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Marcin Wichary @mwichary
, 11 tweets, 11 min read Read on Twitter
I can’t decide whether this 1980 IBM Displaywriter word processing keyboard is very pretty or incredibly boring.
Suggestion from @aslakr: A Tandberg Data keyboard from Norway, also from the year 1980 – but looking forward instead of back.

(It comes with a rainbow, too.)
@aslakr The Japanese OASYS machines came with beautiful keyboards and enclosures.

(Note how the keyboards are split visually to guide the respective hand – and also the extra two keys below the short spacebar(s), meant to be pressed with your thumbs.)
@aslakr The keyboard of the early IBM 610 calculator from 1950s: Staggered keys, long space-like zero, and a 2" CRT that wasn’t good enough to display fonts so it only displayed dots instead.
A pair of today’s keyboards that recreate a 1970s key profile in a modern setting. Those key contours just feel gorgeous to me.

(I saw the second one in person in Japan, and it floored me.)

More info:
1. massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-x…
2. topre.co.jp/en/products/el…
A fascinating model of a 1950s ten-key SCM printing calculator showing how much there was to keyboard-driven machines before software came around.
The keyboard for the Ferranti Sirius computer from 1961. With the thumbwheel in front to control the speed, colour-coded WAIT/STOP/CONTINUE, and absolutely giant connectors.

And the whole computer has nixie tubes and a built-in clock.
(You can emulate the whole computer and play with that keyboard here: computerconservationsociety.org/software/siriu…)
A beautiful green teleprinter from another Ferranti computer, Pegasus.
Big, big fan of all the asymmetries in this British telex machine, known as “Cheetah” or STC 3000 Perfector (one of these names is better than the other).
German Siemens teleprinter from 1951 and a rotary dial instead of a numeric keypad!
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More from @mwichary see all

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A few tiny things I learned about London Underground today that delighted me, a small thread:
1. There’s a station called Farrington that was recently massively upgraded, but it’s been done in a way that the new entrance is opposite the preserved old entrance, so the past and the future are literally staring each other in the face:
2. Interestingly (but unsurprisingly) given the “London Underground” name there is a separate map denoting which parts of it are in tunnels, designed to help users with claustrophobia or other anxiety conditions.

content.tfl.gov.uk/tube-map-with-…
Read 9 tweets
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Mind blown, but also:

If a design detail is so invisible no one knows about it, is it a failure?
We’ve seen this not so long ago with the “hold space to move cursor” trick in iOS, too.

“Where have you been all my life” years down the road doesn’t feel like a good UI strategy.
This feels different to me than “hey, there’s an arrow in the FedEx logo” (smile in the Amazon logo, bear in the Toblerone logo, whatever). Too many things end up feeling like Easter eggs, even though there is a long gradient between an Easter egg and something truly crucial.
Read 5 tweets
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I just finished a story about ghost stations in San Francisco.

I was inspired after my little Forest Hill station thread, and then I found some really great photos and cool stories about the early wild years of SF transit plans, streetcars, and tunnels.

medium.com/@mwichary/the-…
So many thanks to @enf for help with research, and encouragement, and proof reading – and the massive/impressive SF archives he collected over the years.

Also thanks to @outsidelandz. This tweet/photo jumpstarted the whole project:
(If you ever wondered about the weird way J Church goes in between the houses, or about the abandoned tunnels on the side of Market Street, or about the footbridge in Dolores Park… this post might shed some light!)
Read 4 tweets

Related threads

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Got a seat right in the front at #CSPC2018 @sciencepolicy for the panel on #NextGenCanScience (science and the next generation) feat enablers of trainees getting involved in #scipol @ChiefSciCan @McGill_VPRI @katemoran Stacey Robinson and @DanWicklum
#CSPC2018 @ChiefSciCan mentions #Budget2018 reinvestments of 2.8B$ to create more collaborative infrastructure in govt labs and beyond. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get things right and elevate Canada in science leadership 🙌
📣 All major equipment in federal labs will be part of a registry and be accessible to everyone ➡️ democratizing the infrastructure of #cdnsci - @ChiefSciCan #CSPC2018 @sciencepolicy
Read 37 tweets
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I tell you man, I'm lucky to have the social and professional circles that I have.

They mostly shield me from the extent to which white people will violate every social boundary that Black people lay down, in order to remind us of our place.

But then there are days like today.
I was on a @torontoWOTS panel with @iamdavidmiller, @GabrielEidelman and @pjrplan, talking about building a closer and more inclusive Toronto, and I managed to touch on race (with regards to NIMBYism, which I call "segregation")

That didn't sit well with someone in the audience.
Sorry, just got home and had to kiss my mother hello. She was watching my daughters all afternoon, so I can't just breeze by.

Anyhow, this is what happened...
Read 30 tweets
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And here's the WaPo take on the Rosenstein remarks. I swear to God this is someone from Trump's camp. Pushing back on the anon OpEd perhaps...prepping his backstory for Rosenstein's upcoming firing? So shady... @25thAmendment
wapo.st/2xqVlyE?tid=ss…
2/"While McCabe’s memos assert both the recording and 25th amendment conversations occurred at a meeting within days of Comey’s firing, another person at the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, insisted the recording comment was said
3/"in a moment of sarcasm, and that the 25th amendment was not discussed. That person said the wire comment came in response to McCabe’s own pushing for the Justice Department to open an investigation into the president. To that, Rosenstein responded with what this person
Read 14 tweets
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"Word processing" was the buzzword of 1971, according to the New York Times. It certainly changed the public view of computers and revolutionised how many of us work. So today in pulp I look back at the early days of the word processor.

"It looks like you're writing a letter..."
Writing even the simplest document is complex: composing, editing, spell-checking, formatting, version control, page numbering, printing, archiving... Automating even part of the process should lead to a productivity boom.
In 1964 IBM made a huge stride in this automation with the MT/ST system, combining a 'golfball' typewriter with a magnetic tape drive to create the first reusable storage medium for typed information. No more carbon copies: letters were now electronic.
Read 21 tweets
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Very excited to announce my Bracket Bracket!
Please sign up and make a prediction in my Bracket Bracket. It will be a stabilizing influence in a chaotic world. challonge.com/ih06n1k2
Previewing first round fights:

(parentheses) vs ⸦cusps⸧

Parentheses are all-timers. I don't know what cusps are but I respect their hustle.
Read 96 tweets
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1/ How will computation be affected by crypto?
2/ First, we have to see what is the underlying mechanics behind centralized and decentralized computing.
3/ The history of computers come from the inventor Alan Turing, who formalized a Turing machine, which means that theoretically this machine can calculate anything from a "program" which will execute its instructions from a "stored program"
Read 32 tweets

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