Richard Russell
@richardrussell.bsky.social
Particular interests are:
The BBC BASIC programming language.
BBC TV Testcards and Ceefax.
BBC TV Clocks and Idents.
PAL Decoding.
Colour Recovery (by chromadots).
Finite Impulse Response filtering.
The BBC BASIC programming language.
BBC TV Testcards and Ceefax.
BBC TV Clocks and Idents.
PAL Decoding.
Colour Recovery (by chromadots).
Finite Impulse Response filtering.
Not to me it doesn't, I couldn't care less what the accent is so long as it's understandable. Anyway who's to say the government didn't think about it, but quickly discovered that there's no existing technology which could have changed the accent.
September 7, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Not to me it doesn't, I couldn't care less what the accent is so long as it's understandable. Anyway who's to say the government didn't think about it, but quickly discovered that there's no existing technology which could have changed the accent.
It was a synthesised voice, probably dependent on the operating system and what voices are installed. I don't suppose the government has any control over that at all.
September 7, 2025 at 5:36 PM
It was a synthesised voice, probably dependent on the operating system and what voices are installed. I don't suppose the government has any control over that at all.
... Thank you for your attention to this matter.
August 31, 2025 at 10:40 AM
... Thank you for your attention to this matter.
No I wasn't involved with that either (nor Camileon if we're including other Domesday emulators). My 'involvement' with Domesday, such as it was, was purely in converting the photos and maps ingested as PAL to JPGs. I think it involved using the Transform PAL Decoder in its intra-frame mode.
May 1, 2025 at 2:19 PM
No I wasn't involved with that either (nor Camileon if we're including other Domesday emulators). My 'involvement' with Domesday, such as it was, was purely in converting the photos and maps ingested as PAL to JPGs. I think it involved using the Transform PAL Decoder in its intra-frame mode.
I wasn't involved with the Domesday Project (at least, not at the time in 1985/6). More recently I got involved with archiving some of the photographs, but that's all.
May 1, 2025 at 1:25 PM
I wasn't involved with the Domesday Project (at least, not at the time in 1985/6). More recently I got involved with archiving some of the photographs, but that's all.
Nope, not going to happen.
May 1, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Nope, not going to happen.
The great majority of the documents I have would be of no interest today, so the problem is deciding which are deserving of being published (and where). There are a few, such as the correspondence with Clive Sinclair, that probably can't be!
May 1, 2025 at 12:07 PM
The great majority of the documents I have would be of no interest today, so the problem is deciding which are deserving of being published (and where). There are a few, such as the correspondence with Clive Sinclair, that probably can't be!
Some of the more significant (and non-sensitive) ones have been published at the StarDot forum - before I was kicked out!
May 1, 2025 at 6:05 AM
Some of the more significant (and non-sensitive) ones have been published at the StarDot forum - before I was kicked out!
I really can't be sure, I have so much. But I'm not that likely to have stuff about the TV programmes since BBC Engineering didn't really get involved with those.
April 30, 2025 at 8:00 PM
I really can't be sure, I have so much. But I'm not that likely to have stuff about the TV programmes since BBC Engineering didn't really get involved with those.
If I hadn't kept boxes of contemporary documentation all this time, and our best understanding of what happened was based on people's "certain" memories, the date of the demo would have been recorded as a month earlier than it really was!
April 30, 2025 at 7:26 PM
If I hadn't kept boxes of contemporary documentation all this time, and our best understanding of what happened was based on people's "certain" memories, the date of the demo would have been recorded as a month earlier than it really was!
I care about accuracy if one expects accuracy, but this was advertised as a dramatised account.
As I said I have been involved with recent attempts to establish some facts, in respect of what happened when and who was involved. But it's difficult, and people's memories are not reliable.
As I said I have been involved with recent attempts to establish some facts, in respect of what happened when and who was involved. But it's difficult, and people's memories are not reliable.
April 30, 2025 at 7:16 PM
I care about accuracy if one expects accuracy, but this was advertised as a dramatised account.
As I said I have been involved with recent attempts to establish some facts, in respect of what happened when and who was involved. But it's difficult, and people's memories are not reliable.
As I said I have been involved with recent attempts to establish some facts, in respect of what happened when and who was involved. But it's difficult, and people's memories are not reliable.
No idea, I suppose there was no reason to keep it (nobody could have guessed the interest it would attract years later). We don't even know for sure who from the BBC came to see it, David Allen certainly but who else?
April 30, 2025 at 6:44 PM
No idea, I suppose there was no reason to keep it (nobody could have guessed the interest it would attract years later). We don't even know for sure who from the BBC came to see it, David Allen certainly but who else?
Lots of artistic licence in Micro Men, not least that in reality Sinclair had been eliminated in the previous round, when Acorn was shortlisted. So Clive already knew he'd lost, a fortnight prior to Acorn winning the contract.
April 30, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Lots of artistic licence in Micro Men, not least that in reality Sinclair had been eliminated in the previous round, when Acorn was shortlisted. So Clive already knew he'd lost, a fortnight prior to Acorn winning the contract.
Only recently we've been trying to establish on exactly what date Acorn demonstrated the wire-wrapped Proton/BBC prototype to the BBC, and we're now pretty confident it was Friday 6th February 1981.
April 30, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Only recently we've been trying to establish on exactly what date Acorn demonstrated the wire-wrapped Proton/BBC prototype to the BBC, and we're now pretty confident it was Friday 6th February 1981.
The Tube certainly wasn't created to meet the BBC's specification, as it already existed on what was expected to be the Proton by then. But it provided a handy (and ultimately successful) way for Acorn to claim that they could meet the BBC's requirement for CP/M.
April 30, 2025 at 6:09 PM
The Tube certainly wasn't created to meet the BBC's specification, as it already existed on what was expected to be the Proton by then. But it provided a handy (and ultimately successful) way for Acorn to claim that they could meet the BBC's requirement for CP/M.
I should know, but I can't remember. I'll have the information somewhere.
April 27, 2025 at 3:31 PM
I should know, but I can't remember. I'll have the information somewhere.
Sounds like you're evaluating domestic solar purely on its ability to export to the grid. Ours is primarily used to reduce our consumption (we also have a battery) which is valuable to the grid even if we don't export.
November 23, 2024 at 12:00 PM
Sounds like you're evaluating domestic solar purely on its ability to export to the grid. Ours is primarily used to reduce our consumption (we also have a battery) which is valuable to the grid even if we don't export.
Do you happen to know if Steve's talk at your meeting will be recorded?
November 15, 2024 at 4:47 PM
Do you happen to know if Steve's talk at your meeting will be recorded?
It's rather too far for me to come, but I do wish the BBC's involvement - which wasn't insignificant as I'm sure Steve would confirm - would get a fair representation at events such as this.
November 15, 2024 at 4:38 PM
It's rather too far for me to come, but I do wish the BBC's involvement - which wasn't insignificant as I'm sure Steve would confirm - would get a fair representation at events such as this.
Will anybody speak from the BBC's side of things, which so often seems to be neglected compared with Acorn's? I'm guessing no BBC people were invited, as usual.
November 15, 2024 at 4:25 PM
Will anybody speak from the BBC's side of things, which so often seems to be neglected compared with Acorn's? I'm guessing no BBC people were invited, as usual.