30 Nov
2008
30 Nov
'08
8:25 a.m.
David Griffith wrote:
Does anyone here have pull with Sun Microsystems or
know someone who does?
I'm trying to get the right person jazzed up about the idea of a Type 7
keyboard built like a Model M. I've already emailed clickykeyboards.com
about it and they'll do the engineering and design work for about $27k. A
Type 7 sells brand new for around $50. I'm sure people would be more than
willing to pay twice as much for a "Type 7m".
Note that there are conversion boxes that turn PS/2 keyboards + mice
into Sun Desktop Bus devices. these used to go for roughly $100-$200.
Might be easier to get a Model-M keyboard + your favorite mouse hooked
up to one of these. Yes, there are issues with these such as the extra
keys being missing, but these devices typically have alternate sequences
for those - mine came with a reference card which I keep under the
keyboard - this way Sun machines can easily hook up to cheap KVM's such
as the Belkin 8 port I use.
The only issue left is there's no way to power on the Sun box from the
keyboard, going behind the machine to hit the power switch is needed.
Otherwise, they work just fine, even the L1-A sequence.