Trip down memory lane

We finally discovered that the school fax machine's phone connection always was a direct line.

 

It used to be -30-.

One of the copy desk editors didn't know what that meant, so I changed to "This is the end of the story".

Damnit, but that got in the paper, too. *SIGH*

 

F4, then F3 to send, if I recall.

If you were still connected to the newsroom system, you could probably try it (if you happen to also still have a landline phone, that is).

I still have that very same machine, in the garage, in perfect condition, with cables and couplers, and the box it came in (now for storage). I'm pretty sure the thing would still work if the connections to the newsroom system still applied.

I loved mine, used it a lot, and rarely ever had any problems, even with couplers on pay phones.

 

I had a quick dalliance with the precursor to the Internet on this -- my Commodore 64.



QuantumLink. Had message rooms, games, all kinds of cool stuff. Also cost, I think, 12 cents a minute. My wife slammed the door on that after my first monthly bill.

 

Depends on your front-end system. At my first shop, we used a Coyote system and ended stories with ##.

We did, however, start stories with $$ name,slug,basket ... translated, that's writer's last name, story slug, directory on the server.

Looking back, it was all so primitive. But if you had your own Model 100, you felt like you were king of the world. Especially if you were a stringer ... I made a lot of freelancing dollars when I was in college in the 1980s because I had one (bought it used for $200) and could file stories directly to papers, whereas my fellow students were left to dictate. Not surprisingly, a lot of business ended up coming my way.

 

I loved those things. At one stop, they upgraded laptops by waves, and all the veteran writers were issued state-of-the-art new computers that they couldn't get a thing done on without help. Meanwhile, I kept chugging along with my Tandy flip-top and didn't miss a beat.

I remember covering a high school basketball playoff doubleheader in Sedalia, Missouri, one time, and I had to chase down a janitor to use his "office" for a phone line that wasn't a multi-line setup. I got my story sent, walked out of the room and realized he had bailed on me. I was stuck in the show arena at the state fairgrounds, without much idea of how to get out of the place, and with every single light in the place shut off.

 

Did you ever get out?

 

My first work "PC" was a 16-pound Portabubble. Which I once balanced on my leg in a phone booth during a blizzard in Williamsport, Pa., while holding the phone in the couplers.

 

nope... it was the days when I did Skoal and the can was the perfect height...

 

Bought my first Trash 80 from the Free Press for $25 bucks when they upgraded to 200's. Was paid 100 bucks from Ap to send state swimming agate a week later for a meet I was covering any way... best ROI I've ever had on a computer.

 

Back in the day, the Trash 80 was the bomb! Loved mine.

 

I don't know if this was a feature of the Trash 80 or the computer system at the paper where I worked, but when your story transmitted, you'd get a read out on the screen that said "OK, I got it." Such a feeling of relief.

And yeah, fax machines would bypass the multi-line phone problem. So would credit card machines at IHOP and hotel front desks.