CLARIFICATIONS:
There's some confusion about the keyboard layout: I was sorta right and sorta wrong.

Fact #1: The keyboard layout we're used to now is based on the Enhanced PC Keyboard, better known as the Model M. I mixed up the release of the Model M and the PC-AT layout, so I wasn't comparing to the right one - but the 5140 is also a weird hybrid with elements from both.

Fact #2: Nobody had a Model M yet. They were announced the same day as the Convertible, per Infoworld.

Fact #3: Reviewers were upset about the layout changes, yes - but not the same ones as me. For instance, PrtScr really was located to the right of shift on the PC/XT keyboard, which I should have known, since I owned one (although I try my best to forget that experience.) It wasn't located there on the AT keyboard, but even by 86 that was probably not taken to be the "standard" layout. So magazines weren't upset about PrtScr; they were upset about Ctrl and Caps Lock being moved around to their current locations, which was about to happen to all PC keyboards a year later when IBM made the M standard for the PS/2.

Fact #4: F11 and F12 are indeed moved to F1 and F2, despite not being labeled as such. I had nothing to test this with, so I didn't confirm, but that's what Infoworld said. It seems odd that they aren't labeled - but what's even odder is that they're there at all. Those keys were added on the Model M, so again no reviewer would have bemoaned their absence, since nobody had ever seen them before and nothing supported them. I assume they were a last-second addition as the Model Ms design was finalized, and it was too late to reprint the keycaps.

Fun fact: the Game Boy was almost cancelled because Hiroshi Yamauchi couldn’t see the TN panel at all. Sharp gave Nintendo an early deal on STN panels at the last minute, and the project was saved.

I'm an 65 year old engineer that programmed this IBM for quite a while in the late 80s. We purchased the serial modules, stripped the guts and designed an internal AtoD card with a 3 axis accelerometer that fit in the original case. This was sold to Boeing for an engineer to collect data on commercial, scheduled flights in the days when all devices must be off and under thr seat. This was a clandestine way for Boeing to collect data. Worked great.

"Its actually a thermal printer!"
Every nerd in a 10 mile radius perked when you said that. We all have at least one. We're all going to build that thermal { instant camera | weather station | logger | teletype } eventually!

Dude, please don't apologize about some of the concerns you had about the production of this video. The result is fantastic! I'd never even heard of this beast, and I really appreciate you having spent what is probably many many many hours of work to put this all together! Thanks!

I suspect the printer has to be placed on first for weight reasons. It's probably the heaviest add-on available and IBM may have been afraid of it falling off under its own weight when the whole unit was lugged around. That also would explain the more complicated latching mechanism vs the friction fit of the smaller modules.

Absolutely wonderful video as always!

I love that the CPU state is stored in the removable lcd monitor. Feels like an 80s style Williams memory tube. Makes you wonder, if you had two monitors, and you suspended with one on, removed it, then rebooted with the second monitor, suspended and replaced it with the first, what would happen? Probably a crash, but totally something I would try if I had all the parts.

CRD Made The Longest Video Ever

Well dang dude, this was excellent. One of my favorite portable-ish machines that I never use, what a great breakdown of its... well I was gonna say "pros and cons" but eh. Cons and the sorta neat stuff.

Also I've never seen that particular little green mono display before, I love it. I have the goofy-looking rounded CGA one from IBM but I never thought it matched the rest of the machine.

The squeakiness of the display hinge is absolutely delightful.

Honestly the reveal that IBM effectively invented the modern concept of standby with this machine absolutely blew my mind (also using the LCD controller for storage is the goofiest goddamn thing I've ever heard). Fantastic video!

King Kong couldn’t fit that on his lap

Fun story about "Dangerous Dave" by John Romero, published by Softdisk: Softdisk was where John Romero, John Carmack, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack worked before founding id software.  They used Softdisk PCs (at night) to do a lot of their game programming.  They also made games for Softdisk, which shipped them out regularly.  Dangerous Dave made another appearance when John Carmack figured out how to make the background scroll (notice the background is static in your Dangerous Dave in this video).  Scrolling backgrounds weren't a thing in PC gaming until Carmack figured it out.  They tried to sell the idea to Nintendo by cloning Super Mario Bros 3's level 1-1 as a demo.  It was called "Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement".  Nintendo didn't bite, so they used the tech to make Commander Keen, which was id's first release and the game that gave them the income to create Wolfenstein 3d.

I appreciate that fact that you were watching Star Trek DS9 while editing. Bless.

Back in 1998 when I worked as a video game developer , we used a 9-inch monochrome monitor as a secondary display to show text data (physics engine variables) while debugging a full-screen Direct3D flight simulator.  One of the senior devs on my team wrote a custom driver that let us log text directly to the secondary screen from our code.  It was really cool at the time.  Eventually it got replaced by remote debugging using a second PC once that became an option.

"How unhinged would you have to be to do something like that with a laptop?"
IBM: "Hold my beer"

"I don't know what IBM was smoking but they hadn't run out of it" I'm amazed I haven't heard the extension to that phrase until now! thanks gravis!

"PCs speak for themselves" not without that voice synthesizer they don't

the part at 37:40 where you remove your own camera AND THEN SEE YOURSELF PUTTING IT AWAY in the reflection of the phone was wonderful. i love those little details.

also, TWO OF THEM

As someone who grew up small in the 80s, I missed a lot of this stuff - I was off pirating c64 software and running BBS software in my tween years... I thought I was hip to what was going on, I was not.

I have since gone out of my geekery into my adult life only to come back to nerdism.

I know you say that it is hard to make content, but I rarely, if ever, see anything like your style of historical deep dives. Holy shiitakes, you do your homework and even stuff, like this, that I have next to no interest in collecting or tweaking - absolutely fascinates me when you talk about it.

I'm not alone, I can see the comment from LGR.

You are a gift to the retro community here. Thank you, I mean that.