Micro Men
in [UK Mac]
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From: eastender on 12 Oct 2009 17:32 In article <1j7fjl4.1sued0ffolco7N%%steve%@malloc.co.uk>, %steve%@malloc.co.uk (Steve Firth) wrote: > What I miss from those days is the comparative excellence of magazines > about computing. Today magazines are simply consumer sales vehicles > pushing the latest MouseBlaster 2800 series of multi-core gaming > machines. At least back then there was editorial content wirth reading, > written by people who knew what they were talking about and (mostly) > able to communicate it to others. That's a nice thought, speaking as one of the writers who reviewed many a machine in the 1980s. E.
From: Peter Hayes on 12 Oct 2009 17:38 Jim wrote: > Not strictly on-topic but I know a few of us here are into computer > history and/or/ Acorn/Sinclair stuff. > > Show last week sometime, repeated Monday, 10pm, BBC4. Also on BBC > iPlayer. > > It depicts the battle between Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry in the > early 80's. It spans the time from just before Chris left Sinclair, to > the point that Sinclair Computers are bought by Amstrad. I rather > enjoyed it. > > Although part of me thinks it should have been called 'Pirates of > Silicon Fen'. > I thought it was rubbish, try thr podfather documentary on Robert Noyce on BBC4, just facts and talking heads not actors in ginger beards. G
From: Jim on 13 Oct 2009 01:10 eastender <nospam(a)nospam.com> wrote: > In article <1j7fjl4.1sued0ffolco7N%%steve%@malloc.co.uk>, > %steve%@malloc.co.uk (Steve Firth) wrote: > > > > What I miss from those days is the comparative excellence of magazines > > about computing. Today magazines are simply consumer sales vehicles > > pushing the latest MouseBlaster 2800 series of multi-core gaming > > machines. At least back then there was editorial content wirth reading, > > written by people who knew what they were talking about and (mostly) > > able to communicate it to others. > > That's a nice thought, speaking as one of the writers who reviewed many > a machine in the 1980s. For which magazine(s)? I have all of PCW from issue 1 up until 1993-ish, so I could dig out one of your reviews if you did any for that publication. Jim -- "Microsoft admitted its Vista operating system was a 'less good product' in what IT experts have described as the most ambitious understatement since the captain of the Titanic reported some slightly damp tablecloths." http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/
From: eastender on 13 Oct 2009 04:45 In article <1j7ih2x.19cdpxinhv1w9N%jim(a)magrathea.plus.com>, jim(a)magrathea.plus.com (Jim) wrote: > For which magazine(s)? I worked first in the electronics press where we looked at some of the first micros and components, and then for a minicomputer magazine (DEC User), doing stuff on Vax/VMS, Unix, etc. In fact, I worked for DEC (Digital Equipment) as my first job. But I wrote a long series of reviews of PCs (eg IBM AT) for Which Computer mag - these were business-oriented reviews where I also looked at some of the bundled software, if any. Went to many a press do given by Acorn, IBM, Apple etc. But my proudest achievement? Well it has to be writing an article on Usenet that's in the history of the net paper (Usenet's Pranks and Pragmatism) in 1984. E.
From: Pd on 13 Oct 2009 10:10
Woody <usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: > I used to love the powerbook 160 for outdoors in daytime. You just > turned the backlight off (it didn't make any difference either way). > Used to sit in the park writing on that. Ditto PB140. I had a working 140 up until a few months ago. It did actually still work, but the screen crystals or whatever it is that go black had finally run out of whatever it is they have, and only the finest adjustment of the contrast slider would render the screen readable. -- Pd |