Re: Obituaries

[cromwell]

Jimmy Greaves,what a character.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/58613988

[johnofgwent]

Blimey John remember the first of his calculators,cost an arm and a leg.

My the boss bought one and got the hump because I added up a stock valuation quicker than him on his new toy.

I bought, and built, two of his calculators. The Sinclair Cambridge ((£24.95) and the Sinclair Scientific £49.95)


Beer was then about 42p a pint.


I was in sixth form so that would be 74/75


It took a hell of a lot of my disposable income for the month. Hell actually it took most of it for the quarter ...


I remember that the "scientific" required you to enter the formula you wished to calculate using reverse polish notation.


Because that was the only chipset on the market at the time.


Within three years it was if course redundant. Because the new chipsets permitted "natural" data entry.

[cromwell]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/sep/16/home-computing-pioneer-sir-clive-sinclair-dies-aged-81


Sir Clive Sinclair


Mock his insane ideas all you like, this man's inventions launched my career.


We had a "computerised" cell culture tank that used an ancient think barely more than an abacus to keep the cultivation system going. I realised it had an 8 bit data bus and ran down to Laskys and bought up about twenty zx81s they were chucking away at £9.99 a pop. Mind you that was quite a bit in the 80s.


I got the physics / electrical engineering guys to help me design an interface, programmed some microcode, then "let X = usr(16384)" and off it went. It was able to withstand solvents, acid, alkali ......


Then the big break ....


The lab bought a scintillation counter, supposed to be the best on the planet at the time. The software was utter bullshit. The company refused to address the trouble claiming the programmer was off pregnant...


I learned from an engineer it was Z80 based, bought an expansion memory module and coded an entire program to drive the machine.... in 4k of PROM !!


A few months later a chap I thought an engineer rocked up. Surprised at our machine working, he asked how.


I told him I'd hacked the amateur job the developers had done,  written a better program myself, and now wondered whether to ask the UK atomic energy authority, or the MD of this company, for a job...


To be honest I said they seem such a cowboy outfit ....


That was probably when he realised I had no idea who he was. He was the MD of the cowboy outfit. He set up two job interviews in London and Uppsala but someone else's job offer came first ..


And if I hadn't wondered what the ZX81 "usr" basic keyword did ...

Blimey John remember the first of his calculators,cost an arm and a leg.

My the boss bought one and got the hump because I added up a stock valuation quicker than him on his new toy.

[johnofgwent]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/sep/16/home-computing-pioneer-sir-clive-sinclair-dies-aged-81


Sir Clive Sinclair


Mock his insane ideas all you like, this man's inventions launched my career.


We had a "computerised" cell culture tank that used an ancient think barely more than an abacus to keep the cultivation system going. I realised it had an 8 bit data bus and ran down to Laskys and bought up about twenty zx81s they were chucking away at £9.99 a pop. Mind you that was quite a bit in the 80s.


I got the physics / electrical engineering guys to help me design an interface, programmed some microcode, then "let X = usr(16384)" and off it went. It was able to withstand solvents, acid, alkali ......


Then the big break ....


The lab bought a scintillation counter, supposed to be the best on the planet at the time. The software was utter bullshit. The company refused to address the trouble claiming the programmer was off pregnant...


I learned from an engineer it was Z80 based, bought an expansion memory module and coded an entire program to drive the machine.... in 4k of PROM !!


A few months later a chap I thought an engineer rocked up. Surprised at our machine working, he asked how.


I told him I'd hacked the amateur job the developers had done,  written a better program myself, and now wondered whether to ask the UK atomic energy authority, or the MD of this company, for a job...


To be honest I said they seem such a cowboy outfit ....


That was probably when he realised I had no idea who he was. He was the MD of the cowboy outfit. He set up two job interviews in London and Uppsala but someone else's job offer came first ..


And if I hadn't wondered what the ZX81 "usr" basic keyword did ...

[johnofgwent]

Yes John considering their lifestyle I'm surprised he lasted so long,also Don Everly of the Everly bros died a couple of days ago
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58297621

Yes, I'm quite amazed I thought the Everly brother's were a lot older. Ah well.

[cromwell]

The Stones need a new Drummer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58316842

Yes John considering their lifestyle I'm surprised he lasted so long,also Don Everly of the Everly bros died a couple of days ago
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58297621

[johnofgwent]

I've actually never been interested in all that stuff and still am not, I don't know what showbiz is and I've never watched MTV. There are people who just play instruments, and I'm pleased to know that I'm one of them.

The Stones need a new Drummer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58316842

[cromwell]

The man who talked of known knows and unknown knowns and.......oh bugger Im going dizzy,anyway Don Rumsfeld has died,George Bush's right hand man on his war on tirror.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57674117

[Barry]

John David McAfee, the founder of the anti-virus programmes which I had to uninstall on most PCs I bought, has been found dead in a cell in the Barcelona prison Brians 2.
It is believed he committed suicide. He was awaiting extradition to the USA for tax evasion.
RIP

[johnofgwent]

Nick Kamen

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56991728[/size]
Nick WHO I hear you say.

Yes. I thought so too. The chap who stonewashed his levi's at the launderette back in the 80's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwG_wym3p68

...that can't have been a mobile phone he took out of his back pocket was it 

[Sheepy]

I said to Mrs Bucket he wouldn't make a 100.
https://us.yahoo.com/news/prince-philip-dead-duke-edinburgh-110539575.html
I rather liked him to be honest, he was outspoken at times and had a wicked sense of humour.

[Sheepy]

Bye bye Captain Tom, a true trooper until the very end.

[papasmurf]

He appeared a large number of films and TV series  from 1956 until  2016

www.imdb.com/name/nm0001190/

[johnofgwent]

he has safely crossed over to the other side now barry.

Yes, but how many were there to help him cross the road....


He used to turn out for a couple of charity sci-fi conventions one of which my mate was a regular at. Apparently he was still quite hacked off at James Earl Jones doing Vader's voice - over.


The guy just didn't see why 'oi beeee yeerrr faarthurrr, loooke" in an accent fit for adge cutter and the Wurzels to sing "Ive got a brand new combine harvester" to wasn't going to work on screen.

[Streetwalker]

The Mrs is a bit of a sci fi fan and has been collecting 'stuff' for a number of years . On hearing the news she said 'thats sad , Ive got a signed book upstairs somewhere , I wonder how much its worth ? "

Apparently he was also offered the job as Chewbacca  but didn't fancy it .