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When Word Processors Are Out: What's The Best Pen?

Posted by timothy on from the write-only-word-processors dept.

chensonny writes "Recently I was in a situation where there was no word processor, and several of us had to write, copy and sign a big amount of paper. It was then I re-realized the need for a good and comfortable pen. I saw some friends using a Mont Blanc, others like me using a felt pen or cheap ball-point pen. What does the geeks of Slashdot use for writing?" My favorite pen is an aluminum Lamy fountain pen -- can anyone recommend a good place to order Lamy ink in the U.S.?

4 of 951 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Pencil = Good by thrill12 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not to mention:

    A pencil even works in a weightless environment, so we are even prepared for the future...

    --
    Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
  2. You can still handwrite? by JayBlalock · · Score: 4, Insightful
    After years of using computers almost exclusively for written communication, my manual writing skills have atrophied to the point of near uselessness. My handwriting - never my strong point - now makes a doctor's look like calligraphy, and my hand starts cramping up almost instantly.

    Sad, really.

    --
    Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
  3. Re:Big Fat Mont Blanc by len_harms · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I prefer the pen that is
    1) closest
    2) someone hasnt walked off with
    3) I havent left somewhere
    4) not under the HUGE stack of paper next to my computer in my 'paperless office'.
    5) not dryed out

  4. Re:Pencil -- Not pen... by stevey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is yet another urban myth, as explained by Snopes.

    The lesson of this anecdote is a valid one, that we sometimes expend a great deal of time, effort, and money to create a "high-tech" solution to a problem, when a perfectly good, cheap, and simple solution is right before our eyes. The anecdote offered above isn't a real example of this syndrome, however. Fisher did ultimately develop a pressurized pen for use by NASA astronauts (now known as the famous "Fisher Space Pen"), but both American and Soviet space missions initially used pencils, NASA did not seek out Fisher and ask them to develop a "space pen," Fisher did not charge NASA for the cost of developing the pen, and the Fisher pen was eventually used by both American and Soviet astronauts.