14 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2024
    1. Successful Secretary Presented by Royal Office Typewriters. A Thomas Craven Film Corporation Production, 1966. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If5b2FiDaLk.

      Script: Lee Thuna<br /> Educational Consultant: Catharine Stevens<br /> Assistant Director: Willis F. Briley<br /> Design: Francisco Reynders<br /> Director & Producer: Carl A. Carbone<br /> A Thomas Craven Film Corporation Production

      "Mother the mail"

      gendered subservience

      "coding boobytraps"


      "I think you'll like the half sheet better. It is faster." —Mr. Typewriter, timestamp

      A little bit of the tone of "HAL" from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). This is particularly suggestive as H.A.L. was a one letter increment from I.B.M. and the 1966 Royal 660 was designed to compete with IBM's Selectric

      This calm voice makes suggestions to a secretary while H.A.L. does it for a male astronaut (a heroic figure of the time period). Suddenly the populace feels the computer might be a bad actor.

      "We're living in an electric world, more speed and less effort."—Mr. Typewriter<br /> (techno-utopianism)

    1. 1962 Vintage IBM Typewriter Training Film IBM Selectric Proper Typing Procedures, w/ Bud McDole by [[Computer History Archives Project]]

      Right at the Typewriter. 16 mm. San Francisco, CA: KQED, 1962. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPfHAW_OfGo.

      On manual typewriters one "snaps" the keys while on an electric keyboard one "taps" the keys for maximum speed and accuracy.

      Overview of functionality of an IBM typewriter.

      To add longevity to one's carbon papers they should be rotated both top to bottom and front to back within one's packs.

      Use plastic type cleaner, meant for cleaning type slugs, to clean the excess ink from a typewriter. Form it into a point and press it to the letter to erase several times. Then erase with eraser shield and eraser.

      To type to the very bottom of the page, particularly with a carbon pack, to prevent slippage at the bottom, insert a "trailer sheet" about halfway down the first page. Insert it at the back of the pack just behind the original and between the first carbon sheet.

      For typing small sheets of paper (index cards) fold a pleat into a regular sheet of paper and use the lip to hold the smaller sheet you're typing on.

      To more quickly type envelopes, do the first then reverse the platen so that only about an inch of the top of the envelope is visible. Then insert the next envelope behind the first and continue reversing the platen. This will allow the finished envelopes to stack at the paper table and speed the threading and typing of envelopes in rapid succession.

      Use of the divots on the typing guide for making horizontal or vertical lines while moving the carriage or rotating the platen respectively.

      How to change the typeball and the ribbon cartridge on the IBM selectric.

  2. Sep 2024
  3. Aug 2024
    1. Big Blue Gets Renewed by [[Joe Van Cleave]]

      I like the aftermarket upgrades you've made.

      The Cheers reference reminds me that I've been trying to pair drinks with machines as I write. I had a blue cocktail on a cruise to Alaska last year that used glacier ice (which is blue), but since that's not easy to source in ABQ, maybe try an "Electric Iced Tea" which is a variation on the Long Island iced tea but which swaps blue curaçao for the triple sec and a clear lemon-lime based soda for the cola.

  4. Jul 2024
    1. The Minimal Complete Typewriter Collection by [[Joe Van Cleave]]

      Joe Van Cleave's personal six categories in a (his) typewriter collection: - Standard manual - medium-sized portable (largest segment in the collector's space) - lightweight portable or ultra-portable - typebar electric - IBM Selectric - Electronic typewriter (thermal typewriter), portable, quiet, battery operation.

      Joe's minimal collection based on what he's got in his collection currently and the condition that they're in: - Royal KMM (his only standard) - Hermes 3000 (boxy middle era) - Olympia Splendid 33 (he's also got a Royal Mercury & Groma Kalibri) - Olympia Reporter - Selectric I (the only one he's got) cloth, ribbon cartridge system, no lift-off correction - Canon Typestar 220

      Some of Joe's most important criteria in a typewriter: he prefers an elite face, 1 1/2 spacing, and bichrome setting.

      At the time of this recording Joe had 30 typewriters.

  5. Nov 2018