My iPod was still in my backpack this morning, so it was NPR on the way in. I listened to stories about Obama releasing his long-form birth certificate (hooray USA, the bigots and stupid people won another round, aren't we an impressive bunch. Not.), the latest attempts to engineer a way out of all the lethally radioactive sludge at the Hanford "reservation," and flooding in the Midwest.
On a similarly newsy note, I read last night that last typewriter company in the world closed it's doors. I feel a bit sad about this, even though I haven't used a typewriter in years and don't miss having to retype an entire paper to fix a problem on page one. I used to repair typewriters, working at a business machines company when I was in high school. I have owned several typewriters over the years, and my two favorites were both portable manuals (for the youngsters in the crowd, that means they didn't use electricity, were lighter than a ship's anchor, and had a case you could carry them around in): a portable Smith-Corona manual and my all time favorite, a sea-green Hermes 3000 manual, the same model used by Jack Kerouac (said machine selling for $22k via Christies last year).
I think this machine started my love of technology, and particularly for technology that blended both form and function. Sleek, colorful, beautifully designed, it not not only got work done for me, it made using it a pleasure. It was as beautiful to look at as it was easy to use. Just look at that picture and tell me you wouldn't love to bang out a few sentences on it! And portable really did mean you could work away from the office, campus, house. No screen glare, no battery life concerns, no electricity needed. Didn't even need wireless. Did require also packing books and any other reference materials you might need, though. No apps, no Facebook.
I traded the Hermes in on a portable electric Smith-Corona when I first headed off to university, later bought an older S-C manual just to have one again, and always regretted getting rid of my sea-green Hermes.
Now skip forward a few more years than I would like to admit. My keyboard technology of preference is an equally beautiful piece of form and function-blending goodness, an iPad. I am now going to push the envelope of what all I can do with this delightful piece of technology, however, since my office laptop (my only workplace computer) just died. Until the replacement unit arrives via ground shipment, my personal iPad is all I have. So today marks the start of a new adventure: can I do all of my work computing on my iPad alone? Most of it, no problem. But if I need to whip out a Google spreadsheet or create a presentation from scratch (and with two campus budget forums scheduled next week, both are a given) it gets a little bit harder. As I have no choice, no options at hand, this will be a real test; no sneaking over to my laptop to do "real" work. Should be a fun challenge.
Also, in honor of the passing of the typewriter I have decided to name my iPad Hermes (I don't know that I have ever named a piece of technology before). Now if I could only find a sea-green case for it, I'd be in technology heaven!
- Posted via iPad/Hermes
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