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mwichary's profile
Marcin Wichary
Marcin Wichary
Marcin Wichary
@mwichary

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Marcin Wichary

@mwichary

Writing a book about the history of keyboards: http://aresluna.org/shift-happens  · Design manager @figmadesign · Typographer · Occasional speaker · He/him

San Francisco, Calif.
Joined October 2009

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    1. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 16 Feb 2019
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      Mystery deepens: After searching for “british office photo 1980s,” I found a photograph of what seems like a similar keyboard – although in a two-colour scheme.pic.twitter.com/cnYjrpqA6j

      3 replies 0 retweets 4 likes
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    2. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 17 Feb 2019
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      Solved! @leggca cracked the code. This is a British word processing machine called Wordplex. @leggca found a 1987 documentary talking about Wordplex, then about to be acquired by Norsk Data. This bit in the video talks directly about the keyboard: https://youtu.be/dg8cPvm603w?t=677 …pic.twitter.com/IUZVPKcc0Y

      3 replies 3 retweets 22 likes
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    3. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 17 Feb 2019
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      This is how, in 1988, Norsk Data announced the merger.pic.twitter.com/VNKb2EfTtK

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    4. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 17 Feb 2019
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      The last breath of Wordplex was in the 1990, and it will sound familiar to anyone studying PC history. Norsk Data created a version of Wordplex for IBM PC compatibles, called “Wordplex 100,” that went absolutely nowhere.

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    5. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 17 Feb 2019
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      A sad ending for a company that once “owned a third of the UK marketing for word processing systems for the legal profession,” which is probably why it was there in all these earlier videos… and why nobody cares today: it was a boring office computer found in law offices.

      1 reply 1 retweet 7 likes
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    6. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 17 Feb 2019
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      “I have known some brilliant keyboards in my time. There was the lovely Wordplex 80-series devices with a soft rattle.” https://writerlywitterings.com/2017/08/30/keyboards-and-tools-of-the-trade/ … I wonder how many still survive, hidden in attics and weird places.

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    7. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 17 Feb 2019
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      I scraped the bottom of the Internet and found a brochure of the early version of Wordplex, complete with awkward/sexist photos and an earlier colour scheme of the keyboard. It very much screams 1976. THE SCOPE OF THIS SYSTEM IS GOVERNED ONLY BY THE LIMITS OF YOUR CREATIVITYpic.twitter.com/VnL4FRLJ3Y

      5 replies 2 retweets 15 likes
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    8. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 17 Feb 2019
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      This feels overall like a fascinating corporate story: · Ventek renamed itself to Wordplex · AES merged with Ventek, but then split away again? · Wordplex started in California, then moved to Canada, but was mostly popular in the UK and had all engineering offices there?

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    9. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 17 Feb 2019
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      I will shut up now. I know none of this really matters… but it’s fun to research something in depth.

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    10. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 17 Feb 2019
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      Just kidding!pic.twitter.com/112Z5VHZB9

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      Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 17 Feb 2019
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      Another cool ad, from 1978, found by @dasbub. (Hilariously, the marketing phrase “the last word in word processing” was very popular, used by at least two more companies, including Apple.)pic.twitter.com/fMjsb9Zjhh

      2:38 PM - 17 Feb 2019
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      • Crazy Cat Man 🐈 Scott Keir Anthony Cospito Mike Cripps
      2 replies 1 retweet 4 likes
        1. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 17 Feb 2019
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          Oh, look, an obscure ad with the very same version of the computer as the original tweet! (I can quit this thread any time I want…)pic.twitter.com/mEuZppAnoi

          1 reply 0 retweets 7 likes
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        1. Barry J Sullivan‏ @BarryJSullivan 17 Feb 2019
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          Replying to @mwichary @dasbub

          Ah yes the steno pool.

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