Newspapers on the Internet: the future is now (in 1981)

This morning via the ESPN Sports Guy, I came across this news report from 1981 on newspapers being put on the internet.

It is brilliant on so many levels. There is the unintentional humour of seeing a guy decribed in a news report as "Owns Home Computer" (oh we can laugh can't we, in our 2009 world, at those poor technologically destitute folk of 1981), and also the guy from the San Francisco Examiner when talking about putting the newspaper on the internet that "we're not in it to make money"... ah how true.



And while we're travelling back in time, here's a 1981 ad from the lovely named Wang Computers that makes mention of electronic mail (like that'll ever catch on)



Of course, computers were scary back then, so to make them seem more friendly, John Cleese was brought in by Compaq to sell their latest versions:



But who owned a Compaq back then? Let's be honest, if you had a computer in the 80s most likely it was a Commondore 64 - and why wouldn't you have one if it meant for $499 you could get a data cassette and joystick plus 4 sets of software!!!