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Re: Keyboards revisited



Thanks John.  I should try one of these -- just out of curiosity, if nothing else. 
I had salted away a spare Omni and a spare Avant (now finally entered into
service), but I can see where I may in due course have use for more, so it's
good to have some suitable alternative. 

It may have taken as much as two years of pounding away to get a new Omni
to what I'd call a fully comfortable broken in feeling.  The Avant out of the box
is almost excessively "crisp" in the key response, and I can hear a slight ringing
tone from it as I type.  Takes some getting used to.  The Caps Lock -- at least --
may need to be relocated, from where I was accustomed to having it on the Omni. 
As the Omni had provision for making these changes, I'm thinking the Avant
must also.  Never had a Windows (or a 'Properties') key before.  I'm wondering if
U2 offers any use of the extra keys, or if the Top Row function keys might be
isolated for unique keyboard macro assignments ?  What with dual forks of VdosXy
going now, this suddenly opens up all sorts of new variables. 


   Jordan


From: John Paines
To: "xywrite@xxxxxxxxxxxxx"
Sent: Saturday, July 9, 2016 5:36 AM
Subject: Re: Keyboards revisited

Can't help with your repairs, but you can a new buckling spring keyboard with
function keys on the left here:




From: J R FOX
To: Xywrite Group
Sent: Friday, July 8, 2016 6:50 PM
Subject: Keyboards revisited

There has been much historical discussion of this subject on the list, particularly
regarding the celebrated (now long gone ?) Northgate Omnikey-102 and its
successor, the Avant Stellar keyboard.  I'm prompted to write this because the
Maxiswitch keyboard in our satellite office just had what seems to be a complete
failure of its comma key.  So, I took my long in service  Omni-102 over there as a
replacement, putting my very little used -- and not at all broken-in -- Avant in its
place for my home office.  This leaves me with another, even older Omni-102 that
went into the closet some years back, when *it* developed some flakey key problems. 
And down the line I expect to set up an additional computer station at home, which
will be needing a good keyboard.  The thing is, once you've gotten accustomed to an
Omni or Avant, nothing else could really measure up.  Having the left-side F-keys
was never the whole deal.  The key response, adjustable keycaps / positioning for
certain critical key locations, along with the overall quality and durability figured
in here prominently as well.  The Maxiswitch probably came about as close as you
could get, which wasn't all that close, though it was acceptable. 

You can see what some people seem to think these are worth today here:


Is that just some of the typical, ridiculous asking prices one sees for various items on
eBay, or is it something more ?  (Like a real gauge of worth these days, due to scarcity ?)

Anyway, the reason I'm writing this goes back to some of those past discussion threads. 
Specifically, as to possible keyboard resuscitation methods.  I vaguely recall that there
used to be places that repaired these keyboards -- though that must have receded into
history by now.  If any still existed, the cost might be worth at least considering.  And
then there were the do-it-yourself nostrums, which I thing mainly came down to
dipping the keyboard into isopropyl, then drying it out / blowing it out with compressed
air, maybe lightly scrubbing somewhere -- or something along those lines.  Anyone
able to jog my memory on this ?

   Jordan