Craig Brown is The Columbian’s editor. Contact him at 360-735-4514 or craig.brown@columbian.com.
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Our personal Lego Grasp, Steve Fessler, began the method Tuesday morning by looting some present workstations for spare elements. However hassle arose shortly thereafter when our info know-how director, Brian MacKay, found the Ethernet cables within the ground had been working the mistaken method. The cables lie in trenches chipped out of a concrete slab someday after this portion of the constructing was constructed, which I might guess was the early Nineteen Sixties. In these days, we didn’t want knowledge cables. Reporters used guide typewriters and rotary dial telephones whereas smoking cigarettes and ingesting lukewarm espresso. The very best reporters might do all of these items on the similar time.
So, we settled on a compromise. Every of the reporters — Chrissy Booker, Brianna Murschel, Mia Ryder-Marks and Alexis Weisend — obtained the identical sized work stations as had been deliberate, however their desks are strung out in a row, close to the cables.
The reporters’ VDTs had solely a small quantity of reminiscence, not sufficient for an average-sized story, in order that they needed to be written in takes. One of many customary habits of the reporters was to attend till the afternoon when the copy editors went dwelling, then slide over to the large copydesk and use the VDTs there. These terminals held sufficient reminiscence to work on a narrative suddenly. While you obtained executed, you’ll enter a command to ship the story to “4;111.” I don’t know what occurred after that!
Our know-how is fairly fashionable now, I believe. However I nonetheless take into consideration the olden days generally, like after we transfer the furnishings.
