Full-On Loafing

I'm on vacation, enjoying the final hours of 2014, and being surprised that we're in the final hours of 2014. There's no Christmas quite like one spent with a young child in the house, and there's no holiday quite like one spent after a rather stressful and anxious year. This was the year of gaining perspective. Next year: a new outlook on life. I'll write more about that in the months to come.

Now I'm loafing around the house like a complete champion, wrapped in blankets, watching too much TV and eating too many cookies, playing Small World and only occasionally being productive by pulling out my AlphaSmart due to persistent goading from certain nameless parties. I'll be back in adult society next week and slumping around online again and generally making a nuisance of myself.

Stay comfy, Typosphere, according to the meteorological dictates of your hemisphere. Put your feet up and enjoy a refreshing warm or cold beverage of your choosing. Say farewell to 2014, and I'll see you in the new year.

Hemingwhat?

So have you seen the Hemingwrite? Here's a rendering:




 In a nutshell:

• "Mechanical" keyboard (meaning using switches like the coveted IBM Model M)
• e-ink screen
• Aluminum body
• Aiming for 6-week battery life
• Magic hand-waving about saving to the cloud (Google Docs, Evernote?) over WiFi

Knowing my gadgetry predilections, my well-meaning family keeps emailing me stories about this mockup/prototype/thingus.

My honest take: I don't like it.

Or more specifically, I don't like what it touts itself to be: some kind of a return to the "simplicity of a 90s era word processor" (their words.) Really, I think it's just trying too hard, like the highly-priced reproductions of vintage technology from Restoration Hardware. It's just so... twee. And I remember the word processors of the 90s, and they were far from simple. Disk drives, endless functions and modes and styles and so on. Hateful things.

But why stop at the 90s? Why not go back another decade or so? What's that old quote about failing to learn from history?



Tandy Model 100





Cambridge Z88/Sinclair Z88


And of course the modern incarnation, evolved from decades of being in the single-purpose device market. A market that has shrunk drastically, alas.



This is a well-worn path, and I'm just a shade skeptical of the Hemingwrite, if it ever comes to pass at all. Six weeks of battery life, you say? Yeah... maybe. The Neo claims about 700+ hours on AA batteries, with no WiFi on board. Oh, and it's light, durable, and dead simple.

But maybe Hemingway would have thrived on a more high-tech typewriter? Ruben Bolling speculates...

(click to read on Boing Boing)

Impermanence

Written with a Moleskine 2B pencil.

Alpha Omega?

While littering up the Nano 2013 site with my usual Rhino-based nonsense, I came across something in the AlphaSmart subforum that gave me pause. I checked it out, and the rumors are true:

We have reached the end of our NEO 2 inventory, and we will no longer be producing any additional units—but this isn’t goodbye.

File this under "I knew this day would come and I'm surprised it took this long." Yes, Renaissance Learning née AlphaSmart has ended U.S. production of the Neo 2, which I suppose makes it the final model of the line. For all the mock-rivalry between the Typewriter Brigade and the AlphaSmart Nano groups, I am truly sad about this news. I'm a Neo owner myself, after all, having traded in my pimped-but-battered Pro model last summer. It's become central to our homeschooling with my middle child, and I'm actually concerned about taking it away for the month of November as I attempt a multi-device Nano.

The AlphaSmart was and is a wonderful piece of single-purpose technology: durable, inexpensive, highly portable, and doggedly compatible with thirty years' worth of computing devices through the alchemy of cables and adapters. Their market niche has been eroded, though, through the advent of netbooks and (now) full-featured tablets that can be had at the same price point. Add in a $30 Bluetooth keyboard and you have a passable substitute that's also 'Net connected. What could be finer?

Of course that's just audience-baiting on this blog. I don't believe for a moment that a keyboard-and-tablet solution is an acceptable replacement. AlphaSmarts have always been praised for their insanely long battery life and their utter simplicity and utility. It's the modern typists' portable typewriter, a Lettera for a new age, and now, like its inky mechanical predecessors, it's been obsoleted. At least it's in good company.

Electric ITAM

This is largely just a test entry, hooking up my AlphaSmart to the new tablet via the infamous slow-boat "USB to go" adapter. Now I feel like I've gotten the best of both worlds -- a proper keyboard, a portable screen -- and more importantly, that I'm able to get some real use out of this device. After a couple of days of use, I can say definitively that the software keyboard is barely enough for pecking out a short reply, much less attempting a blog post or (eventually) a story edit. I'm well-pleased.

I keep holding out for an ITAM miracle, perhaps once the dust settles from my role as the track team organizer, but truth is, I'm still in a happy holding pattern with the machines I've got. I wouldn't be sad if the local Goodwill discounted the SM9 that's lurking behind the registers, but I won't go out of my way to scoop it up, either. Last time I let my heart rule my head at that store, I bought a (highly regrettable) Royal travel typer that's high on looks and low on usability. Never again.

I'm trying to keep up my regular library trips, too. I've settled into making it a weekly walk during Friday lunch. Per my recent "Hello World" post, I picked up a book on Android programming, and started in on the examples. I still felt a bit at sea, though, so I was well-pleased to find another title geared more at the novice this past Friday. Learning a computer language and system is, I suspect, like learning a foreign language, though I've never been able to master the latter, as years of dubious French tests will attest. It helps to gt immersed, and to have a goal -- like spoke and written language, computer code has its own grammar and idioms, and you tend to fumble around a bit before being passably competent. Now I think I'm in a better position to learn. My goal is to work up some kind of edit-facilitating tool, to let me write and track revisions of my Nano story, though at this point I may just find a decent text editor to allow me to get the thing done. I'll try not to bather on too much about it in the future.

Finally, I'm making an effort to read War and Peace because, I don't know, this is a thing that people do? My wife read it back in school ages ago (her advice: "Skip through the 'Peace' parts") but it's all new to me. Except for my general lack of competence with following character names and places -- and oh, the Russian names -- I'm doing pretty well. Over 300 pages down! Only 900-odd pages to go. I'm reading that on my eBook reader, which is far more reasonable (I think) than wrestling with a bound print edition. It may look lovely on the shelf, but I don't know if I have the upper body strength to hold the thing up comfortably in bed. Like this keyboard hookup, I'm not scared to let technology in the door, as long as it pulls its weight.

Typed and revised on a Neo2 - Nexus 7 combo

Dark Horse the Second: the Neo Nano Rhino

As much as I tease AlphaSmart users at this time of year



...I appreciate the combination the pure functionality, durability, and simplicity of the AlphaSmart. This summer I traded in my old Pro model (c. 1987) for the latest, a Neo2, which brings with it the added advantages of on-board USB, two-way file transfers, proportional and scalable fonts, and keys that don't require ball-peen force to trigger. I've used it on and off, and plan to make it my main revision machine for 2012's ever-growing opus.

Today, it got pressed into service as a drafting device, too.



My wife came down with a sudden bout of stomach something-or-other this morning, and since our younger kids are home-schooled, she had to put in for a last-second substitute teacher, which is... me. The Neo has been hopping room to room with me today (sans Rhino), picking up some words whenever the kids sit down to get a lesson done. It's infinitely more portable than all but the slimmest travel typewriters, without all the distracting pecking and bell-ringing that would pull my darlings off-task.

The only downside is that it's so damned easy to count words with a simple keystroke, so I'm trying to not obsessively to that every. Single. Line. (Trying and failing, obviously.) Today's wordcount is going to falter a bit -- yes, Duffy, I hear your snorts of derision, settle down -- but hopefully my Brigadier Cred will remain intact.

The New Kid

It's here! That was pretty much the reaction when I saw the big brown UPS truck pull up outside my house on Monday evening and drop off my new toy, this Neo2 (nee Alphasmart) which I'd traded in my old Pro model for. Rather kindly, the folks at Renaissance Learning threw in a sizable case free of charge, with various pockets and pen loops and things with which to tote the new gadget. To be perfectly honest, though, it's a bit of overkill, as this is an incredibly light, and relatively small device: much slimmer than the old Pro, and having the benefit of 25 years of technological development behind it in terms of a nicer LCD screen with proportional fonts, a very quiet and light touch, and the classic near-infinite battery life. It is as close to a portable typewriter replacement as you are likely to get these days.

I've already started redoing the novel that I dictated back in June, and although I'm not able to type as quickly as I can speak, I also can type far more reliably, and away from the main computer. I managed to knock a few paragraphs out last night in the bedroom, for example, far from the confusion of our kitchen after dinner. Already I'm pleased with the purchase.

My loyalties still lie with the Typewriter Brigade come November, of course, as I'm still hooked on marking up a physical written draft, and appreciate the permanence of a typed page compared to the nebulous nature of bytes, even those constructed on a device as reliable as this one. I did make one recent concession, though, and buckled down and bought a copy of Scrivener, after reading the countless accolades online from various amateur writers. Since I already do quite a bit of pre-organizing and am typing on paper, some of the tools meant to aid in drafting may not be as useful to me, but just going through the tutorial has shown me how I might use it to my advantage for rewrites. As nice as the Neo is for writing, it is still not a viable solution for large-scale edits -- nor was it meant to be -- and it's difficult to get a "big picture" view of my writing through a 5- or 6-line window of text.

Typed on a Neo2

The Magic Touch

Safe travels, old friend. We typed many a word together!



A tip to any other AlphaSmart-hackers out there... Kryon plastic paint does all right, but it's still not optimal for this application. Very soon after this picture was taken, areas of paint started to rub off from the frequent contact with my hands. Either prime first and/or sand the plastic and/or use another product (like vinyl dye?) to personalize your Alphie. I'm leaving the new one alone.



What brought this sudden turnabout on was the fact that I won* Camp Nano this summer, by pulling a Kobayashi Maru and declaring that "winning" meant "transcribing my already-written 2011 NaNoWriMo draft The Ballad of Congo Willy." I'd done some small-scale tests of the Dragon Dictate software before with some success, so it seemed reasonable for me to read the draft into the computer, tackling each day's worth of typing into a day's worth of speaking.

Sadly, me reading my novel aloud into perfectly-digitized prose was not in the cards for a number of reasons:

1. It annoyed my wife for a month, since I was in front of the main computer all the time, which meant I was sitting in the kitchen, shushing people as they tried to go about the business of cooking, cleaning, or just walking through the house.
2. The draft is very rough in spots, and I wasn't sure what to do about it. Revising as you talk isn't an option, honestly. I eventually gave up trying to fix as I talked, and just read everything.
3. Horrible, horrible performance anxiety, if one can get such a thing sitting in one's own kitchen, reading a nasty draft into the computer. I, apparently, can.

Basically, I rushed through the reading so I could be done quickly, and so I could squeeze it in while I knew I'd be alone and not mortified that someone might overhear parts of the draft-in-process. That, coupled with my already shady diction, lead to winning sentences like this one appearing on screen:

For just a 2nd I caught a glimpse of someone else, dressed in gray, questionable or small tables traces of Honda wafted through the air.

What is this I don't even.

Worse yet, I realized that I want the main story to be written in present tense, not past tense. That means a stem-to-stern rewrite. And that means digging out the Pro... or choosing a replacement. And as much as I mockingly bad-mouth AlphaSmarts during NaNoWriMo, they have the same dead-simple operation and no-distraction philosophy as the typewriter. (And the 700 hour battery life kicks complete butt, too.)

Most importantly, Mrs. Clickthing approved of the trade-in deal (she who scored our trio of AlphaSmart Pros in the first place.) It's not Another Damn Typewriter coming into our house, after all, despite her enabling ways.

We'll see if the Neo 2 has the magic touch.

Feeling Blue?

I'm back and somewhat rested after my milestone weekend, and among the many projects I tackled this weekend, I set out to finally distinguish my AlphaSmart Pro from the other two Pros we have kicking around the house. You might remember it from a post not that long ago:



You can see that I put a sticker on mine to keep it sorted out. Despite their age, the Pros see some use in our house, especially my son's. He needs a distraction-free place to type up essays and reports, and given the temptations of a wireless Internet household, the AS fits the bill.

Screwdrivers in hand, I set to disassembly. My digital camera ate a few pictures I had taken of the guts sitting on the table, but this is the one that matters: the three parts of the case with all electronics taken out and all stickers (and rubber feet) removed. (Tip: a hairdryer is great for softening up sticker glue.)



All shelled with the electronics set aside, it was time to take paint in hand and try it out. But first, a message of positivity from the AlphaSmart builders of yore:



Yes, let's hope so! I used a product called "Krylon Fusion" this time instead of the fabric/vinyl dye I used from my typewriter spray-job. I'm unsure about the Krylon. It certainly does stick to plastic as advertised, without priming or any prep beyond just cleaning. And the color choice is much broader. I went with blue: my favorite color, and one that would hopefully look good against the light grey keys of the Pro and the charcoal background. Things looked good as it dried in the garage...



...and still better after drying overnight.



Mercifully, I didn't zap anything when I had it apart, and the Pro started up like a champ, even retaining all my files (which I had backed up first, naturally.) I like the color, and now I've got a temptingly empty rectangular space on the bottom where the old sticker used to be that calls out for decoration... perhaps my free souvenir bumper sticker from the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot. I still think the vinyl dye went on thinner and feels less "painted plastic" to me when held, although it's possible that I just laid on a thicker coat of paint this time. My wife's already looking to get hers customized, so I'm sure I'll get more practice soon.

I'm pleased with the results, especially with the ease that everything came apart and went back together. It's like the AlphaSmart was made to be customized.

What kind of artsy stuff have you been up to?

At the Half

Page-and-day-wise, I just crossed the halfway point in my NaNoWriMo 2009 transcription, a mere (counting on fingers) four and a half months after finishing the draft in the first place. And I still consider this the "beginning" of the story, which either means I've rushed the back half, or hopelessly padded the front, or both, most likely.

Slow and steady, slow and steady... but mostly just slow.



I'm trying to complete it before the expiration date for the "free proof copy" offer occurs, because I'd like to actually see this once through to completion. This may have to wait until 2011 for the 2010 offer, though. At least I'm planning ahead.

Anyone else making slow headway on a creative endeavor? I could use some cheerleading and/or mutual support.

The Redline Club

Oh Brother, I'm Gonna Dye

I passed on this one at first, but after very little convincing, it came home in the end, as I'm sure you knew it would. But now, there's a twist.

Inspired by Alpha-Smartie Vance Fry, I'm going to try my hand at giving this old Brother a makeover. You can sort of tell from my photo: some of that yellow is the color scheme and some... well, some is not. It could be tobacco, or age, or a combination of both.

I considered trying my hand at mixing up a batch of Retr0Bright to bleach the colors back into newness, but honestly, I have no desire to do this. That yellow... that brown... it's time for it to go.

There's not a lot of color choices available in off-the-shelf vinyl dyes -- I could also choose black, beige, or a buffed silver -- but looking at those red keys got me thinking that this little machine wants more than a life of blah. So, red it shall be. Take a good long look, because that color scheme is going to dye.

• My discussion topic on flickr's AlphaSmart group
  

Welcome to the Club

• Is AS badly hurting RenLearn's bottom line? (discussion on flickr)

RIP?

Tennish, anyone?

Temporal note: "today" and "tonight" actually mean "yesterday" and "last night" since I post-dated this blog post. So not really now, but then.

Related photos:

The setup at home:


The wife's typer this year: