deskthority

I did in fact bid on it, but the bid was rejected a day later and the auction cancelled. I assume someone messaged the seller with a high off-ebay offer... We likely will never know what happened. Pity. The Displaywriter looked complete, and I have no spare energy to do it justice. I fear that the ...

Complete IBM Displaywriter with its BeamSpring keyboard, UK local collection only. Accepts offers just now... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-computer-IBM-Display-writer-with-printer/224171616228 The beam-spring keyboard that didn't even get any bids?! Perhaps the impending, seemingly random, lo...

Crikey mate! That's impressive wood carving skills. How was it done? Numerically controlled machining? What treatment was the finished wood given? Danish oil?

Hehehe... I am amused at the excessive use of modern technology to capture evidence of feline felony. Dusting the worktops with a fine layer of e.g. flour would have captured the fact with paw prints in the dust (-: Not as amusing as seeing the feline in flagrante delicto.

I've just caught up reading the latest posts spanning a few years. Ellipse, this is an epic story, and monumental effort on your part. How you hoisted this project over many years is a story that could fill a book! I'm sure that there's plenty of experience and wisdom you learnt in the process, that...

Hi Deskthorians, I found this today browsing the Pi Blog: Building a split mechanical keyboard with a Raspberry Pi Zero controller A (very) long time ago I pondered this option in Starting out with STM32 minimum development board but life took a few turns and I got nowhere with that. Anyone else spo...

Behind the "site lockout" front page, the original webby assets are still there: http://phosphorglow.net/wp-content/uplo ... 06/SSK.jpg

I really hope Phosphorglow is doing great. The mystery of Soarer vanishing without sign was disturbing. Life events etc...

Pizza!

The oven wouldn't happen to be Internet Connected, or Smart, perchance? Any specific brand I should choose to avoid?

I suppose that the number of symbol bits is not a limitation: A paper tape could record data in a serial pattern of single bits, and encode the symbols with Huffman coding. He published the paper in 1952. Huffman coding information theory is contemporary with paper tapes and cards. I went down a rab...

Oh, hang on, it appears that my naïve assumption about binary character encoding on 80 column punch cards is probably very mistaken: So much waste!

Hi Mike, I agree that posture does help, and not only when typing. The activity that brings on the inflammation the worst is not keyboard typing, mind you. It's excessive DIY, working with hand tools. Gripping screwdrivers and turning hard is probably the biggest cause of pain. I've collected a larg...

It's a good video, thanks Redmaus. The thing is, I have very strong forearm muscles from martial arts and woodworking with traditional hand tools, including Japanese planes which need a very firm and controlled grip. Strength and flexibility of the wrists are good, but it appears that tendons passin...

Curious. It is likely that the ancient IBM systems used EBCDIC, and not ASCII, and that was specified as having an eight bit character set.

Hi XMIT, agree that a complete Linux tool chain would be peachy. But loading images is not a frequent operation unless deep hacking of controller source code is required. I can subvert the corporation laptop to install the Cypress dev kit should I need to upload binary images to the gum stick. I tri...

Unlikely that character-case was restricted: the 80 column punchcards seem to have at least eight bits per character. Some punchcards have twelve bits per column, with four bits presumably for error checking/correcting. Only paper tape with five-bit data characters would conceivably have such a rest...

I don't see what the matter is with that beam-spring layout Having said that, my daily driver is an IBM Bigfoot, both at home and work. Love that size, noise, heft and shape. Funky layouts don't deter me, I reconfigure my own layouts and the multifarious standards be damned ...

Rather than spin another thread on carpal tunnel syndrome, I hope no one will mind me resurrecting this relatively mature one. I've had wrist problems for years, hence my interest in keyboards etc. I suppose. The sensation is quite similar to grasping the live terminals of a bare mains plug. No, not...

Please persist my good Pancake Master. You have already reached further than I was able. Your tribulations may serve to enlighten me, and save me frustration from future obstacles when I eventually resume tinkering with Common Sense

'Nuff said, I suppose :-) Well, I confess that on occasions I do use the A1243 60% version for its diminutive size, weight and silence. Sometimes the massive, heavy and loud IBM 5291 Bigfoot is just too much! About a factor of ten difference in all dimensions! The A1243 can be tossed away across the...

Thanks for the "tact filter" reference XMIT. Just to add: this is a *hobby*, something we all do in our own time and when we have spare energy. It's not a trade, nor barter or any other exchange, but a *gift*, and should be accepted as such. Y'know, gift horse and mouth and all that? I'm still mysti...

Amazing. No one has yet castigated the existENCE OF CAPS LOCK! Or that the Control Key *must* be to the left of the A key in the middle row, where God intended!

I don't have images to share of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum (first or second revision, can't recall) But I do have images of the Atari ST 520, and the dot matrix I persuaded dad to buy back in 1988. AtariST-1988.jpeg AtariST-June-1989.jpeg I was studying BTEC Graphic Design at the time, so I have plent...

Hypersphere wrote: ↑...

As does this IBM 5100:
https://www.ebay.com/i/253935012048?ul_noapp=true

The prices are well out of my reach, however.

The IBM 5100 is in remarkably good condition. The CRT display is super crisp and inside seems surprisingly clean for its age. Hope it finds a worthy home.

Long ago I had the privilege to use an HP67 while still at school. That was mid 1980's. Weight of a brick, and durability to match. Inside was crafted with love and skill like I have rarely seen. The feel of the buttons is unmatched, especially compared to the contemporary Texas Instruments that wer...

Hilarious! Love it. Just the thing to use in a open plan office full of folks on the phone Revenge!

Snacksthecat is a very generous guy! Warm welcome to the Model F club, Green-Squid. Definitely my favourite type of keyboard, by far -- my daily driver at home and at work.

Hi DMA, Thanks for sharing! I can imagine that the IBM engineers had experimented in a similar way when inventing the beamspring patterns. Except that the ideas that failed to perform are lost in the bin, so we will never know what other options were considered. For my understanding, the measurement...

A beautiful HP85 for sale in Preston, UK. EEVblog video about this solid awesome vintage kit:

Hi Elecplus, The cable connects to an ATMEL controller inside. So far this is the closest modern equivalent I've found for original coiled cables, for a reasonable cost. I also bought this other longer one from ebay , but the plastic is different. It doesn't have the same "snap" to the coiling, and ...