1981 primitive Internet report on KRON

Long before anyone had heard of the Internet, early home computer users could read their morning newspapers online ... sort of. Steve Newman's 1981 story was broadcast on KRON San Francisco.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[vortexlisa]

Imagine if you will, sitting down to your morning coffee turning on your laptop, smart phone or other such device to watch this video... wonder if she ever expected that one.

[RB747domme]

II saw him use an acoustic coupler modem, sitting his handset inside it. That might have been around 600 baud in 1981. That is 0.0075Kb per second. Or about 120 characters. That's roughly one line of text per second.

That's a laborious transmission for an entire newspaper text..

And just when did people STOP saying "home computer" - like having a computer at home was a feat in it's own right..

[lkrnpk]

But we don't like to do that, so we are not doing it...

[lkrnpk]

yeah the problem with many predictions is that they assume that all people will just turn to the new thing. Technically it is possible to get rid of paper books, newspapers and write notes on tablets and smartphones using stylus but people still prefer paper, just as they still listen to radio and some use sails to go across the ocean.

Technically it's possible to control the lights in your flat by voice commands, have electronic locks everywhere and use only video-phone to converse with people

[lkrnpk]

yeah, it's the same as when we have somebody in a sci-fi show saying that they have this or that ''space'' thing.

[TheTiffanyAching]

Near as I can determine, the system being described was what was, or would become, generally known as a dial-up bulletin board system (BBS), and its technology and development was distinct from the Internet's. Arpanet, the precursor of the Internet, was still largely in the hands of the US military and academia, as far as I've been able to determine. TCP/IP wasn't fully defined until 1982.

[BallooneyToons]

Next, they invent the wheel

[Aristotle Testicles]

Ironically, owning one of those home computers would put you in the news today. . .

[Matt C]

Wow, at the end she says it takes 2 hours to download each days full paper at the cost of $5/hr ($10 total for 1 paper). Adjusting for inflation that at least $30 in today's money just to read the newspaper online each day!

[mechanicalfluff]

haha just imagine showing her a smart phone.. they'd freak

[John Baker]

Examiner editor: "We're not in it to make money." Judging by what the Internet did to newspapers, truer words were never spoken.