My website has been hobbling along for about two weeks now. Sadly I ve either been away or too under the weather to clean things up. Hopefully a bit of work this morning has improved things. We ll see how stable things are going forward. This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich
Wiped off the worst of dust and grime on the exterior of my 1936 Royal KHM standard typewriter. Cleaned up the carriage a bit and did a light oiling. Cleaned out the paper tray and platen area. Spooled up some new ribbon. After a few quick tweaks, this typewriter is now at least minimally usable. This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich
This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich
TIL: Moon+ Reader Pro has RSVP technology hiding in it s settings! This is going to dramatically help my inspectional reading this year. This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich
I ve just noticed that Zotero update 7.0.31 added specific fields for Original Place, Original Publisher, and Original Date for books. Even better, the books for which I had defined an Original-date in the Extra section automatically sucked in that data and updated my database! Good work development team! This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich
Because I often buy index cards in tranches of 5,000 to 10,000 at a time, I ve noticed that Oxford recently dropped their brick of 500 4 6 index cards to $6.47, a new low for the past year when they ve generally been hovering in the $8.50-9.50 range. As a competitive move, Amazon has dropped their competing brick This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich
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 This post was originally published on Chris…
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 This post was originally published on Chris…
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 This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich
In part because of the Eaton Fire, I ve been way behind on filing my index cards. Today I blew through a massive stack of about 300 index cards! This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich
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 This post was originally published…
Brodart has recently discontinued their salmon card index cards with pre-drilled holes #23-188-218. This has been a shift since the summer of 2025, though they re still carrying the standard salmon index cards (without predrilled holds for card catalog rods). A conversation with their customer service team seems to indicate there aren t plans for discontinuing their This post was originally…
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 This post was…
I now have definitive written proof of a numeric indexing system (delineated in a popular textbook for secretaries, and published by a company which did significant business in Germany) from the mid-1920s with increasingly more detail into the 1940s and a fifth edition published in 1950. It s exactly like, but notably predates, Niklas Luhmann s alphanumeric This post was originally published on…
While digging about in indexing and filing systems, I ran across this chart created by the Oxford Filing Supply Company for a special Filing Supplies section of the May 1934 issue of Office Appliances magazine (Volume 59, Issue 5). It delineates the broad characteristics of most of the major commercially available filing systems of the This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich
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, This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich
This has been one of my favorite events for the past two years, and after a rough 2025, this is a great way to cap off the year. Even better, Tantek has already suggested a session on card catalogs that s right up my alley: https://indieweb.org/2025/SD#Session_ideas. This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich
Watching people online chat, ask questions, and generally get excited about their planners for 2026, I thought I would spend a few minutes to set up my Memindex-inspired planner version using 4 x 6 index cards and tabbed dividers. It s amazing how useful a $2.50 block of 500 index cards can be for planning out This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich
“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 This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich
You know a typewriter is being used as flimsy filler decoration when it s sitting on a shelf and simultaneously serving as a book support. A real writer s typewriter is free and clear so that the carriage can move its full length. This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich