Old TVs and new Broadband

The recent talk of the new Dazzler video card and some folks collecting old VDUs reminded me of a very recent issue in the UK regarding an old TV taking out a whole villages broadband due to radiated interference …

Here is one of many reports about it:

So if you have some old TVs (and I’m told Plasma displays are particularly bad!) then maybe double check when you turn them on for that true retro experience!

Cheers,

-Gordon

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I was about to say it’s been a while since I had a CRT TV… but of course it’s not so, I still have two monochrome ones.

And then I notice it’s possible for an old TV to be a plasma TV - well that doesn’t fit my model of what’s old! Although… in 1979 you could buy the Findex CP/M luggable with a plasma display and optional bubble memory module:

(Photo from oldcomputers.net)

Edit: but wait! In 1974 you could buy the MCM/70 luggable APL machine with one-line plasma display:

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Maybe amusing, a Guardian opinion piece on the subject:

“It’s so unfair! It’s not the old telly’s fault – it was just doing its buzzy thing, still fully functioning after all these years, and the new technology was too feeble to cope. But it gets turned off in shame, its owners somehow embarrassed not to have long ago thrown away and replaced something that still works perfectly well.”

I read that the villagers are saying the broadband is still poor, and this whole thing was a PR move. Openreach, the wholesale provider, says they will be hooking up more fibre - but neglect to mention that it will be more expensive for the punters.

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