My page on IBM/Lenovo SK-8835/SK-8840/SK-8845 UltraNav keyboards [revamped 2023-03-23]

[sharktastica]

Hi!

For my website's fledgling wiki, I've created a page for the SK-8835/SK-884x family UltraNav keyboards that I thought would be cool to share. I think I've covered the basics of the keyboard variants and a TLDR summary of them in enough detail, but I'd be curious to hear if anyone has suggestions on what else to include!

The wiki page: https://sharktastica.co.uk/wiki/page?id=ibm88xxultranav. FYI, there's a lot of photos inside.

My current plan is to add a heading "Design" and include a descriptive teardown of one of the keyboards. I want this page to eventually be a fairly standalone resource all about these keyboards that's also well referenced, so suggestions would be very appreciated! I know there's a handful of great resources out there already, but it doesn't hurt to have one more.

Otherwise, enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think!

[RealBlackStuff]

Interesting reading! Probably OT, but I'm missing any info about my personal all-time favourite: the Northgate Omnikey 102.

There's quite a bit of info about these (and others) here:
http://www.northgate-keyboard-repair.com/

[axur-delmeria]

Nice! Didn't know these didn't use IBM's Trackpoint technology; I suppose they're still much better than Unicomp's pointing sticks.

[sharktastica]

Probably OT, but I'm missing any info about my personal all-time favourite: the Northgate Omnikey 102.

Deskthority would probably have info on it too.

[sharktastica]

Nice! Didn't know these didn't use IBM's Trackpoint technology; I suppose they're still much better than Unicomp's pointing sticks.

I didn't know either until I read ibmfiles' page on these about a year ago. Although now that I've torn one down, it's obvious from looking at the pointing stick module that it's different. The silkscreen plus the gold superstructure that HP TouchStyk's seem to also use confirm it's different. IBM's literature invariably calls these "TrackPoint" regardless or more commonly simply "pointing stick", probably just to minimise possible confusion and prevent them from having to explain the difference.



Performance-wise, I wouldn't say these are better or worse than actual TrackPoints. They seem to work just fine for me. That's to say indeed a lot better than Unicomp's FSR sticks.

[sharktastica]

Update: I've added a "Design" and "Naming" section. The former is a descriptive tour around the keyboard to explain the visual design and core features, plus some of the photos that were in the gallery at the end now put to use as context. I still plan on adding more photos but I think the wording is fine.

The latter is a summary of how IBM and Lenovo marketed the family by name. Included is a list of possible names that were extracted from the variants list to help with those wanting search terms to use when searching for these keyboards.

[axur-delmeria]

The silkscreen plus the gold superstructure that HP TouchStyk's seem to also use confirm it's different.

Performance-wise, I wouldn't say these are better or worse than actual TrackPoints. They seem to work just fine for me. That's to say indeed a lot better than Unicomp's FSR sticks.

HP gets some flak from Thinkpad users for having inferior pointing sticks on their laptops, but I wonder how much of it is due to subconscious bias, or HP being restricted by the Trackpoint patents.

[sharktastica]

Update 2023-03-23

I've just finished revamping this page! There are now 60 new photos and an approximately 240% increase in wordcount!

Whilst page served its purpose for the two years it has been live, it wasn't as well structured as this revamp and my understanding of the keyboards and their history has evolved a lot since then.

Updated: https://sharktastica.co.uk/wiki?id=ibm88xxultranav
Old version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230315070 ... xxultranav (archived from 2023-03-15)

Enjoy!