Model M, 2 hour sale, $26 shipped, Ebay US

[wellington1869]

Says its "Model M 52G9700"
Not a bad price and with free shipping if you want one to play around with.
Sale price "expires" in about 2 hours.
Re the model, according to wikipedia: drainage channels, lexmark, keycaps, ps2, integrated cord, blue logo, 1993-99.

[lexicon]

I thought owning a Model M was the price of admission around here.

The seller's store has some interesting stuff in it....

[bhtooefr]

I think there are some people who have come on here and all they had were rubber domes.

[wellington1869]

I think there are some people who have come on here and all they had were rubber domes.

hee hee I was lucky in that regard, my dad worked for ibm in the 80s, we always had a house full of ibm pc's (each with a priceless keyboard attached).  Had that not been the case I probably would be on a logitech or something right now

[itlnstln]

Victheslick uses a Logitech DiNovo (if I remember correctly).  There are a few people here that don't have a mechanical 'board.  For the most part, they only want to buy one 'board, and they want that purchase to be the right one.  I believe the Model M is so prolific, because they were heavily mass produced, and they are what many people identify as a "clicky" keyboard (that, they are a mighty fine keyboard at that).  When those people get introduced to the quality of the M, they begin researching other quality keyboards, hence, GeekHack.  If it weren't for GeekHack, I would still be using my MS Natural 4000 (as I started developing wrist problems using my Ms).  I now have an Evolution, and I love it, even if my co-workers don't.

[wellington1869]

To be fair I had some decent membrane boards before I decided to return to the gold standard. The dinovo was one of them. For a membrane its not bad. The Kensington ci73 was another.
But to generate a crisp feel, membranes rely on a shallow bottoming out (Since thats where the contact is made, I guess). As a result you lose the fluidity of the long throw in exchange for a crisp feel. That was my experience with both dinovo and ci73. They were crisp but at expense of throw and fluidity.
Thats one of the things that is so nice about mechanical switches, BS in particular. You can have the crisp click *and* the long throw. Both fluidity and feedback.
The membranes I used spoiled my typing form because now even on mechanicals I still tend to bottom out hard. Its just what I'm used to from using membranes for a decade or so. Good thing I've come back to the fold

[bhtooefr]

I was using Model Ms long before Geekhack was around.

(And, actually, my Model M-specific forum predated Geekhack by a year or two, but the difference is, Geekhack actually has users. )

I recall reading something on some forum or e-mail list for the Calmira project (Windows 95-style shell for Windows 3.1) that mentioned the Model M... so I started looking for them in thrift stores. Got my hands on one, played around with it, hooked it up to my machine, loved it. Got more of them, etc., etc. (I had some exposure to clicky keyboards - at the time, I had a Laser keyboard that I believe had white Alps, and my parents had an IBM PS/1 in the past that had a Model M2, although I'm not sure if it was BS or rubber dome.)

As for how I found geekhack... I believe I was trying to figure out just what N-key rollover was, and found the thread about it here.

But, now, I do best on short throw (laptop-style) rubber dome and long throw BS. The throw to activation on BS really isn't much longer than the total throw on your average laptop keyboard... although my fingers start to hurt if I've just switched to my laptop from a Model M, from HAMMERING the keys. (I don't ever really bottom out the Model M - I've typed on them for a few years now, so I know to not bottom them out. )

[lowpoly]

For the most part, they only want to buy one 'board, and they want that purchase to be the right one.

That's so ... wrong.

[bhtooefr]

That's the beauty of my favorite keyboard being the Model M. Want another one? Check all the Goodwills, one of them is bound to have one.

(Still annoyed that both of my regular Goodwills have crappy keyboards, but I did score a fully functional Canon N1240U LIDE scanner for $8 today, so... )

[lexicon]

That's one of the things that has always mystified me about thrift stores.  Even the ones that have only two crappy Dell boards and one ancient eMachines monitor seem to have twenty flatbed scanners, most of which look brand-new.  The pile of cheap printers I can understand -- they've often been bundled with PCs.  But scanners?

[bhtooefr]

Around here, most of the scanners are a few years old - there were only two USB scanners, most of them were SCSI.

But, my guess is this is what happens...

Someone needs a scanner to scan in old pictures from film. They also get a digital camera. They get all their old pictures scanned in, and... now, they've got a scanner they don't need. It sits around for a while, and they then say, "screw it, I'll donate it to Goodwill/Salvation Army/etc./etc."

[iMav]

(And, actually, my Model M-specific forum predated Geekhack by a year or two, but the difference is, Geekhack actually has users. )

Had your forum had users, exposure on major search engines (google, primarily), etc, geekhack would likely not exist.  I setup geekhack because I was irritated at the lack of decent keyboard communities (at least english-speaking ones) on the internet.

That's the beauty of my favorite keyboard being the Model M. Want another one? Check all the Goodwills, one of them is bound to have one.

Also, if you love standard Model M's (with numpads), Unicomp is there to provide you with NEW ones if you want.

[victheslik]

-

[itlnstln]

Vic, you could go with one of the Topre 'boards with a regular layout should you decide you like their switches better than the M.  Also, congrats on getting the HHKB.  I am sure you were glad to see that DiNovo go.

[bhtooefr]

Had your forum had users, exposure on major search engines (google, primarily), etc, geekhack would likely not exist.  I setup geekhack because I was irritated at the lack of decent keyboard communities (at least english-speaking ones) on the internet.

The funny thing is, I had my forum in the sig on almost every tech forum I posted on, except the ones that thought it was too spammy. Especially the bit about Slashdot, I would've thought that would've helped the page rank... Oh well.

Of course, if Geekhack hadn't existed, I would've had a rather buckling spring-centric view of the keyboard world - OneTrueKeyboard... well, you can tell by the name, and my avatar, what keyboard type was preferred THERE.

[iMav]

The funny thing is, I had my forum in the sig on almost every tech forum I posted on, except the ones that thought it was too spammy. Especially the bit about Slashdot, I would've thought that would've helped the page rank... Oh well.

Yeah.  It was actually a big pain in the butt getting geekhack going.  I did a LOT of solicitation, blog commenting, etc.  And I was fortunate to get some decent members early on that were excited to talk keyboards...even though there was a real lack of content.

Once we started populating content, the web crawlers started hitting pretty hard and now it is almost ridiculous the amount of visibility we get on the major search engines when any basic keyboard-technology-related searches.  

Since I've deviated off topic, I might as well keep going . . .

There is another redesign to geekhack coming.  Mostly just an upgrade to the next major release of vBulletin (which has a lot of cool new features).  I'm definitely considering some graphic redesign (perhaps working in the unofficial new slogan, "Wanna switch?" (which, I suppose, would then make it official) and maybe working in some of the switch graphics from the tshirt design as well).  I'll be posting a thread in the off topic forum and you are all welcome to submit your requests.