Technology Archives - Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

Unplugged: Type Ins and Letter Writing

February 25, 2014 by Ashley Hackshaw

“Your family is bound closer together by something each can use. Even those in far away places will be nearer because you’ll write more often.”
-Remington Typewriter Ad c. 1940

I went to a type-in at the Rancho Mirage Library over the weekend. I love and collect typewriters so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect at a type-in…except I knew there would be typewriters there.

Artist L.A. Marler brought her collection of typewriters for visitors to try out. My favorite was the Corona No. 4. I think I’m going to track one down. The Corona No.4 is from around 1927. Why is it call the No. 4? Because it has 4 rows of keys. Because of it’s compact and portable body it was said to be the typewriter that “launched a thousand typists.” Hemingway typed on a Corona No. 3. (read that story here) Guess how many rows of keys it had.

Ohhh…..love this old Underwood.

I think this one is a 1940 Royal Aristocrat or a Royal Arrow? Love the “Shift Freedom” button:

Free the Shift!

A 1965 Royal Safari:

This is Louise (L.A.) Marler typing at one of her machines:

She had stamps available with her artwork on them so that you could mail a letter from the type-in: [Read more…]

Instant Photo Booth Printer Hack

October 3, 2013 by Ashley Hackshaw

I thought this would be a fun idea for a holiday party or birthday party….an instant photo booth set up to print the photos immediately. I use the photo booth app Pocketbooth for my 4-photo snaps.

First I take the 4 photos. Anyone else get unnecessary anxiety in photo booths?

To maximize paper I cut 2.5″ wide pieces of cardstock. I used popsicle sticks as the new tray guides because most printer trays do not shrink small enough. The strips of paper slide right in to their new tray: [Read more…]

How To Organize And Backup Your Home Movies (with Checklist Download)

January 31, 2013 by Ashley Hackshaw

This might be one of the most overwhelming posts I’ve ever started because there’s too much information to share! I decided to break it up into a series of posts to make it easier to follow. I thought I’d start with a few overall tips and then add additional posts with templates for covers, details on importing VHS tapes and other types of media into iMovie, etc. Most of the technical parts of the series will be from a Apple/iPhoto/iMovie point of view since that’s what I prefer to use.

I recently started catching up on burning our home movies to DVD. Every so often I will take an old VHS tape and import the videos, edit and re-burn them to DVDs. I’ve found that the trick is to do it gradually. It’s not something that can be done in a day!

The most important thing I’ve learned (to stay SANE through home movie editing) is to walk away when the computer is doing its thing. There is a lot of down time where you will sit staring at the computer while it thinks and formats and spins its little insides over and over and over.

I call this the “Home Movie Snowball”….just like the debt snowball theory. Chip away at the easiest ones first to get them out of the way and off your hard drive. Plus you’ll get more satisfaction at seeing your shelf fill up quickly with movies…..

[Read more…]