I wrote last week about the history of journalism, and its technologies, prior to the introduction of the World Wide Web. In this connection I have come across a fascinating quote from Ben Bagdikian, who was following precisely this subject in real time. In a 1973 article for the Columbia Journalism Review, Bagdikian wrote about the new doohickies on which reporters were writing their stories in the most advanced city rooms. His breathless prose is amusing from this distance. I call them "dookickies" because the names were in flux. The phrase "word processor" would eventually stick for machines dedicated to textual purposes such as reporters and editors would employ. Further on, of course, it became the name of a class of computer software, but that was distant yet. Again, the following passage comes from 1973. As he types, the letters appear on the screen. If he wishes to delete or add to a line he has typed, he uses a set of command keys to move a curs...