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The Eighties
Oct. 9th, 2009 07:19 amThanks to the BBC, I've been taking a nice trip down memory lane to my childhood and where my obsession with tech began. Firstly there was the 80s episode of Electric Dreams which took a family through the 80s at the pace of a year a day with the various tech which became available over the decade. It brought back a lot of memories of the gadgets I had (pocket sized LCD games) and also the computers I used. I found it very interesting that when the family got their computer (they could choose which machine to go for from a selection and ended up going for the BBC Micro), the son spent a lot of time just fiddling around with it with his friend with the basic programming language to get the machine to do stuff. I could instantly relate to this as that's exactly what I did with my Vic 20 and later my Spectrum 128k +2.
Then last night they aired Micro Men, a superb docu-drama about the history of Sinclair and Acorn. If you've ever seen Pirates of Silicon Valley, it's kinda like that but about the British computer industry. Interestingly, in Pirates, ultimately both companies (Microsoft and Apple) are winners whereas in Micro Men, both companies ultimately made mistakes and failed. I found Micro Men very interesting as I was very much a Sinclair Spectrum person in the 80's as that was what my parents chose (probably based on price) until I eventually got my Commodore Amiga A500+. The film effectively portrayed Sir Clive Sinclair as a very short tempered and often misguided yet stubborn person, which I hadn't expected at all. It went on to show how a close friend and employee ended up leaving Sinclair to form Acorn Computers following a disagreement with Sir Clive. I had always assumed the Spectrum I had was one of Sinclair's but turns out it was the first model released by Sir Alan Sugar's Amstrad after they acquired Spectrum range and brand in 1986.
If you can't view iPlayer or the videos aren't available any more, I strongly recommend getting hold of them via "alternative means". Both programmes have made me remember back when I was interested in programming and the like but with the Amiga I lost interest due to there being no easy way to develop for it (until Blitz Basic came out but I guess that was too late in the game). I guess I've picked up my interest in programming again in the form of PHP but it's only a hobby and not a skill I ever developed to a level to be able to do it for a job.
Then last night they aired Micro Men, a superb docu-drama about the history of Sinclair and Acorn. If you've ever seen Pirates of Silicon Valley, it's kinda like that but about the British computer industry. Interestingly, in Pirates, ultimately both companies (Microsoft and Apple) are winners whereas in Micro Men, both companies ultimately made mistakes and failed. I found Micro Men very interesting as I was very much a Sinclair Spectrum person in the 80's as that was what my parents chose (probably based on price) until I eventually got my Commodore Amiga A500+. The film effectively portrayed Sir Clive Sinclair as a very short tempered and often misguided yet stubborn person, which I hadn't expected at all. It went on to show how a close friend and employee ended up leaving Sinclair to form Acorn Computers following a disagreement with Sir Clive. I had always assumed the Spectrum I had was one of Sinclair's but turns out it was the first model released by Sir Alan Sugar's Amstrad after they acquired Spectrum range and brand in 1986.
If you can't view iPlayer or the videos aren't available any more, I strongly recommend getting hold of them via "alternative means". Both programmes have made me remember back when I was interested in programming and the like but with the Amiga I lost interest due to there being no easy way to develop for it (until Blitz Basic came out but I guess that was too late in the game). I guess I've picked up my interest in programming again in the form of PHP but it's only a hobby and not a skill I ever developed to a level to be able to do it for a job.
