Touchpads

I still have a couple of northgates. THere's a guy out there in web land who repairs them and sells refurbished keyboards, as well as replacement parts. There's never been a better keyboard, IMHO.

[ ... ]

I strongly doubt that you could make it work unless you are into writing USB driver software. Unless you can find someone who wrote it and is offering it for sale or for free.

Just pick up a little 4-port ethernet hub. The software is there for you in just about any OS which will run in the hardware with the ethernet ports installed.

The first thing to come up on an eBay search for "ethernet hub" is:

190393069147

a four-port hub 10BaseT (the older, slower form) for $1.99 (but only 20 minutes to go, so probably gone by the time you see this.

Here's a faster five-port one:

130387027304

starting at $0.01 (and $17.00 shipping. :-)

If USB sneakernet is fast enough for you, the 10Base-T speed would be blazingly fast by comparison.

Anything which will work with 100BaseT will also work with

10BaseT -- just be slower.

Good Luck, DoN.

I like the keyboards used by Sun -- enough so that I am using a Sun Type-6 USB keyboard on my Mac Mini as well as having the Sun keyboards on many Sun machines as well.

There was one *really* nice keyboard for PCs in the early days, the NorthGate keyboard, which I still have one of. It is with the older large sized 5-pin DIN connector, but with an adaptor it works with newer systems which still will accept PS-2 keyboard connectors. It is so old that it has a switch on the underside to set it to talk to a PC-XT or a PC-AT. It also has another switch which drives my wife nuts, but which makes me really happy. It interchanges the functions of the Caps-lock and Control keys, as I use editors which are heavy on control key combinations.

However, for a system which insists on a USB keyboard -- I

*guess* that I could get one of the adaptors similar to the ones for mice which come with the Logitech Wheel TrackMan (which I use on several computers, especially any which accepts a USB mouse. :-) But the Sun keyboards are really nice, so why bother. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

[ ... ]

What failed on it? Did you ever try to fix it? Mine still works. Built like a tank.

[ ... ]

Sun used to supply their optical mice with a sort of bluish hard mousepad with a fine grid structure in it. The older ones used different LED colors for the different axes -- red for one, IR for the other, and if you turned the mouse pad 90 degrees, it would behave in a crazy manner, so people at school computer centers sometimes used that as a trick to "reserve" a workstation for their use. Everyone else would try it, find that the mouse behaved strangely, and look for another computers. When the originator came back, he would sit down, turn the keypad back to the proper orientation, and work happily. :-)

The later optical mice used a different grid, though it looked similar, it was not orientation sensitive.

Really good mice -- but awkward to use on the arm of a La-Z-Boy recliner, while a TrackMan Wheel, Velcroed to the arm, works fine. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Certainly none that I've ever tried.

It was so long ago that I don't remember, Don. It was a very busy time for me, writing freelance and trying to keep my head above water, and I had no patience for fooling around with a bad keyboard.

A computer legend that will live on because of people like you, Don. d8-)

As it happens, I use a laptop no more than 10% of the time. I have a very comfortable writing position at my homemade desk, a nice wide screen for comparing documents, and a desktop machine that meets my modest computing needs. The laptop is mostly for when I just have to get out of the f***ing house and work somewhere else. So the little mouse works most of the time for me.

There is certainly no need for a hub if you are only trying to connect two machines. A regular crossover cable will do the job just fine. A hub won't save you from having to configure your network settings either, so no advantage. Also these days nobody used hubs anyway since switches are cheap. I keep a little Linksys SD205 5 port 10/100 switch on hand for quick network setups.

I've found that on those problem surfaces, a plain old piece of paper works just fine as a mousepad.

The current optical mice use a camera and image processing. They do not require any special mousepad and only have issues with perfectly smooth, texture and contrast free surfaces. A piece of paper makes a suitable mousepad in such cases.

You know, I've tried that, with mixed success. A smooth piece of quality paper doesn't work with my (Microsoft and Logitech) mice. Any ordinary paper works OK, but not great.

I usually grab an advertising flyer or something like that when I'm working at the glass-topped table. Those work fine.

Focus FK-2001, typing on one right now, nice and clicky-clunky :)

I found this one at a St Vincent de Paul Thrift Store for ~$2. I have two others stashed away but they don't have an extra key where the newer keyboards put the left side Windows Logo key. Using Linux now anyway which really doesn't use that key for much. Had to replace the old AT cable & connector with a PS2 one, but that isn't a very big deal. Never tried a Northgate, but I'm sure it would be better than any of the crap they call a keyboard nowadays...

Why is it that hotel operators think transparent glass would be a splendid material for a hotel room work desk?

Because the glass doesn't get burn marks from smokers leaving cigs on the table in the non-smoking room. They also don't get the dings and gouges that a wood top does. Grab a page from the guide book, often nice paper with threads and whatnot and it works well as a mousepad.

"Pete C." on Wed, 05 May 2010 10:36:11 -0500 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Thanks for the advice. My main problem, it may turnout, is a dead card. The OS (WinXP) sees fully functional ports and hubs, according to device manager - but nothing works in them.

OT3H - wireless card has been suggested. May take a look at that.

- pyotr filipivich We will drink no whiskey before its nine. It's eight fifty eight. Close enough!

USB file transfer IS possible - lots of companies advertise and sell the cables, and I believe it is directly supported by Win XP. (Windows EZ Transfer) The cable has a driver chip of some sort in it though - not a simple "twisted cable" connection.

USB 3,4 and 5 port cards are available for less than $15

If you cant get one, I could probably find and send you one.

Gunner

Gunner Asch on Fri, 07 May 2010 09:53:31 -0700 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

>>> --- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

I may have to get another one. I think I may have broken the little plastic gizmo which holds the socket in the sprocket.

Right now, I've got the thumb drive set up with a series of batch files - I found Robocopy.exe does all the things I have wished hardcopy would do. Oh, yes, now I are big damn guru type! (The Grand Guru is the guy who has one more trick than you.)

Thanks, but I think I'll ransack my buddy's collection, next time I'm over there.

tschus pyotr

- pyotr filipivich We will drink no whiskey before its nine. It's eight fifty eight. Close enough!

Gunner Asch on Fri, 07 May 2010 09:53:31 -0700 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

>>> --- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

Oh, and the cool part, I found an Ethernet hub in my pile of stuff. It hadn't sold at the rummage sale.

now to find the fiddly bits - power supply, cables...

- pyotr filipivich We will drink no whiskey before its nine. It's eight fifty eight. Close enough!

pyotr filipivich on Mon, 10 May 2010 00:51:44

-0700 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

>>>> --- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

that's suppose to be "Xcopy". Blasted spell checkers.

- pyotr filipivich We will drink no whiskey before its nine. It's eight fifty eight. Close enough!