I may be the only Mod-Blogger who did much writing on a real typewriter before word processors and computers took over. I wrote many of my school papers on a typewriter. And, quite honestly, I don't miss it one bit. Stuck keys, smudged ink, puddles of white-out, etc. I much prefer a word processor - even the old GEOS on my Commodore 64.
However, clearly, there are those who miss those days. And they may just be legion!McGettigan believes typewriters are making a comeback.
"A typewriter makes you more linear," McGettigan said. "On a computer, 'Let's throw all these thoughts on a page and we'll force an order into them later.' You've got to bring a quiet mind to typewriting."
Matt types all his papers for high school on a typewriter, which his teachers love.
He has a blog, "Adventures in Typewriterdom," and he types his entries on antique-looking paper and then scans the pages into his computer.
He loves the feel of the manuel typwriter, the precision and the permanance and sound of the keys and the bell at the end of a line and the routine of the carriage return. "It feels like you're getting work done," he said. "When I pull that paper out I feel like I accomplished something."
Every technological advance has its downside. The automobile made transportation easy and democratic, but it also have us car crashes. The telephone made communication effortless, but it also made it that much harder to maintain privacy. Nuclear power brought cheap energy, but also brought the nuclear bomb. The question is always, does the upside outweigh the downside.
The newest buzzword in computing is "cloud computing", where companies offer us services over the internet that reduce our dependence on our local machines. A good example is DropBox, a backup/sync service that saves files online and syncs them across any number of computers and your iPhone/iPad/Android device. Having every file you need everywhere you need it can be invaluable. Google has fully embraced the idea of cloud computing, and has recently released a new laptop with ChomeOS - an minimalist operating system which does everything in the cloud. (It is actually useless without an internet connection.)
Internet pioneer and information freedom advocate Richard Stallman has come out against "cloud computing" in general and the ChomeOS in particular because of the loss of freedom and privacy we give up by using these services.But Stallman is unimpressed. "I think that marketers like "cloud computing" because it is devoid of substantive meaning. The term's meaning is not substance, it's an attitude: 'Let any Tom, Dick and Harry hold your data, let any Tom, Dick and Harry do your computing for you (and control it).' Perhaps the term 'careless computing' would suit it better."
He sees a creeping problem: "I suppose many people will continue moving towards careless computing, because there's a sucker born every minute. The US government may try to encourage people to place their data where the US government can seize it without showing them a search warrant, rather than in their own property. However, as long as enough of us continue keeping our data under our own control, we can still do so. And we had better do so, or the option may disappear."
Be cautious this upcoming year, because everyone is trying to embrace cloud computing. Decide early which companies you trust, and whether the loss of freedom is outweighed by the convenience offered by this new technology.
No really. The Washington Post is reporting that these were the last words of Richard C. Holbrooke, President Obama's chief diplomat in Afghanistan. Our final thoughts tend to be those which have haunted us for some time. Clearly, the inner circle is ready for the war to end. But they can't find a way out, which does not make it appear Osama Bin Laden or the Taliban have won.
It is days like these that I am MOST happy I never chose politics as my career.
A cornerstone of the new Health Care Reform law (and virtually all Health Care reform proposals) is the assumption that ending bad behavior will reduce overall costs for everyone. It seems intuitive - if treating obesity-triggered diseases is expensive, eliminate obesity. But a new study suggests this is not the case as a longer lifespan offsets any short-term savings.
Of course, we should all be trying to be the best version of ourselves, so no one should take this as an excuse to stop exercising and gorge themselves on sweets. But it is a reminder that we should temper our zeal for policy-making with a humility that admits there will always be unexpected consequences that we can not predict.
This story doesn't require much commment.A British father faked a burglary at his home and claimed his daughter’s Christmas presents were stolen in a bid to get more gifts from sympathetic neighbors, local media reported Monday...
Unemployed Wood then posed for photographs for his local newspaper with his two-year-old daughter Abbey, saying Christmas was ruined.
However, he admitted the scam to police hours after the newspaper story was published, saying he could not live with the shame of using his little girl.
Crimes like this are always found out, whether thru good police work or thru good old feelings of shame. If you're in a tough spot, don't go to the low road. Ask for help. You can usually find someone willing to step up.
