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RE: Keyboards I Have Loved and Lost -- Was: pc keyboard that's "springy" like the Mac's ?
Subject:RE: Keyboards I Have Loved and Lost -- Was: pc keyboard that's "springy" like the Mac's ? From:"Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com> To:Nancy Allison <maker -at- verizon -dot- net>, "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 4 Jan 2013 12:27:05 -0800
Nancy Allison wrote:
> Everything feels -- and sounds -- like a tinkertoy compared to those
> early keyboards.
>
> Do you still miss a particular keyboard?
When I finally took my ancient Northgate 386 computer to the electronics recycling event a few years ago, I took the keyboard with it. That was one of the dumbest things I ever did. The Northgate Omnikey keyboards from the late 80s and early 90s were legendary for their excellent feel and solid construction (thick steel chassis; you could pound nails with one).
Mine had the function keys both across the top and on the left. The Ctrl key was to the left of the A and Caps Lock was to the left of the spacebar -- a much better arrangement, IMHO. I don't know what I was thinking when I gave that thing up.
After Northgate went belly-up, somebody took over their keyboard designs and continued making them for a number of years (IIRC, they were charging $150 to $200).
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
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