Musings of a Modern Day Cyberneticist
Dr. Michael Miller, a retired researcher at RAND, has been teaching upper level undergraduate/graduate level math courses for fun at UCLA Extension for over 50 years. This fall he ll be introducing the areas of groups, fields, and Galois theory from abstract algebra to those interested in abstract math: Groups, Fields, and Galois: Part 1. His Continue reading Groups, Fields, and Galois: Part 1…
You just picked up a dusty, but somewhat functional Olympia SM3 and you know that you need to replace the rubber body bushings to prevent your carriage from hitting the body panels and scratching the paint job. The problem is that you ve got a lovely new-to-you typewriter in front of you, and you don t have Continue reading A Stopgap Repair Solution for Impatient New Olympia SM3 Typewriter Owners
Yesterday at the QWERTY Typewriter Festival in Carson, CA, Bryan Mahoney of The Typin Pint released Issue 01 of his new zine Clack! I ve just finished reading it this morning (from cover to cover, though I admit I haven t finished the crossword yet) and it is truly fantastic! There s so much to love inside its Continue reading Clack! Analog Attitude for the Digital Age Vol. 1 Summer 2026
Shohei Ohtani, a designated hitter and pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, is one of the biggest superstars in baseball right now. If you re Jose Siri on the Los Angeles Angels, you know that to get Ohtani out, you re going to need some serious notes on an index card to score the out. The problem Continue reading Jose Siri gets Shohei Ohtani out while using an Index Card in an MLB Baseball Game
The Stanley Kramer comedy classic film It s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (United Artists, 1963) has a handful of Royal KMG typewriters featured in the office settings at police stations throughout the film. The KMG was Royal s top-of-the-line office standard machine and was manufactured from 1949 to 1952 before being replaced by the Royal Continue reading The Royal KMG Standard Typewriters of It s a…
The question How do you use your typewriter(s)? pops up for me fairly frequently. Often it s collectors who love the machines and only think of using them for writing the Great American Novel . However there are a variety of tasks one could use them for besides conversation pieces or functional art in the home. Below Continue reading FAQ: How do you use your typewriters?
In reflecting on my own typewriter collection, I thought I d look through it to see how some of the models I gravitate toward compare to those others are collecting. As a potential proxy for this, I took a look at the most popularly collected typewriter models according to the Typewriter Database and compiled a list Continue reading Most Collected Typewriters on the Typewriter Database
Lately I ve been talking to a few people about book plates for book collectors who occasionally loan out their books. After the owner has died, these also become a part of the material culture and are used as provenance for future book collectors, librarians, and researchers. These discussions have overlapped in some recent typosphere events Continue reading Typewriter Plates for Collectors?
Coming up for the next few weeks, the Dan Allosso Book Club will focus on Harari, Yuval Noah. Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. New York: Random House, 2024. The first session will be on Saturday, March 14, 2026, and will recur weekly from 8:00 AM – 10:00 Pacific. Continue reading Book Club: Yuval Noah Harari s Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks…
Over the weekend I stripped down my 1956 Olympia SG1 and cleaned all the body panels thoroughly. I had taken out all the old foam, but I also removed the remaining loosened felt pieces. I flushed the internals out with lacquer thinner and blew everything out with the air compressor the following day. I replaced Continue reading Olympia SG1 Standard Typewriter Clean, Oil, and Adjust
Over the weekend I made a major push on beginning restoration of the Olympia SG1 standard typewriter I picked up this past month. One of the small issues I encountered was finding four crushed rubber bushings between the exterior typewriter shell and the main chassis at the four corners on the bottom of the machine. Continue reading Replacing the Body Shell Rubber Bushings on an Olympia SG1…
This nearly indestructible black and gray powder-coated 20 gauge steel constructed 8 drawer cabinet with art deco flourishes has 36 linear feet of storage space for over 2,000 Field Notes notebooks. This is enough space for over 83 years worth of subscription to the quarterly notebooks. Literally enough space for a lifetime of notes. Staple Continue reading The Deluxe Steelcase Field Notes…
As rubber replacement is one of the necessary and sometimes more finnicky parts of typewriter restoration, I thought it would be useful to write up the details of a small recent repair for others as well as my future self. Late last May, I did a full clean, oil, and adjust (COA) on my 1951 Continue reading Rubber Grommet Repair on Remington Super-Riters and Standards
Coming up for the next few weeks, the Dan Allosso Book Club will focus on Cesar Hidalgo s new book, out this month in the United States: Hidalgo, César A. 2026. The Infinite Alphabet: And the Laws of Knowledge. New York: Penguin. The first session will be on Saturday, February 21, 2026, and will recur Continue reading Book Club: César Hidalgo s The Infinite Alphabet and the Laws of Knowledge
For about 7 years Typewriter Muse has been operating out of a home-like space, but this weekend they opened a lovely brick and mortar location in Riverside, CA in a nice sized business park with plenty of Doris Day parking right out front. Their Instagram account has been documenting some of the move and set Continue reading Grand Opening of Typewriter Muse
Just a few hours ago, Faye shared some sad news. Most of us might only be able to recognize his voice, his patient hands, and his preference for lacquer thinner, but all of us are richer in typewriter knowledge because of Duane Jensen s kind sharing of his craft by way of his spectacularly helpful Phoenix Continue reading Rest in Peace: Typewriter Repair Legend Duane Jensen (August 21,…
As I m watching the Golden Globes, it s painfully obvious that it is missing some important analog representation. In an effort to remedy the error, shall we collect the nominations for Best Typewriter in a Movie or Television Series? (The only requirement for nomination is that the movie or television show was released in the 2025 Continue reading Golden Globes: Nominees for Best Typewriter in a…
New typewriter enthusiasts will very often post to Reddit, one of the Facebook typewriter groups or other similar fora, something along the lines of: I spotted this typewriter at an antique store. Good condition to buy? and include a picture of some generic typewriter. It bears mentioning and thoroughly understanding that even an expert typewriter Continue reading On Purchasing Typewriters:…
Someone recently mentioned to me that the small, portable 1,000 index card capacity cardboard box with lid that they use as a zettelkasten felt more like it was for deep storage rather than daily use. Perhaps it s a result of the fact that this is how most people have been using these cheaper cardboard boxes Continue reading A clever affordance of card index filing cabinet drawers
Dan Allosso has been hosting a regular book club since Autumn 2021, centered around sense making, note taking, and topics like economics, history, sociology, and anthropology. (See our list of past books to get an idea of topic coverage.) Our next iteration over the coming month or so will focus on Steven Pinker s most recent Continue reading Book Club: Steven Pinker s When Everyone Knows That…
The internet is now rife with what I call zettelkasten method one pagers that describe what many people rightly (or very often wrongly) think that Niklas Luhmann s zettelkasten method entails. While doing some research about Luhmann s numbering system s antecedents, I recently came across a one pager (typescript) written by Luhmann himself in the form of Continue reading Niklas Luhmann s…
Not surprisingly, I don t always file away my index cards as quickly as I probably ought to. Every now and then I go through my deck of unfiled cards and try to sort them into my card index/zettelkasten. The end of the year seems like a pretty good time to clear the decks. Because I Continue reading Filing Index Cards with a C-Line Document Sorter
Notebooks Product Sheet width (inches) Sheet height (inches) pages price Area sq. ft. $/sq. ft. Hobonichi A5 Graph 5.8 8.3 288 $23.00 96.3 $0.24 Leuchtturm 1917 A5 5.8 8.3 251 $25.95 83.9 $0.31 Moleskine Hard Cover 5 8.25 192 $20.00 55.0 $0.36 Travelers Notebook 4.3 8.3 128 $11.90 31.7 $0.38 4 x 6 inch Continue reading A comparison of A5 sized notebooks with 4 x 6 inch index cards on a cost per…
With no advance notice or apparent fanfare, Brodart, one of the major library supplies and furnishing companies in the United States, has quit manufacturing, distributing, and selling library card catalogs and library charging trays. This seems sad news for analog library enthusiasts coming just two days after Melvil Dewey s 174th birthday on December 10th. I ve Continue reading Breaking News:…
Dr. Michael Miller, a retired researcher at RAND, has been teaching upper level undergraduate/graduate level math courses for fun at UCLA Extension for over 50 years. This winter, he ll be introducing hypercomplex numbers to those interested in abstract math: Fundamentals Of Hypercomplex Numbers. His courses are thorough and rigorous, but geared toward lifelong learners and beginners Continue…
In preparing for some of my end-of-the-year review from my card index, I thought it would be interesting to choose the Best Note of the Year . Then it thought it might be worth choosing a Best Insight , Most Surprising Note , and a Best Folgezettel as well. And if you re going to give out an award, Continue reading Zettel of the Year Awards
“Like a jam session for people who like typewriters. You had unions do sit-ins and hippies do be-ins, so I thought, ‘We’ll do a type-in.’” —Michael McGettigan, 56, bike shop owner who coined the phrase With attendees from 8 months old to over 80, our Spring type-in was so successful, we re hosting another one before Continue reading You re Invited to Another Southern California Type-In!
It s really an over-asked question: What do you use your typewriter for?. (tl;dr: writing). To make things more interesting and entertaining in the middle of the week, let s turn it on its ear and ask only for the wrong answers today. Whether it s use in food preparation: Throw a slab of steak into the segment Continue reading How do you use your typewriter? [Wrong Answers Only Edition]
I noticed that just like Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein in All the President s Men, Chevy Chase portraying the titular Fletch (Universal Pictures, 1985) has a Royal HH typewriter not only at his Santa Monica apartment, but he also has a matching one at his office at the Los Angeles Globe. Fletch s Apartment Office Fletch s Continue reading Fletch and his Royal HH Standard Typewriters
The Walking Typewriter It s a very common complaint/worry/issue when people new to the typewriter world get their first machine and realize that as they re typing, their typewriter slowly moves or walks across the work surface upon which they re typing. It s often easy enough to just move it back to center and continue on, but when Continue reading Typewriter Walking and Singing: Improving…
Looking for some serious entertainment with an intellectual bent on Tuesday nights this fall? Professor Michael Miller has got you covered in multiple dimensions. Dr. Miller has now listed his mathematics offering for Fall 2025 at UCLA Extension. It s Introduction to Hilbert Spaces: An Adventure In Infinite Dimensions (MATH 900). As always, it will be Continue reading Introduction to Hilbert…
The Useful Line Indicator The metal bar often with either grooves or embossed with white lines or in later century models the clear plastic Perspex card guides often with pre-printed white or red lines and/or hash marks on either side of the a typing point are called the line indicator. The line it suggests is Continue reading The Uses and Subtleties of the Line Indicator on a Typewriter
On Thursday, I broke down my recent Royal KMG typewriter for a full clean/oil/adjust. I spent some time cleaning most of the removed body panels and auxiliary parts. Yesterday, in the cool of the morning I blew it out and flushed it with mineral spirits. Then re-assembled it all. I oiled and adjusted most of Continue reading Restoration of another 1950 Royal KMG standard typewriter
During my evacuation from the Eaton Fires, I picked up this 1957 Royal FPP on March 5, 2025, for $31.00. Apparently it had been previously owned by Luke Legg. While it was in somewhat workable shape, it needed a massive clean out. It may be one of the dirtiest machines I ve cleaned up so far. Continue reading 1957 Royal FPP Standard Typewriter Restoration
I often see people asking questions about the value of vintage typewriters. Questions like: Is it really worth $550 to buy a clean, oiled, and adjusted typewriter from a repair shop? What about the cheap typewriters I see for $20-50 on Facebook Marketplace? Are they any good ? What s with the dramatic difference in prices? Am Continue reading Typewriter Repair Costs and Valuation: Professional…
We often see typewriter cases and/or simple typewriter covers and people will post photos of how they display typewriters, but I saw a clever method on Saturday at a local type-in in Southern California. Aaron Therol of Typewriter Connection brought along a signed Voss from Tom Hanks collection which included a sturdy green canvas typewriter Continue reading Tom Hanks ingenious custom typewriter…
Caveat Emptor One of the biggest of the very few companies still manufacturing typewriters in the new millennium is the Shanghai Weilv Mechanism Company. Sadly, for the hobbyist space looking to get into typewriters, while these are easy to find online, they are notorious for dreadful quality control, lots of plastic, and poor type alignment. Continue reading The Typewriter You Probably Don t Want…
Two common questions I hear from those just starting out into the typewriter space are frequently about the basics: How do I use a typewriter? How to take care of typewriters or do basic maintenance? Naturally there is a ton of colloquial advice you ll receive on these topics from social media and YouTube, but it s Continue reading Typewriter Use and Typewriter Maintenance for Beginning to…
Recently Paulo philosophically asked me, a typewriter collector, Why another typewriter? I haven t been able to find an answer yet. (My attempt at a translation/synopsis from his Portuguese.) In addition to answers from the collector s perspective, bonus points for answers that are also directed to answering this question which comes from your significant other who Continue reading Why Another…