Monday, December 14, 2020

Best games of 2020

It is around this time of the year I look back and give a nod to the games that I have been playing and enjoying in the year. This is purely my own experience and opinion, of course, so your mileage will vary considerably in terms of resonating with you.

This year I'm going to keep it REALLY short. 

 

Best PC Game of 2020 - Noita.

I still have not beaten the game, but love it anyway. I'm getting really close now. This is last years runner up, but this year it continued to improve and the replayability concern I have is clearly moot point, considering the hundreds of hours I have in the game by now. Will I still play it once I have "won"? I'm not sure, perhaps then might be time to try out some of the many many mods.


Best Mobile Game of 2020 - Solitaire : Bakers Game

I play the Solebon brand of solitaire, and the "Baker's Game". It is my go-to if I need to kill a few minutes. My win streak is now 169 games. It seems a bit sad that solitaire is the best game on a mobile, but hey, it is all about what you enjoy.

 

Most promising game 2020 : Cyberpunk 2077.  

I only just got this, and have not gotten a lot further than character creation. This could be the best game of the year, technically, but I think the experience will have to be pushed into next year. Let's see if it is as much fun as it took to make. I do trust CD Projekt RED. It will undoubtedly have a whole raft of bugs, but they will slowly sort them out. I will say that so far I have not noticed any, but like I say, I've just scratched the surface on this.

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

New Hobby (Obsession?) : Manual Typewriters

The Collecting Bug

One day you think, for whatever reason, I'd like to get myself an "X". The object in question could be almost anything, although some things seem to be more collectable that others.  Spoons? Sure, why not. In my case I've gone through this list of things : folding knives, watches, pocket watches, locks (to pick). Anyway, you've decided to buy this object, and you get one. Are you "one-and-done"? Does this satisfy? For many, yes. But for the collector, often the answer is no. So then the question changes, as you get more of these things - how many is too many? Gulp.

Random Beginnings

In my case, at least two of my hobbies have started by other people and what were random events, more or less. I started pocket watch collecting due to a mis-delivery of a mysterious package, and I could not make out who it was for so I opened it. The pocket watch inside was fascinating, and when I returned it to its rightful owner I decided to get one for myself. I have one on me now, it is part of my daily wear. It brings me a lot of pleasure.

Similarly, one day my daughter came back from school with junk/treasure (it depends on your perspective) from the side of the road - an old typewriter that was no longer working. She put it in the garage, and after a few months of not looking at it I threw it out in an effort to reclaim some space - a constant battle I'm fighting in the garage and attic. Before doing so I did go to ebay and I could see that I could replace it with a working one for about $25 (at the time), so it didn't seem like I was throwing away a lot of money. After all it didn't work, or at least, it didn't work well. In hindsight, I probably could have got it working with what I know now. Anyway, I did have a little moment when I had thrown it in the trash and I looked down at it - I felt sad, like it was a great shame to dispose of such a mechanical beauty, working or not. I do like old mechanical things a lot of the time, such as my pocket watches. Still, it was the right thing to do at the time so sighed and I moved on with my life.

...and then one day

We were selling some household nick-nacks and paintings in an online auction. Something we have never done before. To find all our items and set them as "favorites" I had to go through the entire catalogue. It was then that I came across an Olivetti Lettera 32 DL and I remembered the typewriter in the bin, like some ghost calling me. We were having some success with selling our other items, so, on a whim, I put in the minimum bet on this typewriter. In the end I won it without anyone else bidding, ie at the minimum bid. I found myself to be surprisingly excited about this. 

Waiting is a curse

The problem is, while I was waiting on the auction to complete, I started checking out other typewriters. What if I got outbid? It seemed that if I really wanted one, I should just buy one somewhere else. But which one? Notice that I have overcome the "one-and-done" issue by buying two before I even had one in my hands, if you see what I mean. And once you have more than one, well, the sky is the limit then, right? What if the one I got is faulty and I can't repair it? I do want a working one, I don't want to be disappointed. I had already gone down the Olivetti path, so I looked at the other models and liked the look of the standard green Lettera 32 with black keys. It is fairly common and often reasonably priced, and didn't look overly complicated. I bid on one that was going cheap but looked very old and moldy, not a lot of info in the listing though. Not long after bidding I got impatient with all this uncertainty and did a "buy it now" on a similar, fairly expensive one that claimed to be in pristine condition, with a good looking type sample. There, done.

For those keeping count at home, that is now three typewriters. One for sure, and two possibilities. Inevitably, the two I were bidding on I won, but in my defense I didn't know that was going to be the outcome at the time.

Just my type?

By now, the typewriter bug had bitten me fairly hard. I was really interested in everything about them, but particularly on repairs/maintenance. The collector in me also appreciated the other manufacturers designs and the natural question comes up - which one is the best? Here I discovered the wider "typosphere", a community of diverse enthusiast. Tom Hanks being one of them, who has a personal collection of several hundred machines and has even in a documentary about typewriters called "California Typewriter". Recently I watched this with my wife and I think it has helped her understand where my enthusiasm for these devices comes from... partly. 

Anyway, the day came and I picked up the auction-won Olivetti DL, a trip across Sydney to the dusty warehouse where they sell and dispose of the goods in physical form. I was pointed to a fairly compact and unassuming grey case with a black stripe and black handle and was left to take it away. I took it back to the car, carefully unzipped the case (the Olivetti cases are notorious for having broken zippers, I later found out, and I can see why) and looked at the machine, the first of mine, for the first time. I gingerly pressed a few keys and they did, in fact, seem to work. The joy of that was significant, the auction listing was fairly vague on if it fully worked or not, so any signs of life were positive. When I got it home I found that it more-or-less worked fully, with the only issue being that the keys were all quite heavy and a bit slow to return. I didn't really know that at the time as I had nothing to compare it to. I was discovering what all the levers did, and how it all worked. It was great. Oh, and the bell didn't work.

I was doing some typing test when I discovered something that I should have probably noticed sooner - the DL was a sans-serif typeface. I'm not sure if they are all like this, but I think it suits the "retro-futuristic" angle the machine has. If I ever want to write a science fiction story, I think this would suit well. So, I'm very happy with this, but it doesn't really show the typical typewriter experience. Never mind, the other two Olivetti's had arrived in quick succession from eBay and they did have the more typical Serif fonts. 

The two green Olivetti were at the polar ends of the spectrum in terms of price, and also in terms of functionality - but not how you would expect. The cheap device I call "old moldy" came to me with a fair bit of black mold on the case, but this easily wiped off with a little soapy water, dried off immediately. It worked flawlessly otherwise, with a very light touch.

The other, more expensive, Olivetti Lettera was immediately more visually appealing but turned out to have a slew of issues, some of which I am yet to resolve. Firstly, the leading edge of the paper when it feeds in sometimes, and more often than not, gets jammed under the paper guides to the side of the vibrator. Then, when you do manage to finagle the paper into place, it does type away. Not quite as light a touch as "old moldy", but OK. The type is quite tightly packed, and if I was trying to get the most words on a page this is the machine I would use of the three. 

Not long into the test I noticed another problem though, the type was fading in front of my eyes, each letter getting progressively paler. Scratching my head a bit I soon realized that the ribbon was not advancing. A lot of fiddling around later, and experimenting, showed that I could get it to advance, but only reliably when going in the other direction. Then the platen knob broke off in my hand, a fair old chunk falling on the table. Oh lord, what now!? Seems that during shipping, or just as a matter of circumstance, it chose now to break. Fortunately it was a very clean break, and when the part was put back you could almost not see it was broken, only if you were looking for it really. So I super-glued it in place, and a bit shaken and afraid that something else would go wrong, called it a night.

Hyper-Collecting

By now though, I was looking further afield than the Olivetti garden I started in. There were other brands and models that intrigued me - either by their reputation or by physical appearance. I was looking at Gumtree and eBay, but also took a trip to some local Op-shops on a Saturday morning on the hopes of finding a cheap machine that way. I didn't have luck in the Op shops, the only machine I found was, funnily enough, another Olivetti machine that was truly in appalling and irreparable state.

Having gone through a few experiences of collecting things, I think I have managed to escape some of the common pitfalls and quickly narrow my focus down to certain models and brands that are the ones that appeal to me most. I have quite a strong and instinctive opinion on what is attractive, and while I can appreciate some machines technically, if they look god-awful to my eye I'm not going to get one. 

The next machine I got was one that stopped me in my tracks as soon as I scrolled to it. It was pretty much love at first sight. I mean, and it might just be me, but to my eyes this thing is gorgeous! Look at the curves. Click it for a larger image to truly drink it in.

 

It was a "buy it now" on eBay, fairly $$$, and I hit the button first and justified it second. My justification came easily, not only did I really like the design, but it also somehow reminds me of my mother and I wanted to get something to do this. It is an all metal case Royal "Royalite 110" model. I have it now and everything works nicely on it. It has an black only ribbon installed, but can take a two color ribbon - the switch to do this is not in the keyboard area like most, but tucked back near the platen neatly on the right. You can just see it in the photo there as a chrome tab. I like too the semi-rounded keys and the protected sides of the space bar. So elegant.

Quirky keyboard layouts

A oddity of these old typewriters is that they do not have the identical layout of keys to the modern computer keyboards. The letters are the same, although you even have to watch out for that as some are not. Mostly the differences are with the numbers and symbols, a lot is missing and some of them are a bit surprising. I noticed this as soon as I tried to type my first ever word actually, because I wanted to simply type this ... "Hello!". The problem came at the end, the exclamation mark. Ummmmmm. Looking, looking, looking,... nope. It doesn't have one, what the hell!? Further examination shows that they were quite thorough with representing fractions, a lot of keys are dedicated to those - 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 1/8, 3/8, 5/8. Yeah, I doubt I will ever use them, but I suppose in the Imperial measurement system world it was important for those feet and inches. Missing are the ! and usually also * = { } [ ] < > | ~ ^ The big surprise too is that the numbers start with 2 and end with 9, so the 1 and 0 are missing sometimes also. What gives?

Well, if you are into typewriters you will know this - but otherwise you probably won't - there are some tricks to typing some of the "missing" keys. The 1 is a lowercase L, so you use that. The 0 is similarly an uppercase letter o. The ! actually takes three key presses to make...are you ready for this? You press the single quote ' (ie shift-8), then the Back key to allow you to overtype the quote, then the full stop. This gives you the two parts, top and bottom of the ! which is ingenious, if not a little laborious. I think of the exclamation mark as being one of the primary keys on the keyboard, so for a serious typing experience I do prefer a dedicated key for it. The other keys though, well, those are simply missing.

And the rest (3 more!)

So, I had a small collection going by now, four machines, and quite honestly I was on a roll and having fun and nobody was there to stop me other than my own self-restraint and that was MIA, so I bought more machines. All bargains and with the clear reasoning of completing the now "collection" as quickly as possible to a satisfactory level (to me!).

I wanted to next get a machine for me specifically, for more serious typing. One that was considered to be a good if not great machine by those in the know. I wanted my exclamation mark also. So, I was reading various opinions and the Hermes 3000 kept coming up as the one a lot admired. Unfortunately these go for a king's ransom and bargains are really not to be found with this model. It is too much of a superstar to fly under the radar. However, I did find a similar older model Hermes, a Hermes 2000 on eBay. It works (apparently), with the only two visible issues being the top half of the letters being faded and one of the metal clips on the case being broken. I am yet to receive this machine because Australia post are being painfully slow at the moment, but hope to have it in a few days or so. I'm really looking forward to receiving this. It is different to the others in that it is a desktop model and in fairly original condition, from what I can tell. Amazingly enough I got it on the minimum bid too, nobody else showed up, and I had even put in a higher bid buffer in case they did but it didn't get used. It has the ! and * key too, which is a bonus.

Then, after watching the movie "California Typewriter" I mentioned to my wife that one of the models in the film was an Olympia SM-3, and I really liked how it looked and it has a reputation for being a nice typer. Again, like the Hermes 3000, these are not easy to find cheaply. However, I did find one I liked in grey on Gumtree and I contacted the seller. It was their grandmothers old typewriter that had been sitting idle for over 40 years and they were going to throw it out. It does type, but they report that sometimes it doesn't advance when you press the letter "o". Also, there is some paint on the case and it looks a bit scruffy. However, with my experience with "old moldy" I know that sometimes these machines come good with very little effort, and I hope this is one of them. It was on the upper end of my price range, but we agreed on a price. I am awaiting this one to arrive too, and it will be re-packed and put under the x-mas tree for me. The seller has been very nice about this transaction, somewhat restored my faith in humanity and made me think that "typewriter people are good people". I have discovered that Knitting people are also good people, by the way. There may be others too.

Finally, the last one was a bit of an ebay bargain impulse buy, that again I surprisingly won without any competition. Another Hermes, but this time their highly regarded portable "Baby" model (which is the same as the Rocket and other re-brandings like the Aristocrat). It has the iconic "sea foam green" keyboard and is otherwise in need of a good clean too but who knows what issues await. Perhaps none, perhaps a ton, it is all part of the adventure. It was a bit of a take-it or leave-it purchase, but I'm glad I won it.

So that is it, right? You are done?

Well, I feel done. When these other machines turn up I will know for sure. The collection will have a nice array of brands and models I really like. There *might* be one more machine in me though. I do feel the call of the Smith Corona Super "Silent". It is the one machine Tom Hanks said he would take over all the others, and I trust his judgement. However, I want to give the Hermes 2000 and Olympia SM-3 a good crack before I go looking further. These are also top machines and I want to really use them. If I'm happy with the typing action on those, I'm good to stop here honestly. I have more than enough to play with. I mean, how many typewriters is too many again? Seven, eight? Some people have hundreds of them! I don't have the room, finances or desire for that, my figure is much lower and I think I'm more or less at it now. These machines seem to have personalities and character, and if you have too many you can't appreciate them fully. At least, that is how I see it now. I want them all to be special to me.

In fact, I was already thinking of perhaps giving one of the Olivetti's away to a family member, if they want it, as part of the Christmas festivities this year. Share the good vibes, if you like. We shall see how the story unfolds from here...


Monday, December 7, 2020

Watch Review : Vaer Automatic A7 "Heritage" with Date (Swiss Made)

Well, I'm back again with another watch review. I recently did my favourite watch, the Fortis Flieger Professional, which seemingly few people know or care about which is a shame. I've had that watch for a fair while now, but the one I'm going to do today is only a few week old. It may seem premature to review a watch in such a short time, I'm still in the "honeymoon" phase after all, but I think I've got a handle on this and feel I want to get it done now. As usual my review style is simply the things that I want to highlight. If you want spec lists I suggest you go visit the product pages over on www.vaerwatches.com. I mean, if you are interested in the watch you are going to have to do that anyway, as that is pretty much the only way to buy one.

You can't actually buy the watch I have on my wrist though, it is a Kickstarter variant they are not offering any more (or at least, while I'm writing this). [Edit : You can now! See below] There is a model very close though, and this one has the Miyota movement and is "American Assembly" rather than "Swiss Made", but other than that it is pretty much the same. To get a sense of what I'm going to be rabbiting on about, here is an image from their site.


Do you like that look? My instinctive first-glance reaction was a fairly solid "Yes!". What appeals to me are a number of things, but I like the White arabic numerals, the railroad style minute track, the all white hands, the red second hand and the centred text. At 40mm diameter and a pleasantly thin 9.7mm case, the dimensions were right too. As someone who enjoys pocket watches from the early 1900's, this has some hints of design cues, although their more expensive but truly awesome "dirty dozen" even more so with the sub-seconds at 6 o'clock.

I did agonise a little over the date window, as during the kickstarter you could get it with or without this. Let me dig a little deeper briefly on this topic. Fundamentally I agree with the purists that the look and design of a watch face is cleaner without a date window. However, for many of the scenarios where I use a watch the date window is an extremely useful function to have. I have tried to wear watches without the date function and my frustration with them is almost immediate. For example, I went shopping and bought some milk, and wanted to check that it had plenty of date left. I know many people just know the date but I am not one of them, I know it roughly but usually not exactly. So I glance at my watch to double check. At work I fill in paperwork and need the date frequently and even when I have just looked at the date a few minutes prior I find I look again, perhaps out of habit and perhaps because I'm an idiot. So a watch design with a date usually wins with me, and having a day is good too. Again, check out the Fortis, they do that right.

Anyway, I have an equally strong pet peeve, and that is truncated numerals. In other words, the numbers that are somehow chopped off by a watch function on the dial. I might be in a minority here, but I find it visually very irritating. So the rabbit hole got deeper because my decision to go date or no date then really hinged on if they implemented the date window "properly" (in my opinion only, note!). What I mean by that is that the number 3 is fully formed, and not cut but the window, and even better, if there is a little space between them. As you can see from the image above, things are pretty tight, and there is no other 3 to compare it to, but it looks OK to me. Not great, but OK. So I pulled the pin on the date model and I must say I'm glad I did.

There is actually another angle to the date window issue, believe it or not, that causes me some angst. That is the date wheel is black text on a white background. I asked nicely on the forums if they would use a colour-matched wheel but was told politely, "no", which that is a pity in my mind. If the text was white on black background then the date window would be less intrusive and the dial would have the benefit of the date without it sticking out too much. If I can stay with this point for just a moment longer to point out that it would be fairly simple to mod the watch to change the date disk, as this is fairly standard and fairly easy for a watchmaker to do. When it gets out of warranty and if I am feeling brave, I might just do that.

I like the hands quite a lot, being white lume filled and painted white. In terms of being able to glance at the watch and know what time it is, this gets a big green tick. The hands seem to glow on the dial, and if they were steel/silver then I honestly think it would not be as good. They are the perfect length too - the hour stops just short of the hours and the minute hand goes out just far enough. The pinion is white with the base of the hands, and I suppose they could have been black but white seems to work here too. The second hand is a bit orangy-red, but has a pleasing arrowhead and small counterbalance and looks good. It is quite delicate. Overall, very nice handset.

The text on the dial is minimul and that is just the way I like it. The logo for "VAER" is under the 12, and "AUTOMATIC 100m" is above the 6. Mine also has "SWISS" and "MADE" on either side of the six and due to these being shorter words than "AMERICAN" and "ASSEMBLY" you still get two minute markers before the next 5 second marker. These 5 second markers are not white - they are a off white/cream color which really softens the look in a very nice way. Magic stuff.

One thing I have appreciated when viewing the watch is that the crystal has just the right level of dome, and that the watch face is quite high and close to the glass. Dive watches tend to have the face deep into the watch, thick glass and thick bezels, and it sometimes feels like you are looking into a well to read the time. The Vaer feels nicely upfront about this instead. It is a subtle thing, but something I've definitely noticed and liked.

The sapphire crystal is domed (double-domed I'm fairly sure) and has anti-reflective (AR) coating on the underside. In most lighting conditions it is good and easy to read. There are some reflections sometimes though, and if you view the watch at extreme angles the distortion takes over. If you even vaguely angle the watch towards you it is not going to be a problem though.

Now, the case. I really want to talk about the case. I need to borrow another picture from there web site so you can get what I'm about to say...




Apparently they paid a designer to make the case for them and I don't know how much they paid them but it probably wasn't enough - they did a stella job. The bezel is generous and angled down from the glass to continue the rounding out of the glass. There is circular brushing on the top of the bezel, and a high polished lip on the underside which is a really nice detail. The bezel overhangs the case slightly, but not by much. The case sides are rounded and the overall effect of this is a wonderfully gently curved - particularly on the other side from the crown. The thought I keep having is that when you roll your wrist the watch profile looks like steel lozenge that you kind of feel looks tasty! It is a strange thought but I can't shake it.

The lugs are thin but in no way flimsy. They look right. 

In terms of straps it came with a horween leather, and a tropic. I also got a two piece seat-belt style material strap. From memory, they are all quick release, and of a high standard of finish. The buckle is branded and very nicely rounded so there are no rough edges. It is in these small details that the quality of the piece is really seen. On saying that, there were some issues with the straps when I got them. The straps were either just long enough or not long enough. I could wear the horween, and I really liked the look, but I developed a rash from it so I stopped wearing it after a few weeks. I think it might have been the way it was tanned, I'm not sure, but I have not gone back to it. Instead, I wear it on the navy blue fabric strap, and it is quite a looker on that and very comfortable. 

In terms of customer service, Vaer noticed that some people did not fit the supplied straps and offered to replace them with longer ones. Nice work and another reason why I like the brand.

Of course, what I really want is a steel bracelet, but unfortunately they do not yet offer one. They have done a great job of providing backward compatibility with all models to straps, and I am hoping that one day a bracelet will be able to be purchased at a reasonable price and with the same quality as the head of the watch. I think the chances of this are about 50/50, but I have my fingers crossed because it would elevate it even further into my daily rotation. As it is though, an easy recommend if you like the look of it.


Pros

  • Very attractive face design
  • Simply superb case design, this can't be overstated.
  • Relatively inexpensive for the movement and "Swiss made" (at least, kickstarter was)
  • Very comfortable to wear, goes well with casual clothes
  • Screw down crown for 100m water resistance. Don't fear water.

Cons
  • Non colour matched date wheel.
  • Straps might be short for thicker wrists
  • Dial is not textured or have any levels and is printed.
  • Date window may be too tight to the 3 for some.

 

Edit 2020-12-07

I started this review a long time ago, but never quite finished it and hit the old "Publish" button. Since then I have had a lot more wear time with this watch and I can confirm that it has continued to be a wonderful purchase and I still enjoy wearing it immensely. The watch I bought is here