Making the Most of the Micro (10): At the End of the Line

[@Phrennie]

I loved watching this series when I was a kid. It was broadcast here in the US on my local PBS station. I remember this episode well. Ah, the memories.

[@BikerBytes]

I remember after watching programs such as this, Whizz Kids and the movie War Games nagging my dad to get me a modem for my BBC computer so I could access Prestel and other bulletin boards back in early 80s. As a 13 year old nerd in his bedroom this was impressive cutting edge tech 😎

[@Innesb]

I helped to build a network for BBC Micros in 1984. I was 16, and the installation was for secretarial training. At that time, I was a 1st year engineering apprentice in the training school, and knew more about computers than any of the computer trainers!

[@messthetics]

Shame none of this caught on

[@mikekaraoke]

LMAO you Joker

[@quemlar]

Thanks for the memories. I remember watching this on Sunday mornings. I had an Elk back then.

[@johnknight9150]

Show off.

[@palto567]

23:17 best part

[@ukipwarrior]

dawn of the internet

[@ms-ex8em]

look at that massive tv set (behind him) look at the brown tv set its a massive monster look!!

[@rhysjj]

As I recall, the program broadcast at the end advertised an upcoming two-hour special on BBC1, called 'Micro Live'. Yes, it was live, and it's possibly best known today for the BBC's Telecom Gold mailbox being hacked live on air...

[@mikekaraoke]

Yea but that two hour special and then the episodes it followed afterwards for "Micro Live" didn't air till Oct of 1983 as Ian said as they were still filming the episodes

[@paulneeds]

Good old days... 15:40 on...

[@alexbaker4596]

“Making the most of your establishment connections more like!”

[@Innesb]

LOL. For anyone wondering what this is about, search for the BBC movie “Micro Men” (2009). At the time of posting, it’s available on KZbin. It’s a great watch.

[@seprishere]

Funnily enough, instant messaging is now a much bigger deal (though it is store-and-forward still anyway, plus we all have always-on connections rather than paying per minute as we did with dial-up).

[@ms-ex8em]

how can some1 look inside this program called a terminal program (how to list it all out)??? does any 1 know? thanks.....

[@MrFaceHead]

They should broadcast more ear piercing electronic screechy noises nowadays.

[@gammawave5109]

they did & they called it "Techno"

[@luisluiscunha]

@@gammawave5109 , 😀

[@BBC600]

Anyone actually try the program at the end on their BBC Micro?

[@snoballuk]

I did back when the show was originally broadcast. Can't remember what it did, aside from it being some message.

[@malcolmcampbell1968]

Liar

[@luisluiscunha]

Also interested in this 😊... Could someone try it. I will, if I find some time and an emulator

[@monetize_this8330]

I remember a different show on CH4 that had a Spectrum file at the end credits. Probably still have the cassette but no means of loading it anymore.

@@monetize_this8330 if you have a cassette player, audio cables and a modern computer, you may convert it to a programme for a ZX emulator.

[@gan9e]

15:52 'TeleSoftware' would be barred under the current ISP filtering system in the UK

[@johneygd]

The bbc net was the forunner of today's internet and that acoustic coupler adaptor sounds geniouse but you had to call that person first to tell him or het to put their phone on their acoustic coupler adaptor to send him a message another problem was it was sensitive to environmental noise and you cannot send to a group. That video adaptor for the computer sounds cool and it's cool to send hidden/ secret messages troughvia broadcasting channels trough a tv speaker or radio speaker via sound patterns and also in theory via qr patterns,bar code this is nsa proof too.

[@Innesb]

You’re technically correct that you would need to call another person to tell them to connect their phone to the acoustic modem, but that would be quite an unusual scenario in he 80s. The common scenario would be an end user dialling into a digital modem such as a bulletin board system (BBS). I was very lucky to have been given an old acoustic modem (300 baud) around 1985, and I was able to dial into BBSs (which answered automatically). I became good friends with the BBS operator (who was a teenager even younger than me), and I would dial in at prearranged times to communicate with another fiend who had an acoustic modem. I don’t know if I was just lucky, but I found the acoustic coupler to be very reliable, and rarely had dropouts. My grandfather worked for the GPO in the 70s, and I remember him telling me that he did indeed receive phone calls telling him to connect the modem, but I seem to recall that he patched the connection with a cable, not by placing a handset into a coupler.

[@jms019]

BBCs had networking in the 80s. PCs barely did in the 90s

[@Muzer0]

+Jonathan Schneider Yeah, they did. It was very different to what we have today, but they had networking from pretty much when they were first released.

[@Inaflap]

There was Novell Netware for MSDOS from the mid 1980s.

[@jms019]

True but PCs didn't come with network interfaces until well into the 90s

[@Inaflap]

Jonathan Schneider Which PC? PCs were often bespoke builds (as many are now). It would be a bit silly for Novell to have software without the corresponding hardware. I used networked PCs in the 1980s, on both Ethernet and Token Ring topologies.

[@jms019]

Yes. My point is network CARDS including on the Compaq PIII I have from that era. Network hardware wasn't designed in and I had fun jumpering NE1000s/NE2000s whereas it definitely mentions econet on the back of BBCs. The first connected PCs I saw were 3270/PC/Gs. The BBCs in the same room did 3270 and had their own file servers

[@chloedevereaux1801]

but can it run crysis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes im first paahaaahaaahaaaaaaaaa