On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 9:49 PM, Jeffrey Race <[email protected]> wrote:

> No it's even better than that one; you need the famous
> 13H6705 "clickety clack" kbd.  One is on ebay
>
> <
> http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-13H6705-TrackPoint-PS-2-keyboard-mouse-M13-Combo-/330492476733?pt=PCA_Mice_
> Trackballs&hash=item4cf2e2fd3d#ht_1226wt_1140<http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-13H6705-TrackPoint-PS-2-keyboard-mouse-M13-Combo-/330492476733?pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item4cf2e2fd3d#ht_1226wt_1140>
> >
>
> I bought three of them some years back at the MIT Amateur Radio
> Society monthly swapmeet, $35 per pc.  (Being 67 all my
> purchases are now end-of-life buys.)
>
> If you keep looking you may be able to find for less.
>

Nice keyboard! For the curious, here's the datasheet:

http://web.archive.org/web/20041011183846/http://www.ibmlink.ibm.com/HTML/SPEC/g2213946.html#ekwtip

I had two or three of these back in the day - mine were the 92G7461 white
model.

How are the TrackPoint mechanisms doing on your keyboards, though? Mine
never lasted more than a year if that. First the buttons would go mushy and
stop working unless you pressed really hard, and then the stick itself would
go bad and even break.

The *key* mechanisms on these would probably last forever, but the
TrackPoints were pretty poor.

Let's see... Hey, Unicomp makes a USB model of this keyboard now:

http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/en104wh.html

This would be the real thing, buckling springs and all - these guys are the
old IBM/Lexmark keyboard people:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicomp

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicomp>I wonder if they've improved the
Trackpoint mechanicals? :-)


> For me as a touch typist I can go like a flash on this
> kbd, so  the investment pays off in time and money.
> My wife also knows I'm working because she can hear me
> (unlike on the mushy T43 kbd I formerly used).
>

Yes, there is that sound. For the nostalgic, check out the fairly
interesting Wikipedia article on the Model M:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_M_Keyboard

In the Design section there's a sound clip. Speakers up!


> Someone (I think earlier on this list) explained that the
> keys on the new Thinkpads are so crummy in comparison because
> all the kbds on the famous old thinkpads were designed by
> typewriter engineers, not kids just out of some Chinese diploma
> mill like now.
>

In all fairness, you would never see a Model M-style keyboard in a ThinkPad
anyway. Too heavy and too tall. Check the patent illustration to see how
tall the keys have to be to accommodate the buckling spring mechanism:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/IBM_buckling_spring.svg

So back to your original question, when PMMail is responding slowly, does it
respond any differently from the ThinkPad's own keyboard?

-Mike
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