Missing computer company's

[ning]

I miss the keyboard on the wy75 terminal. Not a "clicky" keyboard at all - it was smooth like butter. I could type really fast on those for hours.

 

[WinterDeere]

I miss the keyboard on the wy75 terminal. Not a "clicky" keyboard at all - it was smooth like butter. I could type really fast on those for hours.

I remember hanging onto the handful of old IBM "clicker" keyboards I had, with obsolete AT interfaces, right thru the PS/2 years and into USB times. I just couldn't get used to the modern soft short-stroke keyboards, when they came out. It really wasn't until I wanted to go wireless, that I finally made the switch.

It'd be interesting to find one of the old clickers, and see what my opinion of it is today. I was a very fast typist when young, always the fastest in my classes, but have probably slowed down a little with age. It's likely that hammering on those old high-effort clicker keys would slow me down even more, or at least make my joints sore after awhile, now.

 

[ning]

I remember hanging onto the handful of old IBM "clicker" keyboards I had, with obsolete AT interfaces, right thru the PS/2 years and into USB times. I just couldn't get used to the modern soft short-stroke keyboards, when they came out. It really wasn't until I wanted to go wireless, that I finally made the switch.

It'd be interesting to find one of the old clickers, and see what my opinion of it is today. I was a very fast typist when young, always the fastest in my classes, but have probably slowed down a little with age. It's likely that hammering on those old high-effort clicker keys would slow me down even more, or at least make my joints sore after awhile, now.

They still have a cult following. Drives some people in high-density offices crazy I'd imagine. I've personally always liked a low- to medium- effort key spring that's got a gentle strain curve. If I recall, the TVI925 was a really strong spring and I never got used to those, always avoided them as I had tons of missed-key errors. Probably could've adapted but figured why all this strain?

 

[hayden]

I did the tape driver SW and the output stream to the printer.

That reminds me of another tape drive story, again at Bell Labs. The PBX we built had a tape drive in it that was used to store all the software, configuration data, etc. It was a commercially available bare drive, and some people in another division and build a bunch of interface boards and software around it to make it easier to use in a system. We were having a bunch of trouble with it, so I got sent off to debug this thing and get to working correctly.

I got the code for their tape system, plus our code, and I found a ton of bugs. Really bad bugs. Like you would write data to the tape and it would say it was successful, supposedly having written and reread to data the verify. But it turns out it wasn't always writing the data, and definitely wasn't verifying it. And you would read data and it reported success, but the data was junk. I was finding and fixing bugs, and we had weekly calls with this group to get info and let them know what we were finding, and to send them all the fixes.

It was pretty clear that nobody else had really checked this tape system very carefully, and one day we asked them where else it was being used because it sure seemed like there were major data integrity issues. The answer was that it was used to stored all the missile guidance data for the Trident submarines. After a long, stunned silence, we said we sure hoped they were passing the fixes on to that group.....

 

[WinterDeere]

They still have a cult following... Probably could've adapted but figured why all this strain?

My reasoning was that I could type faster and with fewer errors on those. When transitioning to a modern low-effort short-stroked keyboard, you need to learn to be careful with accidental keystrokes from merely resting your hands on the thing, it's just a different style of typing. I grew up resting my fingers heavy on the home row with my wrists off the table, proper typing posture for someone who's going to be doing it a lifetime. But with the modern low-effort keyboards, I need to sort of hover my hands over the keyboard, using my forearms or wrists down on the desk to maintain position, which must be worse for things like carpal tunnel.

I haven't actually measured my typing speed in many years. But I can tell without any doubt that while my actual key stroking might be faster on a modern keyboard, the number of mistakes I make due to them is so much higher that it undoes any speed advantage with time lost to corrections. I made almost zero errors with the heavy clickers, versus almost one error per line with a modern keyboard.

 

[riptides]

That reminds me of another tape drive story, again at Bell Labs. The PBX we built had a tape drive in it that was used to store all the software, configuration data, etc. It was a commercially available bare drive, and some people in another division and build a bunch of interface boards and software around it to make it easier to use in a system. We were having a bunch of trouble with it, so I got sent off to debug this thing and get to working correctly.

I got the code for their tape system, plus our code, and I found a ton of bugs. Really bad bugs. Like you would write data to the tape and it would say it was successful, supposedly having written and reread to data the verify. But it turns out it wasn't always writing the data, and definitely wasn't verifying it. And you would read data and it reported success, but the data was junk. I was finding and fixing bugs, and we had weekly calls with this group to get info and let them know what we were finding, and to send them all the fixes.

It was pretty clear that nobody else had really checked this tape system very carefully, and one day we asked them where else it was being used because it sure seemed like there were major data integrity issues. The answer was that it was used to stored all the missile guidance data for the Trident submarines. After a long, stunned silence, we said we sure hoped they were passing the fixes on to that group.....

One of the big deals at our customers sites was always recovery. We would have to do a recovery from tape, recovered from off-site stores, for testing.

The PC LAN people would always crash and burn. In those days, they were just not experienced enough in large computer processes and well their software was...crap.

 

[ultrarunner]

My reasoning was that I could type faster and with fewer errors on those. When transitioning to a modern low-effort short-stroked keyboard, you need to learn to be careful with accidental keystrokes from merely resting your hands on the thing, it's just a different style of typing. I grew up resting my fingers heavy on the home row with my wrists off the table, proper typing posture for someone who's going to be doing it a lifetime. But with the modern low-effort keyboards, I need to sort of hover my hands over the keyboard, using my forearms or wrists down on the desk to maintain position, which must be worse for things like carpal tunnel.

I haven't actually measured my typing speed in many years. But I can tell without any doubt that while my actual key stroking might be faster on a modern keyboard, the number of mistakes I make due to them is so much higher that it undoes any speed advantage with time lost to corrections. I made almost zero errors with the heavy clickers, versus almost one error per line with a modern keyboard.

Grandmother worked as a legal secretary and when the office bought new electric she said it’s not for her and she would quit if she couldn’t use her manual…

Managing partner said ok… you can keep the manual and when she retired they gave it to her as all the younger clerks only used electric.

A few times the manual came in handy especially when the power went out and there was a rush to make a filing… give it to Betty, she will get it done.

Years later the return spring broke and she brought it to the shop and was told sorry…

I was maybe 11 and could see she was not happy and offered to try… she said Hells Bells… nothing to loose.

I took one of my grandfathers guitar stings and crimp on electric wire terminal end and made the fix… still works today… I think it was the first time I really impressed her…

Anything not typed was in shorthand.

 

[BigBlue1]

Atari, Commodore. Those were some of the first home computers. I had several Ataris and still have them in a box somewhere.

Daisy Systems Corp back in the 80's made some impressive systems for CAD work. At a business I interned at which designed its own semiconductors (ASICs) we used one of those. I don't think Daisy lasted too long.

 

[ning]

My reasoning was that I could type faster and with fewer errors on those. When transitioning to a modern low-effort short-stroked keyboard, you need to learn to be careful with accidental keystrokes from merely resting your hands on the thing, it's just a different style of typing. I grew up resting my fingers heavy on the home row with my wrists off the table, proper typing posture for someone who's going to be doing it a lifetime. But with the modern low-effort keyboards, I need to sort of hover my hands over the keyboard, using my forearms or wrists down on the desk to maintain position, which must be worse for things like carpal tunnel.

I haven't actually measured my typing speed in many years. But I can tell without any doubt that while my actual key stroking might be faster on a modern keyboard, the number of mistakes I make due to them is so much higher that it undoes any speed advantage with time lost to corrections. I made almost zero errors with the heavy clickers, versus almost one error per line with a modern keyboard.

Oh I detest laptop chiclet keyboards. Definitely full-size keys all the way, but as I said I like the medium-effort springs, the tvi925 was like lifting weights with every keystroke. The "clicker" keyboards I find strange because you've got an initial tension to overcome, and then the key just slams home. Probably better than my definitely-needs-replacing 10-year-old "gaming" keyboard which doesn't have a decent tension system at all (and the finder nubs on the F & J keys have long since worn off so I can't 100% find my proper location without looking)...

 

[kenmbz]

Bad chiclet keyboard is one of the reasons the IBM PC jr was not a commercial success.
incredibly bad keyboard, never knew by feel if a key was pressed.
Brought to you by the company that made the best typewriters.