Retro Keyboard

Discussion in 'Gadgets & Tech Talk' started by Ken Anderson, Jan 3, 2018.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    My wife bought me a retro keyboard for Christmas, with keys that have the look and feel of an antique typewriter. I had looked at them before but I don't think I had mentioned it to her. I like it. The spacing is pretty much the same, if not identical, to my iMac/MacBook keyboards, so I don't have to reteach my fingers. It does have a bunch of extra keys, but they are off to the right.

    I haven't figure out how to do everything with it yet. Although it has a retro look, there are a bunch of things that can be done with lighting, as far as light displays, but that's not something that would be used on a regular basis.

    IMG_0058.jpg
     
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  2. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Ken Anderson
    It looks like the first typewriter my mother bought me as a freshman in high school. Or maybe, even earlier vintage. I'm wondering if those early designers were not perhaps more ergonomically "astute" than today's designers. Today's flat keyboard requires fingertips be bent at near right-angles, whereas the old up-raised keys allowed use by more flattened fingertips.
    Frank
     
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  3. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Once I get more used to it, I think I will like it better because I can physically feel my fingers on the keys, and they are actually being depressed when I type, so I think that yes, it will probably prove to be a better typing experience.

    I began typing on a manual typewriter that was old for its time, so I remember it being somewhat like this. One difference is in the ease at which the keys are depressed. A manual typewriter certainly required more pressure in order to produce a document, but I think they did very well with it.
     
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  4. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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    oooh I love anything retro looking, but I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with that keyboard...it's aesthetically lovely, and although you said it's an easier experience to press the keys.. when I think back to the Old Underwood typewriter I learned in school and the pain in my fingers pressing down those big keys...I can only think ''ouch'' when I look at that keyboard..lol...
     
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  5. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    Very nice Ken. :)
     
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  6. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    When I learned typing in high school we already had newer ones, forget what they were called but my dad had an older style one.

    What where the newer type called? Electric? You barely had to touch a key and it would type.

    I still remember my typing class and even my teachers name. Think it was all girls also.
     
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  7. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I learned to type when I was in the 4th or 5th grade, I think. My brother taught me the key positions, and the rest was a matter of practice. I learned a few bad habits that one year of typing class in 9th grade couldn't break me of, but my speed and accuracy are very good.

    I learned to type on a very old manual typewriter, one in which you had to depress the keys hard enough to slam the letter key onto the paper, leaving its mark. Later, we got a manual typewriter in which the letter keys were on a ball rather than on arms, and that was easier. Then came the electric ones, and that was a learning experience. Then there were the electric ones that had a (limited) memory, where you could make corrections without using white-out. The change from that to a computer keyboard was negligible.
     
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  8. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    After I learned to type in HS I never had to use it again so I forgot how.

    When my husband died and my son bought me my first computer I got online and found a site that taught me again.

    I'm sure I didn't forget it all but I did need that refresher. Now on my iPad and iPhone I don't type with two hands anymore so I wonder how I would do on a regular keyboard again.

    I only had one year of typing and I think I got to about 45 wpm which was an A back then.
     
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  9. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I don't know about now, although I do type every day so I don't suppose I've gotten too bad, but I was typing at more than 100 words a minute, using a test that calculated errors against the number of words typed.
     
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  10. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Yes, that's how we were graded...errors were factored in the wpm.
     
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  11. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Congratulations on your new keyboard. I picked around on an old key board some but it was one and two finger hunt and peck. I didn't learn to type until I retired and had a computer. I'm still not proficient.
     
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  12. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I turned in a typed report in elementary school once, and the teacher made me re-write manually. She had no appreciation for the fact that I had learned to type; in fact, I think the problem was that she didn't believe I had done it myself.
     
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  13. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    My favorite:


    [​IMG]
    IBM Selectric


    [​IMG]
    Characters were on this type of ball. It simply clipped in place. Instead of individual arms with each character on one, the ball moved from side to side as it rotated to "stamp" the chosen character on the page. How they did this has always baffled me. Fast, accurate. Late models were akin to being a word processor, having ability to type a prepared page automatically. To change character style, or size, one simply changed balls.

    I had one years ago, offered it up for sale when we were dissolving our marriage. Had so many calls, I could have sold a hundred of them. $50.
    Frank
     
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  14. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I just discovered an interesting advantage to this keyboard. Since it hooks up to my computer via a cable, I can connect my Mac keyboard to it via Bluetooth and my iMac recognizes both of them as being connected simultaneously.

    The advantage? I have an ultrawide monitor that I use in conjunction with the regular 27" screen that comes with the iMac. The other monitor is on another desk that sits at a right angle to my regular desk. Previously, I would use the second screen pretty much for display purposes only. When using another online resource, I could have that page up on the ultrawide monitor. But it was uncomfortable typing into an online field set up on a screen that was a right angle to my keyboard. However, I have learned that I can hook both keyboards up at the same time and simply turn my chair to use the other monitor as the active one.

    I didn't think it would work. I figured that iMac would only recognize one at a time so that I would have to unplug or disconnect one in order to use the other. Now, I am wondering what I might be able to do with three screens, given that the iMac lets me hook up two peripheral monitors.
     
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  15. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    This is going to be a big help. I couldn't simply move the retro keyboard over to the other desk because it has a cord that won't reach. Of course, if I used a regular Mac keyboard, I could simply move it to the other desk and accomplish the same purpose, but I like the retro one. Now I am thinking about a third monitor and another wired keyboard, to see if it will recognize three keyboards at the same time. I can't imagine why I would need to do that, but maybe.

    Macs have a feature that will allow me to have several active desktops, sliding one off to the side when you want to use another one. My wife does that, but I have never gotten used to that. In fact, I accidentally move my desktop once in a while and it requires a lot of cussing in order to figure out how to get it back. That's me. I don't use half the features that are available in anything that I have.
     
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