New Book: The Computers that Made Britain #RaspberryPi #PiDay #VintageComputing @Raspberry_Pi
The home computer boom of the 1980s brought with it now iconic machines such as the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, and Commodore 64. Those machines would inspire a generation.
The Computers That Made Britain by Tim Danton (300 pages, hardback) tells the story of 19 of those computers – and what happened behind the scenes. With dozens of new interviews, discover the tales of missed deadlines, technical faults, business interference, and the unheralded geniuses who brought to the UK everything from the Dragon 32 and ZX81, to the Amstrad CPC 464 and Commodore Amiga.
Best-selling author and journalist Stuart Turton says:
The Computers that Made Britain is one of the best things I’ve read this year. It’s an incredible story of eccentrics and oddballs, geniuses and madmen, and one that will have you pining for a future that could have been. It’s utterly astonishing.
Download the PDF for free (or donate) on the Wireframe Magazine website (and consider subscribing to this wonderful magazine).
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
