• Albbi@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    I used to have this really awesome early 2000’s transparent blue plastic keyboard with all the newest media keys. The only problem was that it had 4 windows keys on it! One on either side of the spacebar. The right side of the spacebar was Alt, Windows, Context menu, CTRL. That was a bit weird but it was alright. The next placements were crazy though. Someone figured there was space for more keys right below the Delete, End and Page Down keys but I guess they couldn’t really figure out what would be best for there so they put a 3rd Windows key, a 2nd Context Menu and then a 4th Windows key right there. This was pretty close to the arrow keys and if anyone remembers gaming in the early 2000’s, pressing the windows key accidentlly would often just crash your game completely. If you could get back into it, it could take quite a while for it to respond again. So if you were playing something like Warcraft 2 multiplayer, that button was a fucking nightmare.

    Ugh, I loved the colour of that keyboard so much I put up with all those windows keys.

    edit: I can’t believe I found it! I’ve tried searching for this keyboard a few times, but finally found proof on this site!

    • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Wow, Win98 logo and media buttons? Truely between eras.

      I actually like the context key above the arrow keys, another method of effectively right-click is nice. Those Win keys are crazy though, that’s the perfect place for extra function keys. Imagine having f13 & f14 that you can bind to anything without worry!

    • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      Do you know why the 3 key has an n? I have a hunch:

      This is clearly a tactical keyboard for use in military, aviation or maritime navigation systems! /s

        • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org
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          2 months ago

          The “n” is probably a misprint, AltGr+2 prints “²” and AltGr+3 prints “³” in the German layout; it can be customized to actually print “n” in xkb though.

          I mean, if the redundant Windows keys produce different codes, it could be worth a lot to macro enthusiasts. The model exists with an English QWERTY layout too:

          The picture seems to be from 1998 so you’ll likely need a passive DIN to mini-DIN adapter as well.