From: wjs@blorf.omnigroup.com (William Shipley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: ADB and Trinitron -- a brief look.
Keywords: Grass, Greener
Date: 6 Oct 92 10:20:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Oct6.102002.3627
Organization: University of Washington

I got to play with a color turbo with the ADB keyboard / Trinitron monitor  
today.  Here are some of my impressions:

1) Keyboard feels a little flimsy, seems even more lightweight than the ISO  
keyboard that replaced the heavy-duty "good, old" keyboard.

2) On the other hand, the keyboard now has the connectors coming out the sides,  
which means you can nestle it back flush against the NeXTstation without the  
stupid connector getting in the way.  (One of my pet peeves with the current  
keyboards.)

3) Like the new power/brightness/volume keys.  I dunno about you guys, but I'm  
always hitting these when I don't want to; it's nice to have them flush and out  
of the way.

4) In about 5 minutes of use I decided I really liked the new position of the  
command-key (it's just below the spacebar).  I'm sure this will be a topic of  
great debate, possibly as much so as point-to-type vs click-to-type.

5) Love the mouse, except the action seemed too fast at the same speed setting  
as the old mouse in preferences.  That is to say, these new mice are much  
faster than the old mice.  The design, however, feels much better on my wrist.   
(Does anyone else have a big bruise on the outer edge of the palm of his mouse  
hand?  I've noticed two people in my company with this syndrome.  Hey, class  
action suit!)  (Joke.)  Basically I'd give $100 just to have this mouse.  (Not  
that I have this option.)

6) The Trinitron screen has much better convergence than my screen.  It seemed  
slightly less blurry, and I didn't notice the discolored spots mine has,  
either.  On the other hand, the Trinitron had not one but TWO horizontal  
filaments.  (Explanation: Trinitrons are famous for having a thin dark  
horizontal line about 2/3 down the screen.  Look on about any color Mac monitor  
for this phenomenon.  The monitor I saw today had two of these lines, at about  
1/3 and 2/3 down the screen.  Your mileage may vary.)  Don't know if I'd get  
used to these lines or if they'd just make me battier and battier.

7) The Trinitron has knobs to adjust brightness and contrast and convergence  
and stuff.  Mine monitor doesn't.  All told, I'm the kind of guy who'd rather  
have knobs than not.

8) I actually tried hooking up a Mac SE keyboard and the NeXT keyboard at the  
same time to one machine.  Both keyboards worked.  The Mac mouse worked as  
well.  Since the Mac keyboard has a power key (that works), and since one can  
set brightness and volume in preferences, one could actually get by with only a  
Mac keyboard.  That's kinda neat.  (It'd look ugly as sin.)  I guess more  
importantly, one could buy any of the Mac trackballs.  I imagine someone could  
create a neat game involving two keyboards and one computer, but then again,  
Macs have been able to do this for many years and I haven't seen any game that  
relied on it.

-William Shipley
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc,comp.sys.next.sysadmin,comp.sys.next.software