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Chris Aldrich

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Musings of a Modern Day Cyberneticist

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Text message with a Public Safety Message to prepare for potential emergency evacuation
We’re spending an hour to batten down the hatches and do some preparation (yet again) for another potential emergency evacuation in Altadena, CA. This one due to potential mud slides and debris flows expected in the Eaton Fire burn scar areas with impending heavy rains this afternoon. I suspect we’re probably reasonably safe  due to … Continue reading

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A beige colored copy holder made out of a bent piece of sheet metal stands next to a gray Royal KMG typewriter on a desk. The holder has a flat metal bottom that bends in a small loop at the bottom before shooting back up at an angle to hold papers for easy viewing while typing up one's notes. On this one there is a black binder clip holding an index card to the top of the holder.
I picked this copy holder up at a thrift store in early 2025 for about $2. Along with a binder clip or some small magnets, it’s great for transcribing notes using one of my typewriters.

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A gray Royal KMG typewriter on a felt mat sits on a table next to some index cards on one side and a purple bottle of nail polish remover (acetone), a brass bristle brush, and a toothbrush sitting on a blue-ink-stained paper towel on the other. A careful observer might see a black pin with a white moustache stuck to the front of the typewriter underneath the Royal badge.
Public Service Announcement: Here’s your gentle maintenance reminder to clean the slugs on your typewriter to keep your type fresh and crisp.

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A blue lacquerware index card holder full of index cards and a pen in the accompanying pen slot sits on a desk with several books and an oak card index.
I’ve been wanting a vintage desktop index card holder and pen set for a bit. This excellent version has a nautical theme featuring a ship with subtle blue lines on the sails and red rope lines that call to mind the red and blue lines on standard lined index cards. The fact that the blue … Continue reading

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A square black plastic punch with a white circular button sits on a wooden table next to an index card with a tab shaped hole punched out of it.
I had been considering getting a custom punch made several times, but never looked to see if one already existed commercially. Today, while doing a 5 minute peruse of the thrift store, there it was! When you use as many tabbed index card dividers as I do, this can be incredibly useful. It’s just the … Continue reading

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Sorry Ron, but that is more likely a late 40s Underwood SS than an Underwood 5. But I too want to type up every word I know.  

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Desk set up with a gray Royal KMG standard typewriter and a brown Royal HH. Next to the KMG is a cocktail glass with a yellowish whisky sour in it. In the background are two card index cabinets and a barrister bookshelf full of books. In the background we see three other typewriters.
Made up a new batch of homemade sugar syrup for the bar and realized I’d never typed up a recipe for the card index. Sorted…

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Index card with typewritten text: Hot take on artificial intelligence: Artificial intelligence is like someone "pouring out their zettelkasten" to answer a potential question. They might cover the surface level information, but there's rarely any considerable depth, engrossing insight, and never any honest humanity.

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Thinking about the current storage capacity of my card index collection, I made a back-of-the-index-card calculation:   172,000 index cards * 150 words / card [average maximum, using front only] * 1,200 bytes / 150 words [rough average with Unicode encoding] * 1 kb / 1024 bytes * 1MB/1024 kb = approximately 200 MB of text … Continue reading

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Two pillar brown crinkle painted fluorescent desk lamp with art deco design touches sits on an executive tanker desk next to an oak card index tray and a Big Ben clock.
On September 21st, I picked up this vintage lamp for my desk. It was a steal at $14.99 from the local thrift shop which doesn’t often have lamps at all. The brown crinkle paint is a near perfect match for my 1955 Royal HH standard typewriter. While a bit dusty and covered in decades of … Continue reading

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A bright room with a green steel table on top of which sits a 1950 gray Royal KMG typewriter, a two drawer Shaw-Walker oak card index and some papers and mathematics textbooks. Behind the table is a barrister's bookcase full of books, and two card index filing cabinets.
Today’s reading and writing space.

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Office set up showing a gray executive tanker desk with blue drawers and writing drawers. In the front is a brown Royal HH standard typewriter with a visually similar vintage brown metal desk lamp with art deco styling behind it. Off to the side is a box for and bottle of Isle of Sky 18 year old whisky with a double old fashioned glass nearby.
Tonight it’s a double pairing: first it’s the 1955 Royal HHE typewriter and an Isle of Skye 18 year old Scotch whisky and an almost perfect pairing of the Royal HH with my new (to me) brown vintage (1940s?) desk lamp with art deco styling. 

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Close up of a LEGO version of Wednesday Addams dorm room at Nevermore featuring a tiny black LEGO brick typewriter
For fans of the Juwel 3 typewriter that appears in the Netflix series Wednesday, there’s a tiny little simulacra in LEGO set 76781 Wednesday & Enid’s Dorm Room.  With the recent drop of the second season and Halloween around the corner, I was surprised to see the set on clearance at Target for about $30. 

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Fletch and his Royal HH Standard Typewriters

Fletch rolls a sheet of paper into the platen of a Royal HH standard typewriter at his office desk.
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

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A blue textbook with three crowns on the cover and a faded spine that reads Introduction to Hilbert Spaces sits on an oak library card catalog between a Royal KMG typewriter and a blue vase.
My textbook for Dr. Miller’s class Introduction to Hilbert Spaces: An Adventure In Infinite Dimensions has arrived.

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Typewritten index card which reads: Axxuy, Replying to your "post via email", while tempting, seemed absurdist given your topic at hand. So here I am typing up a response on my 1950 Royal KMG which I'll typecast via webmention on wy own website. Perhaps a bit of the old mixed in with the new? I've been enjoying your #blaugust series, particularly your #typewriter specific posts. Looks like you've got a nice little collection going over there. Keep up the good work! Best, Chris Aldrich / www.boffosocko.com

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I’m glad to see that I’m not the only IndieWeb person with webmentions on their site who’s writing about typewriters and typecasting. 

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I feel like I can call myself a real typewriter afficionado now. My new pen typewrwiter-pal Tom Hanks has written me a letter on some fascinating letterhead.

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Typewriter Walking and Singing: Improving Typewriter Performance with Mats, Pads, Rubber Feet, Felt, Recovered Platens, and More

A gray felted wool mat underneath a gray friezed bodied Royal KMG typewriter all sitting on a library card catalog.
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 Typewriter Performance with Mats, Pads, Rubber Feet, Felt, Recovered Platens, and More

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Dr. Miller has tipped me off that the suggested text for his upcoming course An Introduction to Hilbert Spaces will be:  Berberian, Sterling Khazag. Introduction To Hilbert Space. Oxford University Press, 1961. Reprint Literary Licensing, 2012. He’s not happy that it ignores measure theory as a means to introduce the Lebesque integral, so he’ll be … Continue reading

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It’s been a dog’s age, but I spent a few minutes this afternoon updating my Now Page. One of these days I might actually automate it…

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Introduction to Hilbert Spaces: An Adventure In Infinite Dimensions

Majestic green tree in front of the 3 story brick building that is part of the Math Sciences Building at UCLA
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 Spaces: An Adventure In Infinite Dimensions

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The Uses and Subtleties of the Line Indicator on a Typewriter

Close up of the typing point and line indicator of a Remington Standard typewriter. This line is fairly wide and shows at least 14 hash marks on each side.
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

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A black Corona flat top typewriter in the foreground with an index card reading "Wednesday Core" in it. In the background is a television playing season 2 of Wednesday on Netflix featuring Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams. It almost looks as if she's staring over to the Corona typewriter jealously.
True Wednesdaycore: Even Wednesday Addams is checking out my Corona flat top! Hey Thing! Wanna come over and type with me?

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Close up of the front of a cleaned vintage 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter
On Wednesday the 6th, I finished up most of the rest of the clean/oil/adjust of my new (to me) 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter. The carriage was probably more involved than the main body, though the main body seems to have made the most difference to have been cleaned out.  Surely there will be a … Continue reading

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Partially disassembled 1971 Olympia SG-3 typewriter on a wooden table with tools around it. In front of the naked typewriter is the removeable carriage
Tonight I spent about three hours disassembling and cleaning the carriage portion of my 1971 Olympia SG-3. I really love the fact that flipping two levers inside the shell allows the entire carriage to lift up and off for easier servicing.  The grinding/sticking I was originally getting mid-carriage was due to a piece of the … Continue reading

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Restoration of another 1950 Royal KMG standard typewriter

Hero view of a 1950 Royal KMG standard typewriter sitting on a library card catalog next to a bottle of gin and a penguin-shaped cocktail shaker
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

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A 1950 Royal KMG typewriter stripped down for servicing and cleaning. Parts and tools are arranged all over a large wooden table.
The hardest part about typewriter restoration is that you’ve got the machine taken apart and in pieces and you’re three-quarters of the way through cleaning it when you’re instantaneously struck with the irresistible desire to quit cleaning so you can rush it back together so you can type on it right now.

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A 1945 Royal KMM barn machine opened up on a dining room table surrounded by bubble wrap and boxes.
I’d purchased this in 2024 as a late Christmas present for myself, but it took several weeks to be delivered due to our neighborhood being closed off by the National Guard for the Eaton Fire. It finally arrived on January 23 in true “barn” condition. The carriage took a hit and is off about 1/2″ … Continue reading

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1950 Royal KMG standard typewriter viewed from the front
Back on March 7, 2025, I picked up my second Royal KMG for the pittance of $21. The first was in pica, but this one has my preferred elite/12 pitch size. Today I pulled it out of the office closet where it’s been waiting patiently since the Eaton Fire for some restoration attention. I acquired … Continue reading