The Charlotte Observer was where I got my first look at newsroom computers mumble years ago. The Miami News sent me there to learn about the new technology.
I was introduced to a desktop computer, which was just a mysterious black box to me. The screen was blank until a Charlotte Observer staffer punched one button and it sprang to life with a message directed at me!
I was as astounded as a caveman coming across a Ford.
When computers were introduced to the Miami news a few months later, the powers that be were wise enough to let the boxes just sit there until we gradually became used to them, occasionally poking at them discovering that they didn't blow up.
The first computer system at the Miami News was housed on another floor in a specially air-conditioned room. The system that fed 43 terminals in the newsroom was basically two large cabinets serviced by a team of technicians on constant call. It had an astounding amount of memory -- 10 megabytes.
No, not gigabytes, megabytes.
That to service all 43terminals and all the incoming wires , AP, UPI, New York Times, sports, business, etc. Every six or eight hours, the system would crash as it ran out of memory. From all over the newsroom, would come screams of agony from reporters who had lost three or four hours working on a story without saving it.
The good old days.
Posted by Deck at December 20, 2006 01:55 PM