Of course there's certain tech we take for granted which either didn't exist or was fairly new 1980-81.

Ceefax

I remember about this time we bought our first TV with Ceefax - how exciting that was! The ability to read news as it happens - no more having to buy a newspaper.

No more running to the newsagent for my parents and taking a sneaky look at Page 3 ... d'oh!

Television

Channel 4 - Didn't exist - still a year off.

Television wasn't 24 hours either - no morning TV, no late night, no afternoon. Being a TV addict from an early age I waited with anticipation the next move in televised Naughts and Crosses ...



[Does anyone know how the game ended?]

Computers

They were around. I know this as at junior school, and was doing the best to hit our school library and use the library in town to find out as much about them. Most books talked about them still using punch cards, tape, and magnetic disks were a relatively recent addition.

I knew I definitely wanted to be involved with them, inspired by Blakes 7 and Doctor Who. And as I said spent a lot of time going to the library to find as much as I could.

Those days if a child was going to the library from their own bat to read up about something that would interest them it'd be applauded. But this was the 1980s ... so my junior school teacher instead complained to my parents that I was living in a dream world, and should concentrate on other more educational things.

Educations dismissal of the role computers played just kind of proves how it failed to prepare us for the world we'd eventually go to work in. I think I should give a V-sign to Mr Appleby for that!

What did computers of the era look like? Well mainly available for the office - I'll let a couple of familiar faces fill you in ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJeu3LCo-6A

This was the year that computers would first be available for home ...

* Sinclair's ZX80 and later ZX81 would be the first available for home computing in the UK

* The first IBM home computer would be available in 1981 ...



* The BBC Micro would soon follow in the later part of 1981