Spectrum

In the news yesterday it was announced that some old ZX Spectrum games are coming to the iphone.  One is the classic Jet Set Willy - a brilliant game from 1984, the sequel to the equally fantastic Manic Miner.

Kids today wont appreciate the amazing feeling of controlling a computer in those early days of the 1980's.  I loved that time and I truly loved my 16k Spectrum (which I increased to 48k by purchasing the memory chips required).  Modern machines are impressive in so many ways, but back then it was so very new and exciting.

Today, the skills of programming are more like film making. In 1983 the programmers had to contend with limited speed (the Spectrum ran at 3.5mhz compared to my Macbook which runs at 2400mhz!), poor graphics and most importantly, memory size.  If you send a small text email today, that will probably be larger in memory size than the Spectrum had in total.

The geeks of the time made some outstandingly addictive and complex games using a tiny amount of memory.  Some favourites included: Jetpac (a 16k game!), Valhalla, Football Manager, Elite (possibly then best ever game) and Dark Star.

I know that I am getting nostalgic, but I think it's OK to do that once in a while. The home computing age has to thank a lot of people and one is Sir Clive Sinclair - a genius and a bit mad too, some would say... the C5 was probably the proof.

A small bite of the Apple

Despite the holiday in the USA costing quite a bit, I still managed to save some money to treat myself further and join the cult of Steve Jobs.  Yes, I have purchased a MacBook!

I waited until the machine had been upgraded by Apple and then purchased it through my employer's staff website where we get discounts from a number of companies.  It arrived this morning in a nice brown UPS van.

I am a Mac virgin, but everyone I know that owns one loves the usability and stability.  I appreciate that I could have gone down the Dell route and saved myself lots of money, but the MacBook is cool and perfect for working on photographs, recording podcasts and so much more.  One advantage is that I can sit downstairs using the Mac with Pete and at least have some social interaction, rather than being in separate rooms of the house communicating with muffled shouts.

So I will take the next few days getting used to this powerful little machine and wont bore you with such things again.  Well, if I get an iPhone I might!

In other news, it's been hot in the UK and today was rather humid.  This afternoon I saw a client in a town not too far away.  They are the sort of company I like to visit - small company, but highly professional and really friendly people.  One of the staff, Rob is a really funny (and cute) guy and was wearing shorts and t-shirt when I turned up in suit and tie!

Today is the first day in weeks that we've not had a football game to watch on TV.  I miss the men in shorts already.  Seriously, the Spain v Portugal game last night was great entertainment, even if Torres was off form.

Don't forget 5 on the fifth - this weekend is the perfect time to take some pictures and share them with the world on Monday... the 5th.

Online backup

A while ago I saw a feature of The Gadget Show (one of only a few great shows on Channel 5) all about backing up personal computer data.  Your data can be lost due to virus infections, accidental deletion, hardware/software failures, power failures, etc.

I personally have a huge file of photographs, documents and music that would be awful to lose, especially the photographs.  A while back our computer died and it might have been possible to get someone to trawl the dead hard drive for the data, but I had a separate external hard drive as a backup so the files were readily available.

However, what would have happened if there was fire or theft?  I would be stuffed!  Therefore, I researched online backup facilities and decided to use the one recommended on The Gadget Show - it's called Carbonite.  For $50 a year, all my data is backed up - I think it's a small price to pay to protect memories and to avoid potential hassle if you lose data.

If you don't backup your files, you are mad.  If you don't use an online system as well, you may be taking risks - so consider it by doing some research yourself... please!