deskthority

There was a sculptor in England who made some metal caps for buckling springs, it was probably 5 or more years ago and I don't recall his name. He sent me a few of them that I used in a few odd places, but not a whole board full. They were great but he had cast them out of a pewter-like metal so th...

I wonder if there'll be any persuading them to make the case out of thicker, heavier plastic than their more recent offerings...? Though the narrower width combined with the absence of the Trackpoint's blanking plates may be enough.

You all do realize that is what we look like to the vintage computing guys. Always cannibalizing some old keyboard for switches or keycaps, thus destroying a perfectly good vintage keyboard that could have completed some collector’s vintage system. I’m not sure we are in a great place to judge the ...

Not going to watch the video. I've encountered people who burn stuff to get the metal out and it's extremely unpleasant for anyone else in the vicinity. It's technically illegal but nobody with the power to do anything about it really cares.

My gf's old R40 Thinkpad has keys that aren't entirely worn through but many of them have "craters" and are missing their legends. It's still lying around somewhere, I might take a photo at some point. She has long nails, so there may be something in it. I don't, because it's irritating and I'm clum...

Oddly enough, I don't object to the tiny shift all that much! Which I admit seems inconsistent given my hatred of the small ANSI return thing, and I don't seem to have much of an explanation. Occasionally I adapt to things, though usually after a huge struggle, and at that point it often becomes The...

A very random observation, which I only notice after "lights out" (yeah I know it's only 6pm here, but I have insomnia and I've been up since 2:20am, so I'm knackered). Not so much about the keyboard, which I am really enjoying other than the finger retraining which is still not really developing ve...

Obligatory "I hate ANSI" reply. I think the size of the left-shift key is pretty low down the list of "why I'm rubbish at combat", whereas the small, mean return bar is a significant contributor to "why I'm rubbish at typing".

Amazon are a mixed bag. I often shop there as it's hard for me to get out and many places still aren't great at online ordering or more often really suck at returns: Amazon are less good in that respect than they were but still better than most. But their novelty tax status always makes me grit my t...

Nom nom lovely spam. Er anyway, my variation can be "keyboard that shows the most endurance to having drinks poured into it", in which case it has to be the SSK. The newer Unicomp and Ducky were less thirsty and seemed to object, though they may be fixable. The worst SSK experience just required the...

I'd also beware of certain stores (such as the above) in case something goes wrong. Trouble is, when it comes to tech outlets, I've had more negative experiences than positive ones. Some are worse than others and I'd avoid the likes of Ebuyer like the plague.

I wish my fingers weren't so slow to retrain. I still feel like I'm no closer to getting used to the more amenable positioning of control, for instance, and the editing keys are still causing me pain: as I'm not a touch-typist, I've long since used the edge of the main block of keys to position my r...

In spite of IBM being IBM, the company DID make some mistakes here and there. One look at the XT layout is proof enough. :D :D :D I suppose it could be argued that the PC's entire design was a mistake! I remember a lot of commentators at the time were underwhelmed with its capabilities considering ...

Awesome. Just like mine i.e. one of the best keyboards evar. As much as I've just prattled on about finding "The One™" in my Vortex Race 3, I now want to use my SSK again.

It should be all tucked away and small like \beelzebub intended\1 I admit that did actually cause a RL lol. Re video games, it's left-ctrl that I have excessive difficulty with. Maybe it's the tucking-my-thumb-under-my-hand thing but in e.g. my recent venture into The Outer Worlds ("it's not the be...

I might be one of the very few people who doesn't care about what layout I'm usin. :P It's kind of fun training your brain to get used to certain things. I think I'm a bit tetchy at the moment because I'm doing just that: my right hand is still finding itself one-key-to-the-right on my Vortex Race ...

Muirium wrote: ↑

19 Nov 2019, 11:04

Vometia is always banging on about how she loathes ANSI.

That's because it's horrid.

I encountered a couple of examples bought by my other half's late mother (when she was still alive, obviously!) which dated back to maybe the 1970s. Seemed like nice quality and an interesting concept, but I was warned that they were too uncomfortable to use for more than a few minutes. They were. B...

They do that? I must drink more coffee!

Oh, that's slightly odd. About the OP I mean: don't get me wrong, it's fun scaring people off, but I feel guilty about it afterwards.

I've just berated someone for playing guitar, I guess I should admit I can't play keyboards either! But the Fairlights were interesting: amazing what could be done with a pair of 6809s. Really underrated processors... well, except by the Fairlight guys, obviously. The general construction of the key...

We get the bags but the delivery drivers refuse to collect them. We're tried a few times but it's always "nah, they'll send somebody else to fetch it." I wasn't convinced either, and that's before the somebody else had a proper chance to fail to turn up.

adhoc wrote: ↑

17 Nov 2019, 09:26

Why would you look at the legends anyway?

Because they're there. And they help me not press the wrong buttons.

Beer: for me, it seems to come down to the selection of hops, and what I like in that regard can so often depend on my general mood. As a rule I'm not generally a fan of fizzy lager but occasionally a really cold one on a hot summer's day can be nice; though I generally prefer the bland ones to thos...

Not sure about "shorter". My ring fingers are longer than my index fingers. Apparently this is often (but not always) a male/female thing; so in my case my ring-fingers are a little shorter than my pointing fingers (well they look the same length but measuring them from the centre of the "crease" g...

Oh, and the same thing goes for keyboards: make sure it has a switch type that you can live with! There are various Cherry MX switch types that broadly fall into two groups: tactile, such as the MX Blue (audible click) and MX Brown (quiet click); and linear, including the MX Black (medium spring wei...

And make sure you know what you're buying! A lot of people have preferences for particular key profiles; for example, I love SA and despise DSA and will variously like or tolerate the stuff in between. Here is a handy guide to give you an idea. Similarly, things like double-shot vs. sublimation, mat...

Mini-legends hiding in the corners of the keys, looking at me all shifty-eyed. Yes I'm tempted. But I need to get used to my Race's layout first so that anything else feels alien to me and I can complain about it being weird.

It just makes me weep when I see these really lovely keysets. Or more to the point, that they're no longer simply The Standard™ but that we've had the more modern-looking ugly crap since forever now. I mean it's great that there's still a niche for decent, usable keys, but really sad that it's a nic...

Does this have anything to do with EMACS? ew. I'm always going to think of Emacs as escape-meta-alt-control-shift. I guess I'll be the weirdo who prefers the Model M. I like the F but maybe it's just the insane layout (I mean excepting those who are fortunate enough to have the Big Ass Return versi...