Journal Alioth's Journal: From acorns do great oaks grow... 2
Firstly, and OT... what happened to the "Write in journal" link? I had to really look hard to find it - in fact, you don't get one unless you actually click on and open a journal entry! About the last place you'd expect to find it - by reading your own journal!
If you're in the UK, I suggest you head over to the iPlayer and watch BBC4's "Micro Men" (and if you're not in the UK, head over to the Pirate Bay, where I'm sure it'll appear), which is a BBC TV film about the rivalry between Sinclair Research and Acorn Computers in their heyday. While both companies ultimately disappeared, it was Acorn who ultimately prevailed. Without Chris Curry having left Sinclair, without Acorn, without the BBC Computers for Schools project...there wouldn't have been the ARM CPU or the company, ARM International. Of course, today ARM International designs the world's most popular CPU. If you were thinking x86 was the world's most popular CPU, well - the desktop is far from being the be-all and end-all of computing. The ARM's role in embedded and handhelds has ensured what grew from Acorn Computers has positively thrived.
I really enjoyed "Micro Men", lots of funny moments, and it reminded me of the excitement of the home computing boom. Of course, writing software for work is still interesting, and messing around with retrocomputers at home is still fun, but a little bit of me wishes I was actually there in the workforce "back in the day" working for one of these companies.
Electric dreams (Score:2)
Firstly, and OT... what happened to the "Write in journal" link?
I know. Ridiculous, isn't it? Someone else (I forget who now) pointed out that users.pl [slashdot.org] still exists, complete with the "post in journal" link. I don't know how long it'll remain there, but for now, it's a little piece of sanity in the ever more insane world of Slashdot.
Also worth watching on iplayer is Electric dreams: the 1980s. Full of nostalgic tech.
Found the 'Write In Journal' link... (Score:2)
You have to scroll to the bottom of the Journal page to see it.
Yeah, colour me bemused! :|
Back on topic, gonna go catch "Micro Men" on BBC iPlayer tomorrow night. :) Been reading reviews of it, sounds really good.
-MT.