Music / typing

Picking up on Sholes' original keyboard ....

.... researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics are trying out a piano keyboard as a text input device ...

... while Regina Spektor makes music on a typewriter.

21st Century Typewriter Repairs Made Easy

Just reading Scott's latest update on The Filthy Platen about getting a replacement part 3-D printed for a Remington. Folks, the future's here, no doubt about it. And I think there's a certain poetic beauty to using modern printing techniques to repair a classic printing machine.

Now, let's get Shapeways hooked up with the guys behind this video and we'll all be printing our own Remettes*


* Some assembly required

How is a Typewriter Like Google?

Well, if it's a Chinese typewriter -- or any designed to handle a large number of ideograms -- then there's a certain level of prediction that can be built into the system to help figure out "what's next."

Google does this when you type in the search box. I get as far as "typosp" before Google has figured out "typosphere" and placed this blog up at the top of the results (*blush*) This video talks about how Chinese typewriters pre-date the current predictive systems in use by engines like Google. Not coincidentally, it's a Google talk:  

A Chinese Typewriter in Silicon Valley
 

And in case you've never seen one in action, here's some footage of a Chinese typewriter in use. Note the two-handed motion to slide the symbol-picking mechanism as the type-tray is also being arranged.

 Chinese typewriter 中文打字機 1978

 Thanks to the Typewriter Movie guys for the tip!