Keebin’ with Kristina: the One With the Typewriter Orchestra

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Illustrated Kristina with an IBM Model M keyboard floating between her hands.

Have you ever wished you had more control over what goes into a kit keyboard build? Like, a whole lot more control? Well, that’s the idea behind the Akruvia 12×4 Playground by [iketsj].

Image by [iketsj] via YouTube

This is a 48-key ortholinear keyboard, but other than that, it’s a complete blank slate. The kit includes the PCB, diodes, RGB LEDs, and Kailh Choc V1 hot swap sockets, which is really the only choice you don’t have in the matter.

All the rest is up to you, thanks to a generous prototyping area that wraps around three sides of the keys. Bring your own microcontroller and anything else that sounds useful, like displays, rotary encoders, gesture sensors, pointing devices, you name it.
You could even magnetically link a macro pad to one side, as [iketsj] teases in the intro video. [iketsj] has made the kit available through links on their website, and you’ll find a product guide there as well.

The Boston Typewriter Orchestra

The Boston Typewriter Orchestra rehearses on the sturdiest table ever made. Image via the Boston Globe

Clack, clack; ding! Clack, clack; ding! Quick, what song is that supposed to be? Well, if you heard it coming out of the Boston Typewriter Orchestra, you’d instantly know it as Queen’s “We Will Rock You”. Not that they actually play that one, but I think it would sound pretty good.

Yes, the Boston Typewriter Orchestra are exactly what they sound like — a group of people banging and clanging on Royals, Underwoods, and Smith-Coronas in order to reproduce popular songs. Seemingly no typewriter surface nor function is left untouched during their performances. Even the spool covers are employed as added percussion.

Let me just say that I’m really surprised that dining room table can handle all of that stress. Regular clacking on just one typewriter of suitable weight will make a table move significantly. But eight machines being beaten on continuously? Like, where can I get one of those tables?

The Centerfold: Zoom75 Teal with GMK Retrowave

Image by [2002whitegt] via reddit
Okay, I think this is one of my favorite centerfolds, and it has everything to do with that vaporwave desk mat from SwitchKeys. Vaporwave all the things, I say, and of course I am happy to see it extended to the keycaps.

Unfortunately the Zoom75 from Meletrix is currently sold out in teal — isn’t that always how these things go? — but we hear that it may still be possible to snag one via the site or even the company’s Discord.

Do you rock a sweet set of peripherals on a screamin’ desk pad? Send me a picture along with your handle and all the gory details, and you could be featured here!

Historical Clackers: The Gardner Typewriter

Image via The Antikey Chop

Some might think that layers on a keyboard are a relatively new idea, but they so are not. After all, capital letters technically live on another layer, though as we’ve seen, it wasn’t always that way in the typewriter world.

John Gardner’s 1890 typewriter consisted of a mere 14 keys, which typed 84 characters with the help of a multi-directional shift lever. This lever could move both forward and backward to type different characters, and additional characters could be typed by simultaneously depressing the shift lever and the space bar. Sounds like quite the dance, doesn’t it?

Interestingly enough, the impetus for this machine was something inexpensive that could type quickly, but it didn’t really work out that way. Maybe it would have been easier to type quickly with a different type of layer-accessing mechanism. I suppose we’ll never know.

ICYMI: Breathing Life Back Into a Butterfly

Anyone with an appreciation for keyboards is likely aware of IBM’s ThinkPad 701C laptop. This top-selling laptop of 1995 featured a special “butterfly” keyboard that expanded when the lid was opened and folded back in when the lid was closed.

[John Graham-Cumming] got their hands on not one but two of these beauties, and although they were in a fairly sorry state, managed to resurrect a working machine from between the two. They even had plastic damage from old, leaky Ni-MH batteries. Only one of those beautiful keyboards was in good shape, which is sad to hear, but of course one is far better than none.

Got a hot tip that has like, anything to do with keyboards? Help me out by sending in a link or two. Don’t want all the Hackaday scribes to see it? Feel free to email me directly.



from Blog – Hackaday https://ift.tt/hpcCxeL

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