A USB Typewriter?

jashmenn asks: "In my search for a furthering of the arts combined with technology I recently had the idea of hooking up an electronic typewriter to my USB port. The idea is to eventually write a script that would automatically send the text of emails to be typed on the typewriter. Does Slashdot have know of resources I can use for combining new and old school technologies such as these?"

Daisy Wheel

[m0rph3us0]

Why not just get a daisy wheel printer from the 80s and hook it up to a usb to parallel/serial adapter? IBM also made some printers with ball type print heads.

Low IQ today

[Anonymous Coward]

Geez, the collective Slashdot IQ is particularly low today. Let's see, so far I've seen people asking why bother, use a daisy-wheel printer, use a teletype, and plenty more of "why".

For pete's sake, people, he said he was doing this for "art". I think he's probably already considered other printer options (daisy-wheel, teletype, etc.) and wants to have a typewriter, for the look of it.

At one point, I had an IBM Selectric typewriter that could also be driven by a parallel port (though the encoding was odd -- it might have been EBCDIC, come to think of it). That might fit the bill, though I've no idea where to find one. It'd certainly look cool. Be sure to send us a follow-up when you get this working. :)

Re:Printer?

[Nos.]

Sometimes its just fun, or for learning purposes. I'm currently trying to make a home security system that is run by the computer. I've wanted to learn electronics for a while so I went and spent about $15 on some basic parts (door sensor,DB15 to RJ45, wire) and have a linux box now recognizing if a door is open or closed. For some people that may not mean much, but this is the first time I've made a computer interact with the real world. I'm having a blast doing it, and I'm not spending $100s on an alarm that I don't really need, or buying off the shelf equipment that wouldn't help me learn anything.