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this is absolutely insane for the amount of cross-discipline skill required

27:40 With the noise of this typewriter, the expression "speaking like a machine gun" finds its original and real meaning. Very good work. Thank you for making us discover the computer of the origins before the terminals with screens.

Excellent video! Exactly the information I was searching for. I have had the idea to acquire and convert an IBM Selectric II for the past 20 years, and now I found a working one for sale.

If you're going to browse the internet with this setup, you'd need a line printer, like an IBM 1403.

Your understanding of mechanics and mechanical engineering on top of programming for fun and combining systems and devices is fabulous stuff. "I didn't read the manual" lol! Bet you were busy reading schematics. The slow motion of the typing sphere is satisfyingly funny to me. Very impressive project!

Fascinating. I'm 54 and my dad used to work at IBM as an accountant, so as a child I got to see those first huge computers that took up a whole wall, the ones that used punch cards to interface with them, you know? Years after I also remember when he had a terminal at his office that was connected to the main computer, I guess, I was too young to understand. Him and his work mates used to refer to their terminals as "my machine" , as in "send the info to my machine" lol , crazy stuff. It was kind of a typewriter connected to a black and green text screen. Years after he did have a laptop to do part of his work on, which he still refered to as "my machine" lol Of course this meant my brother and I had computing lessons very young, at like 13 or 14 (around 1983), starting with Cobol, Logo and Basic. Also in those years we would work there in the summers doing stock inventory, which meant going through trays of boxes with replacement parts and counting the parts to confirm what the hand written card accounted for, like these tiny black grease covered springs which would have like "134" on the card, which meant you had to count the tiny springs and confirm there were 134 of them, or not. lol Not weird that my brother and I both ended up working in technology, him in Usability and me in web design and development. There was another summer job I never got to do (I think they gave it to older kids) which was "scrapping" - I think it was called - which was taking a sledgehammer and trashing the sht out of unsold computer screens and other stuff!! Everyone wanted to get to do that! lol Good memories. Fun video! Cheers from Chile.

25:38 Obviously those unintentional characters are to show that IT IS ALIVE.

15:11 I didn't read the manual....lol

12:20 IBM computer keyboards were the best! that feel, that typing sound.....!

Nice. my father is a Electricain and this is kinda fun tbh. a geiger counter

Well done on the repair. I repaired a Lionel made unit last year and it was a heck of a job getting it working reliably. Someone had dropped it and the PCB was badly cracked in multiple places so it took me a while to track down every cracked trace and bridge them. I also really like the custom 3D printed battery holder.

I always thought that "Victoreen" was some sort of American portmanteau of "Victory" - but it isn't - he's a real person. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Austin_Victoreen

That's really awesome!!!

Imagine how much this machine would cost if you were to manufacture them new today.

Fuck reddit

I now understand the effect of the color wheel

Awesome project! I remember using a 2741 terminal around 1974 connected to an APL\360 system via acoustic coupler. It had a sound that you never forget and you've reproduced it very well! What would be cool is to get an APL typeball and then use it with the original APL\360 (available open source now) running under MVS emulator that runs on Linux. I have it running on my Linux box, but only with an IBM keyboard with APL keycaps.

Pixels on a computer screen are complicated too, but at least the logic behind them is simple. These micro mirrors are insane! I'm blown away that they can produce the giant image on a movie screen, thanks for the great footage and research here.

😅😂 I remember every one of those 😅, the ribbon was a pain.

Brilliant ! I impressed by the amount of knowledge and work you need in order to implement that kind of hack !

I love it! This project could serve a very useful purpose: an IRC. I'd love to see all the IRC messages printed on an IBM Selectric :-)

Are there any print heads with the full ASCII character set, replacing the silly typewriter characters? I'm (slowly) working on a wheelwriter conversion, and the ASCII print wheels do exist, but they are quite rare and expensive.

Whoever invented this micro-mirrors, is a genius.

one of the coolest sounds there is love IBM selectrics best typewriters ever made

The other biggest advantage is that there was not moving carriage to knock over on your desk!

Didn't I see this on Star Trek? They made a typewriter voice activated and the earthling freaked out and shouted "Make it stop!" which it typed out.

Why, does it do that.

At the 33:52 mark point... oh my GOODNESS!!! 😳

Your voice gives "Joe Pera Talks You to Sleep" vibes! Don't worry, this did NOT talk me to sleep LOL. Despite that I would never do this, nor did I search for it, I watched/listened to the end. Congrats on structuring this video in a way that held my attention on a subject and process that I technically didn't need to know, nor did I necessarily understand entirely, yet remained fully immersed and fascinated while following the overview! 😄

I'm at 1:38, my idea for why the toaster poped delayed would be a flywheel in the front of the bike generator. And for why the rug is there to transmit data like current and voltage.

Oooo try Linux program called jp2a to convert a jpeg or png to ascii. Then you can print some fancy ascii art to it.

The reason I clicked on and now subscribed to your channel is my sentimental passion for APL and the IBM 2741. With the ability of converting a IBM Selectric typewriter into a printer, and the 3D printing of typeballs (like the APL font), the real possibility exists that the IBM 2741 could be reverse engineered in 2024. I still occasionally use APL\360 via Hercules, but what a rush it would be to do it as in 1973!

I thought you were printing an endless slinky somehow that droooped down 😂 nope just filament line

It's amazing that you were able to get some old electromechanical typewriter to be able to handle the entire Linux OS! You're a genius to fit 4gb into that thing

Pretty cool. Avis Rent a Car was the first RAC company to computerize first reservations, then counter operations. The first computer was, naturally, a modified IBM Selectric. I started with the company in 1984 when they were already on the 3rd generation system, with standard IBM 3270 terminals. In 1986 I transferred to a licensee operation in Binghamton, NY, which had no computer. On a cold rainy day in April, I drove across half of NY to Jamestown to pick up an old Wizard I system, which consisted of the gray cabinet, the Selectric, the logic (computer & modem) unit and the cabling that connected them all. It was great to be connected to the world again. Sadly, Avis stopped supporting the older units within a few months, and we returned to analog operations.

How do you draw grooves? I wanna try it on my pcs using acrylic

This thing looks hillarious, I should make one

That's some very pretty stuff

Eat your heart out mechanical keyboard nerds, this is the best keyboard

thanks for doing this

we needed neofetch on this one!

This is amazing 👏👏👏👏👏 I wish I had one at home. I just playing with `ed` recently and remembered to watch again this video. Great job!

You are a legend 👏

Now that is quite fascinating! Very well done, thankyou for showing all of this!

that is bad ass...

I was just recommended to watch this. Awesome channel! Hope the CZcams algorithms will work for you to get the views you deserve.

only 686 views in 8 days? we need this kind of content!

What if the print falls somehow? I know it is printing on some sort of rug (I don't know I've never owned a 3d printer in my life) but it can fall, I think

Ok, someone please explain how it's more efficient, bc this hurts my brain 😅

Ты чево туда залез, а ну слазь! Уу негодник!!