Computer Education in Schools Instruction Language (CESIL)

July 12, 2024 | 1 comment

When I first learned programming in about 1978 the school I attended was lucky to have a Research Machines 380Z on which there was the BASIC language. Using this one of the pupils then wrote a CESIL interpreter for their (I guess) O Level project. Other pupils then used this to learn the fundamentals of programming.

Skip forward a few years and I now owned a Sinclair ZX Spectrum having also previously had a ZX81 too. I decided that I would also write a CESIL interpreter this time using Sinclair’s variant of BASIC. Remarkably I still own the sheets of … Read the rest

A Life in Computers

March 11, 2014 | 1 comment

A trip to The National Museum of Computing at the weekend was a real trip down memory lane for me. You can read about our visit to Bletchley Park at a later date but I wanted to highlight some of the more significant computers that have featured in my life that were on show there. The dates are pretty loose as my memory is not what it once was!

Teletype (c. 1976)

I have written previously about how I encountered my first “computer” at secondary school. In fact this wasn’t a computer at all but basically a printer with a … Read the rest

Sinclair ZX Spectrum Review

January 14, 2013 | 1 comment

Here’s one for all you computing history buffs out there. Two reviews of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum from PCW and Practical Computing magazines in July 1982. (Hey, hey, 16k)

… Read the rest

The Price of Memory

July 16, 2006 | Comment

I bought one of these last week – a 2gb memory stick. Yes, I know that it has “Go England” written on the side but that will scratch off in time and I will lose the top but it will still hold 2gb.
At this point you are no doubt wondering why you should care about this – everyone’s got one of these right? In fact if you are like me you will have several. Well at about the same time as I bought it my Dad also found five volumes of “Your Computer” magazine in the loft.

Your Computer … Read the rest

Hey Hey 16K

June 23, 2004 | Comment

Even before my love affair with Psions begin (see previous post) I was a Sinclair addict. Originally it was just a ZX81 with the obligatory wobbly ram pack but quickly I had moved onto a 48K spectrum with dual microdrives, a printer and interfaces 1 and 2.

All of this came flooding back when I found the following animated song by Rob Manuel. Brilliant!!!… Read the rest