Is there anything more amusing than reading old books, in which technology we take for granted today was barely embyronic? Recently I found a couple of young adult fiction titles which were a spin-off of the rad TV show
Press Gang. #2 in the series,
Public Exposure, has our good old news team at the
Junior Gazette win a whizz bang computer complete with modem in a mysterious competition.
The book was first published in 1989, published in Australia in 1994, so I was suprised the internet was well-enough known territory for a book of that era. I still recall what a big deal it was in 1997, when I was in my first year of high school, that we had a single computer connected to "the web". You had to put your name down ages in advance to get 15 minutes on this mystical machine in the school library - rumour had it some girls in grade 10 had found naked pictures of Brad Pitt on there. Ooh la la!
Anyway. Back to
Public Exposure:
It hadn't taken too long to set up the computer and run some of the basic programmes which came with it. The word processor was straight-forward enough, though for the really clever tricks they'd have to study the manual. The same thing applied to the spreadsheet and database."The spreadsheet"! Read the manual!! Let's get to the juicy part where the
Junior Gazette team test out a link-up with their school, Norbridge High:
In the school Danny McColl, Staff Photographer on the Gazette team, sat in front of a computer console. He was speaking on the phone to Lynda, back at the newsroom. He confirmed that he was ready and set the modem at his end ready for use. Preparations were completed at the newsroom too. Lynda crossed her fingers and breathed rather than spoke the words, "OK. Here goes!"Danny, in the school, echoed Lynda's tension with his own "Here goes!" He struck the first key. Anxious eyes in the newsroom watched the blank screen for what seemed like an age. Suddenly, and marked by a sharp intake of collective breath, the words MESSAGE BEING RECIEVED flowed, letter by letter, across the screen. A pause and then came THIS IS A SMALL STEP FOR MANKIND BUT IT IS A BIG ONE FOR THE JUNIOR GAZETTE! Another pause and MESSAGE ENDS....1989, punks! I had just started primary school... I believe they may have had an Apple Mac at St Pat's at that point - the kind that took the original, actually floppy, discs.
OK, fine. You've seen through me. This was just another thinly veiled excuse to blog about
Press Gang. It's just so well written and clever and kids somehow put out a newspaper and Spike is a total dreamboat! Lynda 4 Spike 4 eva....
Sorry for the extended silence! Been out bush, out of range. The time had come to pay my old friend Reboot a visit at Morven, for the local races and a long-awaited photo shoot with her ever-growing ranks of sausage dog puppies. Argh! They're so cute I could hardly stand it.
The patriarch, Handsome Darling, shares his owner's talent for posing for photos. His harem, which now extends to five bitches (sounds so gangsta), all have equally elaborate names. They could all well be characters in a convoluted romance novel.
The girls are mostly named after various friends - Pepper is named for her markings, but Cherry is after a strawberry blonde pal, Lady Valentine after Sarah, Darling Emily for our third musketeer over in the UK, and chocolate brown Truffles Fletcher after yours truly. I may be biased but Truffles is clearly the cutest. She takes after her namesake in other ways - she is ALWAYS eating.
Nightly spooning with Handsome was taking things a little far for me - I think he sensed me as competition for Reboot's affections, because he kept inching me closer to the edge of the bed - but when I had a hungover siesta on the lawn while cuddling Truffles and Darling I had to admit it was rather comforting. They're not quite up to multiplying just yet, but if you fancy your own mini sausage I'd be happy to put you in touch with the breeder....
