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geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: quadibloc2 on Fri, 23 November 2012, 18:26:43

Title: Secrets of the Universe
Post by: quadibloc2 on Fri, 23 November 2012, 18:26:43
I found out that the Encyclopedic Course in Occultism by Gregory Ottonovich Mebes, mentioned in Mouni Sadhu's The Tarot, a Guide to the Quintessence of Hermetic Occultism, had actually been published in book form, instead of merely being circulated in a select circle of adepts. It was published in 1913, in Russian, and therefore in the old orthography.

This led me to be curious about what a Russian typewriter keyboard looked like under the old orthography...

(http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/images/rubuk2.gif)

The top three keyboards show the evolution of the Russian typewriter keyboard; the bottom two, the Bulgarian.

G. O. Mebes also wrote the second half of the book, on the Minor Arcana - it was published in a Portuguese translation in Brazil after his notes were smuggled out of Russia. G. O. Mebes himself perished in a Soviet labor camp.
Title: Re: Secrets of the Universe
Post by: tp4tissue on Fri, 23 November 2012, 22:15:51
I still have no idea what you're talking about. But.......... Yea, cool looking letters. I'd say my fav is the left right K
Title: Re: Secrets of the Universe
Post by: rowdy on Fri, 23 November 2012, 23:52:34
Didn't Russians have the number 3 back then?

We all know the Roman Empire failed because they did not have the number 0, so their C programs could not indicate a successful exit.

Perhaps the lack of a number 3 contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union.
Title: Re: Secrets of the Universe
Post by: davkol on Sat, 24 November 2012, 06:04:57
They used З for 3, О for 0 etc. Hell, even after ~20 years with PCs so many people cannot type numbers and typograpic symbols correctly. Inverse 1337 speak, so retarded. You're searching "2000", but there's only "2OOO" in the text, for example.
Title: Re: Secrets of the Universe
Post by: quadibloc2 on Sat, 24 November 2012, 17:08:29
Just as in the English-speaking world we used lowercase l for the number 1 on many typewriters, indeed, the Russians replaced 3 and 0 with the capital letters that resembled them - and 1 with capital I in the old orthography as well. The Armenians, having an alphabet too big to fit easily on the standard typewriter, designed around our 26-letter alphabet, had to resort to a similar subterfuge.

And I have now added an image illustrating that to my web site (http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/kyb04.htm):

(http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/images/armkb6.gif)
Title: Re: Secrets of the Universe
Post by: hluo87 on Wed, 28 November 2012, 19:47:34
./........ :eek:
Title: Re: Secrets of the Universe
Post by: quadibloc2 on Thu, 29 November 2012, 21:50:26
Yes, the Armenian alphabet is kind of different looking.
(http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/images/eacj4.gif)
What it really needs is a Japanese keyboard, but with a regular spacebar... but, sadly, it's too small a market for the keyboard makers to retool for it, even to such a limited extent.