I recently upgraded my Sister’s computer, she had an old 400 MHz G3 iMac slot-loader, I upgraded her to an iMac G4 700 15", a second-gen AirPort (802.11b model) base station, and a nice set of speakers, I was expecting her to replace the old iMac with the new one, but she wanted to add the new G4 machine, and keep the old G3 iMac running for her kids (I trained her well, never dispose of “old” but working computer hardware)
So, I had to scrounge her up another keyboard, and being the nice guy that I am, I gave her my Pro Keyboard and Pro Mouse from my “old” iMac G4 17" 800 MHz that I use for OS 9 games like Carmageddon
Tonight, I was rooting around in the attic, looking for some aquarium supplies that I’m using to upgrade my Aerogarden, and I found my old Belkin ADB-to USB adapter box, as well as a couple old Beige-era Mac keyboards, an old Apple"Nimitz*" keyboard (the huge, beastly Apple Extended Keyboard II), and an old Apple Adjustable Keyboard and numeric pad, and one of my old Kensington Turbo Mouse 5.0’s
I hooked up each keyboard and the Turbo Mouse to the Belkin adapter, and they all worked just fine, the Turbo Mouse’s right mouse button is recognized, the function keys on the Nimitz all work, and the power button on the Nimitz even pulls up the Shut Down/Restart dialog box
judging by the keyboard’s serial number, it was built in the 32’nd week of 1993, so we’re dealing with a keyboard that’s SIXTEEN years old, and still types just as good as the day it rolled out of the factory, it’s a little yellowed with age, but the Alps keyswitches still type with that wonderful tactile clickyness they always had, the Nimitz is a tank, and a wonderful keyboard to type on, it truly is a Precious thing, my own, my…precious, we loves this keyboard, yes we do, Precious…
This particular keyboard has outlasted five of my desktop Macs**, three of my cars***, and SIX Presidential Administrations**** and shows NO signs of slowing down, thanks to my old Belkin ADB to USB adapter, the ol’ war-horse has a new lease on life with the new machines, the Kensington Turbo Mouse is of a similar vintage and also runs just as good as day 1, has outlasted the same things the Nimitz has, and neither of them have been babied either, they’ve gotten dirty and crusty, been cleaned with caustic chemicals, and I even dumped one of those 64 Oz Big Gulp mugs of water on them both, not once, but twice, and neither of them were fazed in the least, they shrugged it off and laughed, asking for more
I have no doubt that these ol’ workhorses will be good for another sixteen years, heck, I’ll probably end up handing them down to my nephew as a family heirloom…and they’ll still be working!
I know it’s cliché to say “they don’t make 'em like they used to”, but in this case it’s true, these input devices are nigh-indestructible, the Nimitz could even be used as a blunt-force weapon if it ever came down to it, and it’d likely still work after that…
In fact, I have written this entire post on my Nimitz and with my Kensington TM 5.0 on my MacBook 1.83 Intel running Mac OS 10.5.6, a machine that was nary even a glimmer in the eyes of Apple when the Nimitz was made, and yet, both devices work flawlessly, I’m using a sixteen year old keyboard on a relatively recent Intel based Mac, by means of comparison, when the Nimitz was introduced, the Mac was running on the old Motorola 68030 processor, and we were in the days of System 6 and System 7, I believe the Wintel equivalent back then was a 386 running Windows 3.x…
and after spending this entire post typing away on the wonderful clicky Alps keyswitches, I’m really not going to enjoy going nack to my MacBook’s built in keyboard, or the Apple Pro Keyboard on my Mirror Door G4, the Nimitz has a way of spoiling you!
Now I’m typing on my MacBook’s keyboard, and the difference in typing feel is dramatic, I feel like I’m typing on a keyboard made out of Jell-O…
I miss my Nimitz already!
*Apple’s production code-name of “Nimitz” referred to the prodigious girth and weight of this monster keyboard, early test models were often adorned with little toy aircraft landing on the “flight deck” portion of the keyboard (top section above the function keys)
**Performa 600CD, PowerMac 7100/80, PowerMac 7500/120, Powermac G4 tower (400 MHz), Powermac G4 tower (1.25GHz Mirror Door)
***'92 Dodge Shadow, '98 Dodge Neon, '02 Dodge Neon, '07 Saturn Ion
****Bush I, Clinton, Dubya, Obama