U.S. Intellectual History Blog

"Richard Halloran: Owns Home Computer"

Frank Rich’s column in today’s New York Times mentions, in passing, a YouTube video entitled “1981 Primitive Internet Report on KRON,” in which San Francisco’s Channel 4 news announced that the San Francisco Chronicle and its then-jointly operated (and now defunct) semi-rival the San Francisco Examiner had started a service that allowed computer owners with modems to download text copies of the morning paper (download time: 2 hrs).

Here’s the report:

It really is a fascinating historical document that nicely shows the technological and cultural distance we’ve traveled in a little over a quarter century. My favorite moment: the chyron that identifies one speaker as:

Richard Halloran
Owns Home Computer

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