Re: DEC and The Americans

From	"jack" <jkl8976@nospam.com>
Newsgroups	alt.folklore.computers, comp.misc
Subject	Re: DEC and The Americans
Date	2016-01-26 05:48 +1100
Message-ID	<dgn8vaF66vsU1@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References	<dgmpjsF24gvU2@mid.individual.net> <alpine.LNX.2.02.1601251056460.9361@darkstar.example.org>

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

Show all headers | View raw


"Michael Black" <et472@ncf.ca> wrote in message 
news:alpine.LNX.2.02.1601251056460.9361@darkstar.example.org...
> On Mon, 25 Jan 2016, RS Wood wrote:
>
>> Anyone here familiar with that TV series, The Americans?[1]  If you're 
>> not, I can recommend it - it's pretty well done drama, set in about 1982 
>> Washington DC, where undercover KGB agents and the FBI are facing off.
>>
>> Thought I'd mention it because every scene shot within the Russian 
>> embassy to the USA (ie, the USSR's building in Washington DC) features a 
>> lot of prominent shots of DEC VT100 terminals gracing everyone's desks.
>>
>> At first I thought, typical Hollywood - they chose DEC because the 
>> terminals look a bit more dated than the more modern PCs sitting on the 
>> desks of the FBI, but poking around a bit [2], it might be accurate: the 
>> VT100 reigned from about 1978 to 1982, so that would correspond with the 
>> show.
>>
> But could the Soviets buy DEC computers?  I thought at least some computer 
> stuff was restricted in where it could be sold.  And even if not, buying 
> outside of the USSR meant needing "hard currency", which I thought was 
> often lacking.  They had to spend it on the important things.

Its far from clear that they would have thought anything else
was more important. Certainly Putin himself was involved in
that sort of stuff a bit later than that 85-90, in embassies
outside the USSR, in his case mostly in Germany.

Dunno about access to DEC minis tho. The program may
well have used those instead of the russian clones of them
just because there aren't any clones available to use to even
do a decent mockup of those, so used real VT100s instead.

Thread

DEC and The Americans RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2016-01-25 17:26 +0300
  Re: DEC and The Americans Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-01-25 10:58 -0500
    Re: DEC and The Americans Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2016-01-25 11:47 -0500
    Re: DEC and The Americans John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> - 2016-01-25 16:47 +0000
      Re: DEC and The Americans Stan Barr <plan.b@bluesomatic.org> - 2016-01-25 17:41 +0000
        Re: DEC and The Americans mm0fmf <none@mailinator.com> - 2016-01-25 19:25 +0000
        Re: DEC and The Americans Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> - 2016-01-25 16:15 -0500
      Re: DEC and The Americans Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-01-25 13:17 -0500
        Re: DEC and The Americans Stan Barr <plan.b@bluesomatic.org> - 2016-01-26 08:20 +0000
          Re: DEC and The Americans mausg@mail.com - 2016-01-26 11:32 +0000
          Re: DEC and The Americans "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2016-01-26 17:23 -0600
        Re: DEC and The Americans Eric Pozharski <whynot@pozharski.name> - 2016-01-26 19:08 +0200
        Re: DEC and The Americans "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2016-01-26 17:20 -0600
          Re: DEC and The Americans scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us (Scott Alfter) - 2016-01-27 19:40 +0000
        Re: DEC and The Americans Yeechang Lee <ylee@columbia.edu> - 2016-01-27 22:40 -0800
      Re: DEC and The Americans Eric Pozharski <whynot@pozharski.name> - 2016-01-26 21:16 +0200
        Re: DEC and The Americans "Jack Myers" <jmyers@n6wuz.net> - 2016-01-28 10:07 -0800
    Re: DEC and The Americans "jack" <jkl8976@nospam.com> - 2016-01-26 05:48 +1100
    Re: DEC and The Americans jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-01-26 13:56 +0000
      Re: DEC and The Americans "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2016-01-26 17:43 -0600
        Re: DEC and The Americans jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-01-27 15:42 +0000
          Re: DEC and The Americans pechter@pechter.dyndns.org (William Pechter) - 2016-02-03 00:36 +0000
            Re: DEC and The Americans jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-02-03 14:25 +0000
  Re: DEC and The Americans Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2016-01-25 17:27 +0000
    Re: DEC and The Americans Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2016-01-25 11:18 -0800
  Re: DEC and The Americans "jack" <jkl8976@nospam.com> - 2016-01-26 05:40 +1100
  Re: DEC and The Americans "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-01-25 19:12 -0500
    Re: DEC and The Americans RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2016-01-26 14:22 +0000
      Re: DEC and The Americans Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-01-26 16:20 +0100
        Re: DEC and The Americans Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-01-26 11:36 -0500
        Re: DEC and The Americans "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-01-26 18:37 -0500
          Re: DEC and The Americans Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2016-01-27 03:58 +0000
            Re: DEC and The Americans Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2016-01-27 06:16 +0000
            Re: DEC and The Americans jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-01-27 15:42 +0000
            Re: DEC and The Americans Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-01-27 18:14 +0000
      Re: DEC and The Americans "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-01-26 18:34 -0500
  Re: DEC and The Americans bleep@compy.0-0 (Colonel Bleep) - 2016-01-30 07:07 +0000
    Re: DEC and The Americans "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-01-30 09:43 -0500
      Re: DEC and The Americans Marek Novotny <marek.novotny@marspolar.com> - 2016-01-30 09:02 -0800
    Re: DEC and The Americans Alfred Falk <falk@arc.ab.ca> - 2016-01-30 20:36 +0000

csiph-web