Staving off the universe heat death.
This is all very nice, but what if someone would like to try making art with all these fancy ballpoint pen refills without buying an expensive Italian-made pen or spending hours in an office supplies store trying to look for the least-rattly one? There is one more interesting hack-like solution to this - using a clutch pencil (or a lead holder as these are called in Japan).
In one of the first articles of this series - exploring various weird and retro writing devices - I mentioned the Pomera DM30 as may go to distraction-free mobile word processor. Even though this device is not exactly retro - it was made as recently as 2018 - it is unique and worth further delving… Continue reading Retro Writing 13 – the Pomera DM30
In my wanderings through machines that can be used as dedicated, retro-distraction-free writing devices, I had already gone into a few quite forgotten places. I'm fascinated by machines that I was not able to try because, in their hay day, I was just a kid with for whom his AMIGA 500 was everything. This time,… Continue reading Retro Writing 12 – The Panaword
The device I'm trying to use in this part of this retro writing series of articles is genuinely unique. I knew I had to try it out as soon as I saw it on the Japanese second-hand goods website I usually frequent. A small format, portable, personal word processor with a built-in printer! This should… Continue reading Retro writing 11 – Casio HW-300JS
First, let me explain really quick what an AlphaSmart is. If you, like me, search around the internet for distraction-free writing devices, you will surely find the long line of AlphaSmart word-processing keyboards made by a USA-based company between 1993 and 2007. These were conceptually very simple – a keyboard with a small LCD that… Continue reading Retro Writing 10 – AlphaSmart DANA
Even though the NEC Mobilegear has some downsides, it's still my favorite go-to mobile writing device mainly because of its compatibility with file formats and just how dully usable the Windows CE system is. Thus, I was delighted to spot online a cute portable printer that can be used with Windows CE 3.0 and wirelessly… Continue reading Retro Writing 09 – printing on the go.
I have been interested in the Psion family of mobile computers for quite some time already. I even imported the most famous one, the Psion 5mx, all the way from England to test how well it fared as a distraction-free writing device, explore it and write an article about it. Even though I ended up selling… Continue reading Retro Writing 08 – Psion 3mx
In my quest for interesting writing devices, I often turn to retro PDAs and old computers just because I finally can lay my hands on devices that, as a kid, I could only marvel at in computer magazines. I also think it's good to breathe new life into obsolete and unused machines so we can… Continue reading Retro writing 07 – the DevTerm
One of the things that inspired me to look at old computers as cool and exciting tools for writing texts was Neil Gaiman typing one of his novels on an old Atari Portfolio Palmtop. However, the second one was Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin admitting to still using a DOS program Word Star 4.0 to write his… Continue reading Retro writing 06 – HP palmtops
The first retro writing device I bought was the small clamshell PDA made by Casio, called the Cassiopeia A-51. I did it because I read somewhere that Neil Gaiman typed up one of his earlier books on an early portable Atari computer (Atari Portfolio). I wanted to try something similar. Now, even though I already have… Continue reading Retro writing 05 – Mobile Gear.
Art vs. Entropy 