As one description of this YouTube video suggests, those of us under 40 may not remember a world where book reports, term papers, and essays were written on typewriters. But I do. My Bar Mitzvah gift was a typewriter, a Smith Corona with a removable ribbon. At that time, removable ribbons were a great innovation. I later owned a Swintec that was state-of-the-art for its ability to erase up to a whole line of text! Now that was high tech (back then, anyways).
Have no doubt, typing was the most useful course I ever took. More useful than math, IP, or Civ Pro. There’s no substitute for being able to type with all your fingers rather than having to hunt-and-peck.
If you’ve never used an old-fashioned manual typewriter, you might not get the joke below.
RIP Doug Fieger, leader of 70s pop band The Knack, who died of cancer. The Knack wrote classic power pop tunes combining a gritty edge with a Beatlesque gloss, including classics My Sharona and Good Girls Don’t.
Like many teens learning to play guitar in the 70s, I spent far too many hours torturing my parents and neighbors with the riff from My Sharona (along with, of course, the obligatory Smoke on the Water).
Reuters reports that the High Court of Britain has ordered an injunction to be sent via Twitter:
Britain’s High Court ordered its first injunction via Twitter on Thursday, saying the social website and micro-blogging service was the best way to reach an anonymous Tweeter who had been impersonating someone.
The order will appear for the recipient the next time he or she logs into their Twitter account. According to Andrew Walker at Griffin Law, “Whoever they are, they will be told to stop posting, to remove previous posts and to identify themselves to the High Court via a web link form.”
UPDATE 10/4: Last night I read a great article on the dispute in Time Magazine about the dispute, which involves “Conservative blogger Donal Blaney and a Twitter imposter tweeting as @blaneysblarney,” who has allegedly been impersonating as Blaney. The article says:
in response to a petition filed by Blaney, the English High Court sent this “direct message” to @blaneysblarney via Twitter: “You are hereby ordered by the High Court of Justice to read and comply with the following order.” This was accompanied by a link to a web page containing the command to desist from the misleading tweeting. By clicking the link, the miscreant risks revealing his or her personal IP address, but Blaney realizes his shadowy opponent might not fall into this cunning trap.
