Show report: London 2021

30th October, 2021, marked the return to physical shows in the UK, when the RISC OS User Group of London (ROUGOL) hosted their customary October event at the St Giles Hotel in Feltham – the RISC OS London Show. Understandably under the circumstances, there were fewer exhibitors than in previous years, as well as few visitors; it was a much quieter show than usual – but despite that, it was still an excellent day for finding out what’s happening in the RISC OS world. So what happened? What did we…

Show report: Wakefield 2019

Six months on from the show itself… that’s almost as long as the Long Gap between the Wakefield and London shows! Ahem. The place to be for discerning RISC OS users (and retro Acorn enthusiasts) on Saturday, 27th April, was Wakefield – more specifically, the Cedar Court Hotel in Calder Grove – because that was where the annual Wakefield Acorn and RISC OS Computer Show took place.

RISC OS Awards: Deadline, and an overdue look at the alternative suggestions

The annual RISC OS Awards poll has now been open for just over two months, and is due to be closed fairly soon. Shortly after the poll began I moved home and didn’t properly set up any computers for quite some time, so the planned occasional review and post of the ‘alternative’ entries didn’t happen, other than one quiet afternoon when I scanned through the votes that had been received at that point and tweeted those alternative entries.

Show report: Wakefield 2018

That’s last year’s record for a long-delayed show report broken! This year’s Wakefield Show took place on 21st April, at the Cedar Court Hotel, organised by the local user group – the Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club (WROCC). Like last year, I must apologise for another long-delayed RISCOSitory show report. As ever, this is mainly because of how busy I am outside the world of RISC OS, but also because I wanted to edit down my video recordings of the theatre talks to a more manageable length – and video…

RISC OS Awards: Another look at the alternative options for 2017

If you haven’t yet voted, why not do so now? The RISC OS Awards poll for 2017 has been open now since mid-March and will be coming to a close in a couple of weeks time. As such, now is an ideal time to take another look at some of the alternative nominations people have made if they felt something other than the options on offer deserve to win in any given category. If you have yet to vote, please do so as soon as possible in order to your…

Show report: London 2017

The question on everyone’s lips for countless years to come will be “Where were you on 28th October, 2017?” Okay, they probably won’t be asking that – but I’m asking it now. Well? Where were you? I’ll tell you where I was: Feltham. More specifically, the St Giles Hotel – in the conference rooms on the first floor, where this year’s London Show was held. If you weren’t there, I’ll assume you’re reading this because you have an interest in RISC OS, and would like to know what you missed.…

Show report: Southwest 2017

Seven months on? This must be some kind of a record! The RISC OS Southwest Show this year took place on 25th February – so this show report sets quite a record for the time between the event and its appearance at just under seven months. Unfortunately, this is a reflection of the amount of time I’ve had available in that intervening period to sit down and write the report. Which is to say: very little. To make matters slightly worse, I usually refer to the photos I’ve taken at…

Elesar Ltd comes to the rescue while Piccolo Systems’ website is down

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No… it’s Supersprow! (Imagine there’s exciting music here!) Earlier this year, the Piccolo Systems website became the victim of hacking/hijacking, with the site as we knew it vanishing, apparently to be replaced by one providing a home to malware. Ben Avison is reported to have said he was aware of the issue, but working out how best to bring the site back online was taking time – and this all happened at a bad time, because of a house move. Any sign…