Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (201625)	9/12/2004 10:46:38 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573824

Why not? What would have prevented it? We know, for example, that proportional space could be done in that time frame, despite all the "experts" who claimed it couldn't. We know that certain typewriters could be sourced with specialized keys, again despite the claims of those "experts", there is an example of it in the logs. Now true, there hasn't been an example yet of proportional space combined with a superscript 'th' show up yet, outside of that memo. But is there any technical reason to believe it couldn't be done as you assert? Sure, someone could have custom-machined a type ball that would handle this. But do you really think that is even a REMOTE possibility? Of course, not. The militlary would not have done this unless there were a reason to have done so -- general office use certainly isn't one of them. There is NOT, as you say, an example in the logs. The fixed-pitch "th" kerned pair was available on type balls of the day. Proportional spacing was a different thing. A small percentage of the Selectrics of the day even had the basic capability of proportional spacing. Add to the the non-existence of the kerned "th" pair on a proportionally spaced type ball, I would say, yes, there are plenty of reasons to believe it couldn't be done. Beyond this, the use of the space between the digits and the "th" to control the superscripting is obvious to anyone who has worked with this kind of stuff extensively. There are other issues. P. O. Box 34567? Give me a break. And there is a reference in the August 18, '73 memo to an individual "Staudt" who retired 18 months prior. And there are TENS of other issues I won't list again. In short, a person would have to be ignorant of the history of Selectrics as well as of Word Processing to not recognize these immediately as faked. Or just so determined to color them as real that they can't see the truth because they don't WANT to see the truth.

To: combjelly who wrote (201625)	9/12/2004 5:24:06 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573824

Why not? What would have prevented it? We know, for example, that proportional space could be done in that time frame, despite all the "experts" who claimed it couldn't. We know that certain typewriters could be sourced with specialized keys, again despite the claims of those "experts", there is an example of it in the logs. Now true, there hasn't been an example yet of proportional space combined with a superscript 'th' show up yet, outside of that memo. But is there any technical reason to believe it couldn't be done as you assert? Apparently, not according to another 'expert', Bill Glennon. "But Bill Glennon, a technology consultant in New York City who worked for IBM repairing typewriters from 1973 to 1985, says those experts "are full of crap. They just don't know." Glennon says there were IBM machines capable of producing the spacing, and a customized key — the likes of which he says were not unusual — could have created the superscript th. " time.com