Wake me when they REALLY get back to their roots.
Wake me when they REALLY get back to their roots.
Girl on the right probably killed a Spanish swordsmith back in the day.
And for the final thing I’ll definetly wanna fix with no clue how, is that the Monitor is oddly Zoomed out. The text is all further back then it should be making for a weird look. Old Burn-in from when this thing was actively used also assures me of that. No clue how one can fix that, any suggestions?
Most CRT displays have potentiometers, adjustable by screw or knob, to control horizontal and vertical size. As always, be careful with flyback transformers, etc., so as not to die.
Burn in is a real and AFAIK permanent thing.
Those arrow keys are confusing, but I can see why the first thought was to place them like that
I’ve seen worse. The Commodore 64 used two arrow keys and Shift. Many 8-bit computers split them onto completely different sides of the keyboard, and nobody agreed on what the layout should be, even if the group was similar. Finally, DEC and then IBM standardized the inverted T, and all was right with the world.
I thought a tombstone or a boogieboard. 🤣
More seriously, things get weird when you want to go no-stabilizers but don’t want to buy a custom set of blank keycaps. This one only uses the 1.25u to 1.75u keys from a standard TKL or full size.
I am currently typing on my one and only red-switch board, and I am mis-hitting keys like a mofo, and bottoming out even harder than normal. I don’t type anywhere near correctly, but I make up for it by typing enthusiastically, and whatever the category, my favorites are always heavy.
From my keebtalk post, which also has more pics:
It’s early obviously, but I’m optimistic about this one. It feels pretty nice, and the Jades are almost as nice as the Navies, just missing that slight “kerchunk!” that the Navies have. The Jades are a bit snappier, and I agree that they may be ever so slightly louder, but I don’t think they dethrone my dark blue fingerbreakers.
After my last set of keycaps came out with some fairly obvious alignment issues, I rethought my jig and made a new one that could support 26 1u keys, plus one of arbitrary width. I also went with corner legends instead of centered, as that punishes a lack of accuracy much less, if you can at least get your setup repeatable. Then, I did clusters together in batches (i.e. all alphas in one run, all F keys together, etc.). The result is a much less jarring alignment situation. It would be ideal, if the plastic itself had cooperated. This PBT recipe didn’t like the infusible ink nearly as much as the DSA keycaps on my other no-stabs build. Legends are not as crisp as I’d like, and the colors are pretty muted, but the improved alignment makes this a modest victory.
Overall, I like (though not quite love) the way they came out, and the overall effect for the board, between the layout, case, and font, is a bit “Apple meets Logitech,” which may or may not be a good thing, but it’s always satisfying to wrap one of these up.
It’s getting better, and it’s critical that it do so, if for no other reason than to raise the floor that commercial offerings have to surpass to retain small-to-medium customers. I haven’t committed to it, but I’m rooting for it and following it closely.
Ergonomics are great, very gentle. Feedback and performance slightly lacking. 🤣
My first two DIY builds were orthos, but it sort of didn’t take. I did realize that while I don’t type properly or even all that well, I still don’t particularly need a full size spacebar as I almost always land in the same spot with my right thumb or (forgive me) index finger. I use KMK for my boards, and the debounce is good enough that if I happen to double tap the two spacebars, it won’t register two taps. The rest of the longer keys don’t REALLY need to be that long, and everybody hates lubing and tuning stabs (or they damn well should) anyway.
Enter is going to be the biggest keycap at 1.75u. You get a little wobble (box/dustproof switches can help some), but nothing structurally problematic. Most boards only start with stabs at 2u.
I’m currently using this one’s FRL ancestor, and the only real issue I have is that it uses a 1U LShift with another 1u between it and the ‘Z’ key (kinda ISO-ish), and I just can’t quite get 100% used to it, hence the “tombstone” layout on the new build.
If we’re just trying to keep it simple with a single, reputable vendor:
Keychron v3 barebones TKL
White on Black “OSA” keycaps, which look “swoopy” and modernly retro, but mostly feel like regular OEM on your SteelSeries
Gateron Black switches.
EDIT: Nordic makes it a little more expensive at Keychron and with fewer options, but it’s still doable. If you get one that’s QMK compatible, any ISO can be Nordic, and you just need to source keycaps, which they do have though I don’t see them in white on black.
Tree supports and careful use of an exacto knife could also make it work. Post processing can be a bit much sometimes, but it doesn’t have to be the enemy either.
The sense I get is that it is more lazy than anything. The verbiage feels like the fact that designs were public documents was tacked on last minute to satisfy some desire for market segmentation or to create a parts and design library to draw traffic. It would make sense that the company hosting the software would not want the headache of being unable to use your stuff commercially or even of parsing what they could use, since in some sense they always are using everything commercially. Refusing the to thread the needle with their verbiage, though, has left a situation where the Terms of Use say clearly that (1) a design is Content, (2) a free user’s Content is a public document, (3) a free user cannot use their own public documents for commercial use, and (3) a free user grants EVERY OTHER USER a license to sell their public documents.
The only possible wrinkle is that the ToU distinguish between a “Customer” and an “End User,” so maybe you the customer can grant you the End User the same commercial rights that Joe the slightly shady CNC machinist in Peoria has when he downloads your widget to fabricate and sell. Something tells me that PTC’s license compliance folks don’t interpret things that way, though.
The issue with FreeCAD is that all the workarounds (so far) are manual. Other apps may well be doing similar things, but they’re doing them behind the scenes and the user doesn’t have to (for instance) specifically set up a datum plane offset at the exact same distance as the face you want to sketch on and either manage it by hand or use an integrated spreadsheet to set up and reference variables.
I like what I see coming out of FreeCAD these days, but stuff like that is… umm, a lot.
The dirty secret of FreeCAD is that most drawings that look okay will extrude even if unconstrained. You just lose the ability to leverage the history tree and the model will be as brittle as any direct modeler’s.
FreeCAD is on its way, it’s attracting a little more money and attention, and I’m using it more and more, but I often still feel like I’m fighting it.
If you are comfortable with all your models being available for download and some wonky Terms of Use that may let random internet people profit off your designs but not you, then OnShape in a full-screen browser feels about as good as F360 does. I guess you could also pay for it, but despite finding it pretty nice, I am iffy about paying Solid Edge prices for something browser based. I understand SolidWorks has slapped together a browser version as well, but nobody likes it.
Linux wise, there’s just not much outside FreeCAD and SolveSpace. BricsCAD is an okay evolution of AutoCAD, and VariCAD is a less good one.
I may have done a longer writeup than anybody needed the other day.
I recall rumors that when it came to version 10 of Mac OS, Apple knew they needed outside help, and the choice came down to BeOS on the one hand, or NeXT (including ol’ Stevie J) on the other.
My B450 motherboard is pretty long in the tooth, but still firmly a “modern” component. I just added a Serial port via its built in header to use an old “Spaceball” for CAD. It only works in a few Windows apps, which is a shame because it’s completely a software issue and it works PERFECTLY in the apps that still support it. Linux as well, though I’ve only tried that via a USB-Serial adapter on my laptop.
Ha! I used it TWICE!
Also, to OP, that definitely wouldn’t have come OEM on a PC that shipped with Win 98.