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Links for 2012-08-09

  • “In Which The Irish Invent Twitter in 1984”

    A fascinating story of 1980s tech history — ‘The initial Text Tell PX-1000 was developed by Text Lite Ltd. in Ireland in the early 1980s, probably in 1983. It allowed people to create simple text messages and send them by phone anywhere in the world. It had a built-in memory that could hold up to 7400 characters. The firmware inside the PX-1000 was written by West-Tec Ltd. in Ireland, who were probably also the hardware manufacturers. [… A later version was] the Philips version of the PX-1000Cr, as it features advanced cryptographic capabilities. It was intended for small companies and journalists, and was also used by the Dutch Government. […] it played an important role in the fight for Nelson Mandela’s release from prison.’

    (tags: nelson-mandela ireland history crypto texting text-lite 1980s philips)

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