One Typed Page(onetypedpage.com)
onetypedpage.com
One Typed Page
https://onetypedpage.com/
29 comments
I cannot tell if this is trying to be funny or serious. Either way I found myself enjoying reading it.
I believe it's serious to the point he probably avoided using backspace while typing it.
Reads like Italo Calvino, nice.
Your last paragraph is both hilarious and beautiful.
I have a similar feeling when browsing on geminispace.
There's something about the rawness of the medium and the predominance of text, that feels like sitting down on a typewriter to write.
I've read the most random, weird, and wonderful things on gemini lately, which I would: a) not expect to find on the web anymore, or b) even if I did, I think I would have somehow walked past it completely. This is despite the fact that some of the content is mirrored in the normal web as well!
The last thing I read was this: gemini://jsreed5.org/math/20210922-the-geometry-of-the-trigonometric-maclaurin-series/index.gmi (ironically, it features images and math, so less of the 'typewriter feel' ... but still.)
Great stuff!
There's something about the rawness of the medium and the predominance of text, that feels like sitting down on a typewriter to write.
I've read the most random, weird, and wonderful things on gemini lately, which I would: a) not expect to find on the web anymore, or b) even if I did, I think I would have somehow walked past it completely. This is despite the fact that some of the content is mirrored in the normal web as well!
The last thing I read was this: gemini://jsreed5.org/math/20210922-the-geometry-of-the-trigonometric-maclaurin-series/index.gmi (ironically, it features images and math, so less of the 'typewriter feel' ... but still.)
Great stuff!
Interesting idea and presentation. Writing streaks at streak.club seem to be built around a similar idea: https://streak.club/streaks/writing
I like the idea of something like this that encourages you to start writing. It can be hard to get yourself to start creating. Having an easy outlet like this is a cool idea.
Site seems to have been hugged to death.. the about/ page here:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...
> Send us your page. Snap a picture with your phone. Each day I’ll post what I get. Send as often you want. But don’t just stop at one. If not for your benefit, then perhaps your page will inspire others to say yes to life. I won’t post your name. You can include it on the typed page if you want, but otherwise you’ll be anonymous.
> Send us your page. Snap a picture with your phone. Each day I’ll post what I get. Send as often you want. But don’t just stop at one. If not for your benefit, then perhaps your page will inspire others to say yes to life. I won’t post your name. You can include it on the typed page if you want, but otherwise you’ll be anonymous.
I feel like "Write a page on a typewriter" and "Snap a photo with your phone" are sort of at odds with each other here...
If I'm inclined to use a typewriter for writing, I'm probably anti-inclined to use a modern smartphone.
If I'm inclined to use a typewriter for writing, I'm probably anti-inclined to use a modern smartphone.
They are different tools for different purposes. I find typewriters helpful because they are slow and mistakes are costly. You really have to think about what you're going to say.
I also like having an amazing camera in my pocket that can send images across the planet.
But I use them for different things.
I also like having an amazing camera in my pocket that can send images across the planet.
But I use them for different things.
Hmm, I don't see "profound pain and melancholy" in the Anne Sexton picture. I see somebody happy to have a visitor. But I have not read her poetry.
What if I don’t have a typewriter? Am I excluded from participating? Can I just use Courier and print a page?
Maybe this is your sign to find a typewriter?
Typewriters are neat but I don’t like accumulating Stuff.
Coming soon: TaaS API. Don't own your own metal, rent it from the cloud. Get a block of text professionally typed on a classic typewriter and FedEx'd overnight.
AirKey&Key: Book a room with a typewriter in it
KeyLift: Someone will drive you a typewriter
Jammable: Instead of an actual typed page, you get a hosted JPEG of your typed page and an NFT
KeyLift: Someone will drive you a typewriter
Jammable: Instead of an actual typed page, you get a hosted JPEG of your typed page and an NFT
Alternate for KeyLift: http://type.taxi. You’re welcome.
AirKey&Key actually sounds kind of interesting. Rent a place that's set up as a writer's retreat. (I mean, that's not so different from Airbnb where you just bring you own laptop, but the idea seems interesting.)
Taking the We out of WeWork.
I mean, this would be doable if one happened to own a daisy wheel printer or IBM 2741 terminal (which is basically a Selectric typewriter plus the circuitry to turn it into a terminal), that would actually be pretty easy to set up.
Oh yeah I can totally see Lob adding this to their API as an April Fools thing.
There needs to a specific "up vote for humor" on HN.
The About page seems to indicate that submissions ought to be prepared on a physical typewriter.
Then yes, you're excluded. Printing a page of courier is missing the point.
Is there a FAQ or introduction to what this is about? I'm confused as to what this is.
The typewriter is the most unforgiving writing device known to man. There is no erasing, like on the computer. You can't just try out sentences willy-nilly and Backspace your way to something decent. When you inevitably make a mistake, a typo, or a bad turn of phrase, it's there, and even if you type something else over it, it'll always be there.
Paper has dimensions, which means paper has edges. Edges which your typewriter is happy to ignore until the moment when, looking up from your small black sailboat, you find them looming over you like the god-damn Cliffs of Dover. On the computer, whenever you find yourself playing margin chicken, your words get automatically teleported to safety. The machine does it every single time, magically, perfectly, trivially. Not so, with the typewriter. If you fail to ensure that the last word on a line really and truly fits there, or if you discover, too late, that a line break would've been real nice about two words in the past, well, there ain't no magic coming to kiss it all better. The responsibility, and the blame, is all on you.
What about the pen or pencil? You've got edges there too, and even worse, you have to draw all the letters using your knobbly, callused old fingers. You might think that writing with pen or pencil is primitive, repetitive, and exhausting, which is all true---but it also represents a form of writing that's nearly entirely free from constraints. It's so easy to write in whatever size letters you want. Whatever font. Whatever spacing. Even whatever color. Switch it up, or around, or back, according to your whims, your audience, or just the time of day. Draw diagrams. Make notes. Sign names. Use cursive, drop caps, small caps, big caps, triple underlines, and weird foreign accents. Anything you can imagine, dude. You're free.
In this day and age, anyone who writes on a typewriter is taking a stand. They're saying: Shackle me. I want to hear the chains clatter and feel the metal bite. I want to think, think, think about my words, and then I want to stamp them onto dead trees for the rest of living memory. I want to remember the old rituals, and commune with the ghosts of the past, and the present. I want to call back the remnants of the Golden Age and I want to hold them in my hands for just a moment. I want to do the hard thing, because it is hard, because I am hard.