Return to the Typewriter

[3113]

For all you writers who miss the feel of hammering down real typewriter keys, yet know that you must have copies of what you write on the computer, for all of you who miss the clacky-clack strike of keys hitting the paper and miss the hard copy that made you feel like you were really writing something, yet know that no one wants you to mail in printed pages--they just want you to e-mail in the document--for all of you tough, cool, hip and hardcore writers who yearn to be old school yet need to be new school, retro, yet modern, here is the perfect device for you....

http://ny-image0.etsy.com/il_570xN.233564024.jpg

The USB typewriter.

 

[RandallKinds]

For all you writers who miss the feel of hammering down real typewriter keys, yet know that you must have copies of what you write on the computer, for all of you who miss the clacky-clack strike of keys hitting the paper and miss the hard copy that made you feel like you were really writing something, yet know that no one wants you to mail in printed pages--they just want you to e-mail in the document--for all of you tough, cool, hip and hardcore writers who yearn to be old school yet need to be new school, retro, yet modern, here is the perfect device for you....

http://ny-image0.etsy.com/il_570xN.233564024.jpg

The USB typewriter.

GENIUS!

 

[sr71plt]

One of those "why didn't I think of that" moments. And it looks like you can actually fill out hard-copy forms on it.

 

[3113]

One of those "why didn't I think of that" moments. And it looks like you can actually fill out hard-copy forms on it.

Indeed, as is shown in the demonstration. But I do see one problem. I'm not sure how you delete mistakes. You're still going to have to use white-out for the typewriter's hard-copy, but how to you tell the computer half that something's been "whited-out"?

 

[Stella_Omega]

Indeed, as is shown in the demonstration. But I do see one problem. I'm not sure how you delete mistakes. You're still going to have to use white-out for the typewriter's hard-copy, but how to you tell the computer half that something's been "whited-out"?

Oh, man, I remember the first time I used a word processor. It was...

beauty, man, it was freedom!

 

[sr71plt]

Indeed, as is shown in the demonstration. But I do see one problem. I'm not sure how you delete mistakes. You're still going to have to use white-out for the typewriter's hard-copy, but how to you tell the computer half that something's been "whited-out"?

You can probably make it produce another copy whenever you want it. It's probably a printer function.

However, I don't miss a typewriter keyboard at all. I do miss not being able to type hard-copy forms, though.

 

[stephen55]

Indeed, as is shown in the demonstration. But I do see one problem. I'm not sure how you delete mistakes. You're still going to have to use white-out for the typewriter's hard-copy, but how to you tell the computer half that something's been "whited-out"?

Well, all you have to do is...ahh...ummm...I know!! The typewriter does that!

Maybe...


I think I'll just stick to my laptop...

I have an old typewriter down in the basement somewhere. I couldn't stand the thing decades ago and I don't feel like making up now.

 

[3113]

However, I don't miss a typewriter keyboard at all.

I sometimes miss the sound and feel of typewriter keys--electric, that is. The old ones you really had to punch were a pain. But there was a sort of snap to the electric ones that I liked.

I don't miss having to white-out or do that weird erasing (there were electrics that if you hit a delete button would type over with white each letter) when it came to mistakes. Between my need to futz and rewrite, and my natural impatience and tendency to get frustrated, word processing was a god send--in fact, I still send prayers of thanks to the computer wizards for allowing me to cut-copy-paste, not to mention select-delete.

I might romanticize the image of the writer at a desk typing away, but I'd never surrender my little laptop for a heavy typewriter and reams of paper filled with errors that I have write from the beginning, all over again, if I want to correct those mistakes.

 

[rgraham666]

Forget it. Like Stella I find a word processor is freedom.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Amen, Rob. I somehow managed to get through college with a typewriter. It was Hell. When the first dedicated word processors came out @$multiple thousand, I wept. Then came the home PC and word processing. Let us rejoice and be glad! Romance and nostalgia can eat my shorts. No, wait, bears don't wear shorts. We wear Levi's and big hats, if anything. Okay, Romance and Nostalgia can eat grandpa's shovel, that's what they can eat. And all the charcoal he pitched with it, too.

 

[stephen55]

Amen, Rob. I somehow managed to get through college with a typewriter. It was Hell.

I somehow managed to get through my undergrad years without a typewriter. I simply handed in essays and papers in longhand. Not one prof complained. Of course, back then I had a great longhand.

And then I went to med school...

 

[sr71plt]

I wrote six books on a Brother's word processor. Sort of a cross between a typewriter and a computer. Unfortunately, the floppies for it weren't compatible with computers when they came along.

 

[TE999]

The past is fun to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there...and pound typewriter keys.

Vive la word processor!

 

[jomar]

You're all soft! Back in the day we had to write with accuracy. We actually had to THINK about what we were putting down on the page. Bah!

 

[rgraham666]

So did I. I couldn't though. Motor control problem. Can't type well for the same reason.

I love having a computer.

 

[The_Fool]

The only good thing about typewriters was the typing class I took in high school had two guys in it. He was more popular though, with a certain set of girls.

 

[Loring2]

WP/Typewriter

I don't want to play "Can you top this?" but I went through College and had my Doctorate without being able to type. I never became what you refer to a a 'touch typist'.
I had then and have now, very good penmanship. Palmer penmanship it's called.
Now don't think of this as boastfulness, think of it as, 'poor Loring, he's a lot older than I am', a lot older.

 

[3113]

I went through College and had my Doctorate without being able to type.

Ha! Well, when I was young, I had to hike six miles in the snow with box of parchment papers and a dozen bottles of ink on my back! When we students got to school, we had to pluck a live goose for quills, sharpen them with our teeth and not only write out everything long hand, but illuminate it! Kids today don't know how easy they've got it.

 

[sr71plt]

Ha! Well, when I was young, I had to hike six miles in the snow with box of parchment papers and a dozen bottles of ink on my back!

Uphill both ways.

 

[bronzeage]

A standard typewriter will work in a cave, with a torch behind you for light.

Yesterday, I scrapped two early model word processors. These were the first generation magnetic memory typewriters. Both had been in storage for more than 25 years. I plugged them in and the power supply hummed, but that was the most it could manage. The big one weighed 45 pounds. There was a regular electric typewriter beside them. It had a sophisticated "word correct" feature. It worked perfectly.

There still is and probably always will be a place for typewriters, but it's electronic offspring have a definite life span.

 

[3113]

Uphill both ways.

Darn tootin'!

 

[3113]

A standard typewriter will work in a cave, with a torch behind you for light.

Yeah, but how long is the ribbon gonna last? Sooner or later, you gotta leave the cave and get another. Unless you've got lots of them stored in the cave. In which case, why not a generator to keep the 10-hour battery of your favorite tablet or laptop going?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

You know of a generator that works on firewood?

 

[bronzeage]

Yeah, but how long is the ribbon gonna last? Sooner or later, you gotta leave the cave and get another. Unless you've got lots of them stored in the cave. In which case, why not a generator to keep the 10-hour battery of your favorite tablet or laptop going?

I don't know. Every solution seems to come with a new set of problems. The generator filled the cave with carbon monoxide long before the batteries even got weak.

A typewriter ribbon will last at least as long as the paper on hand. There are quite a few tricks to revive a dead typewriter ribbon, which are less complicated than keeping a laptop functioning in a cave. That's not really the point, anyway. Every method of recording information has its problems.

Pens run out of ink, pencils wear down and sooner or later we are back to writing on the cave walls with charcoal.

 

[3113]

Pens run out of ink, pencils wear down and sooner or later we are back to writing on the cave walls with charcoal.

Well, our ancestors did manage with berry juice, fingertips and rock to record their thoughts--even the dirty ones