If you came of age during the Reagan regime as I had, chances are your Cold War-inspired paranoia thawed a bit when exposed to the retro-future climes of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. The quasi-familiarity of the film’s lo-fi hi-tech (retrofitted typewriter keyboards, magnifying lenses over tiny cathode ray tube screens) made somehow quaint an otherwise dystopian vision of, say, the Ministry of Information (which, clearly, is where I?d work). Fast-forward 25 years and now you can get something akin to the Ministry’s office equipment, courtesy of a chap in Philadelphia who converts vintage typewriters into USB-keyboards for a variety of devices (including the iPad as seen here). Available at Etsy, the keyboards run between $500 and $700, though a USB D.I.Y Kit, which includes instructions, can be had for $55. After all, as? the propaganda reads in Brazil, ?Information Is The Key To Prosperity.? Get it? Key… Nevermind. (Thanks to J.M. Berry)
