Bay Area Keyboard Meetup - Nov 2019

[XMIT]

https://flickr.com/photos/84348724@N07/ ... 7083/page1

I finally got around to posting photos of the Bay Area Keyboard Meetup! Several DT members were in attendance, including myself, HaaTa, obra, mcmaxmcmc, ohaimark, wcass, DMA, and MMcM.

I think this is the most DT photo we got:

XTant, wcass Model F, FSSK, XMIT Sperry board.

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mcmaxmcmc brought 2-3 tables worth of keyboards. I believe I got a photo of every keyboard that was present.

If you see any favorites please feel free to grab them from the album and post them here! I'll be sure to do the same.

There were a lot of really exciting things for me. I got to talk to the QMK and CommonSense maintainers and ask a lot of questions. I also managed to get a Realforce R2 board for evaluation. Watch for that review coming in the next week!

[JP!]

Thanks for sharing this here! I wish I could have attended, maybe next year though!

[Findecanor]

So many keyboards ... It's overwhelming.
Nice to see Sweden represented with a Facit calculator.

Did you get to try to the Ploopy trackball?

What is the story of the IBM keyboard with wavy keys? (Similar to Logitech Wave, but suppose much earlier)

Anybody know what these in the foreground are called?

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[XMIT]

Did you get to try to the Ploopy trackball?

Yes I did. I don't like asymettric trackballs and prefer my CST.

What is the story of the IBM keyboard with wavy keys? (Similar to Logitech Wave, but suppose much earlier)

Exactly that. obra would know more about it, this was IBM's attempt in the 90s to do ergonomics through key sculpting.

Anybody know what these in the foreground are called?
49052183858_fa34a9d24a_c.jpg

Maybe a variant of the TGR Alice? There were many variations on a theme...

[Findecanor]

Anybody know what these in the foreground are called?
49052183858_fa34a9d24a_c.jpg

Maybe a variant of the TGR Alice? There were many variations on a theme...

Definitely not an Alice. This one is columns-staggered instead of row-staggered and takes an ErgoDox keycap kit rather than a normal one.
For a couple of years, I have tinkered with a layout more similar to this one, and if someone called it an "Alice-variant" I would be quite annoyed.

[Bass]

Do my eyes deceive me, or do I spot a space cadet on the last page? This is the first time I recall seeing one spotted at one of these meetups.

[XMIT]

Yes, that's a Space Cadet, being held by a Symbolics founder.

[ZedTheMan]

Oh wow, that's quite a few photos and people!
Were there any Beamsprings, or did I miss one in the photos?

Say, XMIT, where did you get that shirt?

[swampangel]

Anybody know what these in the foreground are called?
49052183858_fa34a9d24a_c.jpg

Took me longer than expected to track down, but apparently they're the upcoming MKUltra Boardrun

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... e_bonanza/

From the meetup discord:

That ortho/ergo/alice mashup is called the Boardrun and will be released early next month. I'm getting the process finalized for my cases, which are acrylic, but edge polished to perfection. I even had one there with a brass plate, also edge polished. There will be 3 variants of Boardrun - 10 degree alpha rotation, 12 degree alpha rotation and another 10 degree but will use standard TKL mods and have an arrow cluster to the right.

[XMIT]

Were there any Beamsprings, or did I miss one in the photos?

Say, XMIT, where did you get that shirt?

No Beamsprings. ohaimark made me that shirt years ago!

[SneakyRobb]

I finally got around to posting photos of the Bay Area Keyboard Meetup! Several DT members were in attendance, including myself, HaaTa, obra, mcmaxmcmc, ohaimark, wcass, DMA, and MMcM.


If you see any favorites please feel free to grab them from the album and post them here! I'll be sure to do the same.

I looked through every photo trying to spot these people I must admit. Elusive!

That looks like a lot of fun. Wish I could have attended.

I like this image of this hand held analog calculator?

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As well this is a cool flag, keycap set when

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[Polecat]

Wish I had known about this. Did I miss an announcement here, or is it an insider thing? Admittedly I tend to read only a few sections here. I'm more used to forums where the posts show up on a single chronological list.

[XMIT]

The meetup was more widely advertised on reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards, and I happened to know some of the folks who help organize it. The event was no secret!

Yeah, that was a Curta, handheld mechanical calculator.

[Polecat]

Thanks, I'm not on reddit, I'll have to pay more attention to the posts here.

[mcmaxmcmc]

It was great meeting you, @XMIT, and everybody else! This was my first big meetup and I was afraid there weren't going to be a lot of vintage keyboards representing... so I did my part.

[XMIT]

Good meeting you too.

FWIW there were some complaints about limited table space and you brought like 3-4 tables of boards. These days I keep it under 10 keyboards and/or bring a table if I'm going to put out that many.

[JP!]

Good meeting you too.

FWIW there were some complaints about limited table space and you brought like 3-4 tables of boards. These days I keep it under 10 keyboards and/or bring a table if I'm going to put out that many.

The meetups I've been to I was lucky to squeeze in 3-4 boards but usually the ones I bring are full-size or better. Of course it depends on the venue and oftentimes I see meetup organizers impose a set limit of boards. One local meetup is even limiting this number to just two boards. Bringing a table might be the best way to go as long as it's fine with the event organizers.

[mcmaxmcmc]

Good meeting you too.

FWIW there were some complaints about limited table space and you brought like 3-4 tables of boards. These days I keep it under 10 keyboards and/or bring a table if I'm going to put out that many.

Ah, yeah, that's a good idea, actually. I'll keep that in mind.

To be clear, though, when I was setting up I asked the venue and they said they can bring more tables. Not sure if they actually ran out, but I'll definitely bring less next time