Jump to content

More Tales Of The End Of Pens


Beckwith

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 64
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Beckwith

    5

  • Namru

    4

  • Algester

    3

  • tonybelding

    2

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

I had to laugh at this...

 

I don’t have to worry about losing this work because, unlike a piece of paper, my digital notes live in perpetuity online.

 

 

The author clearly has much better luck (or perhaps much shorter experience) with technology than me.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

and then they realize what if the internet gets shut down for god knows what... we still know the internet itself is a physical infrastructure but then again what i it as the end o the world as we knew it... then everything... is just... useless EVERYTHING PAPER, METAL, ROCK, WOOD etc..etc...etc...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, it's in the "Fashion & Style" section. The fact that the New York Times has a "Fashion & Style" section, almost every day (!), is telling us a lot more about the decline of journalism than an article in that section tells us about the decline of pens. (Someday, probably in the not-too-distant future, the New York Times will have a "News" section that appears at the back a few days a week, after the important Fashion and Style stuff on the front page...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

and then they realize what if the internet gets shut down for god knows what... we still know the internet itself is a physical infrastructure but then again what i it as the end o the world as we knew it... then everything... is just... useless EVERYTHING PAPER, METAL, ROCK, WOOD etc..etc...etc...

And also totally dependent on an electricity supply, subject to disruption.

They came as a boon, and a blessing to men,
The Pickwick, the Owl and the Waverley pen

Sincerely yours,

Pickwick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I call this BS.

 

Just a short quote: "Unlike pens, fingers don’t run out of ink, they’re free and you always have one with you." True, but he's conveniently omitting to mention that those fingers need some electrically powered surfaces that run out of batteries, are not free and you don't always have them with you. Classical strawman.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I can tell 'ya for sure that my electronics crash a lot more often than my pens, pocket knives, or hand tools.

 

Just a typical attempt to stir up controversy, I think. We ARE talking the NY Times here, hardly a bastion of peer-reviewed excellence. :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I call this BS.

 

Just a short quote: "Unlike pens, fingers don’t run out of ink, they’re free and you always have one with you." True, but he's conveniently omitting to mention that those fingers need some electrically powered surfaces that run out of batteries, are not free and you don't always have them with you. Classical strawman.

 

Excellent point - plus I don't know about y'all, but I am just terrible at writing, signing, or painting with my finger. I find it much easier to have a pen-shaped object (such as a fountain pen) in my hand rather than just using my finger. Additionally, the electronic devices don't have any physical feedback (though I know there's lots of research into haptic technology right now).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At least there are 85,937 people who cares about fountain pens.

-William S. Park

“My two fingers on a typewriter have never connected with my brain. My hand on a pen does. A fountain pen, of course. Ball-point pens are only good for filling out forms on a plane. - Graham Greene

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This article saddens me. Unfortunately, I can see it happening. Smart phones are ubiquitous, tablets are ubiquitous. People are depending more and more on their devices for all sorts of things. Without their devices, I've already seen people completely at a loss. They're losing the ability to think for themselves.

 

The way I see it? My knitting and, indeed, my pens and the ability to write a complete, coherent sentence are a part of my post-Apocalyptic skill set.

Your life is the result of the choices you make. If you don’t like your life, it’s time to start making better choices.


- unknown -


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good thread. I have to leave my computer now so I'll take my ipad in the taxi with me and then I'll keep up with he thread when I sneak peaks on my iPhone during the meeting.

 

Looking for a black SJ Transitional Esterbrook Pen. (It's smaller than an sj)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good thread. I have to leave my computer now so I'll take my ipad in the taxi with me and then I'll keep up with he thread when I sneak peaks on my iPhone during the meeting.

 

Haha, it is ironic that we all talk online about how much we love being luddites

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had to laugh at this...

I don’t have to worry about losing this work because, unlike a piece of paper, my digital notes live in perpetuity online.

 

The author clearly has much better luck (or perhaps much shorter experience) with technology than me.

 

 

I do wonder how seriously protected the backups are against something like... oh, the Solar Event of 1859 were to repeat. If it could provide enough power to the telegraph system for this...

Boston operator, (to Portland* operator) - "Please cut off your battery entirely from the line for fifteen minutes."

Portland operator - "Will do so. It is now disconnected."

Boston - "Mine is disconnected, and we are working with the auroral current. How do you receive my writing?"

Portland - "Better than with our batteries on. Current comes and goes gradually."

Boston - "My current is very strong at times, and we can work better without the batteries, as the Aurora seems to neutralize and augment our batteries alternately, making current too strong at times for our relay magnets.

Suppose we work without batteries while we are affected by this trouble."

Portland - "Very well. Shall I go ahead with business?"

Boston - "Yes. Go ahead."

 

 

 

...then one wonders what it might do to a server farm. We might like to have the odd important thing backed up on media that don't attend to electromagnetic force so readily.

 

*Alas, the source does not indicate if that's Portland, Maine or Oregon.

Ravensmarch Pens & Books
It's mainly pens, just now....

Oh, good heavens. He's got a blog now, too.

 

fpn_1465330536__hwabutton.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the forcasting of the death of the pen is much like the forcasting of the "paperless office" 30 years ago. While business has made great strides in reducing paper, there are still tons of industries that require paper hard-copies for regulatory and archival purposes. Going all digital is not possible, so the pen will be around for a long time to come.

Edited by byggyns

_______________________________________

"Over the Mountain

Of the Moon

Down the Valley of the Shadow

Ride, boldly ride,"

The shade replied,

"If you seek for Eldorado." - E. A. Poe

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, remember that the technology was supposed to give us so much vacation and leisure time.

We were supposed to have a 20 hour work week (the French would get a 15-hour work week), and spend our weekends zipping around in our photovoltaic hovercars.

 

 

 

Sometimes the cat needs a new cat toy. And sometimes I need a new pen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the forcasting of the death of the pen is much like the forcasting of the "paperless office" 30 years ago. While business has made great strides in reducing paper, there are still tons of industries that require paper hard-copies for regulatory and archival purposes. Going all digital is not possible, so the pen will be around for a long time to come.

Ah yes, the paperless office. I was promised one of those as well. And while I wait for it, I fill out paper forms by hand - with a fountain pen, of course.

Jeff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is truly sad is that we are no longer teaching penmanship in schools. The end won't come from technology, it will come from loss of the knowledge to make those legible scribbles on paper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My notebook doesn't need charging, doesn't break if I look at it funny, can't get hacked and it's wireless. I always like leaving the house with the tools that'll still function when and if the SHTF.

 

I don't think that the writer really understands just how fragile digital data actually is, just sitting there as a weak magnetic signature. Or that a method of data input, storage and retrieval that humanity has been using for thousands of years will dissapear in 10 or 20 years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mr. Bilton is engaging in the paper equivalent of Link Baiting. He is also in the middle of the fallacy that everyone is like him, or should be like him. The part about having all those shiny electronic gadgets and gizmos is more than a bit pretentious, and self aggrandizing.

 

My house is full of electronics, as my wife and I are both IT people, but there are almost a hundred FPs, probably more than a hundred ballpoints/rollerballs and innumerable crayons, markers, pastels, and chalks (I have two young daughters). There is enough paper in printers, journals, sketchpads, and writing pads to recreate a forest. Just because he is trying to make a point, doesn't mean his point is valid. Comes off as a bit of a jerk, and claiming to only vaguely recognize a check is pure BS.

 

What I can't fathom is that the NYT saw this as fit to print.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...