The two previous entries on this blog should have been posted some time ago but a hiccup with the connection caused something of a logjam.
If the non-delivery of the Daily Post (and the Western Mail) wasn't enough we hacks suffered a lot of technical problems during the afternoon.
An Eisteddfod official, harrassed by worried journalists unable to file their copy and photographers unable to send pictures said - "we're onto the problem, we'll re-boot the thingamajig and it'll be up and running soon after."
It was, for all of 30 seconds and then broke again. It was'nt fixed by the time I left the Maes about 4pm.
Now a router has been replaced, we are told, but just in case it falls over again I will be priming the newsdesk that the old fashioned way may be called into action this year.
In my 10 years covering the National Eisteddfod I've used all manner of ways to file my copy.
At the Bala Eisteddfod in 1997 I used a large desktop computer and had to carry out a lengthy process to connect the computer to the main system in Caernarfon.
Technology had progressed by the 1999 Eisteddfod on Anglesey. I was using a small laptop then and a phone line which sent a form of e-mail to the news desks. My Daily Post colleagues gave up using the old Tandy laptops which involved placing a set of earmuffs over an ordinary phone round about the same time.
The laptop served me well until 2005 when the Eisteddfod started offering a new phone system and I was sending my copy to the Llandudno Junction newsdesk by mobile phone. That worked well until Eisteddfodwyr started overloading the network and the system toppled over. That happened very, very regularly. This year the Eisteddfod have put up six mobile phone masts instead of the usual one.
At earlier Eisteddfodau journalists would call the office and a copytaker would take down dictated words. The system is still in use and works fine but there are obvious problems. Sometimes there's a big demand and anything over 300 words or so has the telephonist asking "is there much more?". And then again there are those who are not familiar with Eisteddfod traditions or Welsh spelling. Telling a copytaker in Liverpool that the first prize for the Cerdd Dant solo was won by Cadwaladr ap Rheinallt Fychan from Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr was greeted by groans.
At least I won't have to write my copy out longhand and take it to the nearest bus station and hand it to the driver of a bus who is headingin the general direction of the office. We used that system until fairly recently.
