Good suppliers?

[Cawifre]

In most cases, Newegg.com gets the job done. Their selection of some of the more specialized items, especially non-tower parts, are a bit lacking. What sites would you recommend for low target-consumer-base hardware (in essence, the Photoshops of hardware)?

A few things I was looking for:

• Those pen shaped things that work like a robotic arm in reverse, you move them around to work with 3d modeling.
• A fully customizable keypad (I saw it in PopSci but can't find the right issue now and can't remember what it's called). It's like a mix between a tablet and a keyboard; you can put the keys in any layout you want and then program their functions on your PC.
• Older products (very hard to find a copy of Mac OS 9 to let my bro run classic apps on his Mac).
• Specialized/Professional hardware (like the modeling pen above).

I'm not looking to buy all those things right now (if ever), I just want to look into them and know where to go if the need for them ever arises. The keypad I do want... a lot... that thing is just so fracking cool (long live Battlestar Galactica ).

Many thanks and eternal praise for any assistance!

[Stuey]

Originally Posted by Cawifre Those pen shaped things that work like a robotic arm in reverse, you move them around to work with 3d modeling.

Are you talking about drawing/writing tablets? (scroll down)

[Cawifre]

Originally Posted by Stuey Are you talking about drawing/writing tablets? (scroll down)

No, I probably should have described it better lol. It's a special device used for 3d modeling. What I meant by a reverse robotic arm is the way you use it. You hold a pen shaped object at the end of what looks like a robotic arm (one segment comes up out of a joint at the base, a second segment angles down from a joint at the end of the first, and the point of a pen-like grip is attached to a joint at the end of the second segment). As you move the pen in three-dimensions, the different joints register their movements/orientation and send that date to your computer. Instead of sending commands from your comp to a robotic arm to make it move, you move the arm to send commands to your comp. It is essentially a 3d mouse. With it you can take a sphere in your 3d modeling software and sculpt it intuitively. It is by no means a product for the general consumer.

[glc]

www.provantage.com
www.widgetsinc.com

[Cawifre]

Many thanks, glc! Provantage.com even has mag stripe readers, woot!