Hello everybody,
My name is Tom, I'm a software dev in Auckland. I'm a lot younger than the hardware I have an interest in (my first computer was a lovely C64 C -- the white thing, not the fondly remembered brown breadbin).
I've mainly signed up in the hope I can find somewhere locally to buy some early IBM mainframe/minicomputer bits -- really, I'm interested in the keyboards. I type daily on a 122-key Model M, but I'm desperately keen to find an IBM beam spring keyboard (the mechanism they used on basically anything before the Model F and Model M). The keyboards of the IBM 5251 and IBM 3278 (and oddly enough the Displaywriter) are classic examples. I plan to build a USB converter board so it can be put to daily use.
Anyhow, thanks for letting me join the forums, I've already read some interesting stuff.
Cheers.