Retro – I am Ashley Elsdon

Why did credit card computers not take off?

Posted by ashleyelsdonon November 21, 2022November 20, 2022in TechLeave a comment

I noticed a Rex device on eBay the other day and was sorely tempted. In the end I resisted though. Which is probably good. But it got me thinking about these kinds of devices. I’ve posted about these before, a number of times and there is a page dedicated to all things PDA as well. I wonder why credit card sized devices never took off.

I know that smartphones have taken over almost every use case of mobile computing, but I do think that the result of that is that everything is a little dull. Sure we have smartwatches and phones, but the lack of a variety of form factors makes everything a little too uniform in many ways.

Something to think about maybe.

One day I’ll do something musical with a ZX Spectrum

Posted by ashleyelsdonon November 2, 2017January 5, 2021in TechLeave a comment

Currently I don’t even have a ZX Spectrum, but I did, a long while ago, and one day I’ll have one again. When I do I’ll be running this among a number of music programs that I used to use a long time ago. That’ll be fun.

Starting 2017 in retro mode

Posted by ashleyelsdonon January 1, 2017January 2, 2017in TechLeave a comment

I’ve been a fan of all things ZX, especially the 81 since they first came out and I’ve always been drawn to them ever since. I realise that as a computing platform they are really ancient, retro, vintage even. But even so I think that these are somewhat lovely old computers. So when I saw this today I thought that it was something I’d love.

My ideal would be a ZX device that was portable. A bit like the retro gaming devices made with raspberry Pi, but I haven’t heard of anything like that. So the Minstrel ZX80 Clone is currently the nearest thing, and looks pretty spectacular too.

There is a ZX81 emulator on iOS, but that’s not the same at all. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but it isn’t the same as having some hardware to play with. I’ll be keeping an eye on the ZX80 clone.

These are just brilliant

Posted by ashleyelsdonon February 15, 2016in StuffLeave a comment

I got these from Kickstarter, and they are great fun. I think that over the years I’d owned about 4 or 5 of these machines (sadly no more though), and used a great deal more than that at friends houses etc. It’s fun to remember them and look at the specs in wonderment!

New bC16 Patch library page

Posted by ashleyelsdonon May 5, 2015May 4, 2015in Admin, SoundsLeave a comment

I’ve added a new page which will eventually be home to a bunch of bC16 patches. I know that this won’t really appeal to a wide range of people, but it might be useful to a few people looking for this kind of thing.

As I add to it I’ll let you know. For now, the page is here.

I always wanted to be Jim Rockford

Posted by ashleyelsdonon January 20, 2015January 20, 2015in TVLeave a comment

I did. I mean, who didn’t? He was just so cool. Never really phased by anything. The Rockford files is still awesome to this day. I’m slowly making my way through season 1 and will then pick up season 2 immediately afterwards.

And I’m enjoying every episode too, especially the phone messages at the start of every episode!

Going a bit retro

Posted by ashleyelsdonon June 16, 2012in Listening

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30