BBC MicroBit Announcement Now Live

Damn you BBC Micro!!

Its amazing how many our school had that went unused.. I made it my mission to put scrolling text on them all that I learnt from programming my Acorn Electron! check out the "micro men" documentary, its all about the battle of computing from the good old days!!

Messing with the BBC's was one thing but getting a go on plotter was another, that little turtle robot was guarded by a group of old beardies ready to battle to the death should any young whipper snappers like me try and get within arms reach!

There's something hypnotic about watching a plotter. I don't know why, but it's hard to look away from one . Like watching a camp fire, or a washing machine full of bingo balls.

Here's a new ruler you'll soon be able to buy, although I'm not quite sure of the scale used, perhaps that's the new decimalised inch we've been hearing about.

3 IO pins, 0, 1 and 2 then 3V and gnd for use with crock clips, also 4mm banana plug compatablw holes so the minions will be covered, loads more io if you use the 0.1" pitch fingers into what has to be a propriatry connector wich sucks, not directly breadboard compatable

5X5 LEDs, 2 user IO buttons, BLE, USB and an ARM cpu so not bad capability overall

given to all year 7 kids this fall

what about the rest of us though, no mention of being available for sale or for other purposes like us to help with coding and getting the kids started (The teachers will be strugling on their own to teach kids this stuff)

I'd pay £10 for one to play with.

for sure, me too

All depends on what the acceroies will be and what these three pins are used for ...

Yeah baby! Spec-chums unite!

You're not wrong there, peteroakes. It's not just the kids learning to code -- it's the teachers that'll need backup, support and ideas on what to do with it. Although there are already some cool ideas appearing in this very discussion.

As I understand it, I don't think these will be made available to the public. Not for a while anyway. But, watch this space... 

Sounds like an opportunity for a new source of funding - let a place like e14 license the micro bit with royalties going back into the educational system.

And if that doesn't happen, it sounds like an opportunity for kids to make a quick buck

I could see these becoming quite collectible in the future

Kids will lose them, break them, and give/chuck them away, and in 15 or 20 years time, they'll be working in engineering and remembering the micro:bit, wishing they still had it to play with. And then they'll become extra "R@RE!!" on eBay, and people will be hooking up their neural interfaces just to compete in bidding wars for a board that was once given to them for free.

We can always go to see them in museums - Computing History - The UK Computer Museum - Cambridge

We can always go to see them in museums - Computing History - The UK Computer Museum - Cambridge