Good Stuff about Technology and the Internet

[KneesUp]

Where'd the large floppy's go?

It had a 3 1/2" disc drive fortunately. The BBC took the 5 1/4" ones though, in a Watford electronics 40/80 drive. Now that thing could load knock off games like lightning

 

[ColinJ]

It had a 3 1/2" disc drive fortunately. The BBC took the 5 1/4" ones though, in a Watford electronics 40/80 drive. Now that thing could load knock off games like lightning

It certainly beat 20 minutes loading Castle of Riddles from cassette!

I typed my university notes on my BBC Micro and I used its user port to control the hardware that I designed and built for my final year project. It took me 6 months to build and program a device which could recognise simple one-word spoken commands. Now I can just pick up my phone and say "Ok Google, show me photographs of, er ... BBC Micros"! (I just tried it .. Wow - Robo-woman replied "Check out these photos of BBC Micros" - incredible!)

 

[swee'pea99]

"Ok Google, show me photographs of, er ... BBC Micros"! (I just tried it .. Wow - Robo-woman replied "Check out these photos of BBC Micros" - incredible!

You want incredible?

I say "Ok Google, train times from Enfield to Haringay". I'm watching the words appear on-screen as I talk, and it comes up 'train times from Henfield to Haringay'. Then there's a brief kerfuffle, as the word 'Henfield' kind of wobbles, then it changes into 'Enfield', and I start getting train times.

So Google has realised that Henfield is nowhere near Haringay, so.... 'where could he have meant? Where is near Haringay, and sounds something like 'Henfield'? Ah - he must have meant 'Enfield'. All in less time than it takes me now to type 'time'.

Now that, to me, is incredible.

 

[ColinJ]

You want incredible?

I say "Ok Google, train times from Enfield to Haringay". I'm watching the words appear on-screen as I talk, and it comes up 'train times from Henfield to Haringay'. Then there's a brief kerfuffle, as the word 'Henfield' kind of wobbles, then it changes into 'Enfield', and I start getting train times.

So Google has realised that Henfield is nowhere near Haringay, so.... 'where could he have meant? Where is near Haringay, and sounds something like 'Henfield'? Ah - he must have meant 'Enfield'. All in less time than it takes me now to type 'time'.

Now that, to me, is incredible.

Indeed!

Google was adapting to my BBC Micro request as I spoke. I can't remember what its first couple of guesses were but it zoomed in on what I was after within about half a second of me finishing.

 

[Fnaar]

I bought an Amstrad wotsit from my brother in law for 200 quid in about 1992. I thought I'd entered a golden new age.

 

[swee'pea99]

I bought an Amstrad wotsit from my brother in law for 200 quid in about 1992. I thought I'd entered a golden new age.

I wrote the business plan for my business in 1987 on a friend's one of these:

I'm pretty sure he paid £200 for it - that included the printer. He said he would pay for it in x months by giving up smoking. Did he give up smoking? Guesses on a postcard, to...

The 'Word' program it had was called Locoscipt. It was amazing! You could do all these neat things! Like if you typed:

<b>BOLD</b>

the word BOLD would come out in bold!

And if you typed <u>underline</u>

the word underline would come out underlined!

How cool is that?

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

I've scrapped dozens of PCs over the years, but the Electron still works fine.

 

[tyred]

The internet is making my business larger and more profitable.

It ruined my promising career as an encyclopaedia sales man

 

[MacB]

The best thing? - it can all be switched off and you can 'go and do something more interesting instead'

 

[tyred]

My first proper PC was an IBM 486 DX, all 150MHz and 16MB of power. It cost me IR£450 second hand and was quite old even then.

I remember spending a Sunday evening with a large box of floppy disks copying all my college notes and assignments from it in case I needed it again before passing the computer on to my cousin. Those disks are still in a box in my parents attic and I never once tried to access any of the info on them. What a waste of an afternoon that was...I don't even have a computer with a disk drive to read them now.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

I'm away to watch the German movie I left half way last night on You Tube ... easy, just 2 clicks away

 

[mjr]

I started on the Acorn Electron, loading games from tape.

I can't remember if that came before or after I was let loose on a discarded NCR Decision Mate V. Probably before. But the NCR must be fairly unusual. I think the printer port was on a metal wedge that slotted into the back like an Acorn/VIC20 cartridge crossed with some sort of primitive mini rackmount thing.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du-CjWLnKlA

 

[Fnaar]

[QUOTE 4896841, member: 259"]I can think "Harold and Maude was a really good film', and I can be watching it in five minutes.
I can also look up Bud Cort's filmography and order a pizza while I'm waiting for it to load. [/QUOTE]
Top film!

 

[swee'pea99]

Top film!

Possibly the best opening sequence in movie history. But I digress...

Googling 'is it safe to clean a stylus' took me to this excellent guide, which I highly recommend, which includes the recommendation that you obtain a ' 20X magnification glass or 60X mini microscope'.

Hmmm, sounds like it might be costly. Look on eBay. Which I do, to find this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272762239476

Not just a 50x magnifier, but one with LEDs built in, to illuminate what you're looking at.

£2.53.

Delivered.

 

[swee'pea99]

PS

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3taMrJZ6p8