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Serious Spectrum
Has anyone here used their Spectrum for anything other than gaming and programming back in the eighties? I see all these business and productivity applications like word processors, spreadsheets, databases, math/statistics programs, etc. in the WOS archives and I was wondering how much serious and business use the Spectrum has seen back in the day.
Post edited by memrah on
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Each bird was ringed, and by keeping track of its parentage we could try and predict pairings to give various colours, particularly albino and lutino (pure yellow).
Though I think my mum preferred to stick to her own notes.
If I could think of a way of crowbarring using a Spectrum into a modern day bit of research I would do it, imagine seeing that quoted in a science paper!
*though maybe they were just fond of skiving and played Gulpman all day.
I knew people who used to run a business on a +3 running Masterfile and Tasword +3 also - the main computer was an Amstrad PC1512 with a 20Mb hard drive and a Citizen DMP. Good ol Wordperfect 5.1
Ha! those were the days.....
Pierre
Wow! This is really interesting. I would never have thought that a Spectrum would be used to handle such a serious, real-life task. What model was the Spectrum? Did you load the software from tape? disk? ROM cartridge? I assume it was on 24/7 and had some sort of UPS backup power too. How long was it in use for? Oh and what made you choose the Spectrum and not another system?
(there was also a large number of BBC Micros and a few Amstrad PCWs)
IIRC, they were all going to be scrapped. Wish I'd asked for a few.
Yes we ran it 24/7 and it monitored all the alarms, breaker indications, etc. We used it for a few years and it was a Issue 3 motherboard. I will take some pictures of the case and interface board tomorrow. We stored the software on an Interface one with a Microdrive. We basically used the Spectrum because the senior engineer at that stage liked the Spectrum and build many interfaces for it. His theory was that management will either approve a budget of R 1000 or a budget of R 1 000 000 and not anything in-between. As we could do the whole thing for R 1000, it was the simple choice. Our other systems for the bigger substations were master slave per substation (Telletra Tic 2P/2C and Selta). We only installed a decent Master station during 1987 for the bigger substations and a HP master system for the 11kV sites.
I'd imagine the BBC micro faired far better , partly due to the keyboard not being dead flesh like
...and the household accounts! :grin: :grin:
Uses other than games and programming?
I used mine as a doorstop for a while (NOT!) (C64 intruder alert! C64 intruder alert!) :grin: :grin:
/bloodbaz gets his coat
Then again Bill Gates apparently said noone would ever need more than 640K of memory when that's just a texture map these days ;)
Can't remember of anything else now.
My Spectrum was a 48k with a D'Ktronics keyboard, Opus Discovery 1 and a printer (some 9 pin dot matrix). I did it all in TasWord Two, it took at least a month and all I was paid for it was the price of the Discovery - about ?100.
My High School also had a project called "Minerva" which involved getting students used to computers. Each school had several Spectrums and Timexen with FDD3000s and some PCs too. All the software developed for that project was serious stuff (Math, History, Science, etc.). The only 3" with some of that software (that I know of) is on display at my former school. I plan to get it one of these days. :)
I used to type all my school essays and various work using my +2 and print it using my Seikosha printer. Most people at the time were turning in handwritten projects... Guess my parents really bought it to help with homework. :lol:
My cousin used to use his TC2048 only for serious stuff. Utilities, artificial intelligence, calculate distance to the location of a thunder based on various factors... only serious stuff, no games.
Many people at the ZX81 forums have mentioned modifying their ZX81s for various serious applications. Some of the ones I recall: Controlling all the lighting at a movie theatre, controlling refrigeration equipment.
Didn't our Polish friends use a Spectrum for some type of TV transmission as a form of protest? I read about it right here a few years ago.
How many did you have? :-o
I had a couple of weird teachers in high school. They wanted the papers handwritten because they said otherwise they had no way of knowing that I wrote them. This was in 1991 :D
I do not have the software anymore, but I still have the box, and interface card. I know we changed the printing routine in the ROM to print to a Centronics printer.
I will take some pictures of the box and interface card
Can't remember. Probably a dozen. :)
I remember someone once mentioning ZX81s and nuclear power in the same sentence. :-o
That instantly reminded me of Star Wreck: "Chernobyl... where have I heard the name before... FUKOOOV! Don't touch the cooling systems!!"
Just some feedback. I managed to get hold of my former colleague and I was wrong, the Spectrum was actually used as a Selta Test set. The Selta system used a Master a Remote for each substation and his unit captured the data packets between the Master and Slave and analysed it. From this you could determine which bit was on or off and from there you could see it alarms were at the, analogue values, etc. You could also use the system to test the functions of the slave or master unit. He promised to look for a copy of the thesis and will let me know when I can come and pick it up.
Lately somebody mentioned Spectrums were in some PL universities in early 80s, making some calculations and so on.
It is for real!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAHnIZ1oAro
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.600418183336493.1073741827.173240806054235&type=1
http://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48421&start=25
Indiana!!!??? Boozy practically lives on top of that bakery! He can probably be coaxed into going over there and spraypainting "Speccy 4eva!" on their walls :lol:
whats that bready McBread ? you sub contracting coz of your love of the bakery and you feel torn ...I saw it a month or 2 back.. as retro innovations do a few bits I want :) .
RWAP will tell you he got a zx80 ? that was used in a water plant for calculations.
it's the old thing of say someone who does word processing etc. having a rig thats *2-4 the cost of what they actually needs and a gaming rig :)