G80-3000lscrc-2

[patrickgeekhack]

After hearing all this jibber jabber about cherry browns, I went and bought a Compaq MX11800 on ebay for 20 bucks shipped. I hope it's in good condition... the pic looked like it was a bit yellowed (which I really don't mind. I'll probably paint the ***** anyway), they said 100% tested and working, that's good enough.

There's one in Quebec right now and no one has bid on it yet. I'm very tempted, but I have enough keyboards for now. I have every switch I wanted to try and another keyboard will mean another one sitting around on the substitute bench.

Now at least I'll get a good feel of cherry switches, will help me decide if the blues are a better choice.

Don't be too optimistic :-) Blue Cherries are way different from Brown Cherries. It's like two different dishes.

[patrickgeekhack]

Compaqs are a great way to check out browns.

I must not buy another keyboard, I must not buy another keyboard...Besides, this one does not have the Windows key :-)

[itlnstln]

I must not buy another keyboard, I must not buy another keyboard...Besides, this one does not have the Windows key :-)

You already have a Cherry brown keyboard, though. I was talking about if someone was on the fence about buying one. The layout would dissuade people from using for the long haul. It's just too weird.

[elbowglue]

If all you want to do is try the Cherry Browns I recommend just getting a numpad with them.   About as expensive and at least there's a use for them down the road.  Most people that get the  Compaqs seem to move on quickly to other keyboards.

Another way to try cherry browns is the MX8100 board:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cherry-Credit-Card-KeyBoard-POS-USB-MX8100-MX-8100_W0QQitemZ200397525699QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2ea89f92c3

I got this for I think it was $35 best offer + shipping.  Board was in quite good condition, of course you may realize that the fact that the delete key is in the wrong place and the arrow keys are in the wrong place may annoy the crap out of you.  It's a good deal, I love cherry browns, although I can't say they are better than cherry blues as I haven't tried them yet.

[timw4mail]

If all you want to do is try the Cherry Browns I recommend just getting a numpad with them.   About as expensive and at least there's a use for them down the road.  Most people that get the  Compaqs seem to move on quickly to other keyboards.

I guess that makes me weird and tolerant.

[patrickgeekhack]

You already have a Cherry brown keyboard, though.

True. If did not have one already, I would have seriously considered this one since it would not be a cross-border shipment.

[patrickgeekhack]

Getting back on track. If the G80-3000 is out of stock everywhere, this can only mean one thing: this keyboard has a high demand, despite some having a feeling that the built quality is not the highest. It's a relative cheap way to try Blue Cherries, and a very nice keyboard to type on overall.

[Hak Foo]

I wonder if it was a matter of someone said

"We need 5 Chinese lettered keyboards".

Their upstream distributor said "Okay, let's stock it and order 100 or whatever the minimum, then farm it off on our customers til they run out."

[Rajagra]

I guess that makes me weird and tolerant.

Me too then. I find the MX11800/11900 boards to be very useful. They are only 1" wider than a tenkeyless board, yet they have every standard key, including the numpad. And a trackball to boot! (OK my 11800s have no Windows keys, I can live with that.) And all the keys work properly, many other compact boards have a habit of doing odd things here and there that seem unimportant but can bite you from behind.

Sometimes having all the keys present is more important than having them well laid out.

The 11800s with their Cherry brown switches are great to type on. I bought 5 for £22 planning to harvest the switches, but I think I will keep most of them as is.

http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=5124&d=1255454040

[patrickgeekhack]

OK my 11800s have no Windows keys, I can live with that.

If I was not using a Mac, I could have overlooked the missing Windows keys, but because I remap my keys in OS X, then the missing Windows key is not the best situation.

But, I have said I would not buy anymore keyboard before and still bought more...May God help me :-)

[itlnstln]

Me too then. I find the MX11800/11900 boards to be very useful. They are only 1" wider than a tenkeyless board, yet they have every standard key, including the numpad.

This is why I want the G80-1800.  Small form-factor, standard layout.  The newer 11800s have Windows keys.

[hyperlinked]

I finally got around to cancelling my order. I didn't have to go through the telephone circus that Prisoner went through. I just found my email confirmation, hit the reply button, and ask them to cancel my order if the item was out of stock. POSGlobal got back to me in three minutes to let me know that they were out and my order has been canceled.

Sometimes, email does get you there faster!

[itlnstln]

E-mail also puts things in writing (for better or worse) which I find to be invaluable for order cancellations and such.

[itlnstln]

I bet a lot of POS companies do phone orders or face-to-face meets, so they don't really have a lot of "practice" in the small-scale, Web arena.  Usually, when a retail outlet buys POS equipment, they buy lots of it (whether a few items in bulk, lots of individual items, or some combination of the two), so Web ordering usually isn't the best method.  That said, companies as large as the one I work for just buy straight from the manufacturer, so we skip the middle man.

[patrickgeekhack]

I finally got around to cancelling my order. I didn't have to go through the telephone circus that Prisoner went through. I just found my email confirmation, hit the reply button, and ask them to cancel my order if the item was out of stock. POSGlobal got back to me in three minutes to let me know that they were out and my order has been canceled.

Sometimes, email does get you there faster!

It's hit and miss. Someone said that  they never replied to any of his e-mails.

[itlnstln]

Yeah, it's pretty ironic that a Point-of-Sale company has problems with thier Point-of-Sale.

[hyperlinked]

Yeah, it's pretty ironic that a Point-of-Sale company has problems with thier Point-of-Sale.

It's like H&R Block getting caught for screwing up their own taxes a few years ago or when it was discovered that Computer Associates, makers of finance and enterprise management software were not only not using their own software to keep their books, but were doing it the old school way.

[itlnstln]

We used to use some CA programs on our mainframe, but we phased those out sometime back.

[patrickgeekhack]

Or Metadot programmers not using Das keyboards.  No wait, that's just an Internet Rumor I just started.

Somebody call Metadot and ask the receptionist to put the phone next to the keyboard and type something.

Imagine a group of users on blue Cherries all day long in the same room.

[itlnstln]

I'm sure they were re-issued the "silent" model.  The original Das III must have been a nightmare in their call center.

[Hak Foo]

Dumb question:  Can blue G80-3000s with a ANSI layout be obtained in the UK?  I might be able to get a "pass-along" with friends there.

[PRISONER 24601]

I can't answer your dumb question but I'm still looking for one of these guys daily, with no luck ;_;

[AndrewZorn]

yeah i saw this thread and was hoping they were actually back
chinese letters actually look kind of cool too
$60ish is just really cheap

[Hak Foo]

I looked at the Keyboard Company (a .uk firm who posts here) and they only had the ISO-layout ones, at about 60 GBP (~100 USD)

[microsoft windows]

You know,  I've always wondered where your signature picture came from. Did you make it?

[Hak Foo]

Yeah.  Image editing is a dangerous thing.

[PRISONER 24601]

I'm just gonna get on gemini's preorder list tomorrow. More money down the drain I suppose...

ripster, what makes you think they're lying? Is this some sort of POS chinese syndicate moneymaking scam?

[AndrewZorn]

preorder list?
going to bed so im not going to read all this stuff
but i will go to bed hoping that this means i can, tomorrow, preorder a blue cherry keyboard of nice quality for $60

[PRISONER 24601]

preorder list?
going to bed so im not going to read all this stuff
but i will go to bed hoping that this means i can, tomorrow, preorder a blue cherry keyboard of nice quality for $60

I've heard gemini has one, gonna call tomorrow to be sure.

[patrickgeekhack]

If this keyboard is still being manufactured, then yes, you can call Geminicomputers and ask them to custom order one. I did this a few months ago for my second G80.

[PRISONER 24601]

They may have some still in the distribution chain.  I'm just saying it's very odd that the ONE Blue Cherry keyboard that Cherry Corp.  ships to the US has Chinese lettering and is $40 cheaper.  Sure seems like an inventory blowout, not a standard item.

Damn, yeah.

Well, if they order a bunch of them again and sell them at blowout prices I guess they have one hell of a chinese mafia scam cause I'd be in for two.

[AndrewZorn]

so just email them (can't call) and ask if they CAN send me a "BLACK USB/PS-2 COMBO K/BOARD MX GOLD X-PNT KEY [g80-3000lscrc-2]"?

these ARE cherry blue, confirmed, right?

[itlnstln]

Yes, they are Cherry blue.

[AndrewZorn]

i sent an email to sales i will report how it goes

[PRISONER 24601]

got a callback from gemini yesterday morning. missed the voice msg cause i was at work.

the deal is the same as it has been. they'll get them in early January and anyone can call ahead and preorder one if they wish.

no new information there, but at least we have another January confirmation.

[AndrewZorn]

i still havent got an email back, so do you know if...

i can email instead of call?
will the price still be $65?
can i 'call' ahead NOW and preorder?

[ch_123]

And the new Das, apparently. Which is more likely - a working Das, or a new Unicomp model?

[PRISONER 24601]

i still havent got an email back, so do you know if...

i can email instead of call?
will the price still be $65?
can i 'call' ahead NOW and preorder?

Yup, just called and ordered this morn. Got myself on "the list"- VIP baby break out dat courvoisier!

I wanted to order 3, but they're charging the Ccards right away (instead of charging in Jan.)... So i just put myself down for one. He told me to simply call back if I wanna change the order to 3 units, no prob.

Too bad I gotta wait 'till Jan. I guess some people will be getting belated chrstmas gifts this year!


**** year. I got meself a genuine german chinese american keyboard with all the bells and whistles. Otto von Bismark and Charman Mao would be equally proud.
Gustavus Adolphus might be a bit jealous.
Reagan would probably want to blow it up with a space laser.
And umm.. I bet if Kennedy were around he'd probably be worried about the "keyboard gap". He would commission the FBI to reverse engineer cherry blues, power them with radiation, and put them on top of some holy mountain in India. And no, I'm not done digressing.

Augustus, if he had the G80-3000LSCRC-2, would display it as a standard and proceed to conquer the german tribes with three full legions. Foolishly, Quintus Varus would underestimate the barbarians. A confederacy of tribes would ambush the roman columns (on favorable, modernist terrain) with their supposedly "inferior" buckling spring weapons. The might of the Cherry standard would be humbled after long last. Augustus Caesar, lamenting in his private quarters, would realize that leadership is still a daunting task- even after many years in power. After the humiliating loss, Augustus would secretly curse the gods. He would curse himself as well, for the rest of his days. Most of all, he would curse the generals that failed him. Again, and again, for weeks on end, he would scream to the gods in mourning his fallen army, "Quintili Vare, keyboardes redde!"

What the **** did I just write? Disregard that plz.

[PRISONER 24601]

Now that I think about it, the sales rep may have mentioned something about magic beans. Something like how the g80-3000lscrc-2 beans will lead to the keyboard. I wasn't really paying attention.

[AndrewZorn]

sales never did respond to me, anyone know if there is a way to do this without a phone?

[patrickgeekhack]

sales never did respond to me, anyone know if there is a way to do this without a phone?

Andrew: Why don't you want to call them? You probably have a good reason, but I was just a bit curious.

[AndrewZorn]

i am in iraq, phones exist but are very inconvenient to use, and skype sounds awful because of the slow speeds (and for anything but toll-free, i would need credit to use it anyway)

[patrickgeekhack]

i am in iraq, phones exist but are very inconvenient to use, and skype sounds awful because of the slow speeds (and for anything but toll-free, i would need credit to use it anyway)

I see. What do you want to know? I can try calling them. They do have a toll-free number 1 888 943 6464.

[AndrewZorn]

okay, maybe i WILL try skype then...

all i know is i want one, im just surprised the calling thing is working, but sending an email to SALES telling them i want one does not work.

[PRISONER 24601]

i am in iraq, phones exist but are very inconvenient to use, and skype sounds awful because of the slow speeds (and for anything but toll-free, i would need credit to use it anyway)

damn that's rough. a buddy of mine, over on some random nation's turf, (afghanistan atm) tells me that it takes weeks just to download a movie from isohunt. I mean, what good is an ipod video that has the same ****ty 50000 songs you've already listened to?  Granted, they were cheap. a full 120gb of music for a dozen bic pens- not a bad exchange rate. There's only so much that a man can take... hunkered in a fox hole, surrounded on all sides by the enemy, and the only movie you can watch is freddy got fingered because your satellite internet can't pick up a signal through hundreds of feet of stupid stupid cold rocks. Clemenceau said that war was too important to be left up to generals. True then, even truer now. If microsoft had liberated Iraq instead of our lackluster military, things would be a lot better now.

[timw4mail]

If microsoft had liberated Iraq instead of our lackluster military, things would be a lot better now.

Umm...

[AndrewZorn]

damn that's rough. a buddy of mine, over on some random nation's turf, (afghanistan atm) tells me that it takes weeks just to download a movie from isohunt. I mean, what good is an ipod video that has the same ****ty 50000 songs you've already listened to?  Granted, they were cheap. a full 120gb of music for a dozen bic pens- not a bad exchange rate. There's only so much that a man can take... hunkered in a fox hole, surrounded on all sides by the enemy, and the only movie you can watch is freddy got fingered because your satellite internet can't pick up a signal through hundreds of feet of stupid stupid cold rocks. Clemenceau said that war was too important to be left up to generals. True then, even truer now. If microsoft had liberated Iraq instead of our lackluster military, things would be a lot better now.

what?  afghanistan has internet service now?  i thought i was WAY better off, but turns out im just "better off"

heres how it is here

$100 a month for .125mbps internet
.125mbps
in other words
16kBps MAX down speed (15kBps max really)
8gb cap per month
~700ms ping MINIMUM, to ANYWHERE, because its satellite-based, i guess...

i spent over a week getting the windows 7 rc
for the RTM i just got someone to download it then mail it to me

but honestly
i never expected to complain about the internet speed in a war theater
but hey
2009

[PRISONER 24601]

i am in iraq, phones exist but are very inconvenient to use, and skype sounds awful because of the slow speeds (and for anything but toll-free, i would need credit to use it anyway)

For the next custom batch, some people should pull strings and get arabic characters instead of chinese. No english at all, just US layout with some sweet durka durka calligraphy. it would be really pretty. 50x awesomer than blank keys according to my team of crack trendspotting hipsters.

[AndrewZorn]

Show Image

For the next custom batch, some people should pull strings and get arabic characters instead of chinese. No english at all, just US layout with some sweet durka durka calligraphy. it would be really pretty. 50x awesomer than blank keys according to my team of crack trendspotting hipsters.

you mean like this?

[PRISONER 24601]

what?  afghanistan has internet service now?  i thought i was WAY better off, but turns out im just "better off"

heres how it is here

$100 a month for .125mbps internet
.125mbps
in other words
16kBps MAX down speed (15kBps max really)
8gb cap per month
~700ms ping MINIMUM, to ANYWHERE, because its satellite-based, i guess...

i spent over a week getting the windows 7 rc
for the RTM i just got someone to download it then mail it to me

but honestly
i never expected to complain about the internet speed in a war theater
but hey
2009

I remember paying almost that for 28.8 during the first (or maybe second) nato intervention in bosnia. I remember talking to this kid from kosovo over irc, "lol ther r sum lamer serbs pushing ppl around in my village dude there such *******s brb".
After that he never msgd me again. Must have been something I said.
IIRC a few weeks later they announced 56kFlex. If that's not irony I don't know what is.

so, in theory, war makes internets faster. a few peer-reviewed journals would be needed to convince me further, though. I'm a firm skeptic.