asciilifeform: leaf spring switches ('alps', 'cherry', others) are not normally considered repairable - on account of there being no ready supply (afaik) of replacement springs.
asciilifeform: (in the latter, the spring has been known to deform. can obtain replacement spring easily.)
asciilifeform: badon: leaf spring switches wear out considerably faster than buckling springs
asciilifeform: can be any board with identical switches.
asciilifeform: kakobrekla: transplanted switches don't have to come from 'northgates' per se.
asciilifeform: badon: presumably they have happy customers already.
asciilifeform: (not so much 'model m' - i used them also, but they do not, for any practical purpose, wear out. so don't need many.)
asciilifeform: i tend to buy 'northgates' in reasonable condition whenever and wherever they pop up
asciilifeform: kakobrekla: not a question of money, but of what is physically attainable
asciilifeform: (leaf springs develop a 'stutter' as they age)
asciilifeform: for these, it helps to have a sacrificial keyboard in your cellar, to desolder switches from when the inevitable comes
asciilifeform: 'alps' and similar (leaf spring) switches are good for a decade or so of heavy use
asciilifeform: i've yet to render a single 'model m' even partially inoperable.
asciilifeform: neh, model f was the pc xt keyboard iirtc
asciilifeform: i have one. it is presently gathering dust. no time to do what must be done to it
asciilifeform: (speaking here of the giant 'model m')
asciilifeform: PeterL: that keyboard was intended for 'glass tty' terminals and cannot be used with a modern pc compat. machine without some custom electronics
asciilifeform: ibm made a buckling-spring keyboard which also had this, but it suffered from other deformities.
asciilifeform: not quite as pleasurable as ibm's buckling springs. but the 'northgate' does have the function keys in their properly ordained position.
asciilifeform: that one could, conceivably, experiment with forgoing
asciilifeform: just like wearing clothing, or shitting in a toilet rather than in pants, are also 'mere' habits
asciilifeform: and at this point i don't even care if i'm simply habituated to springs or if there is something 'intrinsic and natural' about spring clicks. i refuse to do without them.
asciilifeform: i seriously doubt that you can get spring feedback from anything other than an actual spring.
asciilifeform: they give an immediate, palpable 'stop moving now'
asciilifeform: reminds me of... 'The prospect of cheap fusion energy is the worst thing that could happen to the planet.' (Jeremy Rifkin, Greenhouse Crisis Foundation)
asciilifeform: 'That’s because wiping out the passenger pigeon, the heath hen, the Tasmanian tiger, and so on, as regrettable as these events were, wasn’t the real mistake. It was only the indicator of a deeper moral and cultural malady.'
