Jeremy DePauw says he is really interested in Journalists' use over time. Am I the only one old enuf to remember the TRS-80 from Radio Shack, known as the Trash-80. It had a screen of only a few lines, but a full keyboard, and was small and lite to carry. Smaller than a current ultra-portable. All 4 of my journalist friends of those days (mid-1990s?) carried them. I'm sure a little surfing will find more. Barry Wellman _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________
Barry, I used a TRS-80 Model 4P (for portable) --> http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/trs80-4p/DSC06489.JPG. It had the TRS-DOS operating system, 64K RAM. Bought it in 1984 at a cost of $1,784 (hard to believe, but that was cheap for a computer then). I used it from 1984-1988. Its only use, really, was for word processing: it was basically a typewriter with memory, using the *original* floppy disks (5 1/4" vinyl). --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80#Model_IV Jim Porter
Jeremy DePauw says he is really interested in Journalists' use over time.
Am I the only one old enuf to remember the TRS-80 from Radio Shack, known as the Trash-80. It had a screen of only a few lines, but a full keyboard, and was small and lite to carry. Smaller than a current ultra-portable.
All 4 of my journalist friends of those days (mid-1990s?) carried them.
I'm sure a little surfing will find more.
Barry Wellman _____________________________________________________________________
Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________
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------------------------------- James E. Porter Co-Director, WIDE Research Center Writing in Digital Environments Olds Hall 7 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 porterj8@msu.edu office: 517.353.7258 fax: 517.353.9162 http://wide.msu.edu/ -----------------------------------------
Barry, Given the "few lines" I think you are probably thinking of the Tandy/TRS-80 Model 100. (There was later a model 200.) A largish-book-sized computer with an 8 line LCD display and a full keyboard. It was very popular with journalists: ran on 8 AA batteries, built-in modem, and word-processing, spreadsheet, and BASIC in firmware. It still stands up as a great machine. I have one on my shelf that I show to students once in a while as an example of a design that actually works. Can't run Doom, and (besides the form factor) is outstripped by any modern mobile phone, but it is still a cool little machine. At least Tandy left the computer business (mostly) on a high note. Alex On 10/14/06, Barry Wellman <wellman@chass.utoronto.ca> wrote:
Jeremy DePauw says he is really interested in Journalists' use over time.
Am I the only one old enuf to remember the TRS-80 from Radio Shack, known as the Trash-80. It had a screen of only a few lines, but a full keyboard, and was small and lite to carry. Smaller than a current ultra-portable.
All 4 of my journalist friends of those days (mid-1990s?) carried them.
I'm sure a little surfing will find more.
Barry Wellman _____________________________________________________________________
Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________
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-- -- // // This email is // [ ] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [X] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais // Social Architect // http://alex.halavais.net //
What I remember as the Trash-80 (and what Jim and Alex have mentioned) were four models (original, "Model II", "Model III", and "Model 4") of desktops made 1977-c.1983. What you're remembering your journalist friends carrying were two latter additions to the series, the TRS-80 PC-1 (1981-?) and the TRS-80 PC-2 (1982-?) - though even those ceased production in the mid-80s, so that I'd be surprised if any journalist you knew was carrying one in the mid-90s. All six were superceded by the Model 600, in 1985, which combined features of each (portability of the PC-X models, and bulk of the desktops), which itself was the precursor of the first generation of "laptops". I made use of a friend's Trash-80 (model 200, c.1979) for a short time, then got an Apple II+ (c.1980), finally replaced with a Datavue Spark (which itself ought to be added to the Timeline, as one of the first laptops ever made, with 640KB Ram and a 9.77MHz processor, woo-hoo!). For photos of any one these (to toggle your memory, or meander memory lane) see http://www.old-computers.com/search/default.asp -eg
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Barry Wellman Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 10:01 AM To: aoir list Subject: [Air-l] timeline: TRS 80
Jeremy DePauw says he is really interested in Journalists' use over time.
Am I the only one old enuf to remember the TRS-80 from Radio Shack, known as the Trash-80. It had a screen of only a few lines, but a full keyboard, and was small and lite to carry. Smaller than a current ultra-portable.
All 4 of my journalist friends of those days (mid-1990s?) carried them.
I'm sure a little surfing will find more.
Barry Wellman _____________________________________________________________________
Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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participants (4)
-
Alex Halavais -
Barry Wellman -
Ellis Godard -
Jim Porter