College instructor turns to typewriters to curb AI-written work<br /> by [[Jocelyn Gecker]] | AP News<br /> accessed on 2026-03-31T08:39:49

Zine Making

Mail Time March 2026<br /> by [[Joe Van Cleave]] on YouTube<br /> accessed on 2026-03-16T13:17:39

https://www.berkley-fishing.com/collections/line-tools/products/line-counter

Off-label use of a line counter with typewriter ribbon length?

Off-label uses for linewinders as typewriter ribbon winders?

• https://www.walmart.com/ip/Fishing-Line-Winder-Spooler-Aluminum-Alloy-Spooling-Station-Adjustable-Rotating-Axis-Steel-Frame-Clamp-Workbench-Fishing-Line-Spooler-Machine-Multipl/17084510284?classType=REGULAR
• https://www.walmart.com/ip/Fishing-Line-Spoolers-Adjustable-Fishing-Line-Winders-Spoolers-Machine-Spinnings-Baitcasting-Reel-Spooling/17886252799?classType=VARIANT
• https://www.walmart.com/ip/Apooke-Spinning-Reel-Fishing-Line-Fishingline-Winder-Equipment-Winder-Spooler-Machine-with-Suction-Cup-Fishing-Line-Spooler/5648376830?classType=REGULAR

https://www.trianglesport.com/

Potential off-label use cases for their line winders with respect to spooling typewriter ribbon?

Reddit Search for typewriter uses:<br /> https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/search/?q=typewriter+uses

https://old.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1gnblbm/what_do_you_do_with_typewriters_im_planning_to/lwbcs1c/

reply to u/todddiskin at https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1nlodr0/how_do_you_use_your_machines/

Some various recent uses:

• I've got writing projects sitting in two different machines.
• I use one on my primary desk for typing up notes on index cards, recipes, my commonplace "book", letters, and other personal correspondence.
• I use a few of my portables on the porch in the mornings/evenings for journaling.
• One machine in the hallway is for impromptu ideas and poetry and an occasional bit of typewriter art.
• One machine near the kitchen is always gamed up for adding to the ever-growing shopping list.
• I'll often get one out for scoring baseball games.
• Participating in One Typed Page and One Typed Quote
• Typing up notes in zoom calls - I've got a camera mount over a Royal KMG that has its own Zoom account so people can watch the notes typed in real time.
• Labels for folders, index card dividers, and sticky labels.
• Addressing envelopes.
• Writing out checks.
• Typecasting
• Hiding a flask or two of bourbon (the Fold-A-Matic Remingtons are great for this)
• Supplementing the nose of my bourbon and whisky collection.

At the end of the day though, unless you're Paul Sheldon, typewriters are unitaskers and are designed to do one thing well: put text on paper. All the rest are just variations on the theme. 😁🤪☠️

see also: https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/search/?q=typewriter+uses

Ray Bradbury's Rules to Writing: Don't Think!<br /> accessed on 2025-08-12T09:45:59

"...you must never think at the typewriter, you must feel." —Ray Bradbury

This also cleverly goes against the idea that "writing is thinking". Bradbury frames it as "writing is feeling" or "writing is being."

https://archive.org/details/FunWithTypewriter/mode/2up

https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1lvr3sc/not_sure_what_to_type_on_my_typewriter/

reply from u/andrebartels1977 to u/Electrical_Raise_345's question: "Hey what should I do with my type writing." at https://reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1lru709/hey_what_should_i_do_with_my_type_writing/

https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1l8m84q/putting_the_imperial_back_into_service_again/

Use of a typewriter in inhospitable environments (cold, no cell service, remote)

https://incowrimo.org/faqs/

https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1kzw0fk/your_typewriter_collection/?sort=old

reply to u/Back2Analog at https://old.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1kzw0fk/your_typewriter_collection/?sort=old

1. Total: I currently have 53 with 2 incoming and 1 outbound. About 12 are standards, 7 ultra-portables, and the remainder are portables. Maybe a dozen non-standard typefaces including 2 Vogues and a Clarion Gothic. You can find most of the specifics at https://typewriterdatabase.com/typewriters.php?hunter_search=7248 or on my site at https://boffosocko.com/research/typewriter-collection/#My%20Typewriter%20Collection

2. Display: I've usually got eight displayed in various places around the house including three on desks, but ready to actively type on. The remainder are in cases either behind our living room couch or a closet for easy access and rotation. I'm debating a large credenza or cabinet for additional display/storage space. There are two machines out in the garage, and one currently disassembled on our dining room table (my wife isn't a fan of this one right now).

3. About 25 have been cleaned and mostly restored, most are functional/usable, but need to be cleaned, repaired, or restored to some level. One is a parts machine. I always have a Royal KMG, a Royal FP, and two other standards out ready to go and rotate the others on a semi-weekly basis. There's usually at least one portable in my car for typing out in the wild.

4. Use cases: I spend a few hours a day writing on one or more machines and use them for nearly every conceivable case from quick notes (zettels), letters, essays, lists, snide remarks, poetry, etc., etc. I should spend more time typing for the typosphere. Because I enjoy restoring machines maybe even more than collecting them, I've recently started taking mechanic/restoration commissions.

5. At 50 machines, I'm about at the upper limit of my collecting space. I've given away a few to interested parties, and sold a small handful that I didn't use as frequently. I'm currently trying to balance incoming versus outgoing and might like to get my collection down to a tighter 35-40 machines in excellent condition.

6. Next typewriters: I'm currently looking for an Olympia SG1, a Royal Ten, a Hermes Ambassador, and a Hermes 3000. I'm also passively looking for either very large (6 or 8 CPI) or very small typefaces (>12CPI). I'm definitely spending less time actively hunting these days and more time restoring. I'm tending towards being far more selective in acquisitions compared to my earlier "acquisition campaign".

7. Miscellaneous: I enjoy writing about typewriter collecting and repair to help out others: https://boffosocko.com/research/typewriter-collection/

via u/brianlpowers at https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1kzw0fk/your_typewriter_collection/?sort=old

https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1k6zfvl/help_with_id_i_cant_find_anything_online/

via u/Pinkbumblebee-666

Mathematics with Typewriters

What you're suggesting is certainly doable, and was frequently done in it's day, but it isn't the sort of thing you want to subject yourself to while you're doing your Ph.D. (and probably not even if you're doing it as your stress-releiving hobby on the side.)

I several decades of heavy math and engineering experience and really love typewriters. I even have a couple with Greek letters and other basic math glyphs available, but I wouldn't ever bother with typing out any sort of mathematical paper using a typewriter these days.

Unless you're in a VERY specific area that doesn't require more than about 10 symbols, you're highly unlikely to be pleased with the result and it's going to require a huge amount of hand drawn symbols and be a pain to add in the graphs and illustrations. Even if you had a 60's+ Smith-Corona with a full set of math fonts using their Chageable Type functionality, you'd spend far more time trying to typeset your finished product than it would be worth.

You can still find some typewritten textbooks from the 30s and 40s in math and even some typed lecture notes collections into the 1980s and they are all a miserable experience to read. As an example, there's a downloadable copy of Claude Shannon's master's thesis at MIT from 1940, arguably one of the most influential and consequential masters theses ever written, that only uses basic Boolean Algebra and it's just dreadful to read this way: https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/11173 (Incidentally, a reasonable high schooler should be able to read and appreciate this thesis today, which shows you just how far things have come since the 1940s.)

If you're heavily enough into math to be doing a Ph.D. you not only should be using TeX/LaTeX, but you'll be much, much, much happier with the output in the long run. It's also a professional skill any mathematician should have.

As a professional aside, while typewriten mathematical texts may seem like a fun and quirky thing to do, there probably isn't an awful lot of audience that would appreciate them. Worse, most professional mathematicians would automatically take a typescript verison as the product of a quack and dismiss it out of hand.

tl;dr in terms of The Godfather: Buy the typewriter, leave the thesis in LaTeX.

a reply to u/Quaternion253 RE: Typing a maths PhD thesis using a typewriter at https://reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1js3cs5/typing_a_maths_phd_thesis_using_a_typewriter/

https://www.reddit.com/r/BaseballScorecards/comments/1jej2zl/baseball_scorecard_for_typewriters_lad_chc_3182025/