Early Japanese keyboard by IBM

[elecplus]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pengin/340943701
Now that is a lot of keys! Numpad on the left?

[Redmaus]

Is that a beamspring?

[andrewjoy]

looks like it

a beamspring for the typroman

[dzhoou]

that thing must weigh 30kg or so..

[Muirium]

Someone hotlink it plz. Flickr doesn't play ball with my old machines at all. (While Photobucket is awful even on the newish one.)

[andrewjoy]

i cannot as i cannot get the link however this may work

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pengin/340943701/sizes/z/

also get a better mac, i am getting rid of an xserv you can have that

[Mal-2]

I have seen something similar, only it was mechanical and typed old (traditional, pre-Hangul) Korean. It looked absolutely insane then, and it still does, but that's what it was like in the days before multiple-key selection of characters. It's basically a three-dimensional matrix, 18 wide x 12 deep x 12 high. I think the keys on the left are the "modifiers", choosing which of the twelve options on each key are in use.

The machine I saw pulled an actual metal piece from an enormous tray (seriously, this thing was the size of a desk), delivered it to the paper on two rails much like a plotter would, struck the paper, and put the metal piece back.

[Muirium]

Sounds epic! My guess is big matrix boards like that were necessary for typesetting or otherwise directly handling east Asian texts, without transliteration into Latin characters.


@Andy. Thanks, I see it now. On the old iPad. First gen: old Safari, Flickr tells me to go screw myself. Pity the guy who took it is an asshole and doesn't even allow downloads around those tossers.

[andrewjoy]

@Andy. On the old iPad. First gen: old Safari

when google finally bring out a bloody new nexus 10 i will sell you my ipad 2 for cheap

[Muirium]

iPad 2? It'll be obsolete soon enough too. I'm not a skinflint so much as I'm a sloooooooow adopter. I'm used to things working for years and years and years.

Still hate getting stuff that's obsolete already though. Besides keyboards!

[seebart]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pengin/340943701
Now that is a lot of keys! Numpad on the left?

that`s got kbdfr written all over it. But I guess he`s not into IBM.

[Muirium]

Afraid not. You see, he'd hate to be a "fanboy". Like us with all our fancy (not fancy) shiny (grimy) new (30+ year old) IBMs!

Being into Cherry, meanwhile…

[seebart]

Afraid not. You see, he'd hate to be a "fanboy". Like us with all our fancy (not fancy) shiny (grimy) new (30+ year old) IBMs!

Being into Cherry, meanwhile…

Awe come on that`s a little harsh. Cherry got its unobtanium too...which easily causes grumpiness.

[Muirium]

Yeah, I'm just teasing him for his unexplained Cherry switch monogamy. Everyone can choose their own area of interest, naturally, but he likes to act as though those of us into IBM are just plain wrong! Okay, so how exactly? Opinions outright! This is no place for veiled insinuation. Well, I mean it is, but I'd like to know his beef someday.

[seebart]

Aside from that I would not have the patience or discipline for any kind of switch monogamy.

[Muirium]

To be fair, I don't know his collection. I'm just basing the monogamy thing from his delightful mockery! IBM seems a strange thing to be against, being the historical gold standard that Cherry and others made their business to emulate at a lower cost.

[seebart]

But you don`t own one signle Cherry board right? Now I see the picture. Two worlds colliding.

[Muirium]

I'll have you know that no less than 3 of them are on their way to me right now. As coincidence conspires! (One being Cherry's latest, coming up from Robin for review.)

The thing I find odd about the Cherry collectors is the sheer range of prices they pay for various boards. Especially those damn G81s, which even they agree are miserable to type on. It's all about caps, of course, but caps Cherry made sure wouldn't even work on G80s? (Off centred stems on the bottom row…) Come on!

[seebart]

I'll have you know that no less than 3 of them are on their way to me right now. As coincidence conspires! (One being Cherry's latest, coming up from Robin for review.)

The thing I find odd about the Cherry collectors is the sheer range of prices they pay for various boards. Especially those damn G81s, which even they agree are miserable to type on. It's all about caps, of course, but caps Cherry made sure wouldn't even work on G80s? (Off centred stems on the bottom row…) Come on!

Whoops, then I stand corrected. I´ll be interested in your initial thoughts on Cherry MX! A review coming? Actually the old black G81 switch ain`t sooo bad. Yup, Cherry MX = caps, caps, and more caps.

[kbdfr]

C'mon, I am not a Cherry "fanboy", Cherry stuff just happens to cover my needs.

I have nothing against IBM, I just remember something which happened long, long ago, when word processors first began becoming available for individual professional users.
There were product presentations for competing products by an Olivetti and an IBM representative. While the Olivetti guy obviously had informed himself beforehand, the IBM guy knew only his product but was otherwise completely unprepared and didn't know anything about the professional group he was confronted to, which resulted in several rather offending remarks he didn't even notice.
Olivetti got several orders, IBM none.

But of course it is just a coincidence that I still stick to that

[seebart]

Like so often its all one meta misunderstanding then. So when are you getting your first IBM keyboard then kbdfr? And that presentation you are mentioning. That was like 1977 or what?

[Muirium]

Heh, nice one! I shan't pretend to a fan of IBM the company. They were a lazy monopolist in many ways who used their corporate clout to waltz in and dominate the personal computer industry in such an effortless move that it drove almost all the innovators in that market (Commodore, Atari, Acorn, etc.) out of business or off into other fields. If the IBM PC hadn't come along and let Microsoft and Intel dictate the whole industry through the 80s and 90s, we might live in more interesting times today. Apple might have more powerful and imaginative competitors!

But yeah, I do like IBM's keyboards. In inverse sequence to how they were optimised over time to get ever cheaper, of course. Cruel bastards, up to the same cost cutting as their entire, innovation averse, clone happy industry.

You're much too knowledgeable about keyboards to count as a fanboy. The only ones I see around here are newbs who turn up and know only their own experience, yet are sure it's an objective lesson for us all! (We should totally get backlit Corsairs, stat.) The best thing about keyboards is how easy it is to explore and be brand/switch/form factor agnostic. Well, besides for those with highly personalised layouts like you of course! Most of us can plug in a different keyboard and get straight to work. This alone makes true fanboyism refreshingly rare and naive in this field. There's so little friction holding us back from a switch.

[kbdfr]

[…] So when are you getting your first IBM keyboard then kbdfr? […]

If I remember correctly, the one IBM keyboard I had went to a DT member as a gift

[…] Most of us can plug in a different keyboard and get straight to work. […]

So do I. My keyboard just has a lot of additional keys - working without them is tedious, but not a problem.

[seebart]

Much respect for your last post Mu! Truthfully, I considder myself pretty illiterate keyboard wise. I´m at the beginning of my exploration. I came to that conclusion after meeting lowpoly and seeing his work and collection.

[andrewjoy]

iPad 2? It'll be obsolete soon enough too. I'm not a skinflint so much as I'm a sloooooooow adopter. I'm used to things working for years and years and years.

Still hate getting stuff that's obsolete already though. Besides keyboards!

apple , cough cough planned obsolescence cough

I jest, apple have been very good recently , look at the last real macbook pro MB766*/A 7 years old and 10.10 works on it just fine i am guessing that 10.11 will as well , no reason why not. Back in the day they where bad for it but they are quite good now.

The iPad 1 was slow and useless when it came out , its basically a 3Gs after all, the iPad 2 meanwhile is going on strong it hit the sweet spot just new enough to get the latest OSs .


Same with my i7 2600K that very old now and yet is still kicking it with the big boys, its all about buying stuff at the right time. the Sandy bridge platform was a MASSIVE step forwards, good time to buy as you know it will be small incremental updates for a while.

That being said its getting replaced with a 5930K soon , another good time to upgrade DDR4 and nice and super fast SSD interfaces on board , no crappy cables for a tiny flash drive! ( its the one out of the recent MBA samsung do sell them on the open marked but they are only for OEMs really

[Muirium]

Apple's always been a bunch of bastards for killing off old stuff. They make their money selling hardware after all! What bugs me is the fact modern web browsers ditch older OS versions quicker than ever before (because normal people really do throw out hardware at that rate) which bites me in the arse. I don't mind running older software, but the web demands the new stuff, or at least places like Flickr do. Deskthority works perfectly on crazy out of date browsers, I've tried!

[seebart]

Same with my i7 2600K that very old now and yet is still kicking it with the big boys, its all about buying stuff at the right time. the Sandy bridge platform was a MASSIVE step forwards, good time to buy as you know it will be small incremental updates for a while.

very true. All about timing and watching the new technical developments. My personal rig at home is a i5 2500K on a asrock board with a sapphire 7950. It´s years old and still got enough power even for gaming. Sandybridge was a big step at Intel.

...which bites me in the arse.

because as an Apple user you are software AND hardware "locked". Zero options. That`s how Apple makes it`s $$$. I remember when someone came up with the "hackintosh". Apple went bezerk and called in the lawyers.

http://www.hackintosh.com

[andrewjoy]

Apple used to sanction clone macs OS8 days, the problem , the apple rom chip was so expensive for them to buy they where the same price as a mac .

2500K is awesome, same CPU as the 2700 without HT ( that you dont need 99% of the time ) get a real GPU tho from team green . my rig started life with 2 GTX 480s in it..... BAD PLAN! they use so much power and get so hot. Glad to get rid of them. The 680s served me well but they just don't have enough VRAM for 1440p time for a 980ti ( single) i think

[seebart]

The 2500K is the best deal I ever got on any CPU. GPU wise I always stick with AMD. They cheat less on their specs!

[Muirium]

I had a 2700K former server I was given for free. 16 gigs of ram, back when that was impressive. Played a mean game but I never could Hackintosh it right. Wound up being a total time sink so I gave it to my gamer friend. He was incredulous about Sandy Bridge. But not for long!

Similar story with the freebie Mac Pro 1,1 I got. More wasted time. Sometimes worked well for ages, but not any more. Running Apple software on unsupported machines (especially other people's) is far from the rock solid easy times I'm used to with Macs.

Lesson learned: turn down antiquated gifts if I expect to use them as modern machines. Doesnae work!

Anyway, it's retina time. I'm not picking up anything else that's sub 200 ppi!