chat? That's interesting. I need to figure out what to do with my "portable" XT. (but all I can think of at the moment is using it for weight lifting exercises.)

Compgeke · 02 Feb 2014, 18:30

Not that much of a fan of the layout though. If I ever want to use one I have 40 or so of 'em though.

mr_a500 wrote:You're using the XT for IRC chat? That's interesting. I need to figure out what to do with my "portable" XT. (but all I can think of at the moment is using it for weight lifting exercises.)

Try getting an ISA network card (or Xircom PE3 adapter) and running an FTP server or something. mTCP has an FTP server and who doesn't want an 8088 FTP server?

Icarium · 03 Feb 2014, 09:04

mr_a500 wrote:I got tired of standing for a while, so I'm back to the regular (Commodore brand) desk:

Desk.JPG
Here's what it looks like from the back:

Back.JPG
At the top, you can barely see the Mac SE (with orange ALPS M0116).

Viewed from another angle, you see the PowerMac G5 with AT Model F in the corner, along with a 2 disk SE, Classic 2, orange ALPS AEK with SGI keycaps.

Desk2.JPG
The pictures aren't great because of the bad lighting. (dark and snowing at the moment)

7bit: Can we get those APL caps, plz?

nourathar · 13 Mar 2014, 23:07

moved from 'opening a terminal' to 'switching on a terminal' !
( a Volker-Craig 4152 terminal from around 1980, vt52-compatible)

: progress.JPG (299.83 KiB) Viewed 5983 times

mr_a500 · 14 Mar 2014, 03:35

Wow - Volker Craig! That's awesome. (Canadian too!)

I think you need to rearrange your desk though. You don't want that lovely Volker Craig keyboard slipping off the desk.

6664 · 14 Mar 2014, 05:54

^^

My Desktop from thailand.

nourathar · 14 Mar 2014, 12:14

mr_a500 wrote:Wow - Volker Craig! That's awesome. (Canadian too!)

I think you need to rearrange your desk though. You don't want that lovely Volker Craig keyboard slipping off the desk.

yes, was super happy to find it, still waiting for the user's guide though: impossible to find anything on this particular model. Everything works, managed to connect it to my Linux box, but I think there are some settings I do not know how to access. Also the crt needs some adjusting.
And yes, I surely need to rearrange my desk: I need more space, ideally so that I can set up my vt100 too !

Muirium · 14 Mar 2014, 12:29

Standing desks (or as the proles like to call them "chests of drawers") solve the multi desktop problem quite nicely. You can multi task by stepping over to your next console! Plus all those drawers really help absorb desk junk.

nourathar · 14 Mar 2014, 20:43

A standing desk is a great idea, first time I saw them was at the beginning of this very thread, thanks for reminding. I'm thinking of moving my home working space elsewhere, and there I will give it a try for sure !

phosphorglow · 16 Mar 2014, 01:01

Compgeke wrote:Playing around with the XT and an InPort Mouse. Rolling carts make decent desks.

Ok. Based on the 360k full height floppy and the case, I want to say that this is a 5150 that had a full height MFM hard drive installed, and then the motherboard was replaced with a 5170 AT board...?

...or somehow you managed to convert AT protocol to XT?

DO I WIN A PRIZE!?!?!

Edit: Scratch that - I'm gonna go for 5160, not 5150.

Edit (again): Nevermind. I probably don't win a prize.

Just learned something new after some searching which tells me that the M can auto-sense and switch to XT protocol. I'll be a monkey's uncle. Neato.

ne0phyte · 04 Apr 2014, 21:42

I got a barely used Logitech Cordless Trackman Wheel for 10€ yesterday and I thought it looked quite nice on my desk

Underwhelming picture quality as always

Muirium · 04 Apr 2014, 22:51

I see that MIDI keyboard lingering in the background! I'm still after a nice weighted Roland, just the kind of thing to make an HHKB feel trivially affordable in comparison…

What's that you're working on in the foreground? It better have something to do with your 40%!

ne0phyte · 04 Apr 2014, 23:30

Muirium wrote:What's that you're working on in the foreground? It better have something to do with your 40%!

I'll have to disappoint you

It's for a school project. We're implementing Tetris on Atmel uCs. Three of them: CPU, GPU and SPU connected through an I²C bus.
I'm working on the SPU which is basically a simple 8 bit synthesizer that'll play the Tetris melody and sound effects at 8 bit 8000hz

This is what a little test sounds like: http://ne0.cc/media/whoop.mp3
That's on Linux though, the actual sound on the Atmega is worse haha

Muirium · 04 Apr 2014, 23:33

Not disappointed! As it's actually retro sweet. Whoop whoop whoop whoop.

foxtrott · 21 Apr 2014, 13:09

office rebuilt ... that was a lot of work