I started on manual typewriters in junior high school and pounded their individual keys through undergraduate school.
In graduate school, I learned underhanded tricks to get on the main office's IBM Selectric, whose whirling ball replaced the separate keys that often stuck together if you typed too fast and whose electric motor provided the same whack on the paper whether you hit the key hard with a forefinger or just tapped gently with your pinkie.
When I began teaching, I fell in love with the crude word processors available at the university terminals, though it took me a while to understand why I needed a password in addition to logon, and even longer to understand why I would need folders to organize things.
Then came the personal computer--mine was a dual floppy CP/M KayPro portable about the size of a modern desktop with a 9 inch green monochrome screen and WordStar 3.3.
I switched to the MS-DOS world and modern PCs and have been typing happily since 1986, when I found that I could prey on medical offices that either had computer problems or else were planning to acquire them.
So far, no voice dictation, but my brother-in-law is urging me to try it and I have nothing else to do, so maybe I'll take a stab at it.
