2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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videotex
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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n. obs. An electronic service offering people the privilege of paying to
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read the weather on their television screens instead of having somebody read
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it to them for free while they brush their teeth. The idea bombed everywhere
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it wasn't government-subsidized, because by the time videotex was practical
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the installed base of personal computers could hook up to timesharing
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services and do the things for which videotex might have been worthwhile
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better and cheaper. Videotex planners badly overestimated both the appeal of
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getting information from a computer and the cost of local intelligence at
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the user's end. Like the gorilla arm effect, this has been a cautionary tale
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to hackers ever since. See also vannevar.
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