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From: Rowland McDonnell on 23 Jun 2010 10:53 Graeme <Graeme(a)greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote: [snip] > They ran teletext in most BBC and ITV regional stations. The Acorn RiscPC > could be found in BBC OB units and in Central TV's master control. The > former apparently handled vision control on radio cameras, the latter > controlled the automatic transmission feed, including running pre-assembled > commercial breaks. Acorn A3000s and A3030s handled the graphics on various > gameshows. The BBC used BBC Micros as well for a surprising amount of on-screen graphics - but I suspect that was only *before* they got Arcs. Rowland. -- Remove the animal for email address: rowland.mcdonnell(a)dog.physics.org Sorry - the spam got to me http://www.mag-uk.org http://www.bmf.co.uk UK biker? Join MAG and the BMF and stop the Eurocrats banning biking
From: Rowland McDonnell on 23 Jun 2010 10:53 Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> wrote: > Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > > > They worked out the original price based on production costs which were > > known in advance. Demand did indeed massively outstrip supply - that's > > unquestioned fact. > > > > Standard economic market theory, the very basis of it, is that when > > supply cannot meet demand, price goes up. > > > > So what was claimed at the time matches what economic theory predicts - > > I can't see any reason to doubt this `allegation'. > > According to the March 1982 edition of "Computing Today" it was due to > increased costs, not demand. Hmm! I don't recall hearing that at the time. Never much trusted Computing Today - I used to work for a similar publisher on magazines of a similar (but more professional audience) genus. Their data gathering is not high quality. Still, /someone/ said that to their writer, or he wouldn't have put it in. The workload is such you've not got *TIME* to make stuff up... > Also, take a look at the iPhone and iPad - both have had demand that > vastly outstripped supply, yet prices have not gone up. Inded, the > origninal iPhone had a rather controversial price -drop- soon after its > launch. Erm, yeah, however that does not detract from the fact that the standard supply-and-demand graph at the heart of standard marketing economics does in fact generally apply. Like this: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand> So Apple made a choice to not increase prices - well, when you have a monopoly supplier, the rules are all different, aren't they? I've not studied economics to speak of (touched on it in my first year at uni, the odd lesson at school, failed to read Das Kapital[1], nothing more), so I can't say anything intelligent on the subject regarding this point. Rowland. [1] By which I mean I *started* to read it, but oh dearie me. I've failed to read Wealth of Nations in the same way, now I think of it. Not sure I'm going to bother with Mein Kampf, but I've often wanted to sit a copy of it next to Marx's Capital - possibly sandwiched between Capital and all my George Orwell or maybe Len Deighton's Bomber (tasteless, I know), just to make sure he doesn't break out. ;-) [2] Well, Hitler's plan was to bomb pretty everywhere into submission with his high-tech terror-flyers. Didn't work here. Nor did the RAF's attempt to bomb Germany into submission, but they didn't half do a lot more damage - and got Hitler hopping mad about allied `terror-flyers' into the bargain which was just so funny. -- Remove the animal for email address: rowland.mcdonnell(a)dog.physics.org Sorry - the spam got to me http://www.mag-uk.org http://www.bmf.co.uk UK biker? Join MAG and the BMF and stop the Eurocrats banning biking
From: T i m on 23 Jun 2010 16:16 On Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:58:46 +0100, Graeme <Graeme(a)greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote: >They ran teletext in most BBC and ITV regional stations. That reminds me, I used to 'receive' Spectrum programs via Teletext. It was a bit like lobster fishing, you set it up and checked to see if it worked in the morning. ;-) Cheers, T i m
From: Rowland McDonnell on 23 Jun 2010 17:44
Fred Bambrough <fred@[127.0.0.1]> wrote: > peter(a)cara.demon.co.uk (Peter Ceresole) wrote: > > [snip] > > Bill Cotton was in charge of the channel at the time and signed off on > > the BBC Micro project. For what it's worth, he told us that they were > > expecting to sell maybe 5000, all told (I can't remember the actual > > number he gave us- it was in that order of size), and that they saw it > > as an expensive and risky project. When sales went sky high, they were > > absolutely gobsmacked, but happy to have a source of cash for the > > project. > > > > The BBC themselves used B micros for all kinds of jobs, including clocks > > and leaders and all sorts. When I was there, until 2000, you'd see them > > in every video edit suite, although I'm sure they've mostly disappeared > > by now. But they were dead reliable. > > The initial order was for 12000 IIRC. I still have the spec issued by the > BBC before production. My dad /used/ to have the original BBC spec - the one that insisted on a Z80 CPU (and a linear PSU and fully socketed construction)... Not seen it for over 20 years, mind. >I had No. 383. Power supply held together with wood > screws. !!! Good grief - we had one of the early ones with the 4 EPROMs on the piggy-back board, remember that? And the original fry-an-egg linear PSU, too. The serial number was all 1s and 0s - not meant to be binary as far as I could tell, just by chance. Never heard of anyone having wood screws holding the PSU together, though - I'm pretty sure ours wasn't like that. Black and shiny, was the PSU box. And yep, I've got the original glue-bound paperback provisional user guide on my shelves here, an' all. My dad tends to shift stuff like that outside into his shed (or worse - maybe to a bring-and-buy sale), so I lifted it to keep it safe. Rowland. -- Remove the animal for email address: rowland.mcdonnell(a)dog.physics.org Sorry - the spam got to me http://www.mag-uk.org http://www.bmf.co.uk UK biker? Join MAG and the BMF and stop the Eurocrats banning biking |