kepla
Member
Hi everyone.
It seems that new members are expected to introduce themselves to the group here, so who am I to buck a trend ?
Professionally, I've been an analyst-programmer for over twenty years - working on mainframes and Unix minis. Privately, I've been 'into' micros for about twenty-five years.
Interest started as a sideline to my amateur radio and electronics hobby in the mid-70's: Sinclair Mk14, AIM-65, Elf (RCA 1802), Ohio UK-101 Superboard and stuff like that, but I couldn't afford any of it untill the Sinclair ZX80 arrived on the scene. I'd just about got that soldered up and working when the ZX81 came out, and I also aquired a Spectrum and QL along the way. My interest drifted towards the Commodore machines for a while - they had above-average graphics due to custom chips (except on my PET 2008) and a cassette interface which actually worked ! I still have a few C-64s in my collection (and C-16s). The Nascom-1 and Nascom-2 were interesting self-build machines for a while, as was the Acorn System-1 and Tangerine MicroTan-65. A Comart Communicator and Rair Black Box provided professional level CP/M facilites, but activities in the Acorn camp were soon to grab my exclusive attention.
Mid-eighties, the Acorn BBC Model B was probably the most versatile of micros to use. Sideways (paged) memory and proper Disk and network interfaces gave more potential then you could handle in a 24-hour day. It might have only used a puny 6502 processor, but it used it well. A Dragon 32 sat alongside the 'beeb' (it still does) and provided an interesting contrast. 6809 processor, and the interfaces were plug-in cartridges. Beebs and Dragons can be networked together, if you can remember which assembly language you are supposed to be working in, for extra fun. I never really got in to the rash of 16-bit micros when they came out, except for my Sinclair QL. A growing family soaked up all the spare time and funds, and towards the end of the 80's I felt myself plummeting into the dark and dismal depths of the PC.
Not so long ago I started rediscovering the somewhat interesting portable machines of the late eighties and early nineties. As a result, I have aquired a Cambridge Z88 and Amstrad NC100 and NC200 machines. I am now looking to 'pad out' my collection with other portables from the Epson and NEC stables. It is amazing how far downhill notepads have slipped since these machines in terms of size, weight and battery life. An Amstrad NC200 is one hell of a machine, and you can get them easily enough at the moment.
Well, the above is probably more than enough about me. Comments welcome, of course. I'll detail my collection properly in the 'Collections' forum.
It seems that new members are expected to introduce themselves to the group here, so who am I to buck a trend ?
Professionally, I've been an analyst-programmer for over twenty years - working on mainframes and Unix minis. Privately, I've been 'into' micros for about twenty-five years.
Interest started as a sideline to my amateur radio and electronics hobby in the mid-70's: Sinclair Mk14, AIM-65, Elf (RCA 1802), Ohio UK-101 Superboard and stuff like that, but I couldn't afford any of it untill the Sinclair ZX80 arrived on the scene. I'd just about got that soldered up and working when the ZX81 came out, and I also aquired a Spectrum and QL along the way. My interest drifted towards the Commodore machines for a while - they had above-average graphics due to custom chips (except on my PET 2008) and a cassette interface which actually worked ! I still have a few C-64s in my collection (and C-16s). The Nascom-1 and Nascom-2 were interesting self-build machines for a while, as was the Acorn System-1 and Tangerine MicroTan-65. A Comart Communicator and Rair Black Box provided professional level CP/M facilites, but activities in the Acorn camp were soon to grab my exclusive attention.
Mid-eighties, the Acorn BBC Model B was probably the most versatile of micros to use. Sideways (paged) memory and proper Disk and network interfaces gave more potential then you could handle in a 24-hour day. It might have only used a puny 6502 processor, but it used it well. A Dragon 32 sat alongside the 'beeb' (it still does) and provided an interesting contrast. 6809 processor, and the interfaces were plug-in cartridges. Beebs and Dragons can be networked together, if you can remember which assembly language you are supposed to be working in, for extra fun. I never really got in to the rash of 16-bit micros when they came out, except for my Sinclair QL. A growing family soaked up all the spare time and funds, and towards the end of the 80's I felt myself plummeting into the dark and dismal depths of the PC.
Not so long ago I started rediscovering the somewhat interesting portable machines of the late eighties and early nineties. As a result, I have aquired a Cambridge Z88 and Amstrad NC100 and NC200 machines. I am now looking to 'pad out' my collection with other portables from the Epson and NEC stables. It is amazing how far downhill notepads have slipped since these machines in terms of size, weight and battery life. An Amstrad NC200 is one hell of a machine, and you can get them easily enough at the moment.
Well, the above is probably more than enough about me. Comments welcome, of course. I'll detail my collection properly in the 'Collections' forum.
