[Leaplist] happy hacking!

[Chris]

Scott Moe wrote:

>My Model M is the real deal. Vintage IBM with bucking
>springs. I found several on eBay 4 or 5 years ago for
>about 35 dollars each. Don't ask me I won't part with
>them, but you should still be able to find them on
>eBay for a lot less than an HHK. 
>
>The HHK lite is membrane switch, ouch, with my poor
>old carpel tunnels I need to dance on springs not
>bottom out on membrane switches. The pro has a cone
>spring and  is supposed to be very good. For $269 it
>should be. 
>The specs,
>http://www.pfusystems.com/hhkeyboard/spec.html
>say it has about a 4 mm stroke and key activates at
>about 2 mm. I think that is shallower than the model M
>but would still be much nicer than any membrane
>keyboard.
>
>But really why do want a keyboard that is smaller than
>a piece of paper with no caps lock, tiny cursor keys,
>and a two key chord to hit function keys, page up,
>page down? If you have small hands and your only
>keyboard interaction was with vi and bash I guess it
>would be great.
>
>I say search for Model M on eBay.
>
>Scott Moe
>
>--- tom foster <tf at linuxceptional.com> wrote:
>
>  
>
Or, for far less, cruise the local Goodwill thrift stores from time to 
time -
I've picked up two Model M's for less than 5$ each - one is missing
the F11 keycap, but that's okay, because in the entire history of
computing, no one has ever discovered a use for that key - it's not
even wired into some keyboards. ;-)

Key covers are the other nice thing about the Model M's - and if you
have carpal (or other digital - in the sense of digits, i.e. fingers -
issues) you may be using the wrong keyboard layout. After carelessly
breaking a couple of bones in my right hand, a guy named Arthur
Ritus came to visit. I had to find an easier way to type - or at least one
that didn't hurt as much. Yeah, it's another Dvorak pitch. I still can't
type any faster than I can think, but my hands thank me every day.

My only regret is the twenty-five years I spent banging on QWERTY.

So, if you've got a Model M, you can easily pop off the key covers
and arrange them so the hunt-and-peckers in your house can still
figure out which keys to hit if you're using a different keyboard
layout (because apparently clicking the little KDE keyboard layout
flag on the taskbar is too confusing for some people)

I never quite understood the whole Happy Hacking market segment.
If I need a keyboard to travel, hey, that's what my laptop is for, and it
already has a cramped membrane keyboard - why carry another? But at
home, even if space is at a premium, which it is, with two 19" Trinitron
monitors and a big digital penpad, that keyboard is where I spend the
most time, so it has to, absolutely must be a comfort and joy to use, and
I don't resent a single square inch of the space my Model M's take up.

So yeah, the Happy Hacker is a membrane, and even if it's a nice
membrane, I'm still convinced that "nice membrane" is an oxymoron.
And even your average prison cell (i.e. server closet) has enough
room for a decent-sized keyboard.

Cheers,

Chris