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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

HereBeDragons @heredragons.be · 4h

Day 285 - #retrorandom - I'd be lost without my logic analyser. It's a simple 16 channel beastie, but immediately you can see what's going on inside the computer. Seen here helping me repair a Sharp MZ-80A.

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Tim Holyoake @timholyoake.uk · 5h

Any money raised for a statue would be better used to further the work of TNMoC, who have working replicas of the Bombe, Tunny and Colossus amongst other early UK computing hardware. I was there recently - they need support!

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Tim Holyoake @timholyoake.uk · 11h

Doggy ate a spatula

A broken wooden spatula, caused by an over enthusiastic doggy desperate to read the latest Lib Dem literature. You can just see a tooth mark around an inch from the top.

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Tim Holyoake @timholyoake.uk · 11h

www.tnmoc.org/colossus

Colossus — The National Museum of Computing

www.tnmoc.org

Tim Holyoake @timholyoake.uk · 11h

You can see a working Colossus replica at TNMOC in the Bletchley Park campus - Flowers gets full credit. Reminds me of a similar debate over the EDVAC in the 80s (before the BP work was publicly known). Von Neumann takes academic credit, but it was Eckert & Mauchley, the engineers, who made it work.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 11h

Move over, Alan Turing: meet the working-class hero of Bletchley Park you didn’t see in the movies

The Oxbridge-educated boffin is feted as the codebreaking genius who helped Britain win the war. But should a little-known Post Office engineer named Tommy Flowers be seen as the real father of computing?

www.theguardian.com

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Tim Holyoake @timholyoake.uk · 1d

I'm not able to take part in #RetroChallenge this year, but I've just spent a few minutes enjoying last year's writeup of my #Sharp #MZ80K emulator for the #RaspberryPiPico . The plan for winter is to have a bash at #MZ700 emulation - faster clock & colour too!

z80.timholyoake.uk/retrochallen...

RetroChallenge 2024/10 – retrocomputing ephemera

z80.timholyoake.uk

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 1d

Hertfordshire County Council rules for library use, 1930

RULES FOR PUBLIC LIBRARY
BAN ON LIARS AND DIRTY FACES
Strict rules, which have been approved by the Hertfordshire County Council, are to be imposed by the Hyde Institute Library, Barnet Vale.

LIBRARY USERS iN FUTURE MUST NOT:
Enter the library if their faces are offensively dirty.
Fall asleep on the tables.
Eat their lunches whilst reading papers, books, &c
Smoke in the building.
Leave their business cards behind.
Make themselves a nuisance.
Kick or damage the furniture.
Bring dogs within the portals.
Tell lies to the librarian.
Enter when they are in an inebriated con- dition.
If they have small-pox.

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

PyCon UK @pyconuk.org · 2d

🎭✨ The world premiere of Ada — written by Emily Holyoake & performed by @chronicinsanity.bsky.social at #PyConUK2025 — is on YouTube! 👉 buff.ly/PzPqzBv

Emily also shared her reflections on writing Ada in our blog 👉 buff.ly/U6Ej0NQ

💜 Huge thanks to Emily & the Chronic Insanity team for their work!

PYCON UK 2025: Ada by Emily Holyoake, a rehearsed reading

This year at PyCon UK, you’re warmly invited to a world premiere: Ada, a brand-new play inspired by Ada Lovelace, written by Emily Holyoake, and staged as a rehearsed reading by Nottingham-based…

buff.ly

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Tim Holyoake @timholyoake.uk · 6d

until I involved the ombudsman. They agreed with my calculations so octopus offered the overcharge back plus £150 - the ombudsman told them to pay back the overcharge plus £200 and make a formal apology. Even emailing their very loud CEO didn't get a result until the ombudsman was involved! 2/2

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Tim Holyoake @timholyoake.uk · 6d

Octopus have been good - except in one instance where they managed to somehow reprogram our E7 smart meter onto a single rate tariff (the E7 day rate, so not even one they offered) I spent 8 weeks banging my head against their online support with evidence & my calculations from their own data 1/2

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

davidgrace1.bsky.social @davidgrace1.bsky.social · 7d

No surprise that the Home Secretary has announced new plans to curb protest. Balir did the same. Starmer has not repealed Tory constraints on protest. Labour always was an authoritarian party. Don't hold your breath for Labour MPs to rebel when the new laws are debated. They won't.

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

Joachim Froholt @jfroholt.bsky.social · 12d

It's almost the end of #sharptember , so I'll finish with some screenshots of my game Minesnake on the MZ-80A. I've learned a lot since I made it, and would have done a lot differently now. But the concept is still good, I think. It's on Itch.io.

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 13d

Picture it: White racist thugs who've never done a day's work in their lives, taunting brown people in trains or pubs about 'not doing enough work for our great country' (and then demanding they do humiliating things to prove themselves).

It's never just the policy; it's the atmosphere generated

Paul Brand @paulbrand.bsky.social · 13d

Mahmood says she will introduce new conditions for indefinite leave to remain:

Lived here 10 years not 5
Being in work
Not taking a penny in benefits
No criminal record
Giving back to community eg volunteering

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

PyCon UK @pyconuk.org · 13d

📝✨ New blog post alert: Post-conference report! 📝✨

Our brilliant Conference Director @rebkwok.bsky.social has put together a report for #PyConUK2025, including reflections on key highlights, behind-the-scenes moments, and the community who made it what it was.

💜🐍 Dive in here: buff.ly/CR22Xm0

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

Sharpworks @sharpworks.bsky.social · 14d

#Sharptember A chance find amongst a bunch of tapes I won in an auction turned up something pretty interesting, a compilation tape of games written by Col Needham (the inventor of IMDb) and possibly his master tape from which he sold his mail order games. Here's his game "UFO Attack".

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Tim Holyoake @timholyoake.uk · 14d

Sidmouth morning

Seven sleepy donkeys at the Sidmouth donkey sanctuary.

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Tim Holyoake @timholyoake.uk · 15d

Ottery St Mary afternoon

Ottery St Mary Silver Band playing "Una Paloma Blanca" or "I am a cider drinker". Take your pick!

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

Liberal Democrats @libdems.org.uk · 16d

Keir Starmer says everyone in the UK will be required to have mandatory digital ID. That’s not the kind of country we want to be.

Liberal Democrats have always stood up to defend civil liberties against government overreach.

We will fight tooth and nail to oppose these plans too.

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

Liberal Democrats @libdems.org.uk · 17d

Liberal Democrats cannot support mandatory digital IDs. People shouldn't be criminalised just because they don't want to hand over their private data.

“Liberal Democrats cannot support a mandatory digital ID where people are forced to turn over their private data just to go about their daily lives... People shouldn’t be turned into criminals just because they can’t have a digital ID, or choose not to.” — Victoria Collins, Liberal Democrat Science, Innovation and Technology Spokesperson.

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Tim Holyoake @timholyoake.uk · 17d

Weasels King Henry morning

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

Spillhistorie.no @spillhistorie.no · 18d

Joachim fortsetter å spille gamle spill ingen har hørt om. #sharptember

Knights MZ-80A Library – del 4 - Spillhistorie.no

Løver må i bur og romvesener må lokaliseres. Plus matte og brettspill!

spillhistorie.no

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

Alex Partridge @alexpartridge87.bsky.social · 18d

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Helen Morgan:

"Nigel Farage wants to impose Trump's dangerous anti-science agenda here in the UK. Peddling this kind of nonsense is irresponsible and wrong.

"It seems Farage would rather see pregnant women suffer in pain than stand up to his idol Donald Trump."

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

Paul Mainwood @paulmainwood.bsky.social · 19d

Again, the BBC's presentation under-emphasises the astonishing effectiveness of vaccines.

This chart, plus the statistic in the article that 90.3% of children are vaccinated & some assumptions, gives a ~99% estimate for MMR vaccine effectiveness against measles cases.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0...

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

Tim Holyoake @timholyoake.uk · 21d

For comparison:

My Sharp MZ-80K. Yellow keys on the bottom row, dark blue graphics keys.

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Reposted by Tim Holyoake

Tim Holyoake @timholyoake.uk · 21d

A photo from yesterday, of the MZ-80K at the National Museum of Computing @tnmoc.bsky.social. The cursor keys are green. On mine (and every other MZ-80K I've seen) they're yellow. I wonder why this one is so odd? The blue keys are also closer to turquoise. Left in the sunlight too long? #Sharptember

Sharp MZ-80K with green cursor / space bar / carriage return keys.

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