Re: Keyboard news

[email protected] Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:48:43 -0400 (EDT)
Newsgroups gmane.comp.hardware.altkeyboards
Message-ID <[email protected]> 
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well not as fancy or elaborate as you.. when I find something I tend to 
stick with it.  I found the original MS ergo keyboard without all the 
fancy extra buttons with a pretty good feel to it and have pretty much 
used it exclusively (with Dvorak and Linux) ever since, have hit the shows 
and have yet to find one in the $5 keyboard pile.... but I'll keep 
looking, would love to have one to plug into my laptop like the computer 
(System 76 Pangolin) but hate the keyboard on it.  and I detest touchpads 
of any and all strips.  don't like mice either,  still keep my trackballs 
working...

Bob
blame typist not keyboard for errors


On Tue, 27 Mar 2012, Giles Orr wrote:

> Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:57:23 -0400
> From: Giles Orr <[email protected]>
> Reply-To: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [altkeyboards] Keyboard news
> 
> I'm still very interested in keyboards - so I've been sad to see
> altkeyboards become moribund.  Is it because everybody's got their
> perfect keyboard?  That seems a little unlikely.  I've never wanted
> this to be a high traffic list, but it's always interested me so it'd
> be nice to see some traffic.
>
> In an effort to get some discussion going, I'm going to toss out
> various keyboard news I have.
>
> As a reminder, I use the Dvorak keyboard layout, I own two Kinesis
> Advantage keyboards (which I highly recommend), and two or three IBM
> model Ms (the Kinesis physical layout is better, but buckling springs
> are the best keyswitches EVER).  I bought a friend an IBM keyboard for
> Christmas - the one that imitates a Thinkpad keyboard, complete with
> pointing device in the centre of the keyboard.  It feels better than
> the actual Thinkpad keyboards - I think it may have a millimeter more
> throw.  It's a nice board if you like that kind of thing.
>
> My most recent purchase was two days ago, a CoolerMaster Quick Fire
> keyboard.  I bought it because Canada Computers had it on sale for $64
> and it has Cherry blue keyswitches and feels fantastic (not quite
> buckling spring, but still very good).  It's small and quite heavy,
> kind of mimicking the model M - except for the complete lack of a
> numerical keypad.
>
> This has only increased my desire to convert one of my Kinesis
> Advantage keyboards from the original Cherry browns to Cherry blues.
> With assistance from a friend who's an electronics tech, I've
> de-soldered all the switches in the hand wells but haven't done the
> central Space-Enter-Delete-Backspace pods - I think I'm going to leave
> them alone, although I've purchased enough keyswitches to do them if I
> decide to.  The switches should arrive later in the week.  One of the
> tricky bits about this process is that the Cherry blues aren't readily
> available with diodes in them, while the removed Cherry browns have
> diodes in to construct the keyboard matrix circuit.  So we're going to
> have to solder a diode across two of the connectors on each switch.
>
> And moving into the Android world ...  The physical keyboard for my
> Asus Transformer is among the worst mechanical keyboards I've ever
> encountered - it feels bad, it bounces or doesn't respond, and it's
> almost impossible to avoid hitting the touchpad.  And yet if you have
> a Transformer, I would still recommend getting it for the battery, the
> extra ports, and the ability to type on a physical keyboard, no matter
> how bad.
>
> Virtual keyboards: if you're in the Android world, I highly recommend
> getting the totally free (no advertising, no nothing) "Hacker's
> Keyboard" from the Market.  It has arrow keys (think about that).
> That allows Shift-arrow to select text.  It has a Control key - which
> allows Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, and Ctrl-X for copy, paste, and cut.  And it
> has a number row.  Not sure how well this would work on a phone, but
> it's fantastic on a tablet.  I've also been reasonably pleased with
> the SlideIT virtual keyboard, which costs money (not sure how much) -
> you slide your finger from one key to another to construct words.  For
> most people, this will increase their text input speed considerably.
> I toggle back and forth between it and the Hacker's keyboard depending
> on what I'm working on: if it's scripting, Hacker's keyboard.  If it's
> an email, SlideIT.
>
> Has anyone got Android to do Dvorak on a physical keyboard (without
> rooting or Cyanogen Mod)?  Cyanogen Mod will likely be my final
> answer, but it's not considered stable on the Transformer yet.  And I
> don't want to try to root it at the moment.
>
> Have a great day, and I hope to hear from some of you soon.
>
> --
> Giles
> http://www.gilesorr.com/
> [email protected]
>

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      <p><br>
well not as fancy or elaborate as you.. when I find something I tend to <br>
stick with it.  I found the original MS ergo keyboard without all the <br>
fancy extra buttons with a pretty good feel to it and have pretty much <br>
used it exclusively (with Dvorak and Linux) ever since, have hit the shows <br>
and have yet to find one in the $5 keyboard pile.... but I'll keep <br>
looking, would love to have one to plug into my laptop like the computer <br>
(System 76 Pangolin) but hate the keyboard on it.  and I detest touchpads <br>
of any and all strips.  don't like mice either,  still keep my trackballs <br>
working...<br>
<br>
Bob<br>
blame typist not keyboard for errors<br>
<br>
On Tue, 27 Mar 2012, Giles Orr wrote:<br>
<br>
&gt; Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:57:23 -0400<br>
&gt; From: Giles Orr &lt;<a href="mailto:gilesorr%40gmail.com">[email protected]</a>&gt;<br>
&gt; Reply-To: <a href="mailto:altkeyboards%40yahoogroups.com">[email protected]</a><br>
&gt; To: <a href="mailto:altkeyboards%40yahoogroups.com">[email protected]</a><br>
&gt; Subject: [altkeyboards] Keyboard news<br>
&gt; <br>
&gt; I'm still very interested in keyboards - so I've been sad to see<br>
&gt; altkeyboards become moribund.  Is it because everybody's got their<br>
&gt; perfect keyboard?  That seems a little unlikely.  I've never wanted<br>
&gt; this to be a high traffic list, but it's always interested me so it'd<br>
&gt; be nice to see some traffic.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; In an effort to get some discussion going, I'm going to toss out<br>
&gt; various keyboard news I have.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; As a reminder, I use the Dvorak keyboard layout, I own two Kinesis<br>
&gt; Advantage keyboards (which I highly recommend), and two or three IBM<br>
&gt; model Ms (the Kinesis physical layout is better, but buckling springs<br>
&gt; are the best keyswitches EVER).  I bought a friend an IBM keyboard for<br>
&gt; Christmas - the one that imitates a Thinkpad keyboard, complete with<br>
&gt; pointing device in the centre of the keyboard.  It feels better than<br>
&gt; the actual Thinkpad keyboards - I think it may have a millimeter more<br>
&gt; throw.  It's a nice board if you like that kind of thing.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; My most recent purchase was two days ago, a CoolerMaster Quick Fire<br>
&gt; keyboard.  I bought it because Canada Computers had it on sale for $64<br>
&gt; and it has Cherry blue keyswitches and feels fantastic (not quite<br>
&gt; buckling spring, but still very good).  It's small and quite heavy,<br>
&gt; kind of mimicking the model M - except for the complete lack of a<br>
&gt; numerical keypad.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; This has only increased my desire to convert one of my Kinesis<br>
&gt; Advantage keyboards from the original Cherry browns to Cherry blues.<br>
&gt; With assistance from a friend who's an electronics tech, I've<br>
&gt; de-soldered all the switches in the hand wells but haven't done the<br>
&gt; central Space-Enter-Delete-Backspace pods - I think I'm going to leave<br>
&gt; them alone, although I've purchased enough keyswitches to do them if I<br>
&gt; decide to.  The switches should arrive later in the week.  One of the<br>
&gt; tricky bits about this process is that the Cherry blues aren't readily<br>
&gt; available with diodes in them, while the removed Cherry browns have<br>
&gt; diodes in to construct the keyboard matrix circuit.  So we're going to<br>
&gt; have to solder a diode across two of the connectors on each switch.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; And moving into the Android world ...  The physical keyboard for my<br>
&gt; Asus Transformer is among the worst mechanical keyboards I've ever<br>
&gt; encountered - it feels bad, it bounces or doesn't respond, and it's<br>
&gt; almost impossible to avoid hitting the touchpad.  And yet if you have<br>
&gt; a Transformer, I would still recommend getting it for the battery, the<br>
&gt; extra ports, and the ability to type on a physical keyboard, no matter<br>
&gt; how bad.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; Virtual keyboards: if you're in the Android world, I highly recommend<br>
&gt; getting the totally free (no advertising, no nothing) &quot;Hacker's<br>
&gt; Keyboard&quot; from the Market.  It has arrow keys (think about that).<br>
&gt; That allows Shift-arrow to select text.  It has a Control key - which<br>
&gt; allows Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, and Ctrl-X for copy, paste, and cut.  And it<br>
&gt; has a number row.  Not sure how well this would work on a phone, but<br>
&gt; it's fantastic on a tablet.  I've also been reasonably pleased with<br>
&gt; the SlideIT virtual keyboard, which costs money (not sure how much) -<br>
&gt; you slide your finger from one key to another to construct words.  For<br>
&gt; most people, this will increase their text input speed considerably.<br>
&gt; I toggle back and forth between it and the Hacker's keyboard depending<br>
&gt; on what I'm working on: if it's scripting, Hacker's keyboard.  If it's<br>
&gt; an email, SlideIT.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; Has anyone got Android to do Dvorak on a physical keyboard (without<br>
&gt; rooting or Cyanogen Mod)?  Cyanogen Mod will likely be my final<br>
&gt; answer, but it's not considered stable on the Transformer yet.  And I<br>
&gt; don't want to try to root it at the moment.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; Have a great day, and I hope to hear from some of you soon.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; --<br>
&gt; Giles<br>
&gt; <a href="http://www.gilesorr.com/">http://www.gilesorr.com/</a><br>
&gt; <a href="mailto:gilesorr%40gmail.com">[email protected]</a><br>
&gt;<br>
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