Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Online media almost happened
In 1938 several newspapers were experimenting with sending news by facsimile on shortwave bands. Crosley was trying to fill in the other end of this process. Clearly an 'early adopter' product. The price was $60 + $80 = $140 for full rig. Inflating by 20 = $2800 in today's dollars. Similar to the first practical PCs around 1983.
At three 8x11 pages per hour this was guaranteed to fail. A real 1938 newspaper was a two-dimensional experience, with lots of different eye-attracting material on each BIG page. News, humor, poetry, cartoons, photos, ads. No time for any of the good stuff on this system.
If the system had concentrated solely on text, it could have used Baudot teletype instead of facsimile. Teletypes could rattle out a page per minute, using the same SW bands with less modulated bandwidth. That would have made it worth the trouble for a serious text-consumer. With a little more inventiveness (eg using something like a Vari-Typer for output), the teletype could have turned out a big two-dimensional page with headlines and columns and 'ASCII pictures', coming close to the real newspaper experience.
Unlike the modern Web, this wouldn't be 'interactive' ... but then the Web has pretty much ceased being 'interactive' anyway. No major newspaper or website allows comments now. A little bit of truth was leaking through once in a while. Can't let that happen. Only 100.000000000000000% pure Soros brain-poison can be emitted.
= = = = =
Later followup here. IBM had the same idea, but dropped it for unknown reasons.
In 1938 several newspapers were experimenting with sending news by facsimile on shortwave bands. Crosley was trying to fill in the other end of this process. Clearly an 'early adopter' product. The price was $60 + $80 = $140 for full rig. Inflating by 20 = $2800 in today's dollars. Similar to the first practical PCs around 1983.
At three 8x11 pages per hour this was guaranteed to fail. A real 1938 newspaper was a two-dimensional experience, with lots of different eye-attracting material on each BIG page. News, humor, poetry, cartoons, photos, ads. No time for any of the good stuff on this system.
If the system had concentrated solely on text, it could have used Baudot teletype instead of facsimile. Teletypes could rattle out a page per minute, using the same SW bands with less modulated bandwidth. That would have made it worth the trouble for a serious text-consumer. With a little more inventiveness (eg using something like a Vari-Typer for output), the teletype could have turned out a big two-dimensional page with headlines and columns and 'ASCII pictures', coming close to the real newspaper experience.
Unlike the modern Web, this wouldn't be 'interactive' ... but then the Web has pretty much ceased being 'interactive' anyway. No major newspaper or website allows comments now. A little bit of truth was leaking through once in a while. Can't let that happen. Only 100.000000000000000% pure Soros brain-poison can be emitted.
= = = = =
Later followup here. IBM had the same idea, but dropped it for unknown reasons.
Labels: Alternate universe
¶ 12:51 AM
