[SIGCIS-Members] Two good recent TV programmes on the history ofcomputing that are worth viewing.

[Roger Neil Barton]

IMHO the Bob Noyce telebio last night was as brilliant as the other 
programmes in the series in the series were terrible.  In fact most lasted 
only a few minutes before I switched off and I missed the second (or more if 
there were more) part of the drama about Sinclair and Acorn.

In Ken Tennet's blog he talks about "Acorn's descent into financial 
difficulty as the bank happily gives the company bigger loans for expansion, 
and it carries out an ill-advised stock exchange flotation."  Acorn was not 
a client and I didn't do the float but I did organise and host a conference 
('84 or 85?), on the paperless office (ha ha), at the NCC in Manchester to 
which I invited Acorn.  I don't remember now but Acorn were represented 
either by Chris Curry or Herman Hauser.  It was required by Stock Exchange 
rules then, and is legally obligatory now, not to make any statement that 
provides new information to the market without a formal statement to the 
Stock Exchange.  The Acorn presentation included the jaw dropping news that 
sales were down some massive number and that the company would miss 
expectations by miles.  By the end of the immediately following coffee break 
the share price had collapsed and they hurriedly departed.  I'm sorry now I 
didn't persist with the drama but perhaps I'll catch up on the iplayer.

kind regards
neil


Dr Roger Neil Barton
http://www.uclmail.net/~neil.barton/
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bernardo Batiz-Lazo" <bbatiz64 at googlemail.com>
To: <comban at sigcis.org>
Cc: <members at sigcis.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 12:34 PM
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Two good recent TV programmes on the history 
ofcomputing that are worth viewing.


>A heads up to Ken Tennet's Blog (he is part of the Business History
> Unit at the London School of Economics):
>
> http://kdtennent.blogspot.com/2009/10/recent-business-history-on-bbc.html
>
> He comments on two recent tv programs on the history of computing. Not
> sure if everyone will be able to download and play.But at least you
> can get an idea from Ken and if really keen, then ask for a copy for
> your uni's library.
>
> You can keep up with Ken via Facebook.
>
> Best,
> Bernardo
> University of Leicester
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