h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

blimey, your post on the typing thread took me waaaaayyyy back.

Did you use the infernal Siemens T100 machines too? Most of the women in my place could type fast enough to jam them (which, let's face it, didn't actually have to be that fast)

Now we're dragging stuff up from the darkest pits of my memory...

Can remember all messages started with 5 spaces and either UU or HH...
That the teleprinter we used actually typed slower than we could, so, if you were really sneaky you could cheat an extra word or two per minute onto your speed, because the things would continue to chunter on even after the instructor said 'stop typing' at the end of an exercise...

The bit that really got me though was that I was originally trained as a Radio Operator using teleprinters, couldn't read all the murray code characters, but knew enough to check the message headers, which were supposed to be the important bits...

Then went away for a year learning languages, came back, and remember someone saying 'well, we'd better make sure you can still type' and showing us a room full of manual typewriters... Ouch!!

(I still, to this day, destroy computer keyboards at a hell of a rate because of trying to thump away at a manual keyboard)

we learned on old T100s with no letters on the keys. There was also a box thing to put over the hands of repeat "looking at their fingers" offenders. There was a huge lit-up qwerty keyboard at the front of the room, and we just had to follow the lit-up letter with our fingers.

I got that fairly quickly thank goodness - some people took too long and were sent away to do some other trade. I started out as a data telegraphist (girlies weren't allowed to be radio telegraphists, which is what my test results said I should have been) so I went off to join the Intelligence Corps instead.

As for the Murray code - we didn't all have to learn it. It depended on where we went, and that depended on our vetting. As a serving soldier's daughter I was easy to vet and consequently got the most interestin postings.

Having bumped into you on the "wall" 20 anniversary thread I wondered how the heck you are.

So, how are you?