OVER my 26 years in newspapers the technical progress has been mind-boggling. I started out in the days of hot metal and typewriters. Now it's computers, the Internet, mobile telephones, and digital cameras.

But sometimes, progress isn't all it's cracked up to be. Computers have a habit of supplying nasty surprises.

Occasionally, they get confused and call the wrong photograph on to a page, and this can have disastrous consequences. Like the time - October 6, 1994 to be precise - an article was published in The Northern Echo about Baron Von Richtofen, the Red Baron.

It was supposed to be accompanied by a photograph of the First World War pilot. The caption underneath read "Baron Von Richtofen - responsible for 41 kills in World War One."

Instead, there was a picture of me - another Barron, slightly less red, with an extra 'r' and a fear of flying.

It was even more embarrassing for the Darlington & Stockton Times the day the computer system produced the wrong picture on its weddings page. It should have been a smiling bride and groom. Instead, it showed a proud farmer with a very large, prize-winning heifer which happened to have the same first name as the bride.

The gremlins struck again last week. On Saturdays, we publish a popular puzzle called One-Liner, requiring readers to complete a word by adding one straight line to each letter.

Last Saturday, the puzzle didn't appear. In its place was a photograph of a cruise ship, sailing serenely across a rippling sea. We scratched our heads. And then we realised, the picture was of One Liner...

EDITORS receive lots of complaints but seldom letters of appreciation. And that makes the nice letters especially welcome.

Lewis Peace, of Bellerby, near Leyburn, wrote to say how much he enjoyed the photograph of the children of England cricketers Steve Harmison and Ashley Giles playing ring-o'-roses at Buckingham Palace while their fathers collected their MBEs.

"In these days of murders, muggings and general mayhem, you have got the best picture of 2006," wrote Mr Peace.

Regrettably, the picture was not taken by one of The Northern Echo's staff photographers but by the Press Association in London.

Nevertheless, Mr Peace's letter is a reminder that newspapers must seek out the happiness in a world so often dominated by bad news.

THE Northern Echo's deputy editor, Chris Lloyd, bumped into a reader who said he liked the new, smaller Saturday paper but insisted we keep the broadsheet on weekdays.

"I get the bus into Barnard Castle during the week," he explained. "But I never go into Barney on a Saturday, so the smaller paper's OK."

My deputy looked puzzled.

"Look," said the man, "the best thing about the broadsheet is that when you get on the bus, you open it right out and hold it up. No-one wants to sit next to you so you get the whole double seat to yourself."