Wow, archiving your typecasts. A good idea, I haven't heard this talked about in the typosphere before. I always recycle mine right away which is kind of silly, since the scanned images of them are linked to a Rube Goldberg machine of random image hosting services which could at any time collapse, taking all posts with it.
... which is exactly what happened when Photobucket first started asking for a ransom of $399 a year, then relented but became very unreliable. I am going through all my old posts, trying to fix and reconstruct them. Very annoying.
My old typecasts are all shoved into a desk drawer. I should probably do more to preserve them.
I tackled the ribbon scarcity problem this afternoon. I've been fixing up a Remington Standard No.6 to working order. Unfortunately, the wide ribbon--while still holding sufficient ink--was so dry that it shredded each time it was struck. New ribbons of that width are now unavailable, even through Jay. So I ripped out the tattered ribbon and wound in some paper with a sheet of carbon paper in front of it, substituting for a ribbon. It's awkward--the Remington is now double-blind--but it gets the job done, and is as crisp as a carbon film ribbon.
Mine are in my desk drawer as well. Great idea, Richard.
Carbon ribbons should be around for quite some time, as there are still a lot of offices using typewriters for forms.
And until dot-matrix printers and printing calculators disappear, there will at least be some ribbons to be scavenged and re-spooled.
A few months back, out of curiosity, I called a guy in the printer ink business (locally) that I used to do some freelance computer work for and he said while he didn't have any spools, he'd be happy to wind as much 1/2" nylon ribbon onto spools as I wanted. Now, he's in his late 60s, but I know his son-in-law is likely going to carry on his business, and he's in his 40s...
Some of us will hopefully be having this same discussion in 50 years!
Wow, archiving your typecasts. A good idea, I haven't heard this talked about in the typosphere before. I always recycle mine right away which is kind of silly, since the scanned images of them are linked to a Rube Goldberg machine of random image hosting services which could at any time collapse, taking all posts with it.
ReplyDelete... which is exactly what happened when Photobucket first started asking for a ransom of $399 a year, then relented but became very unreliable. I am going through all my old posts, trying to fix and reconstruct them. Very annoying.
DeleteI like the archive. You book of old posts will probably outlive the internet as we know it.
ReplyDeleteMy old typecasts are all shoved into a desk drawer. I should probably do more to preserve them.
ReplyDeleteI tackled the ribbon scarcity problem this afternoon. I've been fixing up a Remington Standard No.6 to working order. Unfortunately, the wide ribbon--while still holding sufficient ink--was so dry that it shredded each time it was struck. New ribbons of that width are now unavailable, even through Jay. So I ripped out the tattered ribbon and wound in some paper with a sheet of carbon paper in front of it, substituting for a ribbon. It's awkward--the Remington is now double-blind--but it gets the job done, and is as crisp as a carbon film ribbon.
Clever, MoLG!
ReplyDeleteHave you tried DeBarth for wide ribbons?
Mine are in my desk drawer as well. Great idea, Richard.
ReplyDeleteCarbon ribbons should be around for quite some time, as there are still a lot of offices using typewriters for forms.
And until dot-matrix printers and printing calculators disappear, there will at least be some ribbons to be scavenged and re-spooled.
A few months back, out of curiosity, I called a guy in the printer ink business (locally) that I used to do some freelance computer work for and he said while he didn't have any spools, he'd be happy to wind as much 1/2" nylon ribbon onto spools as I wanted. Now, he's in his late 60s, but I know his son-in-law is likely going to carry on his business, and he's in his 40s...
Some of us will hopefully be having this same discussion in 50 years!
Typing the URLs in blue is a neat way to catch me off guard, alright! Works well.
ReplyDelete