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1. Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 08:27:04 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

   My roommate got me two Bloomberg keyboards of various vintages. those things are WEIRD.

   (this is a placeholder for when I finally manage to do a teardown)

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 08:27:43 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     one of them has what looks like a PCMCIA slot but if you look inside, there's no pins, just a male micro-USB port?

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 08:40:50 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     I got two. The more modern one is a "model 5", and it has a USB plug that was sadly chopped off... but it's a removable plug so I can just toss it and use my own micro-USB plug.

     The other one looks older, and I have no idea what plug it was supposed to have, as it's also been chopped

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 08:41:44 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     these came from ewaste, and were obviously looted from a business with a pair of hedge clippers

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 08:47:22 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Mercedes-Nutz

     @even_more_damned_muteKi Thanks!

   • Mercedes-Nutz (even_more_damned_muteki@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 08:47:23 JST Mercedes-Nutz

     in reply to

     @foone bloomberg.com lists all their keyboards. I presume the newer one is the "centerboard" model based on the description

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 08:48:14 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Mercedes-Nutz

     ok so @even_more_damned_muteKi pointed out that Bloomberg has a list of their keyboards on their site in this article:
     https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/insights/trading/look-back-bloomberg-keyboard/

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 08:53:58 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     ignoring that it was a very bad idea for a Collector Of Weird Keyboards to see that page, I can now identify my two models:
     A 2004-era Centerboard and a 2017-ish Starboard

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 08:56:07 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     The Bloomberg Centerboard (full size image stolen off that article after I decoded the URL from their resizer)

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 08:57:02 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     And the Bloomberg Starboard

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 09:00:43 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     so now that I've seen that list, I need at least one of the 1983 Chiclet terminals, a 1990 Trackball, a 1994 PC-style keyboard (I swear I've seen that one but non-Bloomberg: I think they modified an existing mold), a 1996 Tradebook.

     and at that point I need a 2008 Freeboard for completeness, even if it looks boring as a keyboard

   • Owen Nelson (onelson@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 09:01:25 JST Owen Nelson

     in reply to

     @foone does it connect to the Bloomberg Port?

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 09:01:25 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Owen Nelson

     @onelson sadly it's just USB

   • Glyph (glyph@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 09:05:35 JST Glyph

     in reply to

     @foone sadly despite its iconic status I don't think enough people knew what it looked/looks like to make it worthwhile to have a death generator for it https://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/121114/bloomberg-terminal-step-step.asp

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 09:05:35 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Glyph

     @glyph a real shame.

     I'll have to resign myself to making death generators of less weird things, like the Dynix Library Management System

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 09:13:20 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Thepi

     @thepi Alt Badger? I think I follow her on tumblr

   • Thepi (thepi@urusai.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 09:13:21 JST Thepi

     in reply to

     @foone Thought that said Alt Badger for a sec. Opening Credly isn't as interesting...

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 09:56:46 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Cumberland Gorch's Prolefeed

     @crobbler I don't know, but I don't think so. I haven't seen them talking about it. I'm just into it for the rarity and uniqueness, I don't do "keyfeel" and such

   • Cumberland Gorch's Prolefeed (crobbler@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 09:56:47 JST Cumberland Gorch's Prolefeed

     in reply to

     @foone I get the basic appeal of these.

     - rare
     - extra keys, hell yeah
     - crazy level of dedication to the bit to go far enough to manufacture custom hardware like this

     But I've never encountered one in the flesh. Do keyboard hipsters have feelings about this one? Does it have a Premium Feel? Are the switches fancy? Do they have a nuanced travel? Do it thock?

   • mauvedeity (mauvedeity@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 10:27:45 JST mauvedeity

     in reply to

     @foone do you know what Port you connect the Starboard to?

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 10:27:45 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • mauvedeity

     @mauvedeity just USB, sadly :)

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 10:32:09 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Scott Small
     • CM Harrington

     @octothorpe @smallsco oh? that sounds interesting!

   • CM Harrington (octothorpe@mastodon.online)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 10:32:10 JST CM Harrington

     in reply to

     • Scott Small

     @foone @smallsco oh I have some wild stories about usability studies I did with Bloomberg for their terminals.