Reminiscences

I disposed of at least two further RPCs when I left UK, I don’t remember what I did with my A310 and my upgraded A410/1. I gave my Omega to Dave Holden. I only brought two RPCs (2-slice and 4-slice, both SA), the Iyonix and a Microdigital Alpha with me, plus two Intel m/cs (laptop and a Shuttle) which AR built for me at the end of 2007.
I now have around 15 RPis (running Linux flavours) around the house performing various tasks (including three controlling my domestic lighting). A couple of years ago, a sales manager from RS Philippines told me that I must be their biggest customer for RPis!
As for ebaying some kit – does anyone want to pay shipping from Philippines?

I should throw in some Rick wisdom (an oxymoron if ever there was one) – there is a big difference between asking for the moon on a stick in return for thirty year old hardware…. and somebody actually paying it.

A propos the thread where this originated – I’m pretty sure you’re right there, Rick, and my regrets at parting with a great steaming heap of that kind of hardware are largely tongue-in-cheek.

My first computer was an Acorn Atom. I loved it. When I eventually got a BBC B I gave the Atom to somebody in the Physics Laboratories at Sussex who said they could use it. Some years later I recognized it in a skip. I was tempted to rescue it, but by then I had two children and the house had grown no bigger. Sic transiit glans.

Welcome back, Peter :) If you have a minute, is there any chance you could drop me an email at rcomp@rcomp address or andrew riscosdev com please – there’s something I wanted to check with you.

there is a big difference between asking for the moon on a stick in return for thirty year old hardware…. and somebody actually paying it.

Indeed. But I’m talking about sold items, not asking prices. For example, a RiscPC 700 with 200Mhz StrongARM sold for £486.01 two days ago. A7000+ are selling for 300+. A3010s for £175. A3000s for about £200. Some BBC Model Bs are going for over £300! Even Electrons are going for more in 2019 than Acorn dumped their stock for back in the 80s. It wasn’t so long ago that you couldn’t give away this stuff. I think Chris has something to do with the inflating prices ;)

RiscPC 700 with 200Mhz StrongARM sold for £486.01 two days ago.

I love the “and a penny”.
There’s probably some cheesed off person that decided they were only going to go as far as £486 and not a penny more…

A3000s for about £200.

That’s… A quarter of the original list price. For an intentionally restricted machine fixed firmly in the original ARM2 days with a standard density floppy drive and weird expansion different to the other machines (unless you’re okay with a podule hanging out the back).

Some BBC Model Bs are going for over £300!

I think I’ve just spat my tea clear across the room.

Who the hell pays those sorts of prices? I get the “legacy” and the “eight bit revival”, but surely it’s mostly of interest to people who still think Soul Asylum, Deep Blue Something, Savage Garden, B*Witched, and All Saints are still trendy?

Using StrongEd on Linux: in a sense, you can, when you install Riscos_on_Linux on your linux computer. Drag the file to be ‘strongedited’ to the ‘harddisc’ subdirectory, start Riscos_Linux, edit the file, save it back, leave Riscos and use the edited file under Linux. Impression Style (32 bit) from Rick Murray also works. It’s here: https://github.com/TimothyEBaldwin/RISC_OS_Linux_Binary.
It’s magic. Utterly convenient to have Riscos instantly available without having to change sd-cards.

Who the hell pays those sorts of prices? I get the “legacy” and the “eight bit revival”, but surely

I understand audio cassettes are making a comeback. People like the hiss. Wonder if I could convince anyone that my ZX80 tapes are esoteric. Chipshop Basicode 2 going for a song.

Riscos_on_Linux? Perhaps it would be more productive to use VNC to a Pi, running RISC OS, reading/writing a network share?

Peter, I think I mentioned it in the RISC OS on Linux thread. With a little bit of tweaking, the Linux version can run headless, running the RISC OS VNC Server. Then just set up an IXFS mountpoint or whatever it is called to a directory shared with NFS or SMB on Linux.
The headless part is important btw. A lot of CPU overhead can be removed by not running “sdl” or “opengl”.
file IO and network speed is faster than on a RPi. However a lot of programs won’t work. You can build an RO source tree and many other things. However sgit can’t access the network for some reason.

I have all my riscos machines run VNC on startup and program on each device via my Surface pro. To add to the laziness I use a wireless power switch on each riscos device so I don’t have to move to switch devices on and off. Besides full compatibility it has the advantage of not running the laptop battery down when compared to rpcemu.