Ill redirect my point to Hereford then as when the new equipment library was setup. It was proven we(now them) lack a good amount of Air Beds and Infusion pumps. The problem was mainly caused by the powers that be because they "nerfed" the departments budget some what four times I believe.
And it doesn't surprise me about the 500's going to the skip. Hereford still do the same. Only a small margin make its way to Africa for charity.
Oh yes. And (whilst perfectly good ones have been binned in their hundreds) there have actually been people daft enough to buy pumps at auction, "repair" them from resources conjured from thin air, then donate them to "Africa"!
I've stopped doing that sort of thing myself now, by the way. Let the fat, corrupt, health ministers "out there" look after their own people!
These days I'm happy to content myself with "Classic Computers" and such (the topic of this thread, by the way), where I don't need to fend off (what I call) "emotional blackmail", and also get to meet and associate with a whole bunch of like-minded people. People who understand what I am doing, actually respect me for whatever skills I may bring to bear, and pay the appropriate amount when the time comes for money to change hands.
Yeah, and even that excellent idea has been screwed up by (what you could call) "politics". Sometimes I despair. In fact I do despair.
As always, it seems to me that the whole world is run by [censored]!
But about the batteries ... a) There's plenty of sunshine "out there" ... and, b) They (that is, the so-called "100 dollar laptops") have a "wind-up" feature (a bit like this forum, then)!
USB on the BBC Micro?* Oh yes ... here is a YouTube video of my mate Mark Haysman demonstrating the use of his brilliant BBC-USB interface board.
Yet another example of the flexibility and almost unbridled expansion possibilities of the good old BBC Micro ... probably the best ever 8-bit micro-computer the world has ever seen!
Just for fun (!) we also had the BeebEM emulator running on the laptop, and controlled that from the real BBC micro via the USB link. How's that, then? Mark is a real "Genius Guy" (in my book, at least), and it's always a real pleasure to be around such people.
Perhaps I should add that I also saw an Altair 8800 in the flesh for the first time, last Saturday. In many ways it was the machine that kicked off the home-PC industry that went on to rock (or should that be conquer?) the world. The Altair was larger than I had imagined it to be, and (I must say) better put together than what I had been led to believe, as well.
* See my post to this thread on 09-Jul-09.
Last edited by Huw; 17/09/0910:45 PM. Reason: Used the 'media' tags
Hi Geoff, Good link to the Altair but as to the name, it came from the film Forbidden planet! On a film (and book note) the Altair computer is used in Wargames, a great 80s film featuring a young Matthew Broderick using one to hack into Norad using an acoustic coupler! Those really were the days my friend! As you know I have a few bits and bobs in my collection. I need to dig them out and dust them off, try a few pokes and peeks on the Vic 20 with its massive 3.5k ram................ Will be in touch Ed
As previously noted (I think) I've got rid of my Commode stuff. My garret is just too small for a large "collection" (which is probably just as well).
So I'm only left with a few BBC Micro's and Masters now (well, a bit more than a few, really ... but as you know, it's always nice to have some spares to fiddle about with). I've also sold my 20 MB Winchesters (circa. 1985) that were set up to work with a Master. Although they were perfect the last time I tried them, the guy is now moaning that a couple of tracks are showing errors! They're almost 25 years old, for Pete's sake ... reformat them if you must (note:- the guy is a bit young you know ... but I did impress on him the need to treat such kit with respect ... Ye Gods, I even hand-delivered them to him as well)!
I don't suppose you've got an Altair or two lying around down there, though, Ed? As you probably know (but others may not) the story goes something like the original Altair was "lost in the mail" (I think they were sending it off for the "Popular Electronics" photo session, or some such thing). So, a mystery of sorts, then. What became of it? Will it ever turn up? Was it snatched away by Aliens? A good idea for a story (movie, whatever), perhaps. Or (maybe) the US Postal Service back in 1975 was just as ... er, good as ours is today.
By the way, the Altair link was chosen at random. There are many available on the web.
Huw:- having now worked out what you meant by "Media Tags", I'll give that a go next time. Are there any associated problems there? It doesn't drag (or slow) the site down or anything "interesting" like that, I hope.
Huw:- having now worked out what you meant by "Media Tags", I'll give that a go next time. Are there any associated problems there? It doesn't drag (or slow) the site down or anything "interesting" like that, I hope.
