KEEBIN’ WITH KRISTINA: THE ONE WITH THE HOLE-Y KEYBOARD
Can a keyboard get any much more aerodynamic than this? probably not.
According to Google Translate, kleks is polish for (and I’m cherry-picking definitions here) the word ‘splash’. Well, [deʃhipu]’s hole-ful and soulful Kleks Keyboard certainly made a splash with me. [deʃhipu] knows what I’m talking about. As I said in Discord, I just love the look of those holes. They’re purely aesthetic and do a good job of showing off [deʃhipu]’s routing skills.
One might argue that those holes also functional in that they increase aerodynamics and remove a not-insignificant amount of weight for travel considerations. but yeah, they mostly are there to look cool. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the two halves are joined with a series of soldered stitches that are made from a [ggconnector] bent into a u-shape. now it’s a toss-up as to which is my favorite feature.
It seems that [deʃhipu] is never completely satisfied by this or that keyboard build, and that’s okay. That’s normal. That is . . . a big part of what this hobby is all about. because honestly, what would be the fun in finding The One? We wonder what will happen when the droplets settle. will [deʃhipu] be satisfied with the Kleks, or will those trendy holes become un-fillable voids?
The Kinesis Advantage360 is finally practically Here
After months of teaser tweets featuring frustratingly-framed macro shots of a render, a real update with full-body shots is finally here. The Kinesis Advantage360 will be available for pre-order as of December 20th. sad to say, I was not chosen for their beta testing program, and I doubt there’s money in the budget for me to upgrade from my 20-year-old original Advantage, so I’ll just have to pore over the page and pretend.
Image through Kinesis
So it’s gonna come in two flavors — the 360 and the 360 Professional. The 360 is USB-C and uses Kinesis’ SmartSet on-board programming, whereas the professional is Bluetooth, runs on ZMK, and has white-only blinkenlights. aside from these upgrades, the most significant change is certainly the relocation to a two-piece split. Are you used to a monoblock split and need training wheels? There’s a bridge piece included that puts the halves at standard advantage distance apart. It would be good if the bridge was adjustable so that you could play with the distance and/or relocation the keyboard around on the desk and not worry about lining the halves up again. One thing you can adjust is the tenting, which has three different heights.
This one is practically a dealbreaker for me — there are no dedicated function keys anymore because they’re on a layer like the ten-key has always been. On the upside, there are two new pinky keys, which honestly is probably enough F keys for me. There are also four new hot keys labeled 1-4 if you want much more F keys on the base layer.
For now, it looks like both models only come with browns. Kinesis have switched from Cherry to Gateron after all this time, and I’m not sure I’m down with that, especially considering how much they are asking for these keyboards. However, Kinesis partnered with upgrade Keyboards who will customize the switches if you purchase one from them beginning in late 2022. I’ve always wanted a Kinesis with blues, but I think I’ll stick to hacking on an old Advantage.
Historical Clackers: the Varityper
The Varityper in its later mechanical years. image through The classic Typewriter Page
[Nick Bodley] wrote to me personally (thanks, Nick!) to suggestion me off to the Varityper typesetter. This bad young boy sprouted from the Hammond typewriter mechanism and was known for its interchangeable typefaces, which made it a great early tool for graphic design. This site has a lot of information and examples of what it could do.
[Nick] thinks they were all a bit unsightly (the machines, not the typefaces), but that is probably because of all the improvements over the years that seem to have been slapped on top of the original design. The Varityper imagined here is from 1937, after the company changed hands and the device had undergone some 3,000 modifications (so the story goes).
One big problem with the Varityper was the geometry of the font elements, which were were shaped like half-circles. After a few years, these would become unevenly worn from use, and all the characters on the edges would lose their crispness and become practically useless. In later years, the Varityper made a major change from an electro-mechanical device to a computerized phototypesetter that flashed the characters’ images onto photographic paper.
ICMYI: Atari 130XE Keyboard Goes Mechanical
Sometimes it’s a difficult call. ought to [Bertrand] have restored that beloved childhood peripheral to its original, albeit unsatisfying mushy membrane glory (if you even can call it that)? We say no way. [Bertrand] absolutely did the best thing by upgrading the keyboard of his Atari 130XE to mechanical switches while keeping the stock keycaps.
[Bertrand] pulled off this hack by 3D printing new stems for every Kailh box pink that replaced a pair of membrane contacts. The company end can be used with either variant of Atari keycaps from that era. Of course, this also required a new PCB and an adapter board, but those were no trouble for [Bertrand]. Be sure to check this project out, because it was fully intended to be reproduced.
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