stumped...what is this keyboard enclosure for?
stumped...what is this keyboard enclosure for? http://vintagecomputer.net/pictures/2017/Temple/Mystery_Keyboard_Enclosure.j... The key pattern fits no computer I own, and I have a lot of keyboards <Hank Hill impression> I tell you what</Hank Hill impression> I plan to re-purpose it as a guitar pedal holder because it'd be perfect for that...but before I do please warn me otherwise or claim it as worth saving historically. Bill
Looks like a Gateway 2000 AnyKey from the mid 90s. -Ian On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 9:42 AM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
stumped...what is this keyboard enclosure for? http://vintagecomputer.net/pictures/2017/Temple/Mystery_Keyboard_Enclosure.j...
The key pattern fits no computer I own, and I have a lot of keyboards <Hank Hill impression> I tell you what</Hank Hill impression>
I plan to re-purpose it as a guitar pedal holder because it'd be perfect for that...but before I do please warn me otherwise or claim it as worth saving historically.
Bill
thanks. Just how could you possibly use with a little hole for a space bar? Must be a special purpose keyboard cover. On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 11:50 AM, Ian Primus via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Looks like a Gateway 2000 AnyKey from the mid 90s.
-Ian
On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 9:42 AM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
stumped...what is this keyboard enclosure for? http://vintagecomputer.net/pictures/2017/Temple/Mystery_ Keyboard_Enclosure.jpg
The key pattern fits no computer I own, and I have a lot of keyboards <Hank Hill impression> I tell you what</Hank Hill impression>
I plan to re-purpose it as a guitar pedal holder because it'd be perfect for that...but before I do please warn me otherwise or claim it as worth saving historically.
Bill
Perhaps it was for a steampunked keyboard design. On May 18, 2017 11:57 AM, "william degnan via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
thanks. Just how could you possibly use with a little hole for a space bar? Must be a special purpose keyboard cover.
On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 11:50 AM, Ian Primus via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Looks like a Gateway 2000 AnyKey from the mid 90s.
-Ian
On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 9:42 AM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
stumped...what is this keyboard enclosure for? http://vintagecomputer.net/pictures/2017/Temple/Mystery_ Keyboard_Enclosure.jpg
The key pattern fits no computer I own, and I have a lot of keyboards <Hank Hill impression> I tell you what</Hank Hill impression>
I plan to re-purpose it as a guitar pedal holder because it'd be perfect for that...but before I do please warn me otherwise or claim it as worth saving historically.
Bill
The only thing I can think of is that this was part of a kiosk system, meant to be operated by the public and relatively unsupervised. By having a plastic cover like this, it would prevent anyone from prying off keytops or otherwise vandalizing the keyboard. Also, it would slow down typing considerably. Imagine this was some computer on a campus network intended for doing library catalog searches or something. But you don't want anyone hogging it to sit down and do lengthy work. So this will prevent anyone from actually *typing*, but let them use the computer enough to look up a book or two. You'd think, however, in that situation, they would want to not expose all the function keys. But, who knows what application this was really used in. I'm just speculating. Could have also been intended as an adaptive device for someone operating the keyboard with a wand held in the mouth or something. This would make it a lot easier to hit the key they were aiming for without having it slip off the key and hit an adjacent one. -Ian On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 11:55 AM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
thanks. Just how could you possibly use with a little hole for a space bar? Must be a special purpose keyboard cover.
On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 11:50 AM, Ian Primus via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Looks like a Gateway 2000 AnyKey from the mid 90s.
-Ian
On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 9:42 AM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
stumped...what is this keyboard enclosure for? http://vintagecomputer.net/pictures/2017/Temple/Mystery_ Keyboard_Enclosure.jpg
The key pattern fits no computer I own, and I have a lot of keyboards <Hank Hill impression> I tell you what</Hank Hill impression>
I plan to re-purpose it as a guitar pedal holder because it'd be perfect for that...but before I do please warn me otherwise or claim it as worth saving historically.
Bill
Or its a universal muscle memory trainer. Trains the fingers to hit the targets of any possible keyboard layout. Even for original IBM PC and XT keyboards with function keys on the left side! Close your eyes and go for the keys, if you land in the hole you're good! (There's a good spoof video idea for you Bill) On 5/18/2017 12:03 PM, Ian Primus via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
The only thing I can think of is that this was part of a kiosk system, meant to be operated by the public and relatively unsupervised. By having a plastic cover like this, it would prevent anyone from prying off keytops or otherwise vandalizing the keyboard. Also, it would slow down typing considerably. Imagine this was some computer on a campus network intended for doing library catalog searches or something. But you don't want anyone hogging it to sit down and do lengthy work. So this will prevent anyone from actually *typing*, but let them use the computer enough to look up a book or two.
You'd think, however, in that situation, they would want to not expose all the function keys. But, who knows what application this was really used in. I'm just speculating.
Could have also been intended as an adaptive device for someone operating the keyboard with a wand held in the mouth or something. This would make it a lot easier to hit the key they were aiming for without having it slip off the key and hit an adjacent one.
-Ian
On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 11:55 AM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
thanks. Just how could you possibly use with a little hole for a space bar? Must be a special purpose keyboard cover.
On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 11:50 AM, Ian Primus via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Looks like a Gateway 2000 AnyKey from the mid 90s.
-Ian
On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 9:42 AM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
stumped...what is this keyboard enclosure for? http://vintagecomputer.net/pictures/2017/Temple/Mystery_ Keyboard_Enclosure.jpg The key pattern fits no computer I own, and I have a lot of keyboards <Hank Hill impression> I tell you what</Hank Hill impression>
I plan to re-purpose it as a guitar pedal holder because it'd be perfect for that...but before I do please warn me otherwise or claim it as worth saving historically.
Bill
participants (4)
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Douglas Crawford -
Ian Primus -
jsalzman＠gmail.com -
william degnan