Hackjob

It would be a disservice - me doing a trackball extravaganza, and not trying what's widely regarded as the greatest one ever made: the Microsoft Trackball Explorer. But despite this thing's glowing reputation, it's still a two-decade old peripheral. Is it still deserving of all the praise, or did time finally catch up? Let's find out.

Up next in my little trackball deep dive is an offering from Logitech that's held in very high esteem by the community thanks to it's radical shape, but it also has been absent from the market for roughly two decades at this point. What the hell happened to it? And is it even any good? Let's take a look.

Just on a whim, I decided to hook myself up with some computer trackballs so I could see if this long overshadowed alternative to desktop rodents was ever worthwhile. I'll be doing a few reviews of these in the coming days, and first up we have the hilariously christened Elecom Huge. It certainly lives up to it's name - for better or worse.

Anybody who has some knowledge of vintage computer hardware is probably familiar with IBM's Model M and it's novel buckling spring switch. Despite it's ubiquity, it's not actually the only keyboard to use the switch, nor is it the first - and some may argue it certainly wasn't even the best. That distinction would go to the IBM Model F, and thanks to the efforts of a crowdfunded project; you can buy a brand-spanking-new one. Right now. But should you?

Yep, it happened to me too. 

Vintage keyboards are a fun rabbit hole to dive into. They all tend to come from an era where there were no widely accepted standards like today, and many companies came out out of the woodwork seemed to have their own wildly differing ideas on how to best engineer these things. One such less known company was Datacomp, and among their sizable lineup of IBM PC peripherals, they put out this ugly monstrosity called the DFK515. Color me surprised - it's actually really, really good.

Getting my first vintage receiver was probably the most exciting piece of my foray into vintage audio gear. While I've changed other components of my setup around several times, this is the one piece of the puzzle that's remained constant over the past year plus, and it's not from a brand most people will immediately recognize. Here's why.