Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!sunic!isgate!krafla!kvj
From: kvj@rhi.hi.is (Kristjan Valur Jonsson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Archimedes keyboard
Keywords: Keyboard, defunct
Message-ID: <2835@krafla.rhi.hi.is>
Date: 26 Feb 91 14:25:18 GMT
References: <1991Feb19.160812.20483@cns.umist.ac.uk> <2313@cybaswan.UUCP> <1991Feb21.143445.22959@fwi.uva.nl>
Organization: University of Iceland
Lines: 34

In <1991Feb21.143445.22959@fwi.uva.nl> aroest@fwi.uva.nl (Axel Roest (N)) writes:

>cs9h9tts@cybaswan.UUCP (t.simpson) writes:

>Wow, what do you do with your keyboards? Bang them with hammers and Coke
>cans or something?
>I have my Arch for 2(3?) years now and I haven't had any serious problems.
>Once I dropped a glass of wine into the keyboard and I had to take it apart
>and clean it with water. That's all. I don't have a keyboard cover and
>I don't live in a clean room. I think the dust gets blown away because
>my typing is very fast. :-)
>Now I DO have a lot of problems with my mouse. Why did Acorn decide to use
>a light plastic ball instead of a heavy, rubbercoated metal one. The 
>friction between the plastic ball and the metal 'thingies' is very low.
>Does someone know a supplier of rubbercoated metal balls with the same
>diameter as the ball in the Arch mouse?
>I think that will give the mouse a much better 'feeling'.

>Axel

Firstly, the mouse isn't Acorns, but a ready built design from elsewhere.
If you look at a state of the art mouse these days, they all seem to
have these new light types of balls.  I suspect that the reason is that
lighter balls have less inertia (can't remember the correct term for this
"axial inertia") and therefore better response.  You must be thinking about
an old Macintosh mouse.
Secondly,  I believe I've heard that the acorn Keyboard (Like the mouse) is
an "of the shelf product" conforming to some standard or another.  This should
mean that one should be able to by a replacement keyboard from a PC and
hook it up with only changin the DIN plug.  Can anyone confirm this?  My
keyboard is damaged and I might just get a more professional one in stead of
an Acorn replacement part.

Kristjan