10 Oct
2008
10 Oct
'08
5:50 a.m.
Jeff Jonas wrote:
My TV /still/ has no PC interface: USB or otherwise.
(I think Sega's Dreamcast system
received games via the cable TV channel).
Hmm, I've seen lots of Nintendo 64 consoles in hotels, which presumably
receive data via the hotel's cable TV system.
I remember attending trade shows in the late 80s
where
"smart phones" (desk sets with tiny terminals)
and Teletex were touted as "the next big thing".
Compared to Sears/IBM Prodigy, perhaps,
but nothing compared to the Internet with hypertext browsing,
multimedia and other new formats.
But then in Europe the 'net didn't take off quite as quickly as it did in the
US - viewdata type services were very popular across Europe at one point in
time (and I guess they did the job pretty well - it just eventually became
cheaper to use the 'net for data services).
But here in the USA, teletext was just a terminal
standard
for low-res graphics, and it still used a modem via phone lines.
The surplus terminals were often from France
(obvious from the keyboard) since it was wildly popular there.
Minitel was the French system, wasn't it?
cheers
Jules