FIVE THINGS YOU CAN DO ON A TYPEWRITER.

drboli.com

Postscript: Having finished this typescript, we put it in the scanner, and discovered that the scanner software—provided by the company that made the scanner, which Dr. Boli will not name, but its initials are H.P.—had updated itself. It now went into an infinite loop of three questions, repeating around the circle forever. Dozens of negative reviews accumulated on line just today from dozens of users who ran into the same problem. Shortly afterward the software was updated again, and now the option to use it at all without signing into an account with the company had been eliminated. (Doubtless that was the point of the first botched update.) In order to use the scanner you bought with the computer you bought, you must go through the servers owned by the scanner manufacturer—which right now are clogged with new users opening accounts after discovering that they cannot use their scanners anymore. Fortunately there is good open-source scanning software that interacts with the hardware directly. But for how long? The scanner has its own Internet connection; it receives firmware updates from the manufacturer; at any moment the corporation could decide to prohibit us from accessing the scanner except through approved software. The nameless company whose initials are H.P. has a history of doing exactly that sort of thing.

When you bring home a typewriter, it works for you, not for the company that made it.