February 09, 2003
From the desk of Jane Galt:Meryl Yourish has thrown down the gauntlet. She's challenged me to pick it up, but I know when I'm beat. Anyone who can type 100+ WPM on a Selectric has my everlasting awe.
Posted by Jane Galt at February 9, 2003 04:56 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksAs someone who can barely manage 40-45 wpm on a computer keyboard, I'm quite impressed with both of you, thank you very much. I'm not complaining--I'm fast enough for most tasks I have to undertake, but there have been times when I would have killed to double my typing speed just for a few hours. . .*sigh*
Posted by: M. Scott Eiland on February 9, 2003 05:57 PMGiving up already? We didn't have chance to lay bets down :_(
Posted by: Matt Harris on February 9, 2003 06:12 PMLast time I was tested on a Selectric, I did 120 words a minute. Of course, that is "army typing", which is to say, all upper case, and reading from typed copy. (And after spending several months of doing the same thing on a teletype, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week...)
Posted by: Gary Utter on February 10, 2003 03:07 AMTraining camp:
http://hannu.daug.net/letters/letters07.php
You know, the last time I checked, I typed about 85wpm, but that was well over 15 years ago and I know I'm a lot faster now. Especially when composing off the top of my head.
I'll bet I could give Meryl a run for her money. :)
It's funny, too. The only truly useful class I took in High School was typing. Yet I left the class doing about 15wpm, dropped it after the first quarter. Yet that was enough. Once I had a job that involved typing, I started building my chops.
Posted by: Dean Esmay on February 12, 2003 07:46 AMI don't get it. I can type much faster on a Selectric - esp. an electronic Selectric - than on any PC keyboard. The IBM Selectric was the apex of keyboard design. I was never so disappointed as I was with the first IBM PC keyboards and while it has gotten a little better since then I really miss the Selectric touch.
Posted by: Dave on February 12, 2003 09:21 AMYeah, that Selectric thing is funny. We've still got one (a III) in the office, and I occasionally type something and the skills come back. I'm *much* faster on the Selectric. I learned on manuals.
Back in the '60's Johnny Carson had on The World Champion Typist (or some such). It was a guy who could type 240 WPM on a manual WHILE WEARING MITTENS!!! I watched. It was totally awesome.
While in the USAF in the mid '60's I was given more training and got up to an easy 120 WPM on the Selectric, but if I tried to type faster my error rate also went up. Guess I reached my processing limits. ;->=
Posted by: JorgXMcKie on February 12, 2003 09:53 AMComments are Closed.