Re: Ever have a keyboard die on you ?

[J R FOX jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

--- On Fri, 5/18/12, Lisa Kleinholz  wrote:

> The skin for the Avant Stellar I bought from the company that made
> Avant Stellar for that keyboard. I have two, both with skins now.

Since that company is gone now, that product likely is also.

> The Radio Shack converter has worked reliably for several years,
> most recently with an ASUS netbook running XP3. Xywrite works
> great on it, without TAME.

Due to their humongous markup, the only time I buy something from
Radio Shack is when I **must have something right now.** That is
their chief virtue, since one of their franchises can be found in
almost every neighborhood -- or so it seems.

Btw, my supposition was correct -- it _was_ the converter. I found
a spare converter, and my great, vintage 102 is now back in business.
Some of Flash's comments may be more alarmist than necessary. Every
so often, I drag a brush between the keys, turn the keyboard upside
down and tap on the back, or vacuum it. There is no "typing pool"
here to worry about, but once in a while I run a lightly-moistened-
with-isopropyl-alcohol cloth over and around the keys, being careful
not to drip anything down. (You can do this with the keyboard turned
upside-down, letting gravity be your ally.) That should keep it clean
_enough._ I expect to get years more out of this keyboard, and if not
there is a pristine Avant Stellar as its understudy.

Come to think of it, there _was_ an earlier 102 that I wore out to
the point it did not seem worth the effort to recondition. But I
must have gotten at least a dozen good years out of that one, so I
have no complaints. This one only has about 5 or 6 years in service,
and works like almost new.

> By the way, if someone knows how to purchase XP3 (which I would
> love to try on the mac under Parallels), I'd appreciate info.

Lisa, I'm pretty sure that they stopped selling XP a while ago . . .
unless you're o.k. with buying a used copy from someone on eBay.
The official, scheduled 'End of Life' for the XP os is set for
2014, although there are rumors that MS would like to shove it off
a cliff sooner than that. From what I hear, it is very doubtful
that MS will ever again allow a new Windows version to stick around
(with support) for anything approaching how long W2K and XP did.
We who use programs like Xy or NB have some specialized issues, but
anyone else who does not like the way things have been drifting with
the design of W7 (and soon to be W8) should be thinking of doing what
some of the more pioneering list members have been doing these last
few years, in migrating to the Mac or Linux. Or, if you totally
draw the line at XP, another option is to have a computer dedicated
just to that, **which does not ever connect to the Internet.** In
that scenario, you could afford not to care about malware (nearly
all of which is contracted online), even after the security fixes
have ceased.


 Jordan