deskthority

wanna play "guess my favorite keyboard layout"?

Went full retro.

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Slom wrote:wanna play "guess my favorite keyboard layout"?

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i say BAE. a big ass enter layout. nor?

Slom wrote: wanna play "guess my favorite keyboard layout"?

DSC01553.JPG

I like this

Puree wrote:

Slom wrote: wanna play "guess my favorite keyboard layout"?

DSC01553.JPG

I like this

Oh that's a tough one. Probably the AT for me.

Before I send this off to j0d1, one last post of this tiny ICL Alps semi-integrated dome keyboard:
wiki/ICL_One_Per_Desk

Phenix wrote:

Slom wrote:wanna play "guess my favorite keyboard layout"?

DSC01553.JPG

i say BAE. a big ass enter layout. nor?

Close, but no

Interestingly enough, if you look closely the commodore is actually an ISO-Enter made a bit wider and with the top left cut off.

Did some key cap polishing yesterday. My plan was to take the board to the Berlin meetup ...

:O

Very nice Slom, Micro Switch doubleshots are always worth the cleaning. Your Micro Switch collection is starting to worry me...(in a good way).

Impressive, Slom! How did you polish the keycaps? Asking for a friend.

We should all have some polishing knowledge ...

Well, I mean, I know how to scratch stuff.

Oh, and by I, I mean my friend.

Khers wrote: Impressive, Slom! How did you polish the keycaps? Asking for a friend.

Polishing in the sense of cleaning really thoroughly?! Hope I didn't completely misuse the term here. There's two kinds of Micro Switch double shots, textured and glossy. This one was of the glossy variant to begin with.

That being sorted, I used water, Fit (German dish soap brand) and my key cap toothbrush. Yes, I do have a dedicated key cap toothbrush

After rinsing them in clean water, I used a soft towel to rub them dry.

Perhaps it's telling that I've never had any Micro Switch made keyboards in my possession. I thought you had actually polished them, like you do to shine up a car or something along those lines.

Anyway, whatever the method, the result looks absolutely stunning!

Slom wrote: Did some key cap polishing yesterday. My plan was to take the board to the Berlin meetup ...

Holy crap! Those keycaps look nice. I normally don't like grey keycaps, but this is a great looking keyboard. What is it from? (this should be in my "Lovingly Photographed" thread )

I like both kinds of early 70's Micro Switch keycaps - textured and shiny. I've got textured 1974 keycaps on the 8010 and shiny 1974 keycaps on my keypad.

Slom wrote: There's two kinds of Micro Switch double shots, textured and glossy. This one was of the glossy variant to begin with.

That's right, although these seem to be in even better shape than my colored ones, same doubleshots though.

keyboards-f2/micro-switch-sw-10876-t112 ... o%20switch

mr_a500 wrote: Holy crap! Those keycaps look nice. I normally don't like grey keycaps, but this is a great looking keyboard. What is it from?

I would have thought you'd seen keycaps like this before.

seebart wrote: I would have thought you'd seen keycaps like this before.

Well, yeah... I'm basically surrounded by keyboards with keycaps like that... but not grey ones and I guess I was unprepared that I would actually like grey keycaps. Perhaps I overreacted a little...

mr_a500 wrote:

seebart wrote: I would have thought you'd seen keycaps like this before.

Well, yeah... I'm basically surrounded by keyboards with keycaps like that... but not grey ones and I guess I was unprepared that I would actually like grey keycaps. Perhaps I overreacted a little...

That's what I thought, must have something to do with your 33 month winter-absence. Anyway Slom's Micro Switch SW Series (we call it SW Series now instead of naked cage) is indeed a great example with those asian symbols. I'd love to know what the case for that looked like.

mr_a500 wrote:
Holy crap! Those keycaps look nice. I normally don't like grey keycaps, but this is a great looking keyboard. What is it from?

I don't know . I (think I) know it is from 78 though:

mr_a500 wrote: (this should be in my "Lovingly Photographed" thread )

thx

So, I continued my hunt for orange Alps and found a pretty nice 0115D. I didn't even know the AEKs had ISO legends on an ANSI layout.
Soniced and dry lubed switches with the plate from the first AEK that I cut down and repainted. A lot of manual filing and paint from a spray can, so it's not the most perfect job ever. But good enough to hold everything in place without looking terrible. Low profile Vortex alu case.
Surprisingly the German keycaps show a lot less colour bleed on the dyesubbing.
So, ANSI with Icon mods. It's probably not that exciting, but likely the best Alps board I'll ever own. And the spacebar could use some retrobright, I guess.

It looks very nice. Congratulations.

Slom wrote: I don't know . I (think I) know it is from 78 though:

That's right, 26th week of 1978. I see it has red and blue sliders. Very nice.

Nicely done, kekstee. The AEK/II was, I feel, the last gasp of elegance and class before the monotony of black keyboards took over. Its Snow White design motif and narrow legend font was a defiant stand against the relentless conformity imposed by the Model M. If you can retrobright that spacebar, you'll have a true beauty on your hands.

Defiant stand? I don't think so. The AEK/II was basically a copy of the Model M layout.

Orange Alps are great and I like the original AEK, but I far prefer the "elegance and class" of the pre-beige era.

If anything the AEK was peak conformity after the smaller boards. And they got even whiter (although less mechanical) afterwards.

I might put some Salmons into the left over case, killing it is a bit harsh. But I really don't feel like it's special enough to do the whole retrobright work and keep the SKCM Orange in it.

Sure, the AEK layout conformed largely to the Model M, but not the colorway or the font (or the obnoxious switches). It is one thing to rally behind an emerging standard of essential functionality, it is another thing to mindlessly mimic all the aesthetics as well. Every PC clone maker was copying every last detail of the Model M, and at least Apple had enough design sense to stand in defiance of that sort of group-think and offer different aesthetics on top of (what had become) standardized keyboard functionality.

mr_a500 wrote: I far prefer the "elegance and class" of the pre-beige era.

What do you define as the pre-beige era?

zslane wrote:

mr_a500 wrote: I far prefer the "elegance and class" of the pre-beige era.

What do you define as the pre-beige era?

Must be talking about the vinyl wood grain era