Technician Ted

[Spider]

Thank you. 🙂 Appreciate the detailed reply.

I guess (indirectly) I was vaguely correct in that it sounded partly familiar , to some degree at least! 🙂

[Spider]

For the moment (excuse border colour, need to change the bit values around a tad) , not 'Alchemist' one:

 

tune.tap

[MtM]

1 hour ago, Richard Hallas said:

As Ian has just said, he emailed me this question directly a few days ago. I might as well reproduce my response to him here…

PS Further to the above, it's also worth noting that there are actually only two phrases in the Alchemist theme (both of them repeated), and although the second phrase sounds faster and more complex than the first, that's only because of the pedal note (the repeated upper note, on the fifth of the scale). Without that pedal note, the two phrases actually go at the same speed and are very similar indeed. So really, it boils down to being a single short and slightly modified extract from BWV565, as far as I'm concerned.

Whilst Richard is 'on' so to speak, is there anyway Richard you can use your powerful (!) influence regarding the use of FB for the Next community? I know you have tried in the past and mentioned it, in truth the open FB page is nothing like as busy as it was maybe a year ago which I think personally is a good thing, even if it is perhaps indicative of a slowing down at least of Next relevant and related material, at least that is my perception. It is also not very inclusive - if you do not use FB, as many people don't, then you cannot access everything, whereas a proper forum such as this and the decent though often quite official Next forums are pretty much transparent whether an official user or not.

 

Apologies, this is a bit off topic.

Edited April 5, 2021 by MtM

[Richard Hallas]

1 hour ago, MtM said:

Whilst Richard is 'on' so to speak, is there anyway Richard you can use your powerful (!) influence regarding the use of FB for the Next community? I know you have tried in the past and mentioned it, in truth the open FB page is nothing like as busy as it was maybe a year ago which I think personally is a good thing, even if it is perhaps indicative of a slowing down at least of Next relevant and related material, at least that is my perception. It is also not very inclusive - if you do not use FB, as many people don't, then you cannot access everything, whereas a proper forum such as this and the decent though often quite official Next forums are pretty much transparent whether an official user or not.

"My powerful influence"?! 😃 LOL!

Well, that's certainly a different take on things, and unusually flattering – if somewhat misplaced! I don't have any influence in the Next community; indeed, I may be a negative influence in some ways. For example, one of the active members of the Next team told me explicitly that I was so tediously long-winded and boring that he always ignored any post with my name on it, because reading it was a waste of his time. Another core team member simply blocked me entirely, so that he could no longer see my posts and I couldn't see his. To be fair, there are other, more central members of the core team who have been a lot more pleasant and who do treat me like a human being… but I'm under no illusion about the level of influence I exert! (And, frankly, why should I have any influence? I've contributed a few minor things, but nothing of any real substance. Having said that, I did offer substantial help at an early stage – help that they could really usefully have taken advantage of – and was completely ignored. But that was up to them…)

I do agree about Facebook; as a solution for hosting a discussion forum about something like the Next, it's crap… and I've said so several times. I'm also not really a fan of it in general terms either (and certainly don't trust the actions and motivations of the people behind it…). But unfortunately, regardless of its shortcomings, much of the population clearly loves it and even thinks of it as 'the Internet'. Rants from me aren't going to change that.

Moreover, as you mention, there's a perfectly good dedicated forum for the Spectrum Next at the machine's official website, i.e. https://www.specnext.com/forum/, and although some people do use it, the vast majority of users simply ignored it and went to Facebook instead. This wasn't anyone's choice, and presumably if the team had wanted to use Facebook, they wouldn't have provided a dedicated forum in the first place.

Anyway, I'm afraid it would need something more momentous than words from me to cause people to abandon Facebook in favour of the official forum. Maybe if all the developer team rebelled against Facebook and said they were only going to participate on the Next forum in future, that might do it. Or, it might have done it a couple of years ago, when a lot more visible, interesting stuff was happening in public (again, as you mention). Now, I think, it's all too late. As for me, probably the best thing I can do is to continue posting my tediously long and boring messages on Facebook in the hopes of scaring people away!

[Spider]

I do hear you, especially this part:

Quote

... although some people do use it, the vast majority of users simply ignored it and went to Facebook instead. This wasn't anyone's choice, and presumably if the team had wanted to use Facebook, they wouldn't have provided a dedicated forum in the first place...

Quite a bit I could waffle on about with this type of thing, but is not really the time nor place for it. It really boils down to (these days) people's convenience as FB (via its app at least, not via browser even 'mbasic') is easier to use on a mobile device / tablet than a forum which is usually browser based, despite having 'lite' mobile versions available, including here.

I'm slightly wary of FB 'groups' the same way I am of 'free hosted forums' , that's great until they decide they want to zap your data either with/without notice or decide some vague rule has been broken.

[IRF]

On 4/5/2021 at 2:10 PM, Spider said:

For the moment (excuse border colour, need to change the bit values around a tad) , not 'Alchemist' one:

Now that one (tune.tap attached to the post quoted above) is familiar...

[MtM]

On 4/5/2021 at 5:09 PM, Richard Hallas said:

"My powerful influence"?! 😃 LOL!

Well, that's certainly a different take on things, and unusually flattering – if somewhat misplaced! I don't have any influence in the Next community; indeed, I may be a negative influence in some ways. For example, one of the active members of the Next team told me explicitly that I was so tediously long-winded and boring that he always ignored any post with my name on it, because reading it was a waste of his time. Another core team member simply blocked me entirely, so that he could no longer see my posts and I couldn't see his. To be fair, there are other, more central members of the core team who have been a lot more pleasant and who do treat me like a human being… but I'm under no illusion about the level of influence I exert! (And, frankly, why should I have any influence? I've contributed a few minor things, but nothing of any real substance. Having said that, I did offer substantial help at an early stage – help that they could really usefully have taken advantage of – and was completely ignored. But that was up to them…)

I do agree about Facebook; as a solution for hosting a discussion forum about something like the Next, it's crap… and I've said so several times. I'm also not really a fan of it in general terms either (and certainly don't trust the actions and motivations of the people behind it…). But unfortunately, regardless of its shortcomings, much of the population clearly loves it and even thinks of it as 'the Internet'. Rants from me aren't going to change that.

Moreover, as you mention, there's a perfectly good dedicated forum for the Spectrum Next at the machine's official website, i.e. https://www.specnext.com/forum/, and although some people do use it, the vast majority of users simply ignored it and went to Facebook instead. This wasn't anyone's choice, and presumably if the team had wanted to use Facebook, they wouldn't have provided a dedicated forum in the first place.

Anyway, I'm afraid it would need something more momentous than words from me to cause people to abandon Facebook in favour of the official forum. Maybe if all the developer team rebelled against Facebook and said they were only going to participate on the Next forum in future, that might do it. Or, it might have done it a couple of years ago, when a lot more visible, interesting stuff was happening in public (again, as you mention). Now, I think, it's all too late. As for me, probably the best thing I can do is to continue posting my tediously long and boring messages on Facebook in the hopes of scaring people away!

In fairness Richard, it was said a bit tongue in cheek, I have read your comments on the Next FB page previously as I stated, I know nothing anyone says really will change it. The Next FB page seems a shadow of itself to me, and the official Next forums seem a bit more active, and there are a few good people on there and certainly a few Next team members who will help out. Thanks for replying anyway, and do not underestimate your powerful influence either! Your long posts are always worth reading for a lot of people, myself included.

 

Spider makes a reasonable point about the ease of using the FB app, which I have never done but I take his word for it, over using a forum.

 

As for the .tap tune .... it's right on the tip of my tongue. Standby ...

 

It is, of course, The Washington Post March...

 

 

Enjoy!

Edited April 7, 2021 by MtM

[IRF]

I don't think that's the right tune. 😮

[MtM]

1 hour ago, IRF said:

I don't think that's the right tune. 😮

Well, if you listen to the link above from 10 seconds onwards, and listen to the .tap from 27 seconds onwards, they are identical. It could be that the .tap is an amalgam of another tune as well, I am just trying to work that part out.

[Richard Hallas]

4 hours ago, MtM said:

In fairness Richard, it was said a bit tongue in cheek, I have read your comments on the Next FB page previously as I stated, I know nothing anyone says really will change it. The Next FB page seems a shadow of itself to me, and the official Next forums seem a bit more active, and there are a few good people on there and certainly a few Next team members who will help out. Thanks for replying anyway, and do not underestimate your powerful influence either! Your long posts are always worth reading for a lot of people, myself included.

Yes – my reaction was a bit exaggerated too, for entertainment value, but… the basic points are correct, I think! 😉

I do agree that the Next group is a shadow of itself. I'm really not at all sure why. It went – all of a sudden – from being extremely active and fascinating to being… just a lot less active than it was. And it happened at a weird time, too, when KS2 was fresh in people's minds and you'd expect there to be a lot more active interest.

Perhaps it's a result of a slow-down in development work. Clearly things are still going on behind the scenes, but new features aren't coming thick and fast in the way that they once did, not least because most features have now reached a certain stage of maturity. Just to name one example… back in the early days, I suggested that the Pi0 could be integrated into the audio system and used as a TZX player, and that idea was actually taken up and implemented. It took quite some time, effort and experimentation to get it working properly (and I helped a bit with testing)… but now it's 'there' – finished and working – so there's nothing else to do, really (unless they decided to support PZX files as well).

I was under the impression that TRD disk support was also on the way, and I hope it still is… but I've heard nothing about it recently. Maybe it's on the list to do after the next major core update has been issued.

I do find it odd that Phoebus announced he'd be issuing a new distribution "within the next day or two" at around Christmas, and we're still waiting for it nearly four months later. But then again, it's not as though it's needed urgently; everything's working fine. Maybe the want to make a big splash with some major upgrades just in time for the launch of the KS2 machines.

I do miss the time when the group was a lot more active and interesting, though. It was my main reason for visiting Facebook, and I actually had a lot of fun with it, despite the odd negative aspect. There are indeed some very good people on there, and indeed the community as a whole is very friendly and helpful.

Anyway, thanks for your kind words – they're appreciated.

4 hours ago, MtM said:

Spider makes a reasonable point about the ease of using the FB app, which I have never done but I take his word for it, over using a forum.

Yes, he does make a good point. I personally use Facebook through a web browser on my Mac in the main, but I do sometimes look at it on either iPad or iPhone, and there the dedicated app is definitely to be preferred. Well, on the iPhone anyway. On the iPad it's a blurrier choice.