Re: Keyboard for rounded PET

> On Jun 22, 2022, at 1:26 AM, silverdr_at_srebrnysen.com wrote:
>
> 
>>> Hello allemaal,
>>> I recently gave one of my rounded PETs for restoration
>>> https://www.facebook.com/SMOKPL/photos/1353620988449797
>>> (Ruud might remember it :-) to a friend who's running a museum in
>>> Opole as well as organises "Moonshine Dragons Party" and generally
>>> does tons of great work around retrocomputing. Unfortunately I don't
>>> have keyboards for those PETs. Any chance that someone might have one?
>>> For sale?
>>
>> On 2022-06-21, at 06:33, ruud_at_baltissen.org wrote:
>>
>> The ones I have are all paired with a computer.
>
> Roger. I know it's a long shot, but at least I tried... I currently have
a number of computers w/o keyboards so maybe out there is a number of
keyboards w/o computers, both groups longing for each other ;-)

On Fri, Jun 24, 2022 at 11:29 PM gsteemso <48bitsorbust_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> It's taken me some time to work out why this topic tends to trigger the
> reaction in me that it does.
>
> Unfortunately, in my experience... well, a lot of people who don't care
> about vintage computing still have a vague concept that other people
> sometimes want the things, even when they can't for the life of them fathom
> why such a thing would be true.  If they recognize something as being
> extremely out of date, they might decide to not scrap it out of hand, in
> case somebody actually wants it for some reason.
>
> A keyboard, on the other hand, tends to prompt a very different set of
> relfexes.  They've been more or less commodity hardware for long enough
> that if a non-retrotechie can't figure out how someone would plug it in,
> they're more inclined to view it as useless junk (and immediately discard
> it) than as something that weirdo up the street with all the old
> electronics in his garage might be interested in.  Most people's default
> mental clutter-filtering algorithm will default to treating the two types
> of artefact as categorically different, generally with a very different
> default range of disposal options coming to mind.
>
> Of course, it doesn't help that "daily driver" keyboards have usually been
> inherently higher-wear items in their era than whatever old clunker one
> might have spent umpty-seven years plugged into, so fewer of them tend to
> have survived this long in the first place... even when in relatively good
> custody (i.e., somehow not accidentally separated from the intended host
> hardware, despite the whole works having repeatedly been {hurriedly boxed /
> accidentally placed crookedly under heavier items in a "temporary" stack
> that took 15 years to get around to / expediently stuffed into out-of-sight
> storage areas before the family neat-freak Gets Unfortunate Ideas about
> them / abruptly relocated by poorly-suited vehicles, under varying degrees
> of last-minute desperation / repacked with hopes of the box surviving
> longer this time} over a span of 20-50 years or more).
>
> In summary, I personally consider it a minor miracle deserving of at least
> a little awe (and, situationally, perhaps even some level of formalities to
> one's Higher Power of choice) when a very old keyboard, or similar
> highly-vulnerable bit of peripheral retrotech, is found intact.
>
> Naturally, this is only my personal two cents' worth of overly wordy
> waffling; if any of you have had better luck with such hardware, I
> congratulate you with at least as much generalized relief for our hobby in
> general as I do with unhealthily intense envy (*grin*).  Seek on, friends,
> they've not all been lost yet!
>
> Gordon S.
>
>
>
Gordon,
I checked.  I have three high-boy B series CBM's but only two keyboards for
them.  Keyboards and minicomputer front panels tend to get separated from
their computers after a while. Wish that did not happen.

While on the subject, I have a Televideo 803 keyboard without the terminal
to go with it, maybe someone here has a Televideo 803 in need of the
keyboard?  I would be willing to trade.  I am located near Philadelphia in
the US.
Bill

Bill