22 Sep
2011
22 Sep
'11
9:19 a.m.
On 22 September 2011 16:32, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
On 22 Sep 2011 at 13:38, Liam Proven wrote:
That's fair enough. PCs are commodities now. Don't expert much
expertise from the grunts in the business.
I think that's more than a bit unreasonable,
TBH. "PS/2" *is* the
standard name for the connector; if you wanted an /IBM/ keyboard, fair
enough, but if they were PC keyboards and weren't XT, AT or USB, then
they *were* PS/2 keyboards and he was answering perfectly correctly.
Maybe. ?But the same store has some clerks who differentiate the two
Great Classes of personal computers by "Mac" or "IBM"... "PS/2-type" would have been more accurate.
?It's very sad that we
have a keyboard "standard" whose only reference is that of a long-
discontinued product line that few remember or even realize existed.
Type? No. PS/2-*connector*, maybe.
But it's a good thing that it's been replaced by the
reliably-hot-pluggable USB, because to the mass mind, "PS2" now means
"Playstation 2" - and that's obsolete now, anyway. Room for much
confusion there, as you can attach a keyboard and mouse to a PS2 - but
not PS/2 ones. Overloaded abbreviation.
And let's be clear--it's the connector, not
the electrical interface
(which is identical to that of the 5170) that differentiates these.
Surely, a better name could have been developed. ?Isn't the term
"PS/2" a trademark of IBM in any case?
True, yes, but they didn't seem to mind. Viral marketing, perhaps?
--
Liam Proven ? Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
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