Online Newspapers: Not Farfetched (1981)
What a difference several decades of technology and perspective can make.
Here’s a television news report from 1981 talking about how some people have taken to reading the day’s newspaper on the home computer!!!
Don’t skip out on the video too early. It’s good until the very end. Pay particular attention to the identifying text caption for one Richard Halloran…it’s priceless.
Reader Comments
This is a great find! I had to tweet this and submit it to Digg, too. It’s so interesting to see how times have changed.
Hey, don’t laugh. This shows how long it took to get reading newspapers over a computer worked out.
I had a CompuServe account and I used it to read news. It was quite high tech in its day.
Oh, definitely, Mike! Honestly, I was impressed that this technology did exist in 1981. I had no idea it was around at that time. Still, the world has changed so much since then that much of what is in the video now seems somewhat comical.
Today, the idea of identifying an interview subject simply as someone who “owns home computer,” or thinking back to when there were an “estimated two to three thousand home computer owners” in the entire metro area of San Francisco is a bit crazy.
No, that is a GREAT caption. When I get my fifteen minutes of fame, I’ll have some examples ready:
Kim Luchsinger
Owns iPod
Kim Luchsinger
Drives a car
Kim Luchsinger
Runs a “Web Log” (AKA online journal)
Kim Luchsinger
Uses Google to solve crossword puzzles
Wow. I laughed out loud at that title.