NYC invests nearly $1M in … typewriters

[GaryC 7]

NYC invests nearly $1M in … typewriters

Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:54AM EDT

When they're not chasing down bad guys, protecting us from terrorism, or otherwise maintaining order in the Big Apple, New York's finest often find themselves scrounging around for—of all things—replacement typewriter ribbons. Remember those?

That's the scoop from the New York Post, which found out that the City of New York signed a three-year, $982,269 contract last year with Swintec, a New Jersey office equipment firm that specializes in … you guessed it: manual and electric typewriters. The city also plans on spending tens of thousands more in maintenance fees.

Turns out the "bulk" of the contract (according to the Post) is intended for the NYPD, which—besides catching crooks, handing out parking tickets, and generally keeping the peace—is tasked with the not-insubstantial job of protecting New York from another terrorist attack. (And as a New Yorker myself, I'm grateful for the service.)

Despite that tall order, the Post reports, New York City cops are stuck using typewriters—electric, if they're lucky—to pound out property and evidence vouchers on (incredibly) carbon-paper forms, which are pulled apart to create duplicates. (Other documents, such as arrest reports, have long since been computerized, the Post notes.)

Even worse, the Post story describes officers rooting around precincts looking for replacement typewriter ribbons after an old ribbon breaks. Greeaaat.

Of course, it's not fair to blame the cops themselves for burning precious time tapping out paper reports in triplicate; after all, they're just dealing with the outdated equipment they've been given. "It's very inconvenient—you have to find ink, you have to find this, find that," one officer told CNN.

Frankly, I can't remember the last time I even saw a working manual or electric typewriter, let alone actually typed on one. OK, check that—it was probably in high school, more than (gulp) 20 years ago.

And as far as the NYPD is concerned, we're not just talking about replacing aging typewriters with spiffy new computers; the real cost lies in replacing paper-based filing systems (in this case, for property and evidence vouchers, for starters) with new, digital ones.

Doing so saves time and money in the long run, but the initial outlay is always steep—and good luck snagging the funding from New York's dysfunctional state senate, which can barely be bothered to keep the NYC subway running.

Anyway, enough with my rant. Show of hands: When was the last time you used a typewriter? Or saw one in action, for that matter?

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/54529

[mawilson 2,133]

Hey, what's wrong with typewriters?

I bet typewriter ribbons are cheaper than toner cartridge replacements for laser printers.

[thetreble 19]

We have this new-age type writer here at work and I had to use it once to fill out some government forms. It took me literally 2 hours to type 2 forms out. It was so hard to use. We have it in case we need it but I'd avoid it at all costs.

[HAL 9000 96]

They're fun to use just to reminisce on the low-tech days.

[GaryC 7]

They're fun to use just to reminisce on the low-tech days.

Or, because they are forced to use paper filing systems, bad guys get away.

[HAL 9000 96]

They're fun to use just to reminisce on the low-tech days.

Or, because they are forced to use paper filing systems, bad guys get away.

Darn bad guys.

Fun as in every once in a while... not as the standard op.

[NickD 202]

Recall my hands starting to shake when getting close to the bottom of the page with a term paper with zero mistakes so far. Hung on to one dot matrix printer for those occasions where carbon copy forms were used, but thinking about it, haven't done that in the last ten or so years.

Was tempted to buy another typewriter, got rid of my old ones a long time ago as I could only find form deeds in a local office store, an attorney wants 500 bucks to type out that form. But with my high res legal size scanner, learned I could scan that with Adobe Acrobat for a crystal clear copy, then define fields in that form to make it a fillable form. With a 600 dpi laser printer, a very good reproduction. Gave a copy of that file to my register of deeds that she appreciated as many others are requesting fillable forms.

Computers are really great, remember looking up word spellings in a dictionary? Have a 680,000 word dictionary on my computer with both medical and legal words, can find a word in a flash. And can check for errors before printing it out, really can't do that with a typewriter even with that white out tape, still can see the correction and only good for one letter, dead if you miss a letter or have an extra one.

Started all this with a Commodore 16 to a 64 with a 40 character wide screen, dot matrix would wake up everybody in the house, and what you see is not what you get, so had to make printouts and corrections.

Also pitched my huge drafting table and can do a size E print with a plotter, really fun to watch that thing, it prints so neat and so fast with perfect round circles with real ink. And no more repetitive drawings so common in electronics, just copy and paste or make blocks. MathCad is also great.

Music and photos are other uses, with Finale, can compose a 64 stave composition, also MP3's and making your own CD's with all of your favorite songs one, just not one or two. Yeah, I got the original CD's, it's legal that way.

See my immigration file is 145 MB long, every scrape of paper from day one is on there. Correspondence to my wife to be is over 350 MB long, if the USCIS wants proof, we have proof, could have printed that out and dropped in on their desk, LOL.

So the NYPD is still using typewriters? Do they have anyone that know how to type?