Adventures in Technology | Central Alberta Publisher · late 1990s
One of the strangest things about working with newspaper production technology in the late 1990s was the enormous difference in the ages of the equipment.
One of the strangest things about working with newspaper production technology in the late 1990s was the enormous difference in the ages of the equipment.
At one end of the operation, we had computers, networks, servers, and software.
At the other end, there was a magnificent old Goss newspaper press that I believe dated back to the 1930s or 1940s.
An honest-to-goodness piece of industrial engineering.
It was old enough that some of its contemporaries belonged in museums.
And you know what?
The old press wasn't our problem.
The expensive new computer systems were.
While Windows NT 4.0 and a German plate burner argued about their communication problems, that elderly printing press was ready to do what it had apparently been doing for decades.
Print newspapers.
Technology is a wonderful thing.
But sometimes the most reliable machine in the building is the one that predates your grandparents' television.
Perhaps the answer wasn't another software update.
Perhaps we should have just asked the printing press how it felt about Named Pipes. 📰😂