Hacker News Reader

I'm interested in the program he would have used to typeset his presentation in the 1960s. Also not at all an attack but he seems to be either nervous public speaker or to have a well mananged speech impediment. Just an observation not a critique. It is fascinating IBM woukd have chosen such 'shy' person to make the presentation.

View on HN

It is not mechanically printed, those materials where hand drafted. I got some very old teachers in college during the 90s, and their hand-drawn flipcharts looked exactly like this.

Sometimes companies used to hire artists to finish this kind of material, but usually engineers at that time were pretty much capable of drafting this kind of presentation on paper, just with rulers, compasses, and the ocasional template rule.

White collar professions used to be way more embodied in the real physic world. Kids were trained on caligraphy and basic drafting techniques since elementary school.

I'm not a graphic arts expert, but the lettering and charts in this presentation appear to be done by hand.

And since this was an internal IBM presentation for salesmen and engineers, the priority likely wouldn't've been on using a polished presenter, just making the information available.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com