[firebrand]

ping

I remember when the papers switched to cold type. A couple of friends were working on this for different newspapers. I also remember fondly the Linotype days. We used to have to travel by air to read the proofs on a rush project—no computers, no FedEx.

[Albion Wilde]

In the early digital typesetting days, there were specially air-conditioned rooms about 12 feet square containing the computer. Designers sent a marked-up manuscript to the typographers, who would have someone code in the manuscript and send proofs by messenger in — what — two days, if it was a two=page manuscript. Then the designer marked them up for changes, called the messenger, sent them back and waited for the changes. Then... back, forth, back, forth... This was in the 1980s. Things were up to date! Final proofs were glued to white cardboard with wax instead of cancer-inducing rubber cement!

[Axenolith]

Why didn’t you just have it faxed?

[nathanbedford]

I distinctly remember in 1968, my rookie year with the firm, being introduced to the queen of the secretarial pool, and by her side was the equivalent of the Ark of the covenant, an IBM machine half as big as a closet which no one was to touch on pain of dismissal or, worse, the dreaded ire of the bitch queen of the secretarial pool.

The damn thing was down more than it functioned and it was necessary for the IBM repairman to come on a regular basis which they dutifully did wearing their three-piece suits and wielding their screwdrivers. Today, my watch probably has more computing power than that machine, it is certainly more reliable and a a whole lot cheaper.

Technology has turned the world of commerce over several times and I sit here half a world away from Firebrand dictating into a computer which sends my words into cyberspace and distributes them I know not how.

My great-grandson is one year old and I wonder what he will think if reads this when he is my age?