Sociology and Message formatting (Spiritusumdrucker)

From: Mark Tapley <mtapley_at_swri.edu>
Date: Mon Jan 11 11:03:47 1999

All,

>By the time I was in high school dittos were a distant memory. To put it
>in (classiccmp) perspective, by that time inkjets were still on the
>horizon and dot matrix printers were still the <rage>.

        As a matter of fact, mimeograph/ditto/Spiritusumdrucker machines
provided me with one of my favorite examples of "antique" technology's
applicability. My wife was teaching at a high school in the early 1990's
that had a way over-subscribed photocopier and an idle mimeograph machine.
She made handouts on our Mac Plus using WriteNow and SuperPaint (both
fantastic programs). She then printed them onto mimeograph masters using
our ImageWriter 1, an *impact* (dot-matrix) printer, at home the night
before class. She'd take the master to school in the morning, hook it up
to the mimeograph machine, and crank out 250 copies as fast as she could
turn the crank - then stroll to class past the line of frantic teachers
awaiting their turn on the photocopier, having saved the school appx. $10
in copying costs.
        She could also save and modify files and print new masters at her
convenience. No need to carefully retype or coddle a master for a whole
year for next year's class, or try to stretch a dying master for 30 more
prints. It was a great system.
        BTW, she later convinced me to *give away* the Imagewriter in favor
of a Stylewriter (inkjet) we recieved as a gift, just prior to moving to
Texas. Not one of my better decisions. Ah well.
                                                                - Mark
Received on Mon Jan 11 1999 - 11:03:47 GMT