[eBay] Vintage Kinesis w/ Doubleshots

[REVENGE]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kinesis-Ergonomic-Keyboard-Model-100-QWERTY-Programmable-pre-Advantage-/280783140345

A little pricey, but current Kinesis owners might want to jack one for the key caps. Sordna can testify as to how great (or not) those doubleshots are. Be careful if you try to retr0bright / peroxide bleach them: that blue plastic mottles easily.

[sordna]

.

[inaneframe]

Hey, that keyboard looks familiar, oh yeah it's mine. . . the pictures came out yellowish, it's not that yellow.

I can post another pic here if anyone is interested.

[Input Nirvana]

That's your Model #100? I always wanted one just for the whole "lineage" thing. Unfortunately buying now is not a wise thing for me to do If for any reason your auction has a problem, please PM me about buying it.

It looks very clean. I like the larger, bolder font. Also, on the Model 100 only, the font is black and the home row keys are gray, not blue. I really want to use the white with black/gray doubleshot keys instead of my white with blue doubleshot keys on my Black Advantage to see how it looks. I have a feeling the doubleshots on the Model #100 may feel different than #110 and #120 since they have different size legends.

PLEASE: It would be great if you could try to get a couple shots of the case from the side/end (so people can see it is different than all the other Kinesis boards) and maybe a close up one keywell. I would like to post those pice in my Kinesis Mod article (see my sig) if you don't mind. If I had the keyboard I would take the shots myself.

[inaneframe]

Your wish is my command, you glorious Kinesis modding magician (been a fan of your chair mod for awhile now):

http://imgur.com/a/p6ZUh#0

You should have seen her when I got her, not pretty.  I put a lot of time into getting her that clean.  I also did some repairs on the inside.

After trying her out, I was impressed with the layout but I've done enough to ruin my general "compatibility" with other keyboards already by changing my touch typing layout to colemak. . . and right now I'm forced to use my laptop (yes, a thinkpad x200, I drive a touchpad) a lot at college.  Switching between the kinesis and my laptop right now as my dailies could get very annoying quickly I think.

[sordna]

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 34483[/ATTACH]

Woah, your model #100 has a strikingly different case than the model 110 and newer. Your keywells are rounded and recessed! Haven't seen that one before...
Compare with one of my model #110:

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 34485[/ATTACH]

[Input Nirvana]

I've been not using my laptop since I'm in a desk environment for the last 6 months, (and I've loaned my Mac Pro to a person in need) and found myself needing to do some accounting data entry on a "flatboard". It was bull****. Plus qwerty. Double bull****. I had to fire myself, no joke. I spent too much time and did too little, I wouldn't dare go through that again. Sordna switches all the time (boards and layouts) with no ill effects, then again, he's a much better man than me. So I understand your hesitance. I had not noticed too much of an issue going to my laptop previously, but maybe since I have not been switching regularly I became somewhat inflexible. Grrrrrr...

Where did you get her? Was she one of the couple on fleabay in the last year or two? One was a bit tattered, one was ok. I missed one, and one I felt stingy. I think I emailed both winners and said if they didn't like the boards to contact me.

If something magic happens for me before your auction ends (nothing magic will happen, but gotta keep the door open), I'll throw in on that baby. If someone on GH buys her, I will buy it from them ($100) in a few months when I'm settled. Did you name her (I name all mine, heh heh).

Thanks for the photos, I'll steal a couple for reference on the Kinesis Mod article. I think a lot of people will be interested to see the pilot model. They used a very sexy case on Model #100 only, very sleek with an almost flat bottom, which I feel they should have kept. I notice Kinesis did not "side label" the -_ key and the |\ key like on #110 and #120. Interesting the F keys are numbered through F17. The key caps are SCREAMING to be whitened.

[Input Nirvana]

I've been not using my laptop since I'm in a desk environment for the last 6 months, (and I've loaned my Mac Pro to a person in need) and found myself needing to do some accounting data entry on a "flatboard". It was bull****. Plus qwerty. Double bull****. I had to fire myself, no joke. I spent too much time and did too little, I wouldn't dare go through that again. Sordna switches all the time (boards and layouts) with no ill effects, then again, he's a much better man than me. So I understand your hesitance. I had not noticed too much of an issue going to my laptop previously, but maybe since I have not been switching regularly I became somewhat inflexible. Grrrrrr...

Where did you get her? Was she one of the couple on fleabay in the last year or two? One was a bit tattered, one was ok. I missed one, and one I felt stingy. I think I emailed both winners and said if they didn't like the boards to contact me.

If something magic happens for me before your auction ends (nothing magic will happen, but gotta keep the door open), I'll throw in on that baby. If someone on GH buys her, I will buy it from them ($100) in a few months when I'm settled. Did you name her (I name all mine, heh heh).

Thanks for the photos, I'll steal a couple for reference on the Kinesis Mod article. I think a lot of people will be interested to see the pilot model. They used a very sexy case on Model #100 only, very sleek with an almost flat bottom, which I feel they should have kept. I notice Kinesis did not "side label" the -_ key and the |\ key like on #110 and #120. Interesting the F keys are numbered through F17. The key caps are SCREAMING to be whitened.

The Model #100 is Maltron-ish. I like it better, it's the only case that is different other than leds.

EDIT: Sordna, we're twins if you're incredibly good-looking, super-smart, people want to be you, everyone loves you. LOL

[Input Nirvana]

I've been not using my laptop since I'm in a desk environment for the last 6 months, (and I've loaned my Mac Pro to a person in need) and found myself needing to do some accounting data entry on a "flatboard". It was bull****. Plus qwerty. Double bull****. I had to fire myself, no joke. I spent too much time and did too little, I wouldn't dare go through that again. Sordna switches all the time (boards and layouts) with no ill effects, then again, he's a much better man than me. So I understand your hesitance. I had not noticed too much of an issue going to my laptop previously, but maybe since I have not been switching regularly I became somewhat inflexible. Grrrrrr...

Where did you get her? Was she one of the couple on fleabay in the last year or two? One was a bit tattered, one was ok. I missed one, and one I felt stingy. I think I emailed both winners and said if they didn't like the boards to contact me.

If something magic happens for me before your auction ends (nothing magic will happen, but gotta keep the door open), I'll throw in on that baby. If someone on GH buys her, I will buy it from them ($100) in a few months when I'm settled. Did you name her (I name all mine, heh heh).

Thanks for the photos, I'll steal a couple for reference on the Kinesis Mod article. I think a lot of people will be interested to see the pilot model. They used a very sexy case on Model #100 only, very sleek with an almost flat bottom, which I feel they should have kept. I notice Kinesis did not "side label" the -_ key and the |\ key like on #110 and #120. Interesting the F keys are numbered through F17. The key caps are SCREAMING to be whitened.

Sordna- The case on #100 is MALTRON-ISH

[sordna]

Did you notice his "sculpted" case? Reminds of Maltron somewhat. And I thought all Kinesis contoured cases are essentially the same except for the LEDs! Boy was I wrong.

[sordna]

Haha, we wrote the same thought simultaneously. Dude, we must be twins or something :-)
EDIT:
@inaneframe: I can switch back and forth between keyboards. Don't know if it helps or not, but I keep all my Kinesis boards on Dvorak, and all my flat/laptop keyboards on QWERTY.
I can do 100wpm on Kinesis/dvorak and 80 on flat/qwerty in typing tests. I don't think I ever did better than 80 before I got into dvorak and ergo keyboards, so I haven't seen any drawbacks here.
I mainly typed on the Kinesis & Dvorak until I mastered the new layout, and kept using it to the point I almost forgot about qwerty. Then I re-trained myself in qwerty just by practicing on purpose. As long as you have mastered both layouts, you can switch back and forth. It takes juts a little practice. I sometimes take typing tests on my Poker (qwerty) and Kinesis (dvorak), alternating.
It's useful to be productive in both layouts. It's fun too!

[inaneframe]

I keep all my Kinesis boards on Dvorak, and all my flat/laptop keyboards on QWERTY.

Man you are seriously some kind of freak of nature!  I do not think that I am brave enough to attempt this.  Not only that but I have really no use for the computers of other people.  I've taken to turning down people (other than my wife of course) who need any help with their computers. . . I don't even try to get people to use my OS choices at all anymore because of it.

I have Colemak installed on my wife's machine and I can just change to it whenever I use her computer, if I have to fix anything that requires any typing.


I thought you guys would have seen a lot of this before already, well then, I will post up the pictures I took while fixing her up so you can see the internals:

http://imgur.com/a/Jycv7#0

I can't keep anything a secret here!  Okay well I bought her on ebay, it was untested so I emailed the seller and told him straight up, you're not going to get 75 bucks (or whatever he was asking) for an untested old piece of equipment and whoever was willing to pay that was likely a bit of a noob who would quickly take him up on his return policy.  I told him I'd take it for 25 bucks, test it, repair any problems, and I promised that it wouldn't be returned.  He liked that apparently so I got her.  And her name is Kimmy.  :tongue:

[sordna]

Man you are seriously some kind of freak of nature!  I do not think that I am brave enough to attempt this

It's no big deal, you're halfway there. You mastered Colemak, no? So just use QWERTY for 30 minutes a day, maybe do some typing tests. You'll be able to re-gain your QWERTY speed in just a few days, and as you switch back and forth over time, you'll develop the "switching" skill.

[inaneframe]

I might give it a try but I'm scared :faint: . . .

[dorkvader]

When I switched to Dvorak, I was able to trade back to QWERTY pretty easily. I was only away for a few months, though.

Now, since I have to use QWERTY at work (all the techncians share the computers) and I have QWERTY on my desktop computer (that never gets used for typing) I can maintain a fairly good clip on it.
---
I'm interested in this keyboard, but I want to wait for a bit to see if increases in price past my budget. Still, especially given the popularity around here, I imagine it'll go for $100 at least.

I would also like to note that the inclusion of two foot switches is pretty nice.

That is a really sharp-looking case. Is it wider than a modern kinesis?

[Input Nirvana]

KiMMY! Nice, I like it! I had a Kimmy once. Tall, gymnast, long red hair, an absolutely stunning beauty in Oregon. Sigh, the memories

Secrets...hey, you gotta remeber, I'm a Kinesis Contoured kinda guy, I check these things. It's the reason I found and am on GH. I was looking to see if I could buy a Kinesis that was cut into 2 pieces. I had kept a search for Model #100 keyboards, because of my interest in a set of Kinesis doubleshots, the black legends, and the fact the case is different. Once I got blue legend doubleshots, I backed off the Model #100 quest. Black legends and the cool case were not deal-makers since I want the keyboard split, and no legends.

Kudos to such a savy ebayer!

There is very little about the Kinesis on the web, that's why I put all that crazy info in the article (some is valuable, some is virtually worthless, but at least it's there for someone as a resource). The only problem is that is doesn't seem searchable on the web. Maybe that's because of the original name of the article. Who knows, maybe whomever buys Kimmy, will be looking for info and come across her pictorial in the article! IF they can find it! LOL

Dorkvader: It is NOT important that I buy the board. Not at all. I'm not in a position to do it anyway. Plus I would rather have someone that is interested in trying it out get it. Also it's the same size as other Kinesis boards.

[sordna]

When I switched to Dvorak, I was able to trade back to QWERTY pretty easily.

Hmm, I'm wondering if Dvorak<->QWERTY back and forth switching is easier that Colemak<->QWERTY (assuming equal mastery of either pair).  Perhaps because Dvorak is TOTALLY different (only A and M are in the same place) there's less chance of confusion. Colemak and QWERTY have 10 common keys, so if you happen to type 2-3 of those keys in a row you might "forget" if you're doing QWERTY or Colemak and get confused. Dunno for sure. The Colemak FAQ claims people are able to switch back and forth, with just a small drop of speed and accuracy in QWERTY:
http://colemak.com/wiki/index.php?title=FAQ#Will_I_forget_how_to_type_on_QWERTY.3F

[inaneframe]

I don't think that I'm interested in doing the switch thing. . . if I have to I will lay down the cash to get a programmable and portable USB keyboard to take with me to any job that doesn't allow me to change the layout through software, preferably cherry brown or clear.

Any tips?

Kudos to such a savy ebayer!

If there is anything that my mother instilled in me it is the art of the deal.

[Input Nirvana]

If there is anything that my mother instilled in me it is the art of the deal.

heh heh
I'm not sure when you got Kimmy, so I don't remember the auction (if I even saw it in the first place) but there could be a lot of truth to the whole 'return' issue, and who as a seller wants to deal with that? And as a buyer I personally would skip that particular auction unless it was very important for whatever reason. Otherwise it's just not worth the hassle. Everything is negotiable.

One auction of a #100 had small case damage on both corners...so that wasn't Kimmy. I'll slide a few shots of her portfolio into the mod article today. If there is anything you have that would be of value regarding the Kinesis article, please let me know so we can put it in.

[Input Nirvana]

Ok, fess up, who nailed Kimmy?

[inaneframe]

Someone not from the US.  That is all I will say.

[Input Nirvana]

International trafficking. How seedy.

[torrent99]

Someone not from the US.  That is all I will say.

It was me! Kinesis are fairly rare 2nd hand in the UK and I needed something quick, and programmable (which disqualified the Maltron).

This 100 is built like a tank (inside and out), which helped it survive the journey with only one wire coming loose.

I'm still getting used to this puppy (previously a Microsoft Natural Pro user of 15 years), but I've only been typing on it one day.

If anyone wants any more pictures let me know.

[sordna]

Oh, even model 100 is programmable?

[torrent99]

Oh, even model 100 is programmable?

 
You can remap the keys, and do macros. The macros are a bit unreliable...

There's no Dvorak layout etc, but this is my intro to the Kinesis style so I think that's enough to learn without a new layout!!!