1981 primitive Internet report on KRON

[FroeFilms]

NO SHIT?!?! Can you do this today?!

[eliotareed]

$5 for 2 hour access? Someone get that guy a AOL trial disk ASAP!

[searchanddiscover]

i wonder if that guy retired before the computer became competition for his job.

[MrMilas2012]

Ah, so this is where internet evolved from.

[smnabil]

‎1981, the year when I was born... and other great things followed :p

[shengxian97]

See how far the innovations on technology have been through :) Whew!

[mcwooley]

"...with the exception of pictures, ads, and the comics"

Not just a bad network in retrospect, but also

BAD ADVERTISING

Reminds me of today's Kindle... "No backlight" lol

[gorgolyt]

Funny how all these 'experiments' turned out to be pointless... the world just adopts to technology automatically. Journalists didn't need to 'figure out' how to do it, it just comes naturally with the new territory.

[jdwolff]

"We're not in it to make money" So...is this guy from the S.F. Examiner solely responsible for the death of the newspaper? Because I owe him a fruit basket.

[LikableDesi]

...but we use it to go see porn

[tahwnikcufos]

I haven't bought a paper since 1998... when I first got online... lol

[SystemEquation]

This Internet thing is just a fad. You'll all see.

[JDLOCKON]

@SystemEquation lol

[Manimal347]

Only several thousand? Nah. Can't be. Maybe that many TRS-80's. Might believe that, and it looks like it's for TRS-80 distribution. Between CPM boxen on the high-end, Apple IIs and Commodore outings, TI 99/4As and Atari 400s for the casual, there had to be far, far more computers around in homes! 'Course, most had no modems, and many had no disk drive with which to store the paper; yet, computers, all the same!

[spyhunterx]

Look now.

[balrogthane]

"With the exception of ads"

Yeah, didn't take them long to get around that.

[legend101zelda]

@balrogthane Until you're willing to pay for it they'll be there. Till then, ads.

[MrTellyGunner]

"Copy it to paper and save it!" Priceless...

[FortNikitaBullion]

2 hours to send it by phone? I could read you the newspaper in that amount of time with my mouth!

[FortNikitaBullion]

My parents paid $5,000 for our first computer, a 286. Most people won't even pick one up to recycle the scrap metal in it nowadays!

[Htos1av]

On the old NCP protocol,it switched in '84,while I was in college,for A.S. degree,it was a HUGE deal that year,AlGoracle was no where to be found.

[IamBOXBOY]

lol this'll never catch on

[taylor189]

Pause at 1:03 and look at the top right. THEY HAVE TRIANGLES ON THEIR KEYBOARD! WTF WHY DONT I GET A TRIANGLE.

[wordreet]

@taylor189 It could be one of the old ascii characters. If you have a Windows machine, try holding down the alt key and type in 30 or 31 ( I think it is). But don't blame me if it;s not. :¬) I'm using the Linux Ubuntu OS and it doesn't work for me.

[bandstem]

Darn! I wished I'd sent in that coupon. Now I've missed that whole new Internet concept.

[plateshutoverlock]

I had a B+W portable TV and computer setup back in the mid 1980s :)

[plateshutoverlock]

I can't wait to send a fax from the beach :O

[mongobeetle]

Except the pictures, ads and the comics lol! try youtube baby!

[GamuhCube]

2 to 3 thousand home computer owners in the bay area.. wow

[TheTechBite]

that old goon is dead now, never got to see what the internet turned into. for that fellow selling newspaper, well he lost his job and shot himself lol

[elementaleel]

Wait. They had newspapers not on the internet? Those primitive men...

[pmgodfrey]

The internet is not a big truck, it's a series of tubes.

[ChipArgyle]

What? No pictures, ads, or comics??? And it's in black and white and costs $5/ hour to use? This newfangled Internet thing sucks!

[DoubleBigMak]

This fellow is most likely out of a job.

[BannedUfos]

1:07 "we're not going to lose a lot, but we aren't going to make much either". It's still true today, except they are losing a lot and not making much.

[TSMontana]

Also, technically this wasn't the Internet. This was Compuserve (if you look carefully, you'll see the Compuserve copyright), and that wasn't hooked up to the Internet until 1989. Still impressive for 1981.

[TSMontana]

@exposed97 Don't be fooled. They were just undercover freaks back then.

[whotaughtyou]

BARRISTER KNOW MOORE ROGER MOORE DEA

[whotaughtyou]

65 X 9 GENE WILDER

[whotaughtyou]

SCOUZI TAYLOR LAPTOP STOLEN CNN WIFE WE ARE OBAMA

[karlehamel]

hm... the internet is wayy less complicated isn't it. XD

[HappiestTomato]

This will never work. Never!

[jajapani]

Funny how the person at 1:33 is described as "owns home computer" ... LOL!!!

[concretefeet]

@jajapani and already he's talking about pirating intellectual property, under what i can only assume to be some sort of 'fair use' cover... just shameful :D

[er6789er]

Wow! Should've - Would've - Could've - If only time travel was real...

[adh1434]

20 cents for a paper.... Got to love those 1980's prices

[Dms12444]

Ahh Tandy computers, the good ol' days of microcomputers.

[aceytam]

"for the moment at least, this fellow isn't worried about being out of a job..."...bet he's out a job by now! :P

[DJBell1986]

2 fucking hours?!?! This internets thing will never catch on.

[Mr3dfred]

When can i get one?

[aei05h1]

It'll never catch on lol.

[GeneralFantastic]

@2:04

bet that guy's out of a job now

[EbClectic]

It takes about two hours to receive the entire text... LMAO

[jman19mwi]

@EbClectic texting would suck back then lol

[EbClectic]

@jman19mwi

For real

[Snuffomatica]

@necrocoprophilia Well, in the uk at least (so far) it's phone-hacking scandals that are killilng newspapers rather than the internet...

[Snuffomatica]

'With the exception of pictures, ads and the comics'. FFS, I may as well watch the breafast news on the tv then,.

[DiaishiAkye]

Wow TRS 80 Computers, Phones that Dial, Talk about Dial up Holy Smokes. I'll Go back!

[papabugs71]

Poor saps had no idea they were working themselves right out of a job. . . .

[iamgreaser]

I LOVE THAT MODEM :D So practical.

[l33tpwnzord]

bitch lied to me

[judgewest2000]

They were talking about the iPad.

[SteelSkin667]

"It takes over two hours to recieve the entire text of a newspaper over the phone..." HOLY CRAP!

[pointlessfailure]

wait...I can print off stories I am interested in???? Oh man, here's my 1000 bucks sign me up

[iiiears]

Some long distance charges may apply...

 Billy did you get that whistle from a box of Cap'n Crunch? let me play it while my 1,800 dollar computer boots up.

[aejaneczek]

Best quote "We're not looking to make money off of this, but we won't really lose much off of it", ha how many papers are going out of business,add to list of things killed by computers/smartphones.

[taltigolt]

NO ads where can i buy it

[campbpar]

Good god. Fast forward two microseconds.

[gregly]

Ah, the days when "Owns Home Computer" would be a distinguishing subtitle on a chyron.

[sootmann]

"Richard Halloran: Owns Home Computer" - lol

[cleantheebasement]

Whoa the time machine worked!!!

[Falador321]

he just said copy and pasting is the future. What about 3-D television and full made news papers in the internet

[DNesij]

2:00 yep thats just a few years off.

[OBSysteme]

it is so awesome that they achieved this with the very first generation of 8bit home PC's

[deltaray3]

Not really the Internet (which did exist back then). This was just a BBS that papers used.

[simwrangler]

Not only do we now get our news over the computer(internet) we now can get TV and porn over the computer(internet). LOL!!!

[DarthAzmul]

Little did they know this would actualy kill the newspaper.

[Fr0ns]

@DarthAzmul after 30 years.. has it?

[cuttock]

@DarthAzmul Not dead yet. But ailing, certainly. Pretty hideous and primitive. Glad we're in 2011!

[tecknation]

What is this thing they call "computer"?

[demonwx10]

@tecknation I don't know, but what ever it is I don't like it.

[PetercAW]

What's next? Watching VIDEO on the computer? What number do we have to call to get some movies onto a VCR?

[NotADood]

@PetercAW If you call the number to get a 90-minute movie to play on your beta player, it will take a week and a half for it to transfer over your phone line.

[riceboy1701e]

Using a computer to report the news? It will never catch on. ;-)

[GeorgeWashingtonX]

Richard Halloran: "Owns Home Computer" (laughter)

tell me why these early internet reports never gave Al Gore props for inventing this idea... (more laughter)

[kanfor]

Had it porn webs?

[TomJayable]

Read newspapers on computer.. OMG! you must be crazy!! That's impossible!!

[DeloreandudeTommy]

Why did everybody under 40 who worked on computers in the 80's have facial hair?

[Hiraghm]

@DeloreandudeTommy - reaction to the impending ice age we were being warned about.

[tomp2008]

this has nothing to do with the internet in 1981

[Jesusisyhwh]

Little did they know that online news would mean the decline of printed news.



[milxl]

i remember when i was younger wondering why the handset was put in that thing?

[russix009]

Anyone else load Frogger off a cassette tape on to their TRS-80? I think i was 4 or 5.

[MrElectroman80]

I'm from Russia and we didn't even have computers tn the 80's! And you already had electronic networks in America at the time!

All I can say is WOW! WOW! WOW! ))))))))

[dekdk11]

@MrElectroman80 well what do u expect? look at how controlled Russia in the 80's!

[MrElectroman80]

@dekdk11

I'm dreaming to live in the USA, but unfortunately I still have no enough money to make the first steps...

[dekdk11]

@MrElectroman80 I'd really love to live in Tokyo.

[MrElectroman80]

@dekdk11

Nice choice! Are you native New-Yorker?

[dekdk11]

@MrElectroman80 lol u saw that on my channel? Yep, born in 1995 in Manhattan. ignore my profile. i lied about my age so i could watch age restricted videos.

[MrElectroman80]

@dekdk11

Ok!)))

[somedudeguytv]

Thats one hell of a fashionable apartment!

[NotADood]

@somedudeguytv That fashionable apartment in North Beach was about $300 a month. Now it would be about $2000.

[ff2paladin]

I bet next thing they'll say is we'll be able to play those newfangled video game machines against people in different countries from our own house.

[ff2paladin]

That guy's out of a job now.

[steveBB30]

Prestel?

[geekcop88]

This IS comedy

[D31C1D3]

wow that dude just dialed a modem with a rotary phone 0_0

[meenkieblade]

lol, rotary phone

[themassakr]

I was 1 year old! Little did these dinosaurs know, the kids of the 80's would eventually take over the world using their experiments.

[RetroGamerr1991]

"we're not going to lose a lot but we're not going to make a lot either"

You guys lost everything.....

[japierce15]

10 dollars a day for a paper ! jeez

[diylaser]

"of the estimated two to three thousand home computer owners in the bay area..."

[VideoMajestic]

I had a TRS-80 with Expansion Unit!

[killzone10]

Reading newspaper on my computer? Bahaha get the fuck out of here!

[floooky1]

It'll be here soon, folks. Don't worry, it's on it's way.

[N33dM04rM3t4l]

Thought about porn when I read the title

[gerberdaisies]

@N33dM04rM3t4l same here!!

[Plaft]

When dial-up connection was REALLY dial-up.

[WebDesignScotland]

Take that New York Time's With your sh*ty ipad, we had this in 81!!!!

[avocadopunk]

It's just a FAD!

[MIKON8ERISBACK]

No porn.

[Dan454]

Amazing!!!

[aztecex]

Wow! Technology is awesome! Can't wait for the fast phone connection to download my paper!

[Hunkola]

Interwebs suck ass ---- fax machines should have taken over the world

[nyxie23]

I can only imagine in another 30 years our kids will be laughing at us - "OMG, they watched videos through a service called YouTube - and look at those ugly flat screens and computers called iPads - My grandpa had an iPad"

[MowgliX]

This is just a dream. The interwebs will never happen, and "home computers" are just a fad.

[tharock220]

Does anyone think these newspapers knew they were taking part in their own demise??? I haven't bought a newspaper subscription in my adult life.

[dslgunner1977]

@tharock220 I would bet they hadn't the SLIGHTEST idea just how far computers and the internet would advance over the following few decades (though I don't think anybody really used the word "internet" back then).

I went to school in the 1980's, and I remember very well, the days when computers were big and bulky, and the screens were black, with green text.

Pictures (let alone video) were something that we only dreamed of seeing on a computer screen!

[poncewattle]

That wasn't the Internet, that was Compuserve.

[indiana1977]

They charge $5 per hour in 1981 and they're not in it to make money!!! :D

[James1toknow]

LOL this was so funny,,,what ugly PC they had!

[mrclarksmith]

Holy crap, When can I get this in my home?

[dslgunner1977]

@mrclarksmith LOL XD

Wow! so your saying I can hook my telephone up to this machine, and in just two short hours I can read words that somebody in a different state typed onto their computer? Thats amazing! Sign me up!

[TheeJoey1978]

I remember wondering why the heck my friend wanted to make his computer call other computers---let's go outside and ride bikes, man!

Now look at me. :(

[HauptmannJ]

" This is only the first step in newspapers by computer. Engineers now predict the day will come when we will get all our newspapers and magazines by home computer."

Porn .....via home computer....that was their goal and it has been achieved!

[Kurairu]

Nice red phone.

[dslgunner1977]

@Kurairu My parents had those big ugly rotary phones when I was a kid. lol. Ours weren't red, though...we had 1970's puke yellow! lol

[Kurairu]

@dslgunner1977 My grandfather had this awful vomit green one. The 70s seems to have been heavily influenced by stomach bile...

[Krazynation]

No pictures adds or comics, what the fuck is the point to this internet he speaks of.

[earthweek]

No doubt my friend.

[E2theBizzle]

I just watched this report on a computer that would have made those people crap their pants.

[bubbleheadft]

@E2theBizzle No shit man.

[airwolfman]

@E2theBizzle ROFL

[776locust]

2 hours to download the newspaper?! Jesus christ! And here we complain that a 1080p video takes too damn long to buffer...

[hayleypetamarrs]

spiffy lol

[princeok512]

How did it pan out?

[ab37z]

No Ads !  I want this system.

[zizwop]

Did he have a TRS-80? We used to call those Trash 80's back in the day.

[P00P0STER0US]

Love that old computer stuff.

[booboowilson10101]

hehe, cubby hole

[wickedtothemisty]

This is Compuserve.

[glaked23]

"Of the estimated 2 to 3 Thousand home computer owners in the Bay Area". Holy shit, back then owning a computer must've been like owning a helicopter or some shit.

[PchanStitch]

@glaked23 The idea of a home computer was only about five years old at the time.

[mastashaker916]

COMPUSERVE????? HAHAHAHA

[Y0ssariantheAssyrian]

how the hell did they make shit like magazines, tv graphics, and print ads back then

[zizwop]

@Y0ssariantheAssyrian Magazines and newspapers used typewriters for plain text, and a process called paste up-just like it sounds. Headlines, pictures, were printed out and laid out -literally cut and pasted-on single grid-like sheets, then turned into negatives, which then went to the printer. A lot of publications were still using this into the 90s. Seems archaic now.

[2indulgent]

I didn't know a single person with a home computer in 1981

[thejobloshow]

"Not in it to make money."



A-fucking-men.

[traffety]

I still use an acoustic coupler for my internet.

[FearlessSpinner]

Sitting at my computer and read the newspaper on it????

SHES A WITCH!!!!!!

[kellingc]

"trash 80" model III, Tandy Color II, and a Commodore 64/Vic 20.....yes, the thorough breeds of the computing age. Oh, and a dial phone and acoustic coupler. Man does it take me back.

[capitalvice]

Little did they know, that it would put them out of business!

[jovialduke]

"...and with an hourly use charge of five dollars the new telepaper won't be much competition for the twenty cent street edition"

Early rap.

[jovialduke]

I'd love to take these people to 2011 and show them what the internet has become. they'd shit themselves.

[lukebccb]

Faster than windows vista.



[jebug29]

yes but why must people pay for dial-up? lol

[Phabaitos]

Takes two hours to receive a text newspaper...now you could probably get every uploaded issue of several newspapers in that same time frame.

[guidewired]

This is just so damned awesome....

[studdmuffen8]

hahaha little did they know that in the future the internet will kill the news paper buisness

[theshninja]

I first thought the title said primitive Interent porn! I was expecting bad ASCII art.

[tradingpilot]

Well this technology has made you all go bankrupt lol 

[chimpanzee95]

That guy was one of 2 to 3 thousand home computer owners in the SanFran Bay Area 30 years ago, and his news came over a phone line from Columbus, Ohio. Today, I can Skype with someone in SanFran and Facebook with a friend in Columbus in an instant. But If I were a home computer owner in 1981, I would probably want to die.

[Faeronious]

If I ever end up on the news I want my subtext to say "Owns Home Computer."

[captain150]

@Faeronious

"I'm Dave Anderson, I own a home computer!"

[Faeronious]

@captain150 I am Faeronious and I own a horse!

[YTAntiTroll]

$5 dollars a minute, and it takes 2 hours! hell yeah! sign me up!

[SandoTrini]

@YTAntiTroll LMAO!

[Mishkafofer]

@YTAntiTroll 5$ per hour