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mobius
Posts: 203
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2017 10:15 am

RIP RICK DICKINSON

BBC.co.uk 3hrs ago
Rick Dickinson, the designer of the Sinclair computers, has died in the US while receiving treatment for cancer.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43907248

Background
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17776666

Extract
"The thin Bauhaus-inspired design was sleeker than anything else on the market, but what was more impressive was its price: £125 for the basic model with 16 kilobytes of RAM, or £175 for the 48k model."

You started out with printf "Hello World"

And today you've got the TSB with
TSB boss Paul Pester has told the BBC the bank is "on our knees" after six days of computer chaos, but pledged "we will get up and come back fighting".

They were blaming a lack of COBOL skills this morning - wish I'd kept my old notes. :oops:
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ShaunWhite
Posts: 9731
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2016 3:42 am

mobius wrote:
Thu Apr 26, 2018 7:52 pm
They were blaming a lack of COBOL skills this morning - wish I'd kept my old notes. :oops:
More likely a lack of skills in whoever was upgrading from the legacy COBOL, it seemed to tick along quite nicely for about 20yrs until ops were outsourced to Bangalore Upgradings and Internet Service Providings Ltd
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Derek27
Posts: 23471
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:44 am
Location: UK

I'm available to help if they want me. I've still got a COBOL/IDMS listing I can brush up on.
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ShaunWhite
Posts: 9731
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2016 3:42 am

Have they tried reaching round the back and giving his connector a jiggle. :?

Trust the bbc to get the price and the spec wrong, mine was a 1k kit. Strange we were only talking about them a couple of weeks ago.
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Euler
Posts: 24700
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:39 pm
Location: Bet Angel HQ

Really pioneering stuff for which I am eternally grateful. I really feel the UK lost its way in computing after Sinclair failed. It really did create a generation of coders.

Instead, it really kicked off in San Jose.
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Euler
Posts: 24700
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:39 pm
Location: Bet Angel HQ

Rick Dickinson's drawing board - used to design the Spectrum - is now in London's Science Museum
Didn't know that, will pay homage on my next visit.
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brimson25
Posts: 504
Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2017 11:42 am

If you're ever in Cambridge, and haven't been this is great:

http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/
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ShaunWhite
Posts: 9731
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2016 3:42 am

brimson25 wrote:
Fri Apr 27, 2018 9:35 am
This was my first love:

http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/ ... r-Compact/
Can you image the BBC doing that these days? To educate, entertain and inform was the brief they had, not blowing the license on useless pundits and 'stars' wages.
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Euler
Posts: 24700
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:39 pm
Location: Bet Angel HQ

This is where that ended up: -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arm_Holdings
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