2025 Holidays Wishlist with the BBC micro:bit!

Probably one of the display machines at one of the larger department stores in town

After that, the family ZX81 / BBC Micro.

The most notable projects on the BBC worth mentioning would probably be the home robotics stuff. I had picked up a copy of the Richard Pawson's new 1985 book called 'The Robot Book' (still have it here 38 years later) which included a number of projects at the end using the likes of Fischertechnik, Lego Technik, and converting toys such as 'Big Trak' to computer control using different home microcomputers, along with enough code samples to get it working.

I think that book was a bit of a turning point for me as it demonstrated that it was possible to do this sort of physical computing stuff at home and at a much lower cost than the advertised educational kits, especially when everyone else around you was telling you it couldn't be done. Also as it used constructor sets, it was much easier to adapt it and at the time it felt a lot more exciting than just flashing a few LEDs connected to the user/printer ports.

What does the cover of this book look like? Is it publicly available? It would be interesting to read.

You know that thing where you know you have a book and you go to get it from the bookcase and it isn't there ? Yup. That.

Today, the fact that a book is not on the shelf is not a problem. Do you remember what it's called?

It is when its second hand value goes above £1,000

I can't remember the title. Probably something general like 'Digital Imaging' which I have at least three others of the same title. I have been here before - there are two books which I have confused in the past, I've found the other one which has some overlap of content e.g. the Scion Image / NHI Image type tools which allows you to identify and count cells / blobs in an image etc. It may have been moved to my other 'book storage system' (bedroom floor book stacks) the last time and never made it back to the bookcase.

If you are wanting a more modern book then there's Peter Corke's 'Robotics Vision and Control: Fundamental Algorithms in Matlab'. He did a good series of MOOCs on Futurelearn a while back.

It’s just interesting to sometimes read old books and discover that those technologies and algorithms that seem modern were invented a long time ago.

Like many things, sometimes they have been lying dormant due to lack of processing power or awaiting another piece of the jigsaw before they can be packaged into something useful that becomes mainstream.

A lot of people think 3D CAD is relatively new but it has roots back in the early 60s with Ivan Sutherland's 'Sketchpad' at MIT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6orsmFndx_o

If anyone is interested in an introduction to algorithms, then I found a rather nicely written book on them recently:

A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms, Second Edition
Level Up Your Core Programming Skills
by Jay Wengrow
https://pragprog.com/titles/jwdsal2/a-common-sense-guide-to-data-structures-and-algorithms-second-edition/

Like many things, sometimes they have been lying dormant due to lack of processing power or awaiting another piece of the jigsaw before they can be packaged into something useful that becomes mainstream.

A lot of people think 3D CAD is relatively new but it has roots back in the early 60s with Ivan Sutherland's 'Sketchpad' at MIT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6orsmFndx_o

If anyone is interested in an introduction to algorithms, then I found a rather nicely written book on them recently:

A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms, Second Edition
Level Up Your Core Programming Skills
by Jay Wengrow
https://pragprog.com/titles/jwdsal2/a-common-sense-guide-to-data-structures-and-algorithms-second-edition/