Making the Most of the Micro (1): The Versatile Machine

Episode 1 (Of 10). Broadcasted in BBC-2 in 10 January, 1983.
Making the Most of the Micro was a TV series broadcast in 1983 as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. It followed the earlier series The Computer Programme. Unlike its predecessor, Making the Most of the Micro delved somewhat deeper into the technicalities and uses that microcomputers could be put to, once again mainly using the BBC Micro in the studio for demonstration purposes. The series was followed by Micro Live.
List of Episodes:
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1. The Versatile Machine (10 January 1983)
2. Getting Down to BASIC (17 January 1983)
3. Strings and Things (24 January 1983)
4. Introducing Graphics (31 January 1983)
5. Keeping a Record (7 February 1983)
6. Getting Down to Business (14 February 1983)
7. Sounds Interesting (21 February 1983)
8. Everything Under Control (28 February 1983)
9. Moving Pictures (7 March 1983)
10. At the End of the Line (14 March 1983)

[@robertgijsen]

Those 80s tech-show intros are simply amazing!

[@ajs41]

I remember watching shows like this when I was about 5 years old.

[@johneygd]

Am stun about that dissabled guy doing everything with his head and computer, just mind blowing, my respect goes to him.

[@caradeipanema]

B

[@swaneknoctic9555]

Yeah he can kill two birds with one stone lol. If he ever gets sick of typing he can always try and make his way to the nearest pond and do some fishing lol.

[@WLHS]

@Richy-J not an actor.

[@actualbennett2245]

There is a tetraplegic man, an actor in a drama series called 'Press Gang' (filmed 1988, shown 1989), using a slightly evolved version.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

Can't remember his name but there was a guy on KZbin who did Lets Plays of Guild Wars 2 who had no arms or legs. He was also really good at PvP.

[@dogriffiths]

He gives such a clear description of how the hardware works.

[@TimelordUK]

WOW this was my world!! So good to find this again. Thankyou

[@marcel911]

Wow. I remember watching this originally. If I could have seem my iPad then I would have thought it was science fiction.

[@lawrencemanning]

With a strong understanding of how that 40 year old machine operated its fairly simple to see the iPad as an evolutionarily progression, not a revolutionary one. They are pretty much the same, only the “scale” is different. It wouldn’t have been that big a leap to conclude that we’d have iPads 40 years hence. I’d say actually that progress has been slower than some folk anticipated, based on progress in the 20 years leading up to 40 years ago, which was astonishing.

[@rooneye]

I was in the very last generation to use BBC Micros at school, they replaced them with crappy Windows machines and switched from teaching us how to program to teaching us how to write a letter on MS Word....WTF?! What a load of bullshit.

[@gan9e]

Ident Showcase I was about 14 when my secondary school got in their BBC micro's but by that time I was fully geek+ already soaked in the computer technological emergency of the early 1980s and as such owned various micros and learned how to program them as most school-boys did who were interested, but by the time my school got hold of them their lessons for me were too basic (pun intended) so I skipped them and eventually did a YTS in computer programming at 16 at my local college, they all used BBC micros and then the IBM PC and some others but we had to make 'database' programs, always ruddy database programs, the BBC micro's were used for fun, I made a few games, but by 18yrs old wine woman & song took me away from geek-ville and roughed me up a bit... today I'm still that 14 yr old boy in front of his mums rented Phillips TV set writing useless pap in the glow of my computer screen.

[@JustinSh.]

The ones who got parented by the following paradigm of computers at the time, which boils down to being yet another office worker, rather than a programmer.

[@dbranconnier1977]

I'm glad that sail manufacturing company replaced their antique Univac computer with a Commodore CBM 8032. The savings in electricity, for one month alone, paid for the Commodore, disk drives and printer.

[@jackilynpyzocha662]

I continue my education, watch these videos, go on Amazon and eBay, in one day!

[@andrewcostin3297]

Talks about looking after the floppy disc, and then puts it on top of a big magnet..

[@alexhauptmann298]

10:10 sup kraftwerk

[@carlybishop6160]

16k of memory! My phone is not the best but it still has the equivalent of 128,000,000kb of memory!

[@thefreesoftwarefoundationc4410]

Wow video output was through Coaxial cable? Watching the videos that are 80s classic ones on your page make me sad a bit because personal computing could have been used for such just and noble and even intellectual causes. Yet weve turned it into porn and facebook wankery.

[@Muzer0]

+The Free Software Foundation Computing Videos People thought pretty much the same back in the day. As you can tell from the intro, this series was pretty much only produced because the popular opinion was that home computers were only good for playing games.

[@anonUK]

Don't forget the cat videos!

[@WLHS]

@@Muzer0 word processing was main use.

[@MartinFarrell1972]

Will computers ever catch on??

[@ErwinPommel]

Nah

[@ms-ex8em]

can a bbc micro emulate a Dragon 32?

[@WLHS]

205 pounds , that’s a lot of weight to be carrying.

[@thef5adventurer389]

" central prosing unit" "word prosing program"