The IBM Selectric is one of the most fascinating mechanical/electrical devices on the planet.


Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOIPN70f_-I

Can you imagine an office full of those all going at once?

The old Remington mechanical I had in the early 1970s, I don't know how old it was then, but it had no keys for the numeral 1 or an exclamation point. You typed the lower-case l for 1 and made the exclamation point by typing a period, backspacing and typing an apostrophe over it.

Just took this test online. Im doing 52wpm laying on the couch. Probably do 60 or so if I was sitting at a desk.

http://typing-speed-test.aoeu.eu/

quote:

Originally posted by walker77:
Just took this test online. Im doing 52wpm laying on the couch. Probably do 60 or so if I was sitting at a desk.

http://typing-speed-test.aoeu.eu/

Ha, I'm slowing down... only 43 wpm but no miss cues so I'm good with that.

BTW, both my kids learned from doing the Spongebob Squarepants Typing program...

quote:

Originally posted by walker77:
Just took this test online. Im doing 52wpm laying on the couch. Probably do 60 or so if I was sitting at a desk.

http://typing-speed-test.aoeu.eu/

That's about what I got.

Like so many other have already said, I took typing class in High School to pick up girls (it worked for that!) and found it to be very useful in later life.

My daughter never learned touch typing, but is far faster typing with her two fingers than I am with all ten.

I guess that, for me, typing class was better for date making than data entering.

I get by, but I certainly wouldn't be hired for efficient typing. I always look at the keyboard but I have this system that incorporates four fingers of the right hand and three fingers of the left hand. Not very efficient, but a significant step up from when I hunted and pecked with two figures. Like my NAVSPECWAR Boat Captain used to say... I'm an operator not an administrator.

When I took type in 9th grade, I could type faster than an IBM element could rotate or return. My teacher couldn’t figure out what was going on my papers until he watched me one day. Playing the piano made a big difference.

I tyypod prffdtty weefffif iffinn kno bgun hurrdee.

Took typing class in HS, golf coach was the teacher. I remember I sat next to gorgeous twin girls, I remember the three of us always competing. Good times. I know if I saw them today we'd all be "hey how's your GWAM!?"

Also remember getting on the IBM Selectric's at my dad's "office" anytime we were over there on a Sunday. Used to go nuts on those things.

Single finger, hunt and peck. No formal training.
Adequate but that's all.

Mostly "hang ten"

Some special characters still require looking, although not as much "require" as opposed to actually being faster re "risk v reward."

As in it is faster for me to pause and look and special characters sometimes as opposed to hitting the backspace and editing.

<strike>Petty slopy<strike>
<strike>Quite srowly<strike>
Not fast, nerve damage in right index finger.

As a high school freshman, I could do 49 wpm on a Royal manual typewriter. A few years later, while still in HS, I had an after school job working at one of the Philly hospitals. While waiting for my grandmother who worked in the X-ray medical records department, she asked if I could type up some medical record cards for her. When they saw how fast I was on an IBM electric, I was offered a job as a medical typist/transcriber. I turned down the offer. I didn't want to be stuck in a room full of women, plus I was dating one of the typists.

Typing was one of the most useful courses I took in high school. At the time it felt a little bizarre, but since then QWERTY and I are good friends.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
Not very well. I'd say somewhere between the touch and hang-ten. I can find the letters mostly without looking but still make quite a few mistakes. I learned my relatively pitiful skills around high school age, on a manual typewriter. Words per minute? No idea.

I was one of 2 boys in my high school class that took typing. Peaked out at 60 WPM on manual machines.

Brought me a number of benefits when I was in the army. Got me into commo work when I was assigned to Combat Command HQ to work teletype.

That led to commo school to learn morse code, etc.

I often hit wrong keys on my PC keyboard, due to its restricted size. I.e. smaller.

I learned to type back in the early '80s at a summer school class as a way to bring my high school grades up. My handwriting is so nasty, that I was losing points, so I learned to type so that my work would be neat.

From there, I transitioned to a computer (DEC Rainbow 100), and now I type for a living.

Funny thing: back when I learned to type, it wasn't a popular skill to have if you were going to be a professional. You had an assistant for that.

One woman I know went to the University of Chicago and got an MBA. When she was interviewing with a Wall Street investment bank for a job, she was asked if she knew how to type. Her answer was "I type, and I fuck, but I don't do either for money. Next question?"

She got the job.

Touch typist with a decent keyboard, but texting on my cell phone it's one-finger-hunt-and-peck. My fingers are too fat to use more than one at time, and fuggitabout the (admittedly pretty fast) two-thumbs method that all the kids seem to use.

I just remembered another benefit of taking typing in high school. I worked as a company clerk when I was between schools in the army.

Learned in middle school because we were forced too. Wanted to do anything on the computer, you had to pass the typing test first. Stupid little cardboard cover to keep you from looking at the keys.
Hated that class, but it was one of the few things I did in school that was actually useful.