Tom Hanks loves his typewriters (New York Times article)

[XMIT]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/opini ... -that.html

Tom Hanks clearly loves his mechanical typewriters.

I do wonder what he would think of a Selectric typewriter, or a Model M. Maybe I'll ask him. He'd be more likely to repsond to a typewritten letter, I think.

[Chyros]

Typewriters are awesome, I sympathise. Not nice to type on, but awesome 8) .

[emdude]

A ribbon can be re-inked in the year 3013 and a typed letter could be sent off that very day, provided the typewriter hasn’t outlived the production of paper.

Well, well, I'd wager a Model M would also work a millennia from now, you'll just need a PS/2 -> USB -> [50 connectors later..] -> Optical-Duotronic-Isolinear-Holo-Whatsit adapter!

[Laser]

A message for the posterity (1000 years from now, who knows, maybe this forum's posts will be preserved): I hope you still know how to type!

[zslane]

It's not unlike the debate between film and digital media. I can't play old video formats stored on old ZIP cartidges today, but I can still project a reel of film onto a screen or wall. And in a hundred years, it would be almost trivial to build a film projector and view any film that's been kept in good condition. The digital video situation only gets worse with every generation of technology that comes along and renders previous generations obsolete and, worse, inaccessible.

But I still love the digital realm and all it has to offer. It's just that I am also keenly aware of its (relatively few) drawbacks.

[XMIT]

A ribbon can be re-inked in the year 3013 and a typed letter could be sent off that very day, provided the typewriter hasn’t outlived the production of paper.

Well, well, I'd wager a Model M would also work a millennia from now, you'll just need a PS/2 -> USB -> [50 connectors later..] -> Optical-Duotronic-Isolinear-Holo-Whatsit adapter!

...or a new controller, like phosphorglow's Colossus.

[ideus]

All I can say is: WOW! not just because of the typewriter's fellowship, but discovering that he is a writer, impress me deeply, he does not have to; because, he is already a well, well paid actor.

[fohat]

A few years ago my sister sent me our original family Christmas albums to rip and burn to CD and/or .MP3

All were 1950s-1960s vintage, which had been played literally hundreds of times (many on an old hi-fi where we put pennies on the tonearm if it wasn't tracking well) played through properly with no more than 2-3 skips total out of half a dozen records. The favorite, (1955 dated Mono) which got more play than any of them, still sounded great with only moderate surface noise and a few light ticks.

Already some of my mid-late-1980s CDs are deteriorating and dying even though they have been treated and stored far better than the records.

[tigpha]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/opini ... -that.html

Tom Hanks clearly loves his mechanical typewriters.

I do wonder what he would think of a Selectric typewriter, or a Model M. Maybe I'll ask him. He'd be more likely to repsond to a typewritten letter, I think.

"Short of chiseled words in stone, few handmade items last longer than a typed letter, for the ink is physically stamped into the very fibers of the paper, not layered onto the surface as with a laser-printed document or the status-setting IBM Selectric — the machine that made the manual typewriter obsolete."

Not sure, but could that be an outright dismissal of the venerable Selectric from the Pantheon of Mechanical Typewriters?

[zslane]

Early Selectrics had ribbons that were no different than manual typewriters in that they also stamped pigment into the paper fibers. It wasn't until the Selectric II with Autocorrect that ribbons became celophane tape with a pigment that not only sat on top of the paper surface, but could be removed (basically peeled off) by the autocorrecting tape. So while Tom's observation about the Selectric making manual typewriters obsolete is essentially correct, it is also something of an oversimplification.

[XMIT]

I don't know how I missed the comment on Selectric typewriters in my first reading.

IIRC my Correcting Selectric II uses a correcting ribbon that doesn't remove the original glyph from the page, rather, it obscures it with white tape.

[seebart]

I knew about his typewriter fascination, I read it somewhere. If you do write him XMIT also link him to DT.

[zslane]

I don't know how I missed the comment on Selectric typewriters in my first reading.

IIRC my Correcting Selectric II uses a correcting ribbon that doesn't remove the original glyph from the page, rather, it obscures it with white tape.

No, the correcting tape is adhesive in nature and it pulls the pigment off the paper. A faint ghost of the original glyph typically remains. That's why the longer you wait to use it, the less effect it has. This is how it works on mine at any rate.

[XMIT]

Turns out we're both right! The Selectric II, which is what I've got, can take a film or a fabric and ink ribbon.

from http://selectric.org/selectric/manualii/index.html :

[mecano]

Typewriters are awesome, I sympathise. Not nice to type on, but awesome 8) .

Don't know about this, I have fond memories of typing on a Canon typestar like model back then, but that's probably not the kind of beast you had in mind.

[Chyros]

Typewriters are awesome, I sympathise. Not nice to type on, but awesome 8) .

Don't know about this, I have fond memories of typing on a Canon typestar like model back then, but that's probably not the kind of beast you had in mind.

No, I have a proper 100% mechanical Remington, no plugs or electricity or anything .

[mecano]

Ah! But Remingtons never had balls

[Chyros]

Yeah, I'd like to try a Selectric at some point as well .

[Wodan]

I've got a few TA Gabriele 1xx typewriters I bought hoping for MX compatible dye subs but they're not compatible. Anyone interested? Would ship them for 10€+shipping and you can pick

Otherwise they will go to the recycler.