30 Jul
2013
30 Jul
'13
12:48 a.m.
The worst keyboard I ever typed on was attached to something called (I
think) an "Infoton" terminal.
Yeah, this:
http://terminals.classiccmp.org/wiki/index.php/File:Infoton_Vistar_GT.jpg
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/infoton/Vistar_Technical_Users_Manua…
It was upper case only (which is horrible enough)... but the keyboard.
It was like typing on a wet sponge. I wish I could find one so I
could (gasp) take a sledgehammer to it. The ASU remote sites had a
large number of these, and a small number of VT100s, and everyone was
desperately trying to avoid them.
30 Jul
30 Jul
5:03 a.m.
Btw...
http://www.pcworld.com/article/139100/the_10_worst_pc_keyboards_of_all_time…
---
Enviado do meu Motorola PT550
Meu site: http://www.tabalabs.com.br
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Many Jars" <john at yoyodyne-propulsion.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 4:48 AM
Subject: Bad Keyboards
The worst keyboard I ever typed on was attached to
something called (I
think) an "Infoton" terminal.
Yeah, this:
http://terminals.classiccmp.org/wiki/index.php/File:Infoton_Vistar_GT.jpg
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/infoton/Vistar_Technical_Users_Manua…
It was upper case only (which is horrible enough)... but the keyboard.
It was like typing on a wet sponge. I wish I could find one so I
could (gasp) take a sledgehammer to it. The ASU remote sites had a
large number of these, and a small number of VT100s, and everyone was
desperately trying to avoid them.
6:43 a.m.
I agree with most of those, but I disagree with the Commodore 64. I felt
that was pretty easy to use and type on.
On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 7:03 AM, Alexandre Souza <
alexandre.tabajara at gmail.com> wrote:
Btw...
http://www.pcworld.com/**article/139100/the_10_worst_**
pc_keyboards_of_all_time.html<http://www.pcworld.com/article/139100/the_…
---
Enviado do meu Motorola PT550
Meu site: http://www.tabalabs.com.br
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Many Jars" <
john at yoyodyne-propulsion.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <
cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 4:48 AM
Subject: Bad Keyboards
The worst keyboard I ever typed on was attached to something called (I
think) an "Infoton" terminal.
Yeah, this:
http://terminals.classiccmp.**org/wiki/index.php/File:**
Infoton_Vistar_GT.jpg<http://terminals.classiccmp.org/wiki/index.php/Fil…
http://bitsavers.trailing-**edge.com/pdf/infoton/Vistar_**
Technical_Users_Manual_Oct72.**pdf<http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pd…
It was upper case only (which is horrible enough)... but the keyboard.
It was like typing on a wet sponge. I wish I could find one so I
could (gasp) take a sledgehammer to it. The ASU remote sites had a
large number of these, and a small number of VT100s, and everyone was
desperately trying to avoid them.
6:58 a.m.
On Jul 30, 2013, at 8:08 AM, "Alexandre Souza" <alexandre.tabajara at
gmail.com> wrote:
I guess this is why I am not a manufacturing mogul. It just appears obvious to me that if
you stick a $H!++y keyboard on a computer, 1040ST in this case, then people will not flock
to it for word processing and the like. (Boss, boss, I just bought TI-99/4's for the
entire typing pool!)
I looked at Benj's slideshow and had forgotten about the PCjr's blank keycaps.
It's actually an ingenious idea, now instead of 93(whatever) separate keycap parts to
make and stock you have a dozen or so. Great idea. On paper. For bean counters. Once
again, didn't anyone at IBM actually use the darn thing? I bet they had a prototype
Model M wired up to it so they wouldn't have to use the crappy shipping keyboard. I
know that kind of thing has happened more than once at other companies. (Including the one
I worked for back then)
---
Enviado do meu Motorola PT550
Meu site: http://www.tabalabs.com.br
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Many Jars" <john at
yoyodyne-propulsion.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 4:48 AM
Subject: Bad Keyboards
The worst keyboard I ever typed on was attached
to something called (I
think) an "Infoton" terminal.
Yeah, this:
http://terminals.classiccmp.org/wiki/index.php/File:Infoton_Vistar_GT.jpg
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/infoton/Vistar_Technical_Users_Manua…
It was upper case only (which is horrible enough)... but the keyboard.
It was like typing on a wet sponge. I wish I could find one so I
could (gasp) take a sledgehammer to it. The ASU remote sites had a
large number of these, and a small number of VT100s, and everyone was
desperately trying to avoid them.
7:05 a.m.
On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 8:58 AM, BE Arnold <bearnold at outlook.com> wrote:
I looked at Benj's slideshow and had forgotten
about the PCjr's blank
keycaps. It's actually an ingenious idea, now instead of 93(whatever)
separate keycap parts to make and stock you have a dozen or so. Great idea.
On paper. For bean counters. Once again, didn't anyone at IBM actually use
the darn thing? I bet they had a prototype Model M wired up to it so they
wouldn't have to use the crappy shipping keyboard. I know that kind of
thing has happened more than once at other companies. (Including the one I
worked for back then)
This is a good point. You would think in a computer company that the
designers would be somewhat personally sensitive to the quality of the
keyboard and raise flags. Maybe they did.
3944
days inactive
3944
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4 comments
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participants (4)
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alexandre.tabajara＠gmail.com -
bearnold＠outlook.com -
john＠yoyodyne-propulsion.net -
oltmansg＠gmail.com