The Home Computer That Roared: How the BBC Micro Shaped Our World

Early Experiences with Home Computers in the UK

• Jeremy Rustin, despite working on the 20-year-old open source project Sly Wiki, will be discussing his experiences with early home computers in the UK. (25s)
• Rustin argues that while other home computers like the Spectrum may have influenced the gaming industry, the BBC micro had a broader impact on the computer industry. (1m19s)
• Rustin recalls that in the early 1980s, computers were viewed with fear and apprehension by many, likening them to how people in the 1920s may have viewed airplanes. (3m3s)
• Community computer magazines were a way to distribute software, often containing listings of programs that people were expected to type in themselves. (7m6s)
• The BBC Micro computer, released in 1981, featured a variety of ports, including a networking interface, making it one of the first networkable home computers. (8m47s)
• The speaker learned to program on a BBC Micro, eventually disassembling and understanding its entire codebase, including BBC BASIC. (14m22s)

The Development of TiddlyWiki

• The speaker created TiddlyWiki, a customisable and interactive note-taking application, to empower individuals to create their own tools, citing examples of a volleyball coach and the Anna Freud Centre using it for their specific needs. (16m40s)
• TiddlyWiki, an open-source project, has a large Chinese user base that communicates and collaborates through Chinese message boards and tools. (13m8s)
• The speaker's goal was to create software accessible to people of all cultures. (13m52s)

Work with the BBC

• Jeremy worked on a project for BBC where he created animations for children's TV shows using a BBC Micro computer. (21m27s)
• Jeremy co-wrote a book called "The Book of Listings" which was published by BBC Publications. (26m11s)
• Jeremy developed the BBC's first official computer game based on the Doctor Who franchise. (25m38s)
• The speaker collaborated with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop on the music and sound effects for a Doctor Who game. (27m28s)
• The code for the Doctor Who game is available online. (27m56s)

Other Projects and Reflections

• The speaker created a Markov chain generator program, originally for the BBC micro, that generates random text based on frequency calculations of letter sequences in training data. (30m10s)
• The speaker found that the 8-bit pixelated aesthetic and its accompanying music were very popular. (34m0s)
• The speaker learned from Richard Dawkins that there is more to human life than passing on genes, and that the purpose of life is to love and be loved. (34m48s)
• The speaker believes that people work together best through love and that technology is ultimately a people business. (35m28s)