Loading into ZX81 from... VINYL

[yerzmyey]

I was wondering - was it reliable at all?
http://www.ebay.pl/itm/220960212885?ssP ... 1423.l2649

[sirmorris]

LOL I have one of these

I think it worked once or twice, but the stylus on my record player made sure that was all

I taped it, of course, but that's long gone. Perhaps I can hunt out the disk...

If others don't know about this it is a flexi-disk - or very thin vinyl record. Single sided, and very fragile. It was given away with a British computer magazine - imho the best there ever was - called Your Computer. it was a multi-format magazine with a large listings section. There was a large technical article base.

There are some issues on WOS..

C

[RWAP]

Just one question....

What's a vinyl record?

Certainly a lot of people today probably don't even know what one is... Soon enough kids won't even know what a CD is - let alone what a cassette was!

Unfortunately, technology does tend to change for the better.

I remember trying these vinyl flexi-discs with a complete failure - it probably did not help that most people only had a stereo output from their record player, plus the discs were never flat when you received them, meaning that the needle was surely not at a constant speed...

Mind you we didn't have an expensive record player, and there was generally quite a bit of hiss from the stylus...

What other technologies were there which tried (and failed miserably) for getting programs out to the masses ???

Off the top of my head...
a) Transmission of a program at the end of a TV program (or via Ceefax if I remember correctly)... Too much interference for me...
b) Laser Disks - I remember reading about one company which had devised a laser disk for the QL, for reading in software - a mere £10,000 - I wonder how many they sold?

[sirmorris]

VHS data recorders.
A system which involved a light sensor and a little flashing square on the TV set.
Not to mention all the systems roughly based on cassette tape: floopy drives, microdrives etc.

[1024MAK]

What other technologies were there which tried (and failed miserably) for getting programs out to the masses ???

Off the top of my head...
a) Transmission of a program at the end of a TV program (or via Ceefax if I remember correctly)... Too much interference for me...

I remember recording some programs for my ZX Spectrum that were transmitted using the audio of a British television channel (I forget now which channel).

One program was an Ocean game (I think it may have been called Pud Pud, but a search shows that Ocean released a game with the name Pud Pud as a commercial release, so I may have the name wrong) and it was quite good

Yes, the method worked, as long as you had a good signal and could use the headphone output to record to tape from

I also understand that some broadcasters tried using radio to transmit computer programs. I don't know if any BBC stations tried this.

I also got a flexi-disk with a computer magazine. This one was for the ZX Spectrum, but I think I got the program to load just the once, after trying many times

Mark

[1024MAK]

Just one question....

What's a vinyl record?

This is no joke, an apprentice that sometimes joins my team, prior to working with me, had never used a normal (land line) telephone

Given this revelation, how many confused young people are out there that don't understand why us slightly older people say things like "dial", "dialling" etc. when entering a telephone number on a key pad?

Mark

[1024MAK]

This makes interesting reading http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/sho ... p?t=630953

Also http://bbc.nvg.org/history.php3 part way down says

BBC Radio 4 had a programme called "The Chip Shop" which broadcast some software for the BBC Micro that could be taped and then loaded.

Back to telly and I have come across this http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/?page_id=568

Channel 4 adopted the BBC model for the mid-’80s series Me & My Micro (even going so far as to poach a by now ill-advisedly bearded Fred Harris to present). Similarly their series 4 Computer Buffs continued the tradition of pun-laden programme titles, but at least showed some attempts at innovation by featuring what Sinclair User magazine described as “the first ever light transmission of sound, an interactive bulletin board for viewers, telesoftware via audio tones and telesoftware which can be downloaded from the TV using the new 4-Data adaptor manufactured by OEL”.

Mark