Hmm. Searching for an explanation of sitting down at the compuiter and
finding two screenshots of where I left the computer last night, sitting
on the desktop..one called
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000.png

leads me to believe that the blasted kittens, have been on te case again.

Well at least they haven't peed in the laser printer. This time.

In message , The Natural Philosopher
writes
Hmm. Searching for an explanation of sitting down at the compuiter and
finding two screenshots of where I left the computer last night,
sitting on the desktop..one called
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000.png

leads me to believe that the blasted kittens, have been on te case again.

Well at least they haven't peed in the laser printer. This time.

Sounds a bit like when my nephew dialled 999 on redial when he was a
babbie

except the police were not amused


--
geoff

On Sun, 12 Sep 2010 13:33:07 +0100, geoff wrote:

In message , The Natural Philosopher
writes
Hmm. Searching for an explanation of sitting down at the compuiter and
finding two screenshots of where I left the computer last night, sitting
on the desktop..one called
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000.png

leads me to believe that the blasted kittens, have been on te case
again.

Well at least they haven't peed in the laser printer. This time.

Sounds a bit like when my nephew dialled 999 on redial when he was a
babbie

except the police were not amused

I still use IBM Model M keyboards. The cats use the provided walkway at
the back of the keyboard...

http://www.dansdata.com/images/clicky/ballboard1024.jpg

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Bob Eager
saying something like:

I still use IBM Model M keyboards. The cats use the provided walkway at
the back of the keyboard...

http://www.dansdata.com/images/clicky/ballboard1024.jpg

I've not seen a clean one of those for years.
Must get the pressure washer out.

In message , Grimly
Curmudgeon writes
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Bob Eager
saying something like:

I still use IBM Model M keyboards. The cats use the provided walkway at
the back of the keyboard...

http://www.dansdata.com/images/clicky/ballboard1024.jpg

I've not seen a clean one of those for years.
Must get the pressure washer out.

I'll send you mine to clean while you're at it ..


--
geoff

In message , Grimly
Curmudgeon writes
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Bob Eager
saying something like:

http://www.dansdata.com/images/clicky/ballboard1024.jpg

I've not seen a clean one of those for years.
Must get the pressure washer out.

Chuck it in the dishwasher, followed by a few days in the airing
cupboard. Sorted.
--
Graeme

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Bob Eager
saying something like:

of Model M

I have a lovely clean one that I'm using right now. The same one I've
been using daily since 1992.

94 for me, and it was s/h from a typesetter's with an old 286, so who
knows how many millions of keypresses it's really had. Still works fine,
though.

geoff wrote:
In message , Grimly
Curmudgeon writes
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Bob Eager
saying something like:

I still use IBM Model M keyboards. The cats use the provided
walkway at the back of the keyboard...

http://www.dansdata.com/images/clicky/ballboard1024.jpg

I've not seen a clean one of those for years.
Must get the pressure washer out.

I'll send you mine to clean while you're at it ..


Is it as bad as this one?

http://s428.photobucket.com/albums/q...2020/Keyboard/

--
Adam

ARWadsworth wrote:
geoff wrote:
In message , Grimly
Curmudgeon writes
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when
the drugs began to take hold. I remember Bob Eager
saying something like:

I still use IBM Model M keyboards. The cats use the provided
walkway at the back of the keyboard...

http://www.dansdata.com/images/clicky/ballboard1024.jpg

I've not seen a clean one of those for years.
Must get the pressure washer out.

I'll send you mine to clean while you're at it ..


Is it as bad as this one?

http://s428.photobucket.com/albums/q...2020/Keyboard/

Sorry try

http://s428.photobucket.com/albums/qq6/adamko2020/Keyboard/?action=view&current=100_0171.jpg

--
Adam

On 12 Sep, 11:46, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
Hmm. Searching for an explanation of sitting down at the compuiter and
finding two screenshots of where I left the computer last night, sitting
on the desktop..one called
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000.png

leads me to believe that the blasted kittens, have been on te case again.

Well at least they haven't peed in the laser printer. This time.

Our cat likes sitting on the nice warm laptop keyboard. It once
managed to press some combination of keys which makes the display go
upside down and back-to-front. Why in god's name Microsoft ever put
such a combination of keys into Windows I have no idea, but it was
real bugger to sort out - had to try googling for the issue with a
mouse in mirror image, very confusing.

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
...


Our cat likes sitting on the nice warm laptop keyboard. It once
managed to press some combination of keys which makes the display go
upside down and back-to-front. Why in god's name Microsoft ever put
such a combination of keys into Windows I have no idea,


That would be to work on tablet PCs like this one I am using.
However it has a button that rotates the display so i don't use the short
cuts.

Martin Pentreath wrote:

Our cat likes sitting on the nice warm laptop keyboard. It once
managed to press some combination of keys which makes the display go
upside down and back-to-front. Why in god's name Microsoft ever put
such a combination of keys into Windows I have no idea,

Because of video projectors...

In message
,
Martin Pentreath writes
On 12 Sep, 11:46, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
Hmm. Searching for an explanation of sitting down at the compuiter and
finding two screenshots of where I left the computer last night, sitting
on the desktop..one called
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000.png

leads me to believe that the blasted kittens, have been on te case again.

Well at least they haven't peed in the laser printer. This time.

Our cat likes sitting on the nice warm laptop keyboard. It once
managed to press some combination of keys which makes the display go
upside down and back-to-front. Why in god's name Microsoft ever put
such a combination of keys into Windows I have no idea, but it was
real bugger to sort out - had to try googling for the issue with a
mouse in mirror image, very confusing.
Not MS, the company that wrote the drivers for your video card.
--
Clint Sharp

In message , Andy
Burns writes
Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

Bob said:

http://www.dansdata.com/images/clicky/ballboard1024.jpg

I've not seen a clean one of those for years.

I don't think I've ever seen one with a built in mouse, I've got a
couple of original ones stashed away, one AT and one PS/2, but when I
changed to a DVI/USB KVM they weren't happy with those PS/2 to USB
dongles ... I gather there are some dongles that can supply enough
current to drive a Model M.

Pretty sure that they'll never work unless you get an active converter,
most of the converters will only work if the keyboard/KVM was designed
to be connected to a PS/2 and USB port as the two are very different in
operation.
--
Clint Sharp

On 12/09/2010 20:12, ARWadsworth wrote:

Is it as bad as this one?

http://s428.photobucket.com/albums/q...2020/Keyboard/


I've been recently working in some moderately posh Hotels rolling out
new IT. You really don't want to see the keyboards we threw out from
some kitchens.

--
Adrian C

On Sun, 12 Sep 2010 17:19:48 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Bob Eager
saying something like:

I still use IBM Model M keyboards. The cats use the provided walkway at
the back of the keyboard...

http://www.dansdata.com/images/clicky/ballboard1024.jpg

I've not seen a clean one of those for years. Must get the pressure
washer out.

Mine's due a clean, too. Never had cats on it, but one of the dogs often
jumps up into my lap and then flops his head down onto it. Thankfully I
suspect that IBM engineers forsaw that, and dog skull impacts formed part
of the original product testing :-)

I think I got my PS/2-USB convertor from clickykeyboards.com. I do have
a PS/2 socket on the PC, but every so often the keyboard would stop
responding when plugged into it; I wonder if it's a current-draw issue.
No problems via the USB widget, though.

cheers

Jules

Jules Richardson wrote:

I think I got my PS/2-USB convertor from clickykeyboards.com. I do have
a PS/2 socket on the PC, but every so often the keyboard would stop
responding when plugged into it; I wonder if it's a current-draw issue.

Model M takes about 112mA (supposedly 100x more current than a modern
PS/2 keyboard), the PS/2 port should be willing to provide up to 275mA,
but I gather some modern machines are unwilling ...

No problems via the USB widget, though.

I must grab one ...

On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:26:12 +0000, Huge wrote:

On 2010-09-13, Jules Richardson
wrote:

Not a bloody "windows" key in sight, thankfully.

My Windows key pops up the Applications menu in Ubuntu. Can't recall if
it does that by default or if I configired it like that. I must keep
better records.

I did map one of 'em on the US laptop to the pound symbol, which I
suppose was sometimes handy. I should get around to doing the same with
this model M, maybe using the scroll-lock key; it'd save me typing 'quid'
everywhere :-)

cheers

Jules

On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:58:43 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

Jules Richardson wrote:

I think I got my PS/2-USB convertor from clickykeyboards.com. I do
have a PS/2 socket on the PC, but every so often the keyboard would
stop responding when plugged into it; I wonder if it's a current-draw
issue.

Model M takes about 112mA (supposedly 100x more current than a modern
PS/2 keyboard), the PS/2 port should be willing to provide up to 275mA,
but I gather some modern machines are unwilling ...

Yes, I suspect that some modern motherboards fare better than others. It
might be that my keyboard's drawing more than it should due to age-
related problems too (or that the early ones such as mine are actually a
little more power-hungry than later M's)

No problems via the USB widget, though.

I must grab one ...

Just make sure you get an "intelligent" one - it's hard to tell from a
lot of ads out there whether the thing for sale is just a dumb convertor
or not (and some folk will try to sell you a dumb convertor claiming
it'll work)

cheers

Jules

On 14/09/2010 14:38, Jules Richardson wrote:
On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:58:43 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

Jules Richardson wrote:

I think I got my PS/2-USB convertor from clickykeyboards.com. I do
have a PS/2 socket on the PC, but every so often the keyboard would
stop responding when plugged into it; I wonder if it's a current-draw
issue.

Model M takes about 112mA (supposedly 100x more current than a modern
PS/2 keyboard), the PS/2 port should be willing to provide up to 275mA,
but I gather some modern machines are unwilling ...

Yes, I suspect that some modern motherboards fare better than others. It
might be that my keyboard's drawing more than it should due to age-
related problems too (or that the early ones such as mine are actually a
little more power-hungry than later M's)

No problems via the USB widget, though.

I must grab one ...

Just make sure you get an "intelligent" one - it's hard to tell from a
lot of ads out there whether the thing for sale is just a dumb convertor
or not (and some folk will try to sell you a dumb convertor claiming
it'll work)

What does an intelligent one do? I have what I'm sure must be a 'dumb'
converter (99p off ebay) to use an old PS/2 keyboard with my laptop or
my son's Playstation, and it works fine?

David

On 15/09/2010 07:54, Lobster wrote:

What does an intelligent one do? I have what I'm sure must be a 'dumb'
converter (99p off ebay) to use an old PS/2 keyboard with my laptop or
my son's Playstation, and it works fine?

There's USB compatible intelligence inside your modern keyboard, the 99p
dumb adaptor merely sorts the interwiring out.

Older PS/2 mice, keyboards and KVMs don't have this so need the external
USB smarts.

--
Adrian C

On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 07:54:39 +0100, Lobster wrote:
Just make sure you get an "intelligent" one - it's hard to tell from a
lot of ads out there whether the thing for sale is just a dumb
convertor or not (and some folk will try to sell you a dumb convertor
claiming it'll work)

What does an intelligent one do? I have what I'm sure must be a 'dumb'
converter (99p off ebay) to use an old PS/2 keyboard with my laptop or
my son's Playstation, and it works fine?

With more modern (how modern I don't know, but I suspect anything after
the late 1990s) keyboards, the keyboard has the intelligence to work out
what kind of interface it's connected to (PS/2 or USB) on the main system
and switch to using the correct protocols and voltages. A 'dumb'
convertor is just an adapter between connection types and removes the
need to change cables; a modern keyboard with a PS/2 connector plugged
into a PS/2 port on the main system will run in "PS/2" mode, and if
plugged into a USB port on the main system (via a dumb convertor) will
switch to "USB mode"

Most (and maybe all) Model M's pre-date USB, so all they know is PS/2
voltages and protocols - hence the need for an intelligent convertor to
do the translation to USB; the convertor looks like an old PS/2 port to
the keyboard, and looks like a USB keyboard to the main system.

(I've no idea if ultra-modern keyboards with USB plugs at the end of
their cables lack PS/2 functionality - I've never tried that, and I'm not
sure if you can get intelligent USB-PS/2 convertors that work in the
"other direction")

cheers

Jules

On 14 Sep, 14:21, Jules Richardson
wrote:
On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:26:12 +0000, Huge wrote:
On 2010-09-13, Jules Richardson
wrote:

Not a bloody "windows" key in sight, thankfully.

My Windows key pops up the Applications menu in Ubuntu. Can't recall if
it does that by default or if I configired it like that. I must keep
better records.

I did map one of 'em on the US laptop to the pound symbol, which I
suppose was sometimes handy. I should get around to doing the same with
this model M, maybe using the scroll-lock key; it'd save me typing 'quid'
everywhere :-)

CTRL+Esc. Does the same thing as the Windoze key

On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 13:11:27 +0100, Adrian C wrote:

On 15/09/2010 07:54, Lobster wrote:

What does an intelligent one do? I have what I'm sure must be a 'dumb'
converter (99p off ebay) to use an old PS/2 keyboard with my laptop or
my son's Playstation, and it works fine?

There's USB compatible intelligence inside your modern keyboard, the 99p
dumb adaptor merely sorts the interwiring out.

Older PS/2 mice, keyboards and KVMs don't have this so need the external
USB smarts.

You explained that in about 10% of the words that I did, and did it far
better :-)

In message , geoff
writes
In message , The Natural Philosopher
writes
Hmm. Searching for an explanation of sitting down at the compuiter and
finding two screenshots of where I left the computer last night,
sitting on the desktop..one called
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000.png

leads me to believe that the blasted kittens, have been on te case again.

Well at least they haven't peed in the laser printer. This time.

Sounds a bit like when my nephew dialled 999 on redial when he was a
babbie

except the police were not amused

Some years ago, before broadband was common, my company laptop had a
Remote Access System using a dial-up modem. All I had to do was click a
button and hey-presto, I was connected to the company servers.

One day, I got a phone call from the local emergency services asking me
to stop dialling 999 or face severe penalties. I explained that I was
not calling them at all but they were insistent. It turned out that the
RAS client was American and the default telephone number, used when the
pre-programmed number was unreachable, was 999!

Our tech guys had never realised this and I got a mention in dispatches
for bringing this to their attention. They never did anything about the
problem though!
--
Peter