A typewriter shop in Philadelphia is holding classes for kids -- and they're showing up!
Manual typewriting has been enjoying something of a comeback in the past decade or so, but I wouldn't have expected kids to be into it. As one girl in the video explains, she likes how typewriting forces you to focus on what you're writing because you won't be able to easily fix your mistakes. The pendulum swings, I guess. One of the things that was so freeing about digital word processing was the ease with which you could get your ideas down and how easily you could edit them.
But this girl has a point. Maybe it's time for us to slow down and choose our words more carefully. As the shopkeeper points out, manual typewriting has something of a calming effect -- and no text alerts!
Image: Screengrab Read the rest
OverType simulates, to an undesirable degree of accuracy, the experience of using a mechanical typewriter. You can have three fonts, one of which is IBM's classic Courier, set the degree to which you want your typewriter to be broken, and the state of your ribbon ink. You cannot delete—but there is correction paper! Read the rest
The model who played the famous software typing tutor had "three-inch" fingernails in her real life, apparently.
Cross
Typing of the Dead with
Dragon Warrior and the result is
Secret of Qwerty, an old-school RPG where you fight mean trees and ghosts and things by typing at them.
Typing Karaoke is a terrifically-fun browser game where instead of singing the song's lyrics, you must type them. (via Indie Games) Read the rest
This little girl can type 119 wpm. It's not just a skill, it's a hobby. She started playing on the computer at age 4 and spends her weekends typing. Her goal right now? "I'd like to get to at least 200(wpm)."
While this may sound strange, I can understand the allure of the type test — when I was in middle school, I used to procrastinate from studying by taking type tests on my super old Apple machine. It's really not that different from any other addictive game — most of us now associate it with work, but back then I was constantly trying to beat myself in speed and accuracy. By the way, if you're curious to know how fast you're typing, you can take a one-minute typing test here.
[via Mashable] Read the rest
