The history of RISCOSbits at WROCC – 2nd October

Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club logo

It doesn’t seem to be very long ago that we first saw Andy Marks appear at the Wakefield Show with his ‘Acorn and RISC OS Spares and Extras’ stand, referred to with an acronym that had people with a childish sense of humour laughing (er… guilty, your honour! Very, very guilty!), and those without asking “do you realise what that says?”

Not long after, ‘ARSE’ (snort) became RISCOSbits, supplying a variety of cases and computers to the RISC OS market – with more than a few having playful designations that allowed us to laugh a while longer – and has even gone on to become involved in some aspects of the platforms development, such as one of the NVMe solutions that are now available.

Andy will be the guest speaker at the next Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club (WROCC) meeting, at which he will be talking about his use of Acorn and RISC OS computers, and how RISCOSbits came to be.

There’s also a show fast approaching, so Andy will preview what he’ll have available from the RISCOSbits stand – including, apparently, “things that might appeal to the B&Q/Wickes aficionado.”

Taking place on Wednesday, 2nd October, the formal start time of the meeting is 7:45pm – though Andy will be unable to join until 8:15pm at the earliest, so the prior to that there will be a more open discussion on computing in general.

As is now customary for WROCC, the meeting will be held online via the Zoom, so to attend you’ll need a computer or other device capable of running the software, ideally with a webcam and microphone (to allow participation), and the meeting credentials. These are the same as previous WROCC meetings, so if you’ve attended any you should have them, but if not they can be obtained by contacting the group.

Although the meeting is open to any RISC OS user, regardless of WROCC membership status, it’s well worth supporting the group by joining; the cost is just £7.50 each year, and you get the group’s self-titled monthly newsletter sent to your inbox as a PDF file, along with access to their online discussion forum.

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