Another market bargain

[ffutures]

Today's bargain comes from the guy who sells old computer hardware in Bell Street Market, near Edgware Road tube station. I was looking through a box of keyboards to see if I could find anything like an original IBM AT keyboard, which is by far my favourite design, when what did I find but an Apple pro keyboard and optical mouse... for a fiver!

It's in perfect working order, as far as I can tell - don't have a program to check key presses so I couldn't check out the function keys, but typing etc. works fine on my iBook. Not sure if num lock is working - it doesn't light up or appear to do anything - but I'm not actually sure what it's supposed to do on a Mac. Can anyone tell me? Or point me at an OS-X program that'll check if everything is working?

Once I'm sure it's fully operational I've got to decide if I want to keep it - I've already got a Bluetooth keyboard and never seem to use it, and I don't really like the Apple "press the whole top down" single-button mice - I much prefer a two-button and wheel design. eBay is probably the best answer, I suppose, or I could keep it in case I do eventually decide to go Mac completely, but that isn't likely any time soon.

Decisions, decisions...

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

You might want to try the Apple nipple-mouse -- looks like a normal white Apple mouse with a discreet nipple on it, but is actually a five-button-plus-wheel jobbie (the buttons are accessed by clicking where you'd expect, they're just not visible on the casing).

I think the Apple Pro keyboard doesn't light up unless you can see an explicit LED window in it, but I don't trust my memory. If it works on your iBook, then just check it out in a TextEdit window -- but it sounds like you got a real bargain.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Five buttons? WTF are five buttons useful for? Two is about all my brain can handle.

The only light I've noticed is for caps lock, and that's sort of under the plastic next to the key. Num lock was the other one I expected, but it doesn't seem to do anything - but neither does the one on the Bluetooth keyboard so I'm not sure how it works. The function keys that actually do something normally seem to be fine, but I don't have any software to test most of them.

Definitely a bargain. Add this to the laserdisc player earlier this week and the 20gb hard disk someone gave me on Thursday (yes, I know it's small by modern standards, but it more than quadruples the file storage for my Windows 98 box) and I think I've just been very lucky. Which leaves me wondering when bad things will start happening again...

[ckd]

In the "International" preferences pane's "Input Menu" tab, you can check the box for "Keyboard viewer". Also make sure "Show input menu in menu bar" is checked.

Then there will be a small flag menu (in your case, probably a Union Jack as I'm guessing you have a UK keyboard layout) which will have an option for "Show keyboard viewer". That will show you each key as you press it...like the old Key Caps program.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Lovely - many thanks!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

And it appears to be working perfectly. Yay!

[lawbag.livejournal.com]

I have been toying with the whole elitist iBook thing for some time. Whenever Im commuting on the train and someone whips out an Apple (the computer not the fruit) you know for sure this is a discerning computer user - or are they.

Or maybe its just the computer they were given.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The things I like are the "not having to wait for it to boot up" reliable standby mode and the five hours plus battery life, which comes in very handy on long train rides. But I actually bought it because Charlie was selling off some of his old kit at the time I was looking for a laptop and thinking that I ought to have a Mac compatible PC around somewhere for HTML and PDF compatibility checking.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

If your Mac has USB, you can use PC USB input devices with it. I'm currently using a Microsoft laser mouse with my PowerBook, and I've used cheap PC mice with it in the pat. Ditto for keyboards.

So you bought this Mac equipment as an investment?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Sure - I've been using a pretty good NEC two-button and wheel mouse with the iBook when I needed a mouse, but as it happens I've just killed the mouse I use om my main PC and I've had to commandeer that one to take its place.

I don't exactly see the keyboard I just bought as an investment - if anything, I think it's more likely that I'll sell off the Bluetooth keyboard since I don't think it's as good ergonomically, and it doesn't have the USB ports.