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Still reading

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  Still reading "Brian Gaff" <brian1gaff@gmail.com> - 2014-10-20 08:06 +0100
    Re: Still reading AndyW <Andy@nojunqmail.com> - 2014-10-20 09:16 +0100
      Re: Still reading Gzavsnap <**..NOSPAM..**@nospam.somewere> - 2014-10-20 19:23 +0200
        Re: Still reading Duncan Snowden <duncan_s@talktalk.net> - 2014-10-20 19:32 +0100
          Re: Still reading Geoff Wearmouth <gwearmouth@gmail.com> - 2014-10-20 12:51 -0700
            Re: Still reading AndyW <Andy@nojunqmail.com> - 2014-10-21 07:51 +0100
            Re: Still reading "Brian Gaff" <brian1gaff@gmail.com> - 2014-10-21 08:22 +0100
              Re: Still reading "Chris Young" <chris.usenet@mail-filter.com> - 2014-10-21 20:15 +0000
                Re: Still reading "Brian Gaff" <brian1gaff@gmail.com> - 2014-10-22 08:45 +0100
            Re: Still reading Duncan Snowden <duncan_s@talktalk.net> - 2014-10-21 19:08 +0100
              Re: Still reading Geoff Wearmouth <gwearmouth@gmail.com> - 2014-10-29 02:34 -0700
    Re: Still reading R-Tape <stonechatproductions@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-11-01 10:34 -0700

#3233 — Still reading

Just thought I'd say I am still reading here  but have nothing earth 
shattering to say!

Brian

-- 
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is  active 

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#3234

On 20/10/2014 08:06, Brian Gaff wrote:
> Just thought I'd say I am still reading here  but have nothing earth
> shattering to say!
>
> Brian

There is a new post by a bloke called Brian Gaff, you could read that.

Andy

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#3235

Le 20/10/2014 10:16, AndyW a écrit :
> On 20/10/2014 08:06, Brian Gaff wrote:
>> Just thought I'd say I am still reading here  but have nothing earth
>> shattering to say!
>> Brian
> There is a new post by a bloke called Brian Gaff, you could read that.
> Andy

Hi Brian and Andy.

We are alone !

;-)

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#3236

On Mon, 20 Oct 2014 19:23:36 +0200
Gzavsnap <**..NOSPAM..**@nospam.somewere> wrote:

> We are alone !
> 
> ;-)

No, but I have nothing to say either.

Er... Cor, Speccies, eh?

-- 
Duncan Snowden.

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#3237

Nothing earth-shattering, but as someone has pointed out it is 30 years this month since Sinclair Research introduced the ZX Spectrum Plus - a 48K Spectrum with black plastic keys and a space bar.
They got rid of the original manual which targeted the machine at a different audience.
As a bonus, owners of earlier machines were offered an upgrade kit, with a reset switch and the price was only £10 or £20 quid.
I had a soft spot for the rubber chum but a new membrane and interface was too good to miss. I wish that I had bought more than one kit.

In other news, Rick Dickinson has recently hinted that he is working on a new Spectrum.

The ZX Spectrum remains the least boring computer.

-- 
Geoff 

-- 

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#3238

On 20/10/2014 20:51, Geoff Wearmouth wrote:
> Nothing earth-shattering, but as someone has pointed out it is 30 years this month since Sinclair Research introduced the ZX Spectrum Plus - a 48K Spectrum with black plastic keys and a space bar.
> They got rid of the original manual which targeted the machine at a different audience.
> As a bonus, owners of earlier machines were offered an upgrade kit, with a reset switch and the price was only £10 or £20 quid.
> I had a soft spot for the rubber chum but a new membrane and interface was too good to miss. I wish that I had bought more than one kit.
>

I still have my rubber Key speccy and a speccy plus as well. 
Occasionally I dig them out of the loft from time to time but the last 
time I did so I found that my new TV does not have an antenna socket.
Most of my speccy time is now done on Marvin on my phone or tablet.

Andy

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#3239

I bought the kit too, but was rather dismayed to find that the Sinclair logo 
on the case did not have the red paint on the letters like the Speccy plus's 
in the shops.

I found the reset  switch a bit awkward to solder onto the capacitor wires.
 Also of course the  keyboard membrane in the plus tended to go wrong in odd 
ways much faster than the old rubber one did.


As regards the manual, well you could still obtain the old manual 
apparently, but it was a flimsy not very well bound version  made like a 
paperback, a trend continued by amstrad of course.
 And it was extra!
 Bit of a con really that I thought.

At least Amstrad did include it with the machine.

Brian

-- 
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is  active
"Geoff Wearmouth" <gwearmouth@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:1498156c-ba1b-4523-8cf3-0eae37263317@googlegroups.com...
Nothing earth-shattering, but as someone has pointed out it is 30 years this 
month since Sinclair Research introduced the ZX Spectrum Plus - a 48K 
Spectrum with black plastic keys and a space bar.
They got rid of the original manual which targeted the machine at a 
different audience.
As a bonus, owners of earlier machines were offered an upgrade kit, with a 
reset switch and the price was only Ł10 or Ł20 quid.
I had a soft spot for the rubber chum but a new membrane and interface was 
too good to miss. I wish that I had bought more than one kit.

In other news, Rick Dickinson has recently hinted that he is working on a 
new Spectrum.

The ZX Spectrum remains the least boring computer.

-- 
Geoff

-- 

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#3240

On Tue, 21 Oct 2014 08:22:11 +0100 da kidz on comp.sys.sinclair were rappin'
to MC Brian Gaff:

> As regards the manual, well you could still obtain the old manual 
> apparently, but it was a flimsy not very well bound version  made like a 
> paperback, a trend continued by amstrad of course.

I seem to remember our +3 manual had most of the pages falling out. 
I've never seen anything like it before or since.

Chris


-- 
+-------------------------------------------+
| Unsatisfactory Software - "because it is" |
|  http://www.unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk  |
| Your Sinclair: A Celebration              |
+- http://www.yoursinclair.co.uk -----------+

DISCLAIMER: I may be making all this stuff up again.

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#3241

I think you will find that was the CP/M manual by Locomotive. Their excuse 
for this it seems was that the glue had gone off and a batch did not work 
well. Strange as I never found one that did not have the pages falling out.
 I did find the plus 3 manual very hhelpfull regarding the disc operating 
system, obviously ported over from the PCW machine with added basic support. 
There were far more routines there  than supported by the basic though which 
was rich and fertile ground for add on code writers to do stuff like proper 
file systems etc.
 Brian

-- 
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is  active
"Chris Young" <chris.usenet@mail-filter.com> wrote in message 
news:5446BEC4.MD-1.4.17.chris.young@unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk...
> On Tue, 21 Oct 2014 08:22:11 +0100 da kidz on comp.sys.sinclair were 
> rappin'
> to MC Brian Gaff:
>
>> As regards the manual, well you could still obtain the old manual
>> apparently, but it was a flimsy not very well bound version  made like a
>> paperback, a trend continued by amstrad of course.
>
> I seem to remember our +3 manual had most of the pages falling out.
> I've never seen anything like it before or since.
>
> Chris
>
>
> -- 
> +-------------------------------------------+
> | Unsatisfactory Software - "because it is" |
> |  http://www.unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk  |
> | Your Sinclair: A Celebration              |
> +- http://www.yoursinclair.co.uk -----------+
>
> DISCLAIMER: I may be making all this stuff up again. 

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#3244

On Mon, 20 Oct 2014 12:51:17 -0700 (PDT)
Geoff Wearmouth <gwearmouth@gmail.com> wrote:

> Nothing earth-shattering, but as someone has pointed out it is 30
> years this month since Sinclair Research introduced the ZX Spectrum
> Plus

> I wish that I had bought more than one kit.

I wish I still had my Speccy+. I have a toastrack 128 sitting between my
real keyboard and monitor as I type, but it's not the same. Cooler,
arguably, given its relative rarity, but not the same.

Re. the manual, of course the original orange one was basically an
update of the blue ZX81 book, which I had, so when I got a Speccy+ (I
never had a rubber key model) I borrowed a friend's manual and
photocopied the most important Spectrum-specific parts; the system
variables, memory map, etc. I still have those copies. I could reach
over and read them right now.

> In other news, Rick Dickinson has recently hinted that he is working
> on a new Spectrum.

Ooh. Any more details, or is hinting as far as he's gone?

> The ZX Spectrum remains the least boring computer.

Yep. I really think Ben Heck nailed it this summer when he waxed
lyrical about its low-cost design and called it "the Volkswagen of
computers". I've always thought of it more as a Lotus - Uncle
Clive was very much out of the same mould as Colin Chapman - but that's
probably a better analogy.

-- 
Duncan Snowden.

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#3257

> the original orange one was basically an update of the blue ZX81 book

There was a steady evolution of the Sinclair manuals. 
Robin Bradbeer wrote early calculator handbooks.
Rodney Dale of Cambridge Consultants drafted the first MK14 manual eventually published by Macmillan.
Hugo Davenport of Cambridge Consultants wrote the ZX80 manual with the Appendices being written by Nine Tiles.
Nine Tiles then wrote the ZX81 manual and the ZX Spectrum manual although the latter required editing (by Robin Bradbeer) as it still betrayed some of its ZX81 origins.
After a spell in industry Hugo Davenport was appointed Director of Engineering at Sinclair Research for the period 1984 which saw the introduction of the Spectrum Plus.

> Ooh. Any more details, or is hinting as far as he's gone? 
Rick Dickinson's hint about a new Spectrum was in a reply on twitter but he has recently showcased his design for a portable QL

http://www.theproductdesigners.com/drawing_board.html

If he took the Ben Heck approach and used a ROM that had normal editing then a Spectrum design similar to his QL could emerge.
The colourful design of the original Spectrum with all its keywords on show was a challenge to the beginner. There was nothing that you could ignore. I love it.

> Uncle Clive was very much out of the same mould as Colin Chapman.

I'm sure that there was mutual respect. Colin Chapman died at the end of 1983 just a Sinclair was forming his Electrical Vehicle company.
He gave a lot of development work to Lotus as this joint Sinclair/Lotus video shows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zImSJkpEm0Q

It makes you want to buy one...

-- 
Geoff

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#3260

I've nothing earth shattering to say either, but I did try to peform a Quirkafleeg the other day.

On Monday, October 20, 2014 8:06:03 AM UTC+1, Brian Gaff wrote:
> Just thought I'd say I am still reading here  but have nothing earth 
> shattering to say!
> 
> Brian
> 
> -- 
> From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is  active

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