If there’s only lesson to be learned from [alnwlsn]’s conversion of an IBM Selectric typewriter into a serial terminal for Linux, it’s that we’ve been hanging around the wrong garbage cans.

Introduced in 1961 by IBM, the Selectric was the first typewriter to use a golf ball-like type element that moved across the paper, rather than moving the paper carriage past the individual ...

were basically typewriters, and the 1970s saw a number of IBM Selectrics converted into a keyboard with serial output. Even in recent years, typewriters have been converted into keyboards with the ...

Decades ago, as electric typewriters fell out of vogue — with offices trading their IBM Selectrics for personal computers — typewriter shops like Furrier’s suffered, with Cambridge ...