Talk about a blast from the past! Hilarious video resurfaces showing the retro technology used to check your emails on the go in 1984
- The clip was posted onto twitter by the Canadian TV news anchor Jon Erlichman
- It is a two-minute segment from from Thames TV's computing series, 'Database'
- Presenter Tony Bastable demonstrates how to use a then state-of-the-art modem
- It involved plugging a phone handset directly into an acoustic coupler modem
- However, the first effort goes awry when no-one has change for the payphoneA hilarious video from 1984 demonstrating the now retro-looking — but then cutting-edge — technology used to check emails when travelling overseas has resurfaced.
Posted on Twitter by news anchor Jon Erlichman, the British TV clip features one of the first-ever notebook-style computers and an acoustic coupler-style modem.
In it, the presenter undertakes two attempts to demonstrate how the now unusual looking modem works by plugging a telephone handset directl into it
However, the first effort — undertaken on a moving train — is thwarted by a lack of coins for the payphone.
Posted on Twitter by TV anchor Jon Erlichman, the two-minute clip features one of the first-ever notebook-style computers and an acoustic coupler-style modem (like pictured)
Pictured: Thames TV's Tony Bastable
The clip is an excerpt from an episode of Thames TV's computing-themed series, 'Database' which aired on June 07, 1984.
In it, presenter Tony Bastable — who is perhaps better known his role on the ITV children's programme 'Magpie' — endeavours to demonstrate how to send and receive emails via a public pay phone while travelling across Japan on board a train.
'For the businessman on the move, one of the most significant developments over the last couple of years or so has been in the introduction of pieces of kit like this — the truly portable computer,' Mr Bastable explained in the video.
The computer in question is TRS-80 Model 100. First sold in Japan in 1983, one year before the clip was broadcast, the battery-powered, notebook-style machine sported a built-in keyboard and a liquid crystal display.
Originally manufactured by the Kyocera Corporation (and sold in Japan as the 'Kyotronic 85'), the computer's design was eventually sold to Tandy, who sold the machines via Radio Shack in the US and Canada and affiliated dealers elsewhere.
In total, some 6 million units of the TRS-80 Model 100 were sold, retailing for the equivalent today of £1,986 (for the 8 KB version) or £2,529 (for the 32 KB model.)
'You can work it anywhere, whether in train seat or aircraft seat,' Mr Bastable said in the video, demonstrating some of the computer's functions.
'Here, I can do a bit of programming and work out my daily schedule, I can look at a file I might have been preparing for a company report, I can keep up to date with my address list, do all sorts of things.
'But, if information technology is really about the convergence of computers with telecommunications, then obviously the big advantage of a piece of technology like this is to be able to couple it up back to my home base over the telephone line.'
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