Thursday, November 25, 2010

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type Book Trailer

Last week my Mother-In-Law, who is a School Librarian at Sheldon Early Childhood Academy did a few book trailers for their school website. She asked me to borrow a typewriter to aid in making the trailer. I quickly ran through my head picking out the best choice for the occasion. My Smith Corona Sterling I though for the sound and overall look would be best. Anyways I thought everyone in the typosphere would get a kick out of this. I found it especially amusing how the school librarian at the Sheldon High School couldn't figure out how to use the carriage return.


Click below to see the video:
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
By Doreen Gronin Pictures by Betsy Lewin


P.S. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Response to LFP’s Modern Convince

Response to LFP’s Modern Convince

Buying a toaster online can be quite time consuming I’m sure. But so can buying anything online. There are just so many reviews that if you aren’t careful you will become consumed by it all.

The past three or so weeks I have been trying to put together all of the parts that I need to build a new PC. The problem is that when building a PC there are constantly new parts coming out, some better than others. A brand that I trusted two years ago might be not the best choice now. Some of parts that go into building a PC are… First you have to figure out what processor you want, are you going with Intel or AMD. (I’m going with AMD for their price/performance ratio. Plus it will be replaced, that is inevitable, so why spend more than you have to.) Then your Motherboard, Ram, Power supply, Hard Drive, and Graphics card all have to be selected.

There are also combos that if you buy, say, a case, power supply, processor and motherboard you get fifty dollars off. Usually combos are a great way to save money but trying to select the best one that is in your price can be very, very time consuming. There will be things you like about some of the parts in the combos and other parts you wish you could replace all together.

The main thing I try to keep in mind is there will be things I replace in two years because they are out of date. But this is why if you do it smart, and build it yourself, you can save money by just replacing what you need. Just buying a new motherboard and processor in two years, spending maybe one hundred and fifty dollars is better than throwing out a thousand dollar HP or Dell. There is no worse feeling than using a old, slow, gunked up computer because you spent all of that money and it can’t be upgraded.

Overall building a computer is a time consuming process and it’s hard to stay up to date on everything. Although as of right now I feel so up to date it is outrageous. It is so easy to put together a computer, and quite fun. The hard part is selecting the right parts.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Dot Matrix Cast 9/17/10

Dot Matrix Cast

With the new ribbon and when printed in Best mode there is still noticeable features that make it obvious it is printed on a Dot Matrix. Once I scanned and posted the paper it actually looks really clear as if the scan smoothed out some of the dots. The Fast mode and Draft were re-printed onto the original page and wasn't spaced correctly. Oh well, it's the first of its kind, I'll get it right the next time

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Friday August 28, 2010

Typecast Friday 28th 2010

Trust me I have been trying to put together something and it bugs me every day that it has gone on this long. This isn’t a typecast but just an update on life I guess. I finished school with A’s last semester. I have had the past two weeks off and have to go back this following Monday. This is why it has been bothering me so much. I have all this free time that I’m sure most of you would kill for and I can’t even manage a simple update. So I figured I owe it to Y’all, as they say there in Houston. I still haven’t got used to that whole Y’all thing. For me it is still “You Guys”

There were things that I procrastinated on doing that got done on my break at least. My latest project is actually two things. First off, Allies laptop died a few days ago. It was the dreaded finicky power cord. We already replaced it once about a year ago and now that the thing is going on six years it was time for something new. I have always loved Macintosh. For me the only Microsoft products that I like are Windows 3.1 and lovely DOS. I have used Microsoft machines growing up and found that anything past Windows 95 gets really clunky and slow. My father worked for Digital or DEC a computer company that was wonderful back in its hay day. Ever since I was born there was a computer in the house. Our first computer was the IBM 5170 built in 1986 that was actually the first computer to be labeled as the PC, personal computer. Growing up it was DOS games and games that ran with 3.1. Every other year they would give my father a laptop and when he got a new one he would generously give the old one to my brother and I.

So anyways, it is so easy to trail off when writing on the computer. Where was I? Oh, so I was looking for a Macintosh for Allie. The iBook seemed like a good choice but her current laptop didn’t do anything portable so then I thought what about one of those iMac G4’s, the ones that have the round base and swivel LCD. She has always wanted one so we found one on ebay and ordered it. I of course hunted and hunted to find the best one and I plan to max it out for her since it is older. The thing though about Macintosh machines is that they don’t slow down. My Macbook that I am using right not (with my Unicomp keyboard) is still fast as when I bought it. The only way that her laptop lasted as long as it did was because I put Ubuntu on it, a Linux operating system. (I would rather use Linux than Windoze any day of the week, but that’s just me.)

So my love of Macintosh computers and vintage macs brought me to a recent purchase of a Mac LC III built around 1991. This is the reason that I haven’t been seen these past few weeks and why sometimes I prefer the simplicity of the Typewriter. Computers, especially vintage computers can be so time consuming. But I plan to post an overview of some vintage Word Processors I have been working with sometime, hopefully soon. I have about eight or so Word Processors in the mix from Word 5.1 to Claris Works to Write Now to MacWrite, Word Perfect and a few others and many versions of each. All of these are available from a website called Macintosh Garden where they are free to download. I even found a copy of Adobe PS 4 on there that I enjoy.


So that’s what has been going on recently and maybe even some Dot Matrix Vintage Mac typecasts will appear in the near future. I have a whole bunch of ideas and just need to make the time to show them off. I better get cranking two because come to think of it, Nano is coming up right around the corner.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

June 22 2010

A tribute video of our friend Tom F. at Cambridge Typewriter
Just now came across this video, I wonder if Tom knows its whereabouts




June 22 2010 T1

June 22 2010 T2