Dem keyboards

"Nibby" (nibby68) 02/15/2017 at 14:56 • Filed to: None

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These are the best non-mechanicals you can get. IBM KB-8923 and HP C3758A. The HP one came with Vectra machines during the 90s (their business line of desktops back then). This one is based on Keytronics.

The KB-8923 feels great to type on and it’s built very well. Not a weapon like the Model M but definitely has a sizeable heft most keyboards (even new mechanical gaming ones) simply do not have.

deekster_caddy > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 14:58

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Love me some good clickity clack keyboards! Who needs ‘quietkey’. I want to know I pressed the damn key!

Nibby > deekster_caddy 02/15/2017 at 15:00

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Damn right, what do you use?

TheHondaBro > deekster_caddy 02/15/2017 at 15:00

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Except when you live in a house with light sleepers and they all go to bed early. I stopped using my mechanical keyboard in favor of a quieter non-mechanical keyboard.

HammerheadFistpunch > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 15:02

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Ah, clickity clackers

Nibby > HammerheadFistpunch 02/15/2017 at 15:03

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The IBM one is pretty quiet... what do you use?

HammerheadFistpunch > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 15:04

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Just the regular full size mac one. I don’t mind it at all actually.

Roundbadge > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 15:09

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We used to have a pile of old Data General keyboards laying around here. They weren’t mechanical, I don’t think...they just sounded like they were. We were throwing them away, and a guy horked them all thinking he was going to make bank on them...and then he ended up throwing them away too.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 15:10

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I remember keyboards like this, but suffered through them because that’s what was available. I strongly prefer the lightest-touch low-travel flat keyboards available. Just short of those keyboards projected on flat surfaces is what I want. Nobody likes to serve my market, even Apple makes keyboards are kind of thick (and they lack all the keys I need due to what I do).

Nibby > Roundbadge 02/15/2017 at 15:12

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People want standard layout retro keyboards, not terminal ones for the most part.

Nibby > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 02/15/2017 at 15:13

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Yeah, you’re an anomaly :P

Stapleface > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 15:17

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I guess the question is why do people prefer these? I’ve used many keyboards over the years and can’t say I’ve preferred one kind over the other.

If I HAD to pick one, I’d pick the non mechanical ones as they make less noise.

deekster_caddy > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 15:18

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I used one of these Dells until recently. Had to do away with the PS2 though, don’t have it anymore. Now all my keyboards are quiet and they suck.

Nibby > Stapleface 02/15/2017 at 15:18

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These aren’t mechanical! They’re just very comfortable and built very well. They’ll last ages.

The fact they’re both 20+ years old and still work fine is a testament to that. I’d like to see a typical new consumer keyboard in 10 years from now. A lot of the keyboards we have are work and when I was in school were completely beat to shit and filthy.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 15:20

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You can keep your squishy boards. I really want to get a 122 key terminal board:

I would have a lot of fun designing my own controller to get it communicating over USB and with macros on all the extra buttons.

Nibby > deekster_caddy 02/15/2017 at 15:21

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:( should’ve sent it to me!

Nibby > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 02/15/2017 at 15:22

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sadly the prices for htose things are insane

Chariotoflove > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 15:23

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I just had to use one like these in a classroom. It’s been so long, it threw me off. I’m so used to Apples flat keyboards.

Nibby > Chariotoflove 02/15/2017 at 15:24

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Death to Apple’s shitty flat keyboards

Chariotoflove > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 15:32

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You’ll have to go through me first. I’m so much better with them than the old ones.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 15:33

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DEATH. Not just the flat ones but the “ha ha I am an open pan for mold and crap and evil” ones too.

Nibby > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/15/2017 at 15:36

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fuck these oens

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 15:42

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Had those on most of the Macs at the Georgia Tech library computer lab. Some of them missing keys. When, get this, somebody in the management of the lab decided that we needed lots of Macs, and everybody coming in to use the computers for things like Maple and Matlab would be using the Windows machines, it meant half the time there would only be a few Macs available. Macs with missing keys and leprotic toejam and funk down inside and greasiness.

HATE

Nibby > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/15/2017 at 15:46

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Those ones got so dirty so easily, it was disgusting. Last year I went to work and this was the keyboard on the machine I was assigned to. Obviously I swapped it out with an unused one.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 15:54

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The biggest frustration I have with keyboards isn’t even that, it’s that everyone is so used to these stupid keyboards lifting in the rear that they’re destroying my wrists. I have only seen a couple people that actually use a keyboard in such a manner that it doesn’t destroy their wrists.

My main keyboards are these curved MS ones that are way the hell too tall and even when I remove the stands on the back, they’re still too high and require my wrists to be awkwardly bent.

bhtooefr > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 02/15/2017 at 16:01

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Unfortunately for you, there’s already at least two controllers that do exactly what you want, one of which is open source, for those.

Nibby > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 02/15/2017 at 16:01

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I understand, I don’t like raising them with the rear latches but at the same time I don’t like keyboards that are too flat

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 16:07

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At least with an old Dell you can wipe down the keys. No funk reservoirs.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > bhtooefr 02/15/2017 at 16:15

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But where’s the fun in that?

bhtooefr > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 02/15/2017 at 16:24

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That’s why I said unfortunately, not fortunately. ;)

Justino6969 > Chariotoflove 02/15/2017 at 17:21

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I work in IT and see so many different keyboards in a day. It always throws me off, to the point where I’m mistyping this on my home mechanical keyboard right now.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Nibby 02/15/2017 at 18:01

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I still HAVE one of those IBM keyboards! Originally came with our ‘96 IBM Aptiva, and I still use it on spare Intel Core 2 desktop! :D

Nibby > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 02/15/2017 at 18:21

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They’re amazing! Do you still use it? Alos Aptivas were teh shit.

Chariotoflove > Justino6969 02/15/2017 at 18:26

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And then throw thumb typing, which messes me up because no tactile feedback.

Roundbadge > Nibby 02/16/2017 at 07:12

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Actually, the layouts on those DG keyboards were identical to what you’ve shown above.

McMike > Nibby 02/16/2017 at 13:08

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There is someone one one of my weekly conerence calls that must have one of these. They are always on speakerphone, so you can hear em crank away.

Not sure if they are taking minutes, doing other work, or are playing tetris, but it sounds like hail on a tin roof.

Nibby > McMike 02/16/2017 at 13:10

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Most likely an IBM Model M, those are loud enough to wake the dead

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby 02/20/2017 at 15:24

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