Posts by werdsmith

Re: Where are the Tee-shirts ???

Many of us Children of Clive had a 6502 dalliance on the way up, but ZX was always the springboard.

Re: Self-sabotage?

I might not choose C++ to manipulate a dataset, but the language and libraries I do choose might well be written in C++ and C++ might be written in C.

Re: Sinclair and the SSD

but if he'd been in Silicon Valley rather than Cambridge, I suspect he'd have been a multi billionaire and Sinclair would be a name alongside Microsoft, Apple, Tesla.

We also shouldn't forget that the reason we had Acorn, the BBC micro, and ultimately ARM is that Sinclair ticked Chris Curry off enough that he left Science of Cambridge (the precursor of Sinclair Radionics) and created Cambridge Processor Unit Ltd which became Acorn.

And if Acorn had been in Silicon Valley instead of Cambridge? The Acorn Market Hill barely noticeable door entrance was a few strides away from Clive’s Kings Parade rooms above a shop. They went off the same start line at the Baron of Beef.

To look at Fulbourn Road campus now, and compare legacies.

Re: Thought Experiment

RISC-OS flies on any pi, not just modern ones. It’s fine on a Zero.

This is why I love Pi, it’s the cheap thing made for playing and learning and while it doesn’t have the mystery of the 1980~ price breakthrough micros, because we are all so used to tech now, it’s still addictively fun and broadly scoped in where it can be applied. For me anyway, nearest thing there is to the excitement of the early days.

Re: In retrospective

I don't think the Micro:Bit is trying to re-enter the computer market. But it's a quite successful little programmable gadget that is growing its selection of addons and third party peripherals very nicely. Not comparable at all to the Raspberry Pi or even Pico.

Re: Sinclair Scientific

(who needs brackets?)

LaTeX

Re: And now we have the Cloud and SaaS

I do love how people can't help but point out the limitations of a computer that costs £67.

Re: Cost cutting

Sometimes you have to do the best with what you can afford. There was no bit extra within reach for me in my schooldays, and it wasn’t just a bit either. Raspberry Pi picked up the baton.

Re: Thank you Sir Clive

Everything in my life stemmed from the little bit of Sinclair experience that got me into the first job and started my career. My life and marriage (met at work) developed around that career, I am certain I was heading in the wrong direction before that. It was because of Clive because for us at the time, nothing else was affordable. He brought the price down, that was the pivotal action. Never mind BBC micro and Commodore 64, out of my price range.

6 Kings Parade, Cambridge. If you are ever a tourist there, you will probably look at Kings College Chapel. Turn around and look at the windows above number 6.

Re: Fraudulent too...

I think he was just over ambitious and optimistic about his ability to get something into mass production. Doesn’t matter, it is not what he is remembered for, his impact on a generation is far more important than any delays upsetting whingers.

and charge less for a degree (£6000ish).

£6000ish per year equivalent to a full time degree. 120 units will cost you about £6K.

So a 30 pointer will be 1400 or so, a 60 point course £2600. You need 360 for Hons.

Re: A bit of messy rushed cock-up at all levels

sleep through the lessons put in the minimum work that afternoon, just enough to get by without getting caught.

pretty much describes how I dealt with school.

Re: No difference between grammar & comprehensive

The usual uniform enforcement is to send them home to change, I wonder how that would work.

Re: Despite being taught to touch type...

Nope. I averaged one new school a year and never went to one with those kinds of facilities.

How long ago was that? Our local school has music rooms full of Macs with midi keyboards, art rooms full of Macs for design. They have laser cutters and CNC kit, all kinds of science stuff.

Even many years ago when I went we had gas cabinets, Van Der Graaf, language labs with headsets and workshops stuffed with lathes, brazing stations, oxy-acetylene, milling machines etc.

Re: But who in their right mind would want to buy a phone

That’s probably any phone.

Re: People with iPhones won't buy anything else

Many with older iPhones won’t be converted either. I’m running an iPhone 8 and I’m loosely planning to upgrade it to an iPhone 12 in 2023.

Re: Apple Watch battery life

I wear an Apple Watch 6 and charge it every 2 days, I don’t get this 18 hour number.

I’m not seeing anything usefully new I’m the phone market from anyone, apart from possibly the folding displays.

Re: I'm extremely polite to scammers

Yes, pretend you are following their instructions to download a remote control tool, take as much time as you can acknowledging their instructions for MS Windows users and then finally reveal you are using a Chromebook.

They Don’t like it.

Re: I'm not surprised

I use VM too, but I don’t recognise your description of their kit, generally it’s solid.

However, I do resent the fact that they have an entry level service (tests at 110/10 mbps) which costs for so much speed I don’t need or use. 20mbps would be more than enough for my requirements, and should be priced according. I would pay half the price for one fifth speed. Brag about gigabit fibre, what would I do with that? It’s like supplying me with 500 apples per day when I only eat one or two.

Re: Sill they be armed with…

If lane 4 is doing 65, I have been known to pass them in lane 1 at 70, with an empty lane 2 between me and the slow traffic.

Yes, nothing wrong with that. Perfectly legitimate driving.

Re: Posse Comitatus Act

Infrared cameras looking for the bright glow given off by attic-smallholdings.