I've just made an amazingly wonderful discovery. I'm jabbering with Toddler and his boss about some Linux deal, and in between waiting for the Short Attention Span Twins to actually type something, I'm browsing Dans Data. (His site is where I first heard about the remote control tanks that shoot airsoft pellets. I read him occasionally, and he's always entertaining and informative.) Anyway. I was reading one of his past reviews, and came across his review of a brand-new IBM model 42H1292 101-key keyboard. New. He bought it brand new. I got to get me some of those.

For those that don't know it, I'm an absolute freak when it comes to keyboards. I like the older ones. The ones that have a switch under every key, make a huge clicky noise when a keypress is successful, and weigh like 12 pounds. I have an IBM 42H1292 at work that was made in 1984, and it's my pride and joy. I can type about a billion words per minute on it. It's also the loudest keyboard I've ever heard in my life. Just say no to officemates, I say.

The trouble with those keyboards is that they are very hard to find in decent condition. You can get ones like it, but they invariably have Windows keys, which are worse than useless because they shorten the space bar, obfuscate the control and alt keys, and add no value whatsoever to one's keyboarding experience. Keytronic make a few nice keyboards. They're fairly clicky, have a good heft to them and are about the same size as the IBMs. All the new ones have Windows keys, however. You can occasionally find older non-Windows key models. I'm using one now, as a matter of fact. It's not quite as nice as the IBM, but it does the trick. I've got 7 of them in my closet just in case. So imagine my joy when I happened on Dan's review.

Apparently the Lexmark keyboard stuff was bought out by this company called Unicomp and they make and the same keyboard. It's $50, though. That's gotta hurt. A little searching and I find a that sells original IBM 42H1292s for . That sounds just lovely to me.

I'm ordering one right now. If it's the real deal, I'll be back for a few more.