Touch Type Or Hunt and Peck?

[warren]

You used a smiley so that's allowed. It's the guys that are simply mean spirited, usually not particularly articulate, that get my panties in a bunch. Now someone who offers up a cogent argument for their position? I enjoy that kind of conversation. Something meaty! I like that, it shows thought.

 

[mso489]

I miss manual typewriters, the percussion was such a healthy outlet although not always welcome in student rented rooms. Clack-clack, clack-clack-clack. Ka-ching (the carriage return). Great fun. I don't however miss carbon paper or white-out. I learned touch typing on an office manual, but owned portable manuals. I do not miss IBM Selectrics.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

On a side note, I feel like physical typewriters are going to become more valuable again in the near future.

Now that you can be almost guaranteed that anything you type in any computer anywhere is being read by someone without your consent, it's pretty much impossible for people in sensitive fields to write out their thoughts digitally.
I'm reminded of how some popular authors use older equipment to ensure data security: https://www.cnet.com/news/george-r-r-martin-writes-with-a-dos-word-processor/

 

[jpmcwjr]

Just unhook everything from the InterWebs. Use encryption.
I don't do anything interesting enough to be spied upon, and I seldom close my emails praising the name of the almighty in Arabic, so I only secure my own server.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

"Unhook Everything?"

Like, rip apart your laptop and fry the wireless card with a laser?
Latest reports are Intel is going to be integrating Wi-fi chips into upcoming processors, there's no way the NSA

isn't involved in the design of these features, once you have that it's physically impossible to secure your data.
Once a backdoor is installed it can be exploited by anyone with the knowledge and resources to find and crack it, which may not happen immediately, but it's an inevitability that devices in the near future will be impossible to secure (ok, you could use them inside a well constructed faraday cage to prevent wireless communication, that's probably something I should look into if I ever build a house).
And of course thinking that you're not doing anything worth anyone's attention is no security since you absolutely are doing lots of things on a daily basis that are objectionable to many people, it's all a question of who is looking.

 

[woodsroad]

It seems to me that those who must bash something, Peterson, Lakeland, aros, Fords, Apple, etc. are simply unsure of their own choices.

Well, Lakeland just sux, but aside from that I've used them all and they all have their merits/demerits...Nikon/Canon, Windows/Mac, Ford/VW...no wait...Ford sux too.

 

[woodsroad]

Oh...and did someone say Peck?

 

[iamn8]

What is this "keyboard" of which you speak?

 

[tuold]

I had to touch type a minimum of 25 wpm in order to graduate from tech school in the USAF back in 1977 using WWII era typewriters. I've since been able to up my speed quite a bit since then, though at my age, with probably a few more errors.
My wife is a retired journalist. I used to watch in amazement as she did phone interviews typing as fast as her source could talk.

 

[yohanan]

 

[brian64]

Touch type. Learned in the 7th grade on manual typewriters that were always jamming.

 

[toobfreak]

Does anyone still actually HAVE a typewriter? I do. Actually it is a Smith Corona word processor bought in '88 that in one mode acts like a typewriter in real time and in WP mode, has a flip up LCD display that you type your letter, then hit print and it prints it out with a bi-directional daisy wheel. Also saves documents to a mini-disc you can insert in the side.

 

[ssjones]

When we cleaned out my parents house six years ago, the old portable typerwriter that I used as a kid was in the basement (I can't remember the brand name). I mulled over keeping it, decided that I had no real use for it (I suspected that the ribbon was dry anyway). I ended up tossing it, but it was difficult to do.

 

[mso489]

I'd estimate the touch typing to hunt-and-peck cohorts are about 80 to 20 percent. You could figure it by assigning everyone to one method or the other, whichever predominates, or try to figure out a guesstimate for how much of each was being described in each person's typing, but with this informal a survey, that's spinning wheels. My sense is that younger members may touch type less because they use smaller devices more and have less incentive to learn touch typing, but I'm guessing here. I think it's well worth learning touch typing for anyone handling more than tweets or short texting. For anything longer, you need a "full-size" keyboard. If anyone wants to bear down on this quantitatively, I'd be interested in seeing that post.
Trivia tidbit; the actor Tom Hanks collects manual typewriters according to someone who sells them in Manhattan.