Date   : Thu, 28 Feb 2002 11:51:33 -0000
From   : Daniel Luton <DLuton@...>
Subject: Re: The License Fee (change the name, and we're back 

Well, there's nothing wrong with a bit of a fiery discussion once in a
while!

Actually, it's quite refreshing to be on a discussion group where O/T posts
can be made without several members getting pissy simply because the posts
aren't on-topic.

Okay, here's a question for you techies (on topic too, yay):

I recently bought an Elk from Ebay (alas, my original from the loft is
knackered) - is there anyway to interface (by some kind of bodge) the Elk to
my BBC, so that I can access my BBC disk-drive via the Elk?  Or is there
away of attaching the disk-drive to the Elk directly?

I want to do this without having to purchase any original hardware for my
'new' Electron.

Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: John Richardson [mailto:j.m.richardson@...]
Sent: 28 February 2002 11:26
To: bbc-micro@...
Subject: [BBC-Micro] The License Fee (change the name, and we're back on
topic)


The argument about the license fee is generating more heat than light. I'm a
massive fan of the BBC myself, and although there are many anomalies in the
license fee, I'd rather have an unfair anachronistic system that produces
(some) good original programmes, rather than one that gives us yet more of
the same (rubbish).

BUT my main point. Isn't it amusing that we are arguing about this? One of
the (unforeseeable) consequences of the license fee and the huge resources
it gives the BBC is public service projects of the scale of The Computer
Literacy Project which gave us the....

..BBC micro! I know BBC enterprises eventually made a lot of money from the
association but they can't have expected to at the start. The BBC micro
would not have gained the cult following it did without the backing and
exposure the BBC gave what would otherwise have been the Acorn Proton.

And we wouldn't have had MODE 7 without the Beeb! Didn't even the text only
MODE 6 use up 10K? That's 9K not available for all those text-only programs.

None of which is an argument for the license fee of course. But an
unforeseen consequence that should be dear to the heart of this group...


John
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John Richardson

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