If you’re local to Yorkshire on 4th November, where ‘local’ in this case means you have access to a suitable computer (or mobile phone or tablet) and and internet connection wherever you are in the world, then you might wish to attend the next Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club meeting, which takes place online that evening.
The meeting is classed by the group as a Potpourri, which tends to mean they don’t have just one guest speaker, but two or more, all covering different topics – and in this case, those speakers are:
Rob Coleman, who will be taking on the subject of emulating 8-bit systems such as the Sinclair ZX81, Jupiter Ace, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC464. What makes this topic particularly interesting, though, is that the host machine may not be quite what you expect – you’ll hear about these emulators running via a BBC Micro.
Well, okay, like some of Rob’s other projects, mentioned on this site in some show reports, there’s a little cheating going on – there’s a Raspberry Pi and the Beeb’s remarkable Tube interface involved.
Andy Vawer will also be speaking, and he will discuss his current and recent projects. A recent returner to the RISC OS platform from the Linux world, he was active on the RISC OS platform previously, and he will talk initially about what he worked on in those days, such as TaskCache, a module that disabled the StrongARM cache on a per-task basis.
Now that he has returned, Andy has been dealing with some Bounty-related issues, such as Clipboard and PNG support, and will talk about those – and he may reveal some new projects.
Steve Fryatt, who will talk some more about things he’s been working on, expanding on his recent appearance at the online London Show, covering some of the things he didn’t have time to include in that talk.
The meeting will take place on Wednesday, 4th November, at 7:45pm (UK time), using the Zoom video conferencing system – so all you need to attend is a device capable of running the Zoom client software, and an internet connection. And depending where you are in the world, a good dose of strong coffee might be helpful as well (but other drinking options are available).
The other thing you’ll need is the access details for the meeting, and you can request these by email (no later than Tuesday, 3rd November, please) – and they will be sent to you on the day of the meeting.
If you haven’t used Zoom before, there are options within the software to set it up as you like, including camera and microphone tests – so you can see how things look and hear how they sound. You can also join a private test meeting, which effectively means you can test the software with your internet connection – and please note that you do not need to create a Zoom account.
While the Zoom meeting is open for anyone with an interest to attend, normal meetings (when it is possible to resume them) are free only to members, with non-members expected to pay a small entry fee. Membership also has other benefits, such as access to the Club’s discussion forum, and their official newsletter, the WROCC, delivered by email as a PDF.
So why not consider joining, for the modest fee of £15 (discounted to just £7.50 for the first year)?
