On 05-18-14, Andy Ball pondered and said...
 
 AB>     I wish I could say the same.  I'm British but I live in
 AB> Illinois.  I think I've adapted fairly well to life here but it bothered
 AB> me to see my daughter come home last week with homework set in inches,
 AB> feet and yards.  There are so many important and useful things she could

Yipes.. yes it's a strange thing I can imagine. Still when in Rome.

 AB>     The first computer I ever programmed was probably a BBC
 AB> Model B that my primary school got as part of the Computer Literacy
 AB> Project. The first I ever owned personally was a ZX-81.  My first modem

I loved the BBS computer literacy project from the eighties. In New Zealand I
was lucky enough to have an imported Model B and we also got the speech chip
installed. Games such as Elite and the ability to programme made it a
fantastic tool. Colour also helped!

The ZX81 I loved. I sold my machine some years ago but then went out and
bought another in later years beacuse I missed having one to play with and
also show my kids the kind of systems Dad first cut this teeth on. The RAM
pack wobbles were notorious and we ended up soildering the contacts to negate
that (many did the same).

I also recall the finesse required to set the cassette tape volume to just
the right level so that after spending 5 mins looking at black/while waving
lines on the screen while loading a programme... the load was successfull and
didn't die a death in the final 10 seconds of the load process.. recall the
way the screen looked as the last part of the file loaded? It was distinctive.

Best, Paul

|15`|03I am not expendable, I'm not stupid, and I'm not going.|15' 
 - |09Kerr Avon | Blake's 7 | blakes7.com | 1978 - 1981

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