Need 50 slick-looking sheets of letterhead [OT]

[Mary Pegg]

This one's just coming up to its 17th birthday.

[Bob Eager]

Actually, I do have another...bought it in 1989, and when the machine was pensioned off I moved the keyboard to my machine at work. I've always used it on whatever machine they gave me. So that's be pretty well the same as yours...

Both in heavy daily use...!

[Bob Eager]

It also did damage. The predominance of 'boys' games' turned a lot of girls off computers. The number of female CS graduates, and generally females involved in computing, dropped when the BBC machine was introduced.

[bof]

Have you ever cleaned it? If not JPEG!

[Bob Eager]

I cleaned both of mine (the 14 and 17 year ones) for the first time about 6 months ago! Came up nicely..

[Peter Corlett]

[...]

It's probably unsurprising that you're going to hear from the chavs who like to talk about their latest bling, and people moaning about how their PC doesn't work properly. Only Acorn owners seem to think that their old machine working just fine without fiddling is stimulating conversation.

[...]

What's the duty cycle on that system? Probably only a few hours a day.

I deal with a lot of 24/7 kit professionally, and it wears out after a few years. Usually the stuff is kept alive rather longer than it ought to be, but there's a point where it ceases to be economic to keep running, and it's shuffled off to the skip or into the hands of collectors.

Colocate your Acorn box somewhere and see how long those fans and disks hold out.

[Amanda Angelika]

Well I've stated sending them. This might take a while through NTL though, if they don't all arrive give me a shout and I'll resend any missing ones.

[Alex Buell]

On Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:04:06 GMT "Amanda Angelika" waved a wand and this message magically appeared:

Believe it or not, I'm actually with NTL, although it's cleverly hidden as I don't use their e-mail or web services!

[Dave Plowman (News)]

On all day when I'm at home. So no different to my pals and work mates - maybe longer than most domestic use.

I've never *had* to replace anything.

Why would I want to?

[Matt]

I can beat you all (I think) with an IBM Keyboard originally supplied with a PS2. The manufacturing label is still on the bottom dated the

27th November 1987, It's been in daily service from the first week of January 1988 - 18 years 3 months. It's built like the proverbial brick shithouse and the key action is better than anything I have come across since.

See

[Bob Eager]

What do you think mine are? Nothing else lasts that long...! This one is

17-Feb-1992 and the older one is at work so I can't check.

[Mary Pegg]

Zackly. No other is worth refurbishing and reselling:

[Morris Finsbury]

No ads in uk.misc, pervy.

[Peter Corlett]

Matt wrote: [...]

I've got a keyboard here from 1982 that still works just fine despite a good hammering in education. Alas, it's rather solidly attached to the BBC B in question and won't work on a PC.

[Matt]

[Matt]

That beats my BBC B from 1984 - retired to a box in the loft 10 years ago.

[bof]

Functioning 1981 BBC B keyboard here.

[Owain]

Someone on one of the mini-itx project sites has put a mini-itx format PC inside a BBC case and rewired the BBC keyboard matrix into a PC keyboard controller, so possibly the reverse is possible?

Owain

[DJC]

[Owain]

Whoops, it's not the reverse you want to do is it, it's exactly the same.

Can't remember the URL but a google should find it. The site has black backgrounds and mini itx PCs fitted in a variety of old computers and domestic appliances.

Owain