deskthority

Is there a consensus on whether there is a noticeable difference in feel or sound between the 1st gen (silver badge) and the 2nd gen (grey badge) Model Ms? I think that the consensus is that the early ones are much "more collectible" .... The square metal badges are SO cool. Personally, I have 2x 1...

Entropia wrote: ↑

11 Sep 2023, 09:16

off-white/beige or in industrial gray?

Industrial gray is a particularly handsome color, in my opinion.

there were not any problems before I installed it in the case. There can be problems down at the bottom where the internal assembly gets close to the inside of the case. I have used slightly shorter screws down there, and usually leave out washers in the bottom row. And I have not done it, personal...

with alps , one annoying fact is that the switch legs are bent This was the choice (fault?) of the person soldering the parts in place. Bending the legs while they are "dry" makes assembly easier by keeping them in place until you get around to soldering them, but is a nighmare for the person follo...

some old board and try them first. Maybe one of those Dell? Dell AT101 are very good keyboards, solid case and well-built, although they do have overly large footprints. The black switches are not bad when new but not the best. I have 2 AT101Ws, into which I have transplanted orange and blue switch...

phinix wrote: ↑

10 Aug 2023, 18:38

Are Alps Orange switches any good?

I love orange, they are definitely my favorite tactile Alps although I have never had any brown.

phinix wrote: ↑

06 Aug 2023, 23:02

https://youtu.be/f9SEV2olUwQ

Thank you! I had no idea that it was so common and easy.

Wish I had asked the question when I got the laptop. Fortunately I don't use it very often.

phinix wrote: ↑

06 Aug 2023, 20:05

I had t460s in the past - don't know if all Thinkpads are like that, but you can change that key in BIOS to be CTRL.

My laptop is a T440p but I use the Linux Mint operating system.

How would I simply swap those 2 keys?

Thanks! I haven't messed around in BIOS very much.

Do you have any particular method for cleaning the plastic circuit sheets? Unless you are having problems you may not need to clean the internals. Otherwise, remember that you are cleaning circuit traces printed on mylar, so if a light wipe with water and a towel or sponge works, that may be enough...

but how hard is hard? enough to just release some of the screws? clean the circuit sheets before assembly You have replaced thin rods of plastic with steel machine parts - and you only need to keep components in their proper positions, not add tension (and/or compression). Just because you have the...

thefarside wrote: ↑

01 Aug 2023, 15:28

Model F AT at a decent price ($195)

Quite a good price for the most "normal" of the Model Fs.
Somebody should pounce on this.

engr wrote: ↑

30 Jul 2023, 18:40

I have been thinking about outfitting an AT101W with blue or amber Alps.

I have AT101Ws with both blue and orange, and both are excellent. But note that I focus on feel - and sound seems secondary.

I don't have one to sell you, but I can tell you that my son, a gamer, loves his. After going through a few keyboard interations (during ages 8?-15?), including good rubber domes, buckling springs, black and white Alps, and blue and brown Cherries, he/we settled on this keyboard with stock black Che...

all of us with Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste as deeply in our muscle memory as the alphabet. QWERTY! Whatever its flaws, I’m so used to it I scarcely feel them. Same here. My birthday last month started with a "7" so I am pretty well cemented in the muscle memory department. Even my seldom-used laptop (Th...

guidemetothelight wrote: ↑

07 Jul 2023, 10:08

I hope for salmons, havent tried them yet. Oranges would be ok too.

The are very similar, but I always thought that the oranges were better.

nuts + washer making contact with the inner side of the case? My experience has been that you can't use washers on the bottom row, but the others have enough clearance. You could also use a Dremel to grind out small divots where there is contact, since it is probably only a millimeter or less. And ...

there seems to be a bit space around the drilled hole on the plastic side, so my plan is still to have the nuts and washer on that side. I have always done the opposite, because I "tune" the pressure by hand-tightening the nuts with the socket in my fingers, and that would seem to be much easier on...

Awesome! I wish I had some spare cash these days.

I would recommend #363 to someone who wants to try clicky black Hi-Tek "Space Invaders" - I once had one of these and, as I remember, it was plug-and-play PS/2 (mini-DIN6) - but my memory might not be perfect.

While you are in there, if you have mid-level Dremel skills, an ANSI mod and adding Alt keys is very worthwhile.

Muirium wrote: ↑

19 Jun 2023, 13:37

its cable had disintegrated into a sticky rubber ooze

This has been my experience with the overwhelming majority of the original black IBM cables of that era.

I have gotten them in the original styrofoam and found the little white balls melded into them. Yuck!

Whoa!
That is a big upgrade from the one I drove, even though it looks almost identical on the surface.
Those "aftermarket" air conditioners were a big thing in the late-1950s-early-1960s.

Muirium wrote: ↑

16 Jun 2023, 16:50

ANGRY TASK OF CORRECTIVE JUSTICE!

You must have issues.
To me, it is a quiet and gentle assistant who prevents me from making a fool of myself.
But it needs the full 2 units to be satisfying.

Polecat wrote: ↑

15 Jun 2023, 05:01

the unladen weight of my 1965 (about 3000 pounds)

In my first job out of school I drove an Econoline of that same vintage, with my right leg mere inches from the 6-cylinder engine.

It really was a tin can on wheels.

guidemetothelight wrote: ↑

14 Jun 2023, 17:20

the worst of all cases , inner city traffic. Normally its more like 11..

My beloved Honda, in best conditions, on the open road with the air conditioner off, could probably get to 10.

about 15 L in the city 15L is quite much Off-topic, but please indulge a US resident on what "15L" means. We generally use miles-per-gallon as the benchmark, and the only distance that seems to be in the proper order of magnitude for 15 liters of fuel would be 100km .... My 2008 Honda Odyssey would...

Muirium wrote: ↑

08 Jun 2023, 12:51

a fitting tribute to Blaise

He was a good kid, a big strong young man to be cut down while he was in college - where my grandfather had been over a century earlier! We had traded a few pieces of keyboard gear.

Apple keyboards AEK and AEK2 are particularly prone to yellowing, if I am remembering correctly it is because of a high dose of fire retardant in the plastic recipe. Retrobrite is not without its risks, personally I would avoid it and just live with the yellow. They do generally change color pretty ...

doesn't seem like they changed the important dimensions too much. It is astonishing how much flexiblity is built into ancient IBM iron. Want Alt keys and a normal space bar on your F AT? The sensors are there. Want to replace a double with 2 singles, in a variety of places? Gotcha covered. Want an ...

magnetic Mini USB heads. Reaching for a straw here, but it seems to me that something like this could work, unless they cheaped out and didn't put all the wires inside so that it works only for charging but not for data. https://www.ebay.com/itm/285016705275?hash=item425c51c8fb:g:6KgAAOSw4k5e7XWQ&a...

Huh? Sorry that the ebay item I linked does not show a mini-USB attachment, they certainly exist, I have some. And once you set the socket in place, you never have to worry about alignment again. My guess is that mini-USB is so rare for new gear these days that they don't generally show up in ads. W...