Space Cadet Keyboard on eBay

[Yasu0]

Ugly fonts, stupid layout, slightly dirty, and you can't even hook it up to a Soarer's.

I kind of agree with this though it was meant as sarcasm... Sure the look is cool as heck but I don't fully understand the going rates. I also don't understand the level of outrage for the skyrocketing values. Let these buyers pay that if they feel its worth that amount, its their money who cares? I've seen the same thing with classic vehicles I have had to give up on ever owning. You just shrug and move on to some other model.

[Muirium]

I also don't understand the level of outrage for the skyrocketing values. Let these buyers pay that if they feel its worth that amount, its their money who cares?

Well…

I've seen the same thing with classic vehicles I have had to give up on ever owning. You just shrug and move on to some other model.

There's the answer. It sucks to be priced out. Nobody likes that.

[Yasu0]

Yeah I guess. Imagine the collection of model F/M one would have for the cost of this single item. That is what comes to my mind..

[E3E]

Speaking of crazy prices, we've had that IBM F107 go for $2300, and now a Topre 108UW-HiPro for



Compared to one I got in 2017



Ouch.

Yeah, this hobby is pricing out all but those with the deepest pockets, which is unfortunate, but it seems to be the case with collectors markets that form as communities grow.

[raoulduke-esq]

There’s a post from 2018 where Orihalcon is selling F107 for ~500. Are they worth that? Sure. 2300? Not to me. That price puts it firmly into “that’s cool but not for me” territory like a G Wagon or a second house.

[Suzuran]

So after all my rambling- Space Cadet owners: what's your take?

It's special to me because I need it to use the machine it came with and to make more machines.

That's about it.

I guess I also like annoying people on Discord by posting a picture of my cat sitting on it.

[Yasu0]

There’s a post from 2018 where Orihalcon is selling F107 for ~500. Are they worth that? Sure. 2300? Not to me. That price puts it firmly into “that’s cool but not for me” territory like a G Wagon or a second house.

Exactly how I feel about it. No high level outrage, just meh ok so 1972 Chevelles and space cadets are not for me anymore. Opportunity cost is too high, that is a heck a lot of potential enjoyment to be bought through other avenues. Both keyboard and non-keyboard kinds..

[hellothere]

Out of curiosity, what is so special about the space cadet apart from being rare.
Not to be rude, but it's not particularly beautiful to me. Same goes for beamspring, but I can understand, that the beamspring has godly keyfeel and sound.

I agree.
Well, "being rare" is the main part.
And it has a lot of legends on a lot of keys - for many people that's appealing.
(What baffles me, is that despite the huge amount of keys - they are arranged in such an absurd way, that it would still be impossible to use some as a proper nav cluster.)
Oh, and the blue color.

$4351, BTW.

While I think some keyboards and/or key caps are absolutely beautiful, I need to use the keyboard as a tool. Some pre-XT keyboards can be converted to USB and can have their layout modified so they're still useful as tools. The Space Cadet is one. You can remap all those bottom row keys to something a bit more useful. They're Hall Effect switches, so they're not going to wear out. I also *think* they're the tactile variant of the Micro Switch, which would make me a happy camper. I say all this ... then mention that I have no idea how to get one of these to talk over USB. I'd be doing a lot of forum searching.

I have no comment on the switch feel. I do have a modern keyboard with 45cN linear Hall Effect switches (that link's to a pretty nice looking mod) and I can say that those are pretty nice. I've not tried any Micro Switch switch, though. I've also not tried any beam spring switch, so I have no idea how they compare.

I don't think the Space Cadet keyboard is the best looking keyboard, even when it's in better shape and/or has a black case. I think some of the modern recreations look better.

[Palatino]

...that is a heck a lot of potential enjoyment to be bought through other avenues. Both keyboard and non-keyboard kinds..

What!? You mean there's a whole world out there beyond keyboards? No. No, I don't believe you. I don't like it. No. Back to the desk. Clickety clickety click. Don't say such things.

[Weezer]

iirc they're linears

The only tangible reason it's valuable is because it's an icon and because it's rare. Beauty is left to the eye of the beholder.

[micmil]

Yes, the speculators have found the keebs. Keebs.

KEEEEEEEBS.

Quite annoying, really. I haven't even bothered picking up an Alps board because they're all already well above my budget for a single used smoke-encrusted yellow oldhead. Closest I have is Acer switches. Pity me, forum. PITY ME!

[Weezer]

Yes, the speculators have found the keebs. Keebs.

KEEEEEEEBS.

Quite annoying, really. I haven't even bothered picking up an Alps board because they're all already well above my budget for a single used smoke-encrusted yellow oldhead. Closest I have is Acer switches. Pity me, forum. PITY ME!

There there

[JP!]

Spoiler:

spacecadet.jpg (114.79 KiB) Viewed 3989 times

[TNT]

That's actually insane

[XMIT]

US $9,569.69

Welp, guess I'm never getting one. Time to re-learn CAD and start making them myself. The keys will be just like all the other Micro Switch boards I've got.

Congrats to the winner, I guess. $10k is a lot for a keyboard.

[Rayndalf]

Time to re-learn CAD and start making them myself. The keys will be just like all the other Micro Switch boards I've got.

I think you're right on the money. The case isn't anything special, so if you have similar switches and can solve the keycap issue then I think you'll have a good chance.

I really need to learn CAD too.

[shallot]

Your message contains too few characters.

[headphone_jack]

Your message contains too few characters.

0/10, didn't give a tip to round it out to zero.

[sharktastica]

Your message contains too few characters.

Thanks, forum software

[Weezer]

darkcruix saying 10k is a good price mad you buy it for 10k!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[TNT]

I wish I could spend that much on anything. When I will have an income eventually, those things will still be out of reach for me cause their price will have tripled. Or even worse, lol

[raoulduke-esq]

Your card getting declined at the grocery store because you bought a keyboard: priceless.

[TNT]

Hahahaha
Looking forward to the blogpost tho

[E3E]

bruh as if 10k USD is substantial

[JP!]

Sales tax in my state would add over $600 to the total price of this.

[MMcM]

b) You want to revive the good ol' times of UNIX hackers, GNU and such, and get the genuine experience of using X11 and Emacs properly with their intended keyboard layout.

Uhm, UNIX-HATERS was started by people who had to "upgrade" from a machine with such a keyboard.

So after all my rambling- Space Cadet owners: what's your take?

Okay.

I used Knight, Space Cadet, and Symbolics keyboards all day every day for many years. All of them were well adapted to the systems to which they were connected, in a way that only customized (usually mechanical) keyboards are today.

Personal subjective judgments:

• If you make mistakes, having Rub Out readily accessible is best. Many people today remap Caps Lock for the same reason.
• Unshifted parens (Lisp) and colon (command prefix).
• It is convenient to have a split between higher-level function keys and in-context command keys with control shifts. Since they do break the flow, the keys need to be bigger, just as Backspace is on modern keyboards. Hence all the 2u function keys. The Symbolics probably got the legends and placement the best because it was developed after the system, rather than before / at the same time.
• ^C^C is not even close to as satisfying as banging on Call/Abort when something stupid happens. (The big red Reset buttons on some early hobbyist keyboards take this one step further.)
• I prefer the wider bucky shifts, all of which except Control had to be narrowed on the Symbolics to shrink it. (You may need long fingers.)
• The Knight keys are the nicest plastic, for both look and sound.
• The Space Cadet keys have the nicest sculpted shape and the keyboard itself has the nicest angle / pitch.
• Even back then the Space Cadet was the best looking and the most fun to use.
• Micro Switch Hall Effect switches are really smooth. By now some (but by no means all) have gotten a little scratchy.
• We had some silly prejudice against arrow keys. I'm not even sure I can reconstruct it. Feel free to use the thumb/finger keys for this.

[raoulduke-esq]

Okay.

Thanks for sharing that! Sounds like the perfect tool for the job you were doing.

[XMIT]

Also how many keyboards have a cool song dedicated to them?

So, I went to MIT for undergrad about 15 years ago. Back then the first computer science course was 6.001, taught in Scheme, a variant of Lisp. Having non shifted parens would have been really nice.

My fraternity at the time had its own song about the Space Cadet, far more obscure but no less entertaining.

http://tep.scripts.mit.edu/crock/index. ... xclamation

Song: Super-Hyper-Open-Apple-Meta-Exclamation

TTTO "Supercalifragilistic, Expialidocious" (which is two words no matter what the rest of you fuckers say), performed by Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins.

CHORUS:
Super-Hyper-Open-Apple-Meta-Exclamation
Even though describing it will cause humiliation
If you try to type it your hands suffer degradation
Super-Hyper-Open-Apple-Meta-Exclamation

CHORUS:
Umdididility Umdilidi Umdididility Umdilidi

JOFISH:
Macintosh has some commands that sure as heck ain't terse
And if you type in Windows it could make a sailor curse
But I've discovered one command that blows them all away
The biggest line you'll ever find, and all you have to say

CHORUS:
Is Super-Hyper-Open-Apple-Meta-Exclamation
Even though describing it will cause humiliation
If you use it often you'll cure temporal gyration
Super-Hyper-Open-Apple-Meta-Exclamation

CHORUS:
Umdididility Umdilidi Umdididility Umdilidi

INDY:
Once I stayed up every night and tooled till two or three
Till I got each problem right and Dad was proud of me
But now my thesis writes itself and I don't do a thing
My grades are great, they're all top rate, and all I do is sing

CHORUS:
Oh, Super-Hyper-Open-Apple-Meta-Exclamation
Even though describing it will cause humiliation
You just have to type it once and then go on vacation

INDY: [spoken] Of course to undo it it's Shonam-axe-Atem-Elpa-Nepo-repyh-repus, but that's going a little to far don't you think?

JOFISH: [spoken] Indubidably!

CHORUS: Super-Hyper-Open-Apple-Meta-Exclamation!

[Palatino]

That's made my day. Even better than the packing photos. Muirium may be aware of the headline when lowly Scottish club Caledonian Thistle beat the mighty Celtic: "Super-Cale-go-ballistic-Celtic-are-atrocious".

[Muirium]

Oh, aye I have. 'Tis the stuff of infamy!

Spoiler:

I'd forgotten it was 3-1 though. Inverness well deserved the headline!

As for Shallot's post match report, I'd be wary of getting rejected by more than just the local Sainsbo's if I spent a pretty penny the like of that.