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Re:35 years ago today: the first domain name symbolics.com w... by Mountain_Skies on Sunday March 15, 2020 @10:12PM (#22589079)
Also creators of the crazy Space Cadet keyboard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-cadet_keyboard
Re:35 years ago today: the first domain name symbolics.com w... by cpr on Monday March 16, 2020 @01:16PM (#22594755)
Strictly speaking, the Space Cadet keyboard was JLK's creation (John L Kulp, who ran the MIT Plasma Labs computing facilities, and who went on to help found Symbolics when they split off from the AI Lab).

I had a Space Cadet on my desk in the EECS department along with a Plasma TV system monitor.

Had fun times hacking the PDP-11 software driving the Plasma TV system.

Re:35 years ago today: the first domain name symbolics.com w... by steveeq1 on Monday March 16, 2020 @12:52AM (#22590101)
I wish they still made keyboards like that. I'm curious to know the "feel"
Re:35 years ago today: the first domain name symbolics.com w... by cpr on Monday March 16, 2020 @01:22PM (#22594858)
As gumby says, the Space Cadet keyboards, being Microswitch Hall effect-based, were a bit spongy due to the big plastic case, but the switches themselves were dreamy.

But the whole experience was still not as satisfying as the original Knight keyboards, I suspect because the Knight boards used the original, larger switches, while the Space Cadets used the smaller. Chyrosran22 on Youtube explains all this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcdN4Vzg6_g and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDozftThFMw).

By the way, after 40 years of despairing over the loss of Hall effect switches (I nursed a Space Cadet Livermore Labs clone from a group buy for some years into the mid-80's), there are now two keyboards using this technology, and I'm loving the one that's actually available.

Steelseries Apex Pro is what's now shipping, and it's a dream. (https://www.amazon.com/SteelSeries-Apex-Mechanical-Gaming-Ke...)

The Input Club Keystone is still coming, slowly (https://kono.store/products/keystone-analog-mechanical-keybo...), but I'm also really looking forward to trying it.

Re:35 years ago today: the first domain name symbolics.com w... by gumby on Monday March 16, 2020 @02:13AM (#22590449)
The CADR space cadet had a spongy feel, probably because of the large size and plastic case. A sad dependent of the Knight TV keyboards. With the 3600 series Symbolics replaced that with a solid keyboard (fewer keys though) that was more satisfying to type on.

Some of those keys like thumbs up/down etc were never really used anyway.

Re:35 years ago today: the first domain name symbolics.com w... by bnbond on Monday March 16, 2020 @07:53AM (#22591904)
I see they have convenient up/down vote keys on the righthand side of the board.