Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!boulder!seri!wind55!marshall From: marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Subject: Giving up on Northgate OmniKey Plus Summary: Too many typos. Message-ID: Date: 13 Nov 90 16:31:04 GMT Sender: news@seri.gov (news) Distribution: na Organization: Solar Energy Research Institute Lines: 54 I've been using a MaxiSwitch 84-key keyboard for about five years now. I really love it. It's nice and quiet and it never gives me any problems. I tried a lot of keyboards over the years. All three flavors of IBM's, Compaq's 84 and 101 keyboards, Keytronic XT style, Sperry 84 and Enhanced, Dell Enhanced and Everex Enhanced. This MaxiSwitch I'm using now has been used on a Sperry IT, a Compaq 386, an Everex Step 386/25 and now I'm using it on a Dell System 325. Never a single problem. It generates only those characters I tell it to. The only thing I dislike about it is that it does not have F11 and F12 which are used in Windows applications. I saw a NorthGate OmniKey Plus in an ad this summer and I loved the layout. It had all the important keys in the proper place. It had the function keys on the left, the key left of the <1>, and , and where god intended them to be. The layout was just about perfect. It even had a cursor pad in a diamond instead of that ridiculous layout IBM came up with - you know, the fifty meters between the arrow keys and the , etc. that requires you to lift you hand to move from one set to the other. (I vote for a Constitutional Ammendment preventing IBM from ever designing another keyboard.) So I ordered one. I was really excited the day it arrived. I hooked it up and went to work. I couldn't believe the racket! Wow was it loud. I hated the feel (of course, this is a religous issue) too. After using it for a while, I noticed that it kept generating extra keystrokes. When I typed 1990, many times I would get 199909900 instead. From came out ffrrffrom. Having to fix so many typos really slowed me down. I sent it back for a replacement. The new one came about a month ago. The problem above did not reoccur. However, about one out of fifty words would have a double letter in it. It could be any key. Many times it was the space key. This is especially infuriating when reading news with nn. I kept flying by articles. Also, the spacebar didn't always work when I hit it near the left. This morning, I was replying to some mail and it happened again. I got really pissed. I took it off and put my good ole' MaxiSwitch back on. This is my second article and I've yet to have any extra keys generated for me. It feels good and I don't disturb folks down the hall with the racket. I feel like a man who's come back to his comfortable wife after a brief fling with a sweet young thing. It's reinforced my love for my MaxiSwitch. Now, if only MaxiSwitch would copy NorthGate's layout... I won't waste any more of the government's money on another NorthGate board. -- Marshall L. Buhl, Jr. EMAIL: marshall@seri.gov Senior Computer Missionary VOICE: (303)231-1014 Wind Research Branch 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401-3393 Solar Energy Research Institute Solar - safe energy for a healthy future