The Northward Contrail

Our neighbors, part 3

There's no shortage of wild birds in our part of the world, and I try to keep them stocked with bird seed.  We see a lot of cardinals on the back porch, and they're always fun to watch.  This little guy in particular is a frequent visitor.  There's always plenty of spilled bird feed on the porch from our hanging feeder, since the cardinals who fly up there can be sort of messy.  And when one of them takes a meal on the back porch like this, the cat goes into full sneaky/stalky mode.

Our neighbors, part 2

One day a couple weeks ago hubby happened to see something cross through our back yard.  We went in the next room to look, and we saw this.

 

Yep, a white-tailed deer out for a Sunday grazing.  I grew up seeing these all the time, but to have one come into your back yard and just wander around is really neat.  They're sneaky and dangerous on the roadways, but when they're in their element, they're lovely to watch.

This one apparently knew I had a camera, and was ready for a close-up (or was laughing at the cat, who was still watching intently like the mighty hunter he is):

Our neighbors, part 1

Living out in the country has its benefits.  For one, the neighbors are a lot nicer.  This is half of a rabbit couple that lives in our forested back yard, feasting on whatever's out there to be had.  Here, I believe some old scattered bird feed is the evening's meal.  They're nice neighbors, and they know to keep it down out there, so they're always welcome.

Phone-y fun

While I was cleaning up the Model M, I also disassembled and cleaned up the pair of ITT/Cortelco 2500s I brought home.  They sure needed it. 

Here's the filthier of the two.  I don't even want to think about what some of that crud was.  (I probably know, but that doesn't stop me from not wanting to think about it.)  A good set of screwdrivers, carefully used, removes the outer shell and helps remove the handset innards.

Here's a naked 2500.  Yep, all them wires and circuits and such are what make it go.  Somehow, it works.  While the plastic parts were soaking in soapy water, I gave the keypad a gentle cleaning with some moist cotton swabs. 

With everything cleaned up, it was time to let the plastic parts air-dry.  Once they're dry, a few minutes of reassembly.  I scratched the daylights out of the clear window for the number tag on one of them, but was able to polish it out with a multi-grit buffing pad and some Novus polish.  You'd never know it had been damaged.

Out of all that, two reborn 2500s.  And they still work! 

:: A programming note: I'm leaving today on my journey, and won't be back until next week.  I probably won't get to spend any time on any computers while I'm away, so if you write or leave a comment, be patient.  Like my hero Jim Rockford, I'll get back to ya.

The greatest keyboard comes back to life

A couple weeks back I mentioned the bounty of discarded techno-goodies free for the taking at work.  Here's how I brought an IBM Model M keyboard back to life. (There are more heavy-duty version of cleanup methods available, such as this one, but this one is very low-tech, especially since I don't have the required nut driver on hand.)

Something nifty about the Model M is that there's a key within the key.  This means you can pop the keycaps off most of the keys in order to clean them or install alternate keycaps -- or even rearrange them if you prefer a Dvorak layout.  So here's my salvaged Model M with the keycaps off.  Some keys -- the shift keys, the Enter key, etc. -- don't have separate keycaps, and you can see how they mount in the keyboard.

I dumped the keycaps in the sink and let them soak in hot soapy water for a little bit.  Dawn's good not only for cleaning up poor little adorable critters that get caught in oil slicks, but it's also good for this kind of task. "D" still has crud on it.  "F" has been scrubbed with an old toothbrush.  Good, like brand-new.

Here's part of what makes the magic happen.  Sticking up from its little hole, like one of those snake-in-a-can things, is one of the springs that gives this keyboard its distinctive tactile sensation.

And here's a whole mess of scrubbed and rinsed keycaps set out to dry. As they dried, I popped the inner keys off the keyboard and gave the main body of the keyboard a good cleaning with cotton swabs and paper towels moistened with some Formula 409 (along with some Goo-Gone, to remove an ancient piece of tape that probably once held a keyboard template).  It's amazing how much dirt and grime came off.  I didn't disassemble the keyboard; its internals were okay, so all it really needed was a good external cleaning.  It made a huge difference.

And a couple hours' effort is rewarded with a keyboard that looks like new again, ready for another 20 years' service.  Think you'll be able to say that about most keyboards?