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Subject:RE: Washington Post style guide from 1970s? From:Michael Wyland <michael -at- sumptionandwyland -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L (techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com)" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 17 Feb 2016 22:42:35 +0000
Dan and Marguerite:
One guess is the cost of data storage. 40-50 years ago, a modest to midrange hard drive could cost somewhere in the $100,000 range in 2016 dollars. Storing each character (including spaces and punctuation) cost real money.
I managed a computer shop for an oil & gas investor in Dallas in the 1980s. We had an HP3000 computer with 1MB RAM (on 256KB boards about 8" x 11" in size) a 40MB reel-to-reel tape drive, and a 120MB hard drive the size of a washing machine. Cost, including eight terminals and basic software? $250,000 in 1982.
Michael L. Wyland
Sumption & Wyland
818 South Hawthorne Avenue
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57104-4537
(605) 336-0244 or (888) 4-SUMPTION
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+michael=sumptionandwyland -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+michael=sumptionandwyland -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Dan Goldstein
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2016 2:45 PM
To: TECHWR-L (techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com)
Subject: RE: Washington Post style guide from 1970s?
At the Post, it was probably for the same reason that they omit the Oxford comma: to save column inches.
As for Honeywell... maybe the high cost of ink?
-----Original Message-----
From: Marguerite
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2016 3:37 PM
To: Michael Wyland
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Washington Post style guide from 1970s?
In the late 60s and early 70s, at least, Honeywell did the same. Never could quite figure out why.
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