1 - Repartee
- Key Master
Offline 
- From: Brooklyn
- Registered: 12-10-2015
- Posts: 683
Hybrid Vigor?
I have modified my Royal 10 by adding a mouse and flat screen display...
Just kidding. The mouse controls the computer at the right mainly to select music while I am typing - or just gazing raptly into its keys, considering the wonder of it all.
"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
- KatLondon
- Key Master
Offline
- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Hybrid Vigor?
Ah, you want one of these...
- colrehogan
- Key Master
Offline
- From: Granite City, IL
- Registered: 05-2-2015
- Posts: 612
Re: Hybrid Vigor?
So there really is such a thing and they are selling them?
Smith Premier typewriters are cool!
- KatLondon
- Key Master
Offline
- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Hybrid Vigor?
Yes, that's their website.
- Repartee
- Key Master
Offline
- From: Brooklyn
- Registered: 12-10-2015
- Posts: 683
Re: Hybrid Vigor?
KatLondon wrote:
Ah, you want one of these...
Ha! Thank you, KatLondon.
My "invention" was serendipity, when I moved a computer keyboard to make room for a typewriter, and now I see somebody has apparently already invented this - though I looked through the website maybe 5 minutes before deciding if the thing were an elaborate spoof, and I am still not sure.
My mind had jumped forward to the idea of using a typewriter as a computer keyboard, but when I think about it in the flesh I'm not sure typewriters ought to be left to be just typewriters and computers, computers...
"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
- •
Thread Starter- Uwe
- Moderator
Offline
- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,410
Re: Hybrid Vigor?
I looked through the website maybe 5 minutes before deciding if the thing were an elaborate spoof, and I am still not sure.
I can assure you the product is very real. It's been around for a number of years now, and if you think about it, it's not really that far fetched. Instead of using the plastic keys of a computer keyboard to interface with a computer, someone adapted that technology to use a typewriter's mechanical keystrokes instead. Same concept really, just with a more limited scope.
My mind had jumped forward to the idea of using a typewriter as a computer keyboard, but when I think about it in the flesh I'm not sure typewriters ought to be left to be just typewriters and computers, computers...
I agree. For me it's just a novelty. I predominantly use a typewriter to escape from using a computer. With a typewriter I can write anywhere I please, and I don't need an electrical outlet or a charged battery to power what I'm doing. This USB interface on the other hand just chains my typewriter to the computer, and forces me to stare at its monitor. To what end - for what purpose? It negates the best parts of using a typewriter in the first place.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Repartee
- Key Master
Offline
- From: Brooklyn
- Registered: 12-10-2015
- Posts: 683
Re: Hybrid Vigor?
With a typewriter I can write anywhere I please, and I don't need an electrical outlet or a charged battery to power what I'm doing.
Yes! I was only recently infected by the typewriter bug - multiplying in my system like Ebola - and sitting down at the pictured machine to type a page of nonsense at least once a day I still feel the urge to throw a switch or push a button somewhere. How can it be? I don't have to turn it on?
I have spent a lot of time at the piano, and the tactile pleasure of typing is similar.
"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
- •
Thread Starter- Uwe
- Moderator
Offline
- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,410
Re: Hybrid Vigor?
sitting down at the pictured machine to type a page of nonsense at least once a day I still feel the urge to throw a switch or push a button somewhere. How can it be? I don't have to turn it on?
What's even stranger for me is using an electric typewriter. I actually have a difficult time using them because of the tension they create when I flick the power switch to the 'on' position. The sound of the motor humming away inside of the machine exerts some form of pressure on me, it's as if the machine is goading me to type and when it's idle I'm allowing it to wear away. I have a number of electrics that I really enjoy using, but rarely do unless I know that I'll be very productive when they're actually on.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Markmotown
- Touch Typist
Offline
- From: Villanova, PA
- Registered: 16-12-2015
- Posts: 183
Re: Hybrid Vigor?
I bought a USB conversion kit and installed it myself on my Remington 5. It works reasonably well. Some of the keys (shift, backspace, etc.) that don't have bars that extend to the bottom of the unit where the senor bar is located need to have magnets installed, as well as magnetic sensors, and so can be a little tricky to use. But it makes a nice break from the usual computer typing. But after it was done, I found myself not liking the cords, and wishing I'd sprung for the BlueTooth kit instead.
- Uwe
- Moderator
Offline
- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,410
Re: Hybrid Vigor?
Out of curiosity, do you place a sheet of paper in the machine or just type on an exposed platen when you use the machine?
Personally I would find the sight of cords reassuring. It's Bluetooth, and the pandemic use of wireless devices that bombard users with an ever increasing number of electromagnetic waves - regardless of their strength - that creeps me right out.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
