#WhyWait: On the Internet of Everything

Going (briefly) off the grid

Meanwhile, if you'd like to anticipate what my next blog post may be 

about, take a look at this ad. I feel a good, old-fashioned typewritten rant coming on!

Miami typecast no. 2

Typecast from Miami

You can hear the interview here between 55:30 and 1:10:15. 

Rosso, rosso, rosso

It's time for a gratuitous picture of an Olivetti MP1.

Heading for Florida

Details here. 

I'd love to meet any Miami-area typewriter lovers at this event or, maybe, elsewhere.

On conspiracy

A thought from correspondent Hans Boersma:

I don't know. I would like to agree, to believe that some glimmer of truth gives terrorists a bad conscience, but human beings have vast capacities for self-delusion fueled by resentment and hate. Maybe these people die at "peace" with themselves.

Signing at Joseph-Beth

This was my first bookstore reading and signing event, and I was pretty nervous, but I think it went well. It was nice to see friends, students, fellow volunteers, colleagues ... and even some strangers!

Manager and fellow WordPlay volunteer Michael Link gave me a really nice introduction:

I read from the introduction and from the section on street typing:

There were four typewriters available for the public to try out, and I asked for volunteers to try typing poems on request from the public. My suggestion, since we were in a bookstore, was for people to talk about some of their favorite books, and the poets would write poems about the books. Surprisingly, more people were willing to type than were willing to provide topics for poems.

The typists did get a couple of requests, and also found other ways to engage with the Roxy, Kolibri, Hermes 3000, and Alpina:

Poet Sam McCormick (and she truly is one) wrote this piece for my wife about the book Alan Turing: The Enigma.

De typemachine afgestoft

De typemachine afgestoft (The typewriter dusted off)

Many thanks to Dutch author and typospherian Dirk van Weelden for his contributions to this radio piece about typewriters and my book! I can understand maybe 7% of the Dutch (aside from the recording of my own voice) but it's a lot of fun to listen to, if only for the music and typing sounds. Dirk is featured in the book as the author of a novel narrated by typewriters, the inventor of "typewriter portraits," and the visionary behind The Phoenix Typewriter Project. 

A tip o' the typebars to a true insurgent.

On objectification

Here are my reflections on this post by The Philosophy Teacher...