Re: Reminiscences

1

I took shop class, too. The only thing I remember making was a geodesic dome using rolled-up newspapers as the basic building block. You'll be surprised to learn that my dome was far from the best in the class.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:05 AM
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I also did shop in middle school. We designed, built, and marketed to the math department shitty wooden blocks with nails in a grid that were supposed to be used in some kind of geometry exercise, IIRC. I wish I had learned to make jewelry boxes.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:09 AM
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[redacted]


Posted by: [redacted] | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:10 AM
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I wish I had taken shop.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:20 AM
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Had had the option to, even.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:21 AM
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But I see Schneider managed to get out with minimal proficiency in spelling "proficient"! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:22 AM
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We had a nine-weeks of Industrial Design, in which I programmed my Logo Turtle to draw pretty shapes (PEN UP! dammit! PEN DOWN!). We had a nine-weeks of Home Ec in seventh and eighth, co-ed, where I sewed a dinosaur cushion and learned to make waffles.

Shop was offered in high school. Couldn't pursue any of that, said dad, that was for dumb kids, so I took more calculus and ended up in grad school.

Might have been better off with a lathe, in retrospect.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:24 AM
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I took "tech ed" for a semester in middle school. The previous tech ed teacher had left for reasons I can't remember (but choose to imagine as bandsaw-related), and his substitute took over. He was energetic and ambitious, and had us make an elaborate new wooden sign for the soccer field, which we did enthusiastically. Later we found out that he had chosen the wrong wood, or something, and the sign rotted away within months. At least he made us wear goggles.


Posted by: tom | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:28 AM
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Notepad-holders! Ha ha! My brother made a crappy one in woodshop, and my dad thought it was pretty cool. He's an artist, and proceeded to design a very fancified version for small production - they were pretty popular with his clientele. So, I guess, shop at least in part contributed to food on my table.

I never took shop, or any kind of sculpture or ceramics or art classes. For this I have many regrets.


Posted by: silvana | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:33 AM
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Best class I took in high school: typing.

Only D- ever received: "Christian Involvement."


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:40 AM
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[redacted]


Posted by: [redacted] | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:42 AM
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Is getting run over by a train not an example of not turning out well?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:43 AM
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ooo. can anyone here weld?

(i can feel the makings of a new years resolution for 2007)


Posted by: mmf! | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:44 AM
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Not one due to proficiency in shop, at least.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:44 AM
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I wish that I had been forced to learn typing. A friend of mine who graduated summa said that it was the most useful class he took in highschool too.

I wish that home ec had been offered. It wouldn't have been academic enough for my girls' school, but I think that boys and girls should both learn the skills. I'd really like to be better at repairing my clothes.


Posted by: bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:45 AM
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Ditto on the second part of 15. You can bet I was wishing I took home ec when I took my coat to the cleaners recently to get buttons sewn back on and a tear fixed and it cost me fucking $25.

Then again, one of the buttons just came off again, so, fuckin' a.


Posted by: silvana | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:48 AM
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Ben, are you asking that in the sophisticated Bernard William failures-external-to-the-project sense, or are you just busting my balls?


Posted by: FL | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:52 AM
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You know, it's not too hard to figure out a rudimentary way to attach buttons to thin semipermeable (permeable by needle & thread) materials, even without having taken a class.

I built a bookcase once.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:52 AM
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Maybe part of his project depended on his not getting run over by trains.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:53 AM
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Everything I know about sewing I learned in sea scouts. Any clothing item that can't be treated like a sail isn't worth repairing.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 11:57 AM
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I never took a typing class, but I did the little typing tutor programs on my dad's ancient Compaq. I don't think I really learned to type quickly until I chatted online; I don't exactly touch-type properly now, but it's a reasonably close approximation (little fingers do very little work in my system).

I third the sewing course. Buttons are easy, but seams aren't, and the pillow I made didn't really teach me much useful about seams and patching.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 12:01 PM
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it's not too hard to figure out a rudimentary way to attach buttons to thin semipermeable (permeable by needle & thread) materials

Yeah. I can sew a button on a shirt. The coat in question is made of a very thick tapestry-like material, and the buttons are rather large and covered with the same tapestry-like material, so it would require a shank. It was too much for me.


Posted by: silvana | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 12:01 PM
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my grandma taught me how to embroider at age 5 or 6.

hooray for obsolete skill sets.

it's one way to get a little kid to learn to concentrate, i guess.


Posted by: mmf! | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 12:09 PM
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my good friend's dad taught our shop class. only teacher who ever conscripted me to help chop wood.

though to this day i suffer due to my inability to touch-type (now that lawyer school exams are on computer and these kids all learn to type good), without shop i might not have learned the magic of triangles.


Posted by: matty | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 12:16 PM
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I don't know how he resisted crushing my head in a vice.

A vice? Like smoking, drinking, gambling . . .?

I had to take a bunch of shop classes and even (gag) drafting in high school. What a fucking waste of time. Typing, on the other hand, I took in summer school during grade school, but didn't get very good at it and later forgot it. During law school, I had to type a lot and relearned it. Having typed daily for the last 19 years, I'm now pretty good at it.


Posted by: Frederick | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 12:23 PM
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I decided to avoid taking Tech Ed in high school (it was an elective, not required) after hearing too many stories about the teacher's morning sermons. Apparently he decided to use the time right after morning announcements to convey his rather extreme right-wing views to the class.

This is the same teacher who, while talking to my mom after school one day (she was asking him for directions to some classroom), voiced his displeasure at the existence of a Gay/Straight Alliance club at the school. He had no problem with gays, he said, just didn't want them rubbing it in his face (his words, I swear).


Posted by: Matt F | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 12:38 PM
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Weirdly, though I had the "you're not going to turn out well" thought in mind, the guy in question was later run over by a train.

Same thing happened to me.


Posted by: Michael | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 12:43 PM
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Typing is arguably my only skill. In my system, the backspace key sees more use than in the standard Mavis Beacon system. My piano teacher told me, "Perfect practice makes perfect." If only I'd fully absorbed that lesson!


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 1:03 PM
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I think the ability to tag the delete button quickly with one's ring finger should count nearly as much in determining one's typing ability as the ability to hit the rest of the letters.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 1:08 PM
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Drafting was fun. Allowed me to learn what to do with all my geometrical constructions from, well, geometry. Plus it was as close as I could get to "drawing" well.


Posted by: TJ | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 1:10 PM
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You use your ring finger for the backspace key? Actually, so do I … but I think it would be more elegant to use the pinky. I think the only thing I use my right pinky to do is hit the shift key.

I was a pretty good typist until a few weeks ago.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 1:13 PM
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My ring fingers do most of the pinky-related work when I type. My left pinky hits the 'a' key and the shift, but my right pinky doesn't do much besides hit return. (I only use my left hand to hit shift. I don't know why.)


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 1:23 PM
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ooo. can anyone here weld?

Unfogged Welding Group? Count me in.

26: My phys ed/health class was taught by the 176th selection in the 1983 NFL draft. Best health classes ever. Did you know there are two kinds of rape? Well, there are: consensual and nonconsensual. I don't remember the specific criteria behind the distinctions, but I know it had something to do with what the victim was wearing.

He also once, while relating an otherwise affecting story about his encounters with prejudice, seemed to display confusion about the difference between "racism" and "homophobia". Either that, or he was sharing some very personal details with his students.

Although come to think of it, the school librarian once spent fifteen minutes or so explaining to all of us how glad she was to be bisexual. So I suppose it's possible.


Posted by: tom | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 1:39 PM
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I took wood shop and metal shop in jr high and wish to hell I would have continued with more semesters of wood shop in high school instead of 2 ridiculous semesters of drafting. Got back into woodworking about 5 years ago and it is by far the most fun creative activity I engage in. Would be way more fun if I had any skillz. Up through 2002 I kept pictures of my WW projects online, you can get to most of them through this link if interested -- and since 2003 have posted some WW project pictures on my blog, accessible here.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 2:05 PM
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Best health classes ever.

Some gym teachers are too stupid to teach health. I had one who, in the first class, told us four or five things that I recognized as being ridiculously wrong. My favorite was that there are five times as many men as women in the world. Another was something about sex chromosomes: he claimed that women had two Y chromosomes, and men two X's, or something equally absurd.

Although come to think of it, the school librarian once spent fifteen minutes or so explaining to all of us how glad she was to be bisexual.

Wow, that seems like the sort of thing that would be very apt to get a teacher sacked if parents found out about it -- as some surely would. Not sure where you grew up -- someplace pretty liberal, I assume. I've always figured that if I were a woman I'd be bisexual, but I guess that's kind of difficult to know.


Posted by: Frederick | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 2:05 PM
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D'oh! 34 is me.


Posted by: Jeremy Osner | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 2:05 PM
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Cool coffee table, Osner.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 2:11 PM
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Hah. I was obligated to take woodshop in one of those middle school grades. It was just after lunch and before my TAG strategy class elective! (Strategy class == we played Risk. Really. During school.)

I made things. I remember none of them.

Cala: Couldn't pursue any of that, said dad, that was for dumb kids

I did not receive that lecture. Thus, I could take plastics in 9th grade and then woodshop (actual woodshop, not whatever that middle school thing involving wood was) in 10th grade. At which point I made a jewelry box, of which, yes, my mother is still proud. And then I took el woodo II in 11th grade and made a table. And finally, to finish off my totally useless vocational training, I took the stupid comp tech class on the theory that it involved computers and had to be better than the stupid BASIC programming class ('Where's the C compiler? What? Ok, fine, howsabout assembler, you freaks?') they were offering. Bad idea. I shoulda taken metal shop.

So I am once again, exactly like ogged, except for not being Iranian, and liking dogs. And that philosophy thing.

I *can* do things involving open flame and melting metal doohickies to other metal doohickeys. It's not all that useful, so you didn't miss anything.

ash

['Also, my jewelry box had a Union Jack made from wood on the top.']


Posted by: ash | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 2:13 PM
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Thanks Ben. The coffee table was fun but suffered from my not knowing jack about furniture design. It has a tendency to rack (i.e. the rectangular profile changes into a parallelogram) a degree or so if you bump against the end. Which is not fatal or anything; I guess if you had a full drink on the table some of it would probably splash; but the thing of it is, furniture is not supposed to behave that way.


Posted by: Jeremy Osner | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 2:28 PM
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The zero and the key that comes after o on my keyboard have both just died. Return key too. And the colon. Can't.

So, I can't write sho_, but I had to take it in 3rd or 4th grade. I got out of making whatever it was we were su__osed to make and made that wood block game with beans that we were all crazy about. It required hollowing out a bunch of little holes in a block of wood.


Posted by: bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 2:30 PM
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Yeah, down through the decades I've despaired of ever learning to spell. For some reason I like double Fs, as in proffession. Perhaps it's like learning a language, only done with ease at the proper developmental stage.

Yeah, 75 years was a bit of an overestimate. I was thinking ‘when I graduated in ‘69, that was 50 years ago, shop was an elective, so I'll go with 75 years'. Did I mention I don't do well at math, either? So I got to take both shop and cooking, while for typing I had to go to the YMCA, and my mother taught me to sew.

Welding isn't too tough, as long as you don't need to be good enough to get certified for jobs on pipelines and nuclear reactors. Get some equipment and a book, and make a lot of good steel into scrap. It's fun. One's never too old to learn a new skill, except spelling. And roller blade. And nuclear physics. And programming a microwave.


Posted by: Michael H Schneider | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 2:33 PM
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I know you can cope, bg. Remember: ad astra er as era.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 2:35 PM
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I think that a wire died. The current solution is to cut and paste from old documents. This isn't good long-term, though.


Posted by: bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 2:48 PM
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I think that a wire died. The current solution is to cut and paste from old documents. This isn't good long-term, though.

Does anyone know of a way to type the letter p , the number zero, and the comlement to ( and the question mark signal.


Posted by: bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 2:50 PM
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¿By "question mark signal", do you mean "¿", which signals the approach of a question mark?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 2:58 PM
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Bg, does your computer have a Keyboard or Insert Character function, where you could pick out troublesome letters by clicking on them?


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 3:02 PM
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Yeah, I can do that in Word. This sucks. It's making my current job applications that much harder.


Posted by: bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 3:06 PM
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You could get a new keyboard.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 3:07 PM
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It's a laptop. powerbook. I really need a new computer, because this thing is on its last legs, but that's not feasible right now.


Posted by: bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 3:09 PM
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Has it an external keyboard port?


Posted by: Jeremy Osner | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 3:21 PM
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I don't know what that would be. It's a G4 4OO MHz. It's got firewire and usb which could be used for that.


Posted by: bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 3:30 PM
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Many keyboards can connect via a USB port.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 3:44 PM
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I'm fairly sure the PowerBook works like my iBook - any old Apple USB keyboard will work if plugged into the USB hole. The really old Apple ADB keyboards won't work. Non-Apple keyboards might work - I've found that all the non-Apple mouse I've tried worked (sample size: N=1)


Posted by: Michael H Schneider | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 4:39 PM
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I learned how to weld in art school. I could draw a bead with a gas welding set up, but I just couldn't see what I was doing through the arc welding mask, so I gave up. I was afraid of setting my hair on fire, anyway.

On the Boston Craig's List there was an announcement about a welding class--you could take the class, then go back and practice. The ad said it was just like high school shop though, so I don't think I'll go, because it's probably full of guys who would be mean to me. Unless any other Bostonian Unfoggers want to go too. BG, are you up for it? (you can connect a keyboard through the usb port. go to the mac store and make the geniuses figure it out for you.)


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 5:09 PM
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I think that a wire died.

No, you've got some junk under the keys - in the detector/sensor. (If a wire died, you'd lose a lot more than three keys.)

Probably easily fixable.

ash

['I do not live in boston. Hrmm. Lemme look.']


Posted by: ash | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 5:28 PM
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Well, if she has a powerbook, she should be able to pop off the keys and see if there's anything under there. Which I doubt. You pop the keys off by pulling up under the top-left corner of the key.


Posted by: silvana | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 5:39 PM
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I suspect a cheap Logitech keyboard would work on a Mac (logic: my cheap Logitech mouse works.).

You should be able to take the keyboard off of your Powerbook pretty easily -- directions how came with all your documentation, and I just did this yesterday on my iBook when I spilled liquid on it (emergency CalaCleanup!). It's pretty easy.

The keyboard is connected to the rest of the computer by a thin ribbon of wires; if that's messed up I don't know what to do, but it's possible that it's just dirt (cat hair absorbed my minor spill and seems to have saved my laptop) fouling up some of the connections (especially since it's all on one side of your keyboard, no?)


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 5:41 PM
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I guessed correctly. It's a rubber-skin-to-printed-circuit type dohickey.

http://pbfixit.com/Guide/21.1.1.html

(Powerbook G4 Ti Mercury)

I don't know what to do, but it's possible that it's just dirt (cat hair absorbed my minor spill and seems to have saved my laptop) fouling up some of the connections (especially since it's all on one side of your keyboard, no?)

Does that rubber skin peel back, or is it fixed, once the keys pop off?

If it peels back, then there will be some crud on the underside of the rubber - or the rubber has shifted. Easy to fix the former, not so easy to fix the latter if the rubber is started to compress.

ash

['Replacement keyboard is 99.99$ alas.']


Posted by: ash | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 5:49 PM
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hey mcmc, thanks for the welding class tip. that sounds great. i will probably move back to boston next year, so if you want any company learning to weld IN A YEAR that would be me...


Posted by: mmf! | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 6:15 PM
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(and which my mom still uses)

How has this not yet received the "awwww" that it so rightfully deserves?


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 7:17 PM
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He a;ready said his pride is inordinate; how much do you really want to swell his head?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 7:20 PM
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(If a wire died, you'd lose a lot more than three keys.)

This is not necessarily true, and if the keys died at the same time, don't respond to extra pressue, and are not next to each other, it's pretty likely that it's not just gunk in the keyboard. If you can find directions for taking off the whole keyboard, you might try removing and reseating the ribbon cable that I assume connects it (every PC laptop I've used has had such a setup, but I've never dissected a powerbook).

As other folks have noted, any USB keyboard should work. Keyboards and mice are special cases for USB compatibility, and (fancy extra buttons/features aside), ought to Just Work without any drivers on any machine with USB.


Posted by: tom | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 7:31 PM
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pressue = pressure. Unless pressue means something in French. In which case, please assume I was trying for an exceptionally witty and obscure bon mot.


Posted by: tom | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 7:33 PM
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removing and reseating the ribbon cable that I assume connects it

It's true. I've got a powerbook, and the ribbon cable is down there. That actually makes sense as the root of the problem; can't hurt to try it.


Posted by: silvana | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 7:43 PM
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mmf! great! I'll pencil it in!


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 01- 2-06 7:56 PM
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Tom:This is not necessarily true, and if the keys died at the same time, don't respond to extra pressue, and are not next to each other, it's pretty likely that it's not just gunk in the keyboard.

Bostoniangirl: The zero and the key that comes after o on my keyboard have both just died. Return key too. And the colon. Can't.

Those are all the keys in the upper right corner, all right next to each other.

it's pretty likely that it's not just gunk in the keyboard.

I didn't say it was gunk in the keyboard. I was rather explicit that it was probably gunk under the rubber, which is a different class of gunk than regular keyboard dandruff.

If you can find directions for taking off the whole keyboard, you might try removing and reseating the ribbon cable that I assume connects it (every PC laptop I've used has had such a setup, but I've never dissected a powerbook).

Luckily, I previously posted a link to directions for yanking the keyboard, with pictures, even:

http://pbfixit.com/Guide/21.1.1.html

The pb in pbfixit stands for PowerBook, I do believe.

Keyboards and mice are special cases for USB compatibility, and (fancy extra buttons/features aside), ought to Just Work without any drivers on any machine with USB.

Q-tips and alcohol are almost FREE!

ash

['Brought to you by the letter M.']


Posted by: ash | Link to this comment | 01- 3-06 1:36 AM
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