New retrotech column: The Analog-ist

Good news! I've brought the cause of retrotech to the University of Washington, and will be contributing to a weekly column on the Master of Communication in Digital Media blog, Flip the Media, that's about offline culture, retrotech, etc.

The column is called The Analog-ist. I'd love to see your comments and observations over there, because I think some of the discussions in the typosphere are brilliant and I'd love to see them reach a wider audience. Come on down.

That said, I plan to keep rambling on Strikethru on my regular not very often schedule. So no change there.

Carry on...

At The Cemetery

It has nothing to do with typewriters, I know.

The maker movement = the typosphere?

Surely someone out there in the ever-growing typosphere has posted about the maker movement, and I'm just late to the party remarking on it here. Is the maker movement an answer to the question of whether you can earn money with a typewriter?

I've always faintly been aware of Make magazine, thinking it was just another source of information about the well-established D.I.Y movement (and therefore haven't showed it much interest, as I'm unlikely to ever find the time to can my own food or build a water purifier out of diodes and fishing nets) but Forbes describes it as people who "create, build, design, tinker, modify, hack, invent, or simply make something" from the intersection of analog and tech. Isn't this essentially Clickthing, among others of you who've modified cameras, typewriters, and other offline tools?

I've got my money on you guys to be the next big thing in the maker movement.

Mod iPad drawing: Dymo Label Buddy

Here's my latest iPad drawing, based on a photograph of my plastic Dymo Label Buddy. (Don't you just love products named "buddy?" Say, the Truck 'n Buddy, or the Backspin Buddy.)

Don't let puppydog-sounding products like Label Buddy lead to to think Dymo a johnny-come-lately to the punch tape label market, no. For the Label Buddy is merely a wee descendant of the 60's era steel Dymo Mite, which could brain opponents with a single swing of your wrist (and possibly remove their heads at the same time, since it cut labels not with a serrated edge but with an open rusty blade).

I got rid of my Dymo Mite. You know what they say about having a weapon in the home, you just may use it on yourself by mistake. Label Buddy is more my speed.

Drawing typewriters with an iPad and Adobe Ideas

Some of you out there in the typosphere are posessed of drawing skills; I'm not among you, to my sincere regret. Thankfully (oh, the irony) there is, these days, a digital crutch for every weakness (thank you, GPS) and now, with an iPad and Adobe Ideas, you too can draw a pretty good typewriter based on tracing over a photograph, and you won't even need to scan it when you're finished. The only hitch? Coming up with more money than God in order to buy one.

I have a feeling most typospherians would do the math on how many fountain pens a single iPad would be worth, and would then take a pass.

Pen & Platen by Mike Speegle and entrepreneurship in the typosphere

Hope everyone out there in the typosphere is enjoying their Nanowrimo hangover, otherwise known as Christmas. Have been remiss in updates due to various factors, but just checking in to congratulate Mike Speegle on the publication of his book of short stories, Pen & Platen (cover designed by Typewriter Heaven's Rob Bowker? Do I have this detail correctly? Love that cover). Did you know that you can give Kindle books as gifts? And Pen & Platen is currently available for the outrageously affordable price of $1?

Now you know.

Mike Speegle is ahead of the curve here in terms of the way publishing works now; moping around the mailbox waiting for rejection letters is not the way it's done by forward-thinking writers. I just finished a class on managing your digital presence (otherwise known by the distasteful term "personal branding"), and realized that typospherians already do quite a bit of this, and well enough to have built a lively community around it. Speegle here has raised the bar by not just talking about writing, but using digital tools to get himself published, and I admire him for it.

Anyone else out there have a New Years goal of publishing, launching a business (applause also for Type-o-Matic's launch!) or otherwise turning their love for writing and writing tools into a creative enterprise? For my class in grad school I merely did some sprucing up of my resume-type web site, but still haven't thought my goals through like Bowker and Speegle (now, doesn't that sound like a law firm straight out of Harry Potter?)

In the New Year, I aspire to be more like these guys. What about you?

Leaving a typewriter behind

350 lbs of deep &^%$ (or, the Great Petaluma Typewriter Haul)
The Underwood Standard Champion

Allow me to follow on this post by saying I've never regretted giving a typewriter away. It's almost always the right thing to do, especially if it's going to someone who doesn't already have a spare bedroom full of dusty typewriter cases lying about, and is new to the hobby. If the Underwood Standard Champion was this guy's first typewriter, I could just tell by the look in his eye, it won't be his last.

Anyway, I reason that leaving a 50 lb analog writing machine behind at a giant software corporation as a parting gesture imparts a certain je ne sais quoi.