Comment by TaylorAlexander
1 year ago
Recently I got in to mechanical typewriters for writing. I really like them! It's fascinating to have a machine which has no apps, no screen, no internal memory, and no distractions. You don't even have to "print" your page after writing it as the printing and the typing are the same operation.
The other day I was writing poetry at my computer and I had a Slack message pop up. I immediately clicked on it and responded, and then I went back to my poem and had totally lost my train of thought.
I am not suggesting schools use typewriters, but I wonder if there is value in considering limited functionality devices for specific classes in schools and similar situations.
I bought some cheap Chromebooks (100-150 euros, second hand), and removed nearly every app on them, apart for one for writing.
Having a separate device for separate tasks, can often be quite useful.
> Having a separate device for separate tasks, can often be quite useful.
This is what I have done ever since I could afford to own more than 1 laptop and I phased out Windows (XP). I have a device that I use for a daily driver, and 3-4 other Linux distros on other laptops (various X series thinkpads), 1 Windows machine and a Mac. Each does one to two specific tasks and nothing else.
It's actually rather formidable solution and while I've tried running virtual machines its just not the same. Intuitively typing on an external keyboard on my daily driver X1 means I'm going into code mode and occasionally will look (but almost never post) at StackOverflow or HN. When I'm on the native keyboard I just respond to emails and browse/post here.
I have many devices, I will admit, but the truth is that its older stuff so the cost relative to one new machine is about the same for all I have excluding peripherals; a new X1 Carbon is like 2k these days with little to no changes to previous generations.
you can even add a script to let custom noise play on key strokes :D
I still remember learning to use typwriter in 1998/1999 (already knew some computer basics). Correcting typos wasn't particularly fun.
We learned typewriter in school, I think it was around 85-89. Most of the typewriters where completely mechanical and to erase you either had a fluid you painted over the character to delete, waited for a few seconds to dry and then could type over. Or you used a small piece of paper that had a white sticky backside. You pressed the go-back-button and then typed the letter that you wanted to erase while holding the paper in front of the paper.
We also had a slightly more modern typewriter that was electric and had memory for a few characters, automating the delete function by switching to an erase-ribbon and hitting the right key for you.
And some of the typewriters even had two colors you could switch between. Oh the memories :-) That is one class that I still have use for every day. Can't say that about many of the others.
But it forces you to think and then write, instead of the other way around, by adding more cost to mistakes. As foe handwriting there have been studies that showed that handwritten notes are better memorized rhan computer-written ones.
> studies that showed that handwritten notes are better memorized rhan computer-written ones
I don't care that I look weird, but I still take a notebook (as in a physical notebook) to meetings and take notes by hand.
With rare exceptions, I never read those notes. But by writing them, I remember it, so I don't need to. Whenever I've experimented with taking notes on the computer, I can't remember any of it.
That's right. I use them for personal journals, where I can just use the X key to write over typos and then rewrite the word. If a high standard of presentation is not required, it's easy to write with.
Ahh... I remember old docs from my dad office. You'll see "Tipp-Ex" (correction fluid) used here and there to hide thse typos.
Hey, for the sake of fun, maybe I should try this again. I think I still have a typewriter stored somewhere...
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