There's a thread on Geekhack where a fellow is particularly interested in creating a new set of keycaps for modern keyboards that utilize the aesthetics of the GRiD Compass keyboard. The keycaps will be double-shot, but seemingly the biggest debate in the thread is which symbol to pad-print (for the multi-symbol keys) -- the one on the top or, on the side.
The first thing my wife does when I get a "new" computer ;) is to grab the keycap puller and proceed to spend a minute scrutinizing the mechanism and then another 5 minutes pontificating on its advantages, disadvantages, back-story, rarity, etc., and it was no different when I won a GRiDCase 1520 at auction (the first model of computer I ever used). She's a serious keyboard snob, several orders of magnitude more concerned with the construction and feel of them than I am. And while the GRiD keyboard is certainly no Model M, she was thoroughly impressed with its triple-shot keys on the inside.
This was a unique time in PC history: a company interested in building simply the most durable and high-quality product for people to whom money was no object before these things became commodities. These keys must have been extremely expensive to produce (the laptops themselves were a pretty penny), and the market doesn't really exist for them to do things like that anymore given the production cost even nowadays.
Anyway, take a look at the pictures on the thread, and give them a shout-out if you feel strongly about getting that set of keycaps for yourself. And to those of you sitting on a set of triple-shot keycaps, I urge you to document those on Deskthority, the computer input device wiki, and help educate us on manufacturing techniques long forsaken by the masses.
The first thing my wife does when I get a "new" computer ;) is to grab the keycap puller and proceed to spend a minute scrutinizing the mechanism and then another 5 minutes pontificating on its advantages, disadvantages, back-story, rarity, etc., and it was no different when I won a GRiDCase 1520 at auction (the first model of computer I ever used). She's a serious keyboard snob, several orders of magnitude more concerned with the construction and feel of them than I am. And while the GRiD keyboard is certainly no Model M, she was thoroughly impressed with its triple-shot keys on the inside.
This was a unique time in PC history: a company interested in building simply the most durable and high-quality product for people to whom money was no object before these things became commodities. These keys must have been extremely expensive to produce (the laptops themselves were a pretty penny), and the market doesn't really exist for them to do things like that anymore given the production cost even nowadays.
Anyway, take a look at the pictures on the thread, and give them a shout-out if you feel strongly about getting that set of keycaps for yourself. And to those of you sitting on a set of triple-shot keycaps, I urge you to document those on Deskthority, the computer input device wiki, and help educate us on manufacturing techniques long forsaken by the masses.