I did have an Amstrad back in the day. Wasted hours programming the code for some racing game and saving it on a tape, only to get a syntax error half way through as I used a : instead of ;
I had a commodore 64, and similar things with typing games in. Also remember when channel 4 when they started would broadcast a half hour of the bleeps, unghhhhh and 8 bit noise that you could record on tape to load a game on your computer, probably while holding a tape recorder that came from rumbelows at a point close enough to be clear but without getting speaker feedback from the telly and hope your nan didn't come in and ask if you wanted some squash and biscuits. Never got it to work.
Old school programming...nothing like it. As a matter of interest what year did Channel 4 officially open Dave?
2nd of November 1982, first programme was countdown I think. Was definitely completely different from the normal BBC stuff, or local itv stations. Jonathan Ross, the tube, comic strip. in Somerset where I grew up it was close enough to be able to pick up the Welsh channel 4 too so it was a bit like catchup TV with scheduling difference. Could also catch red dragon radio, suppose the modern equivalent closest is absolute, or virgin 1215 as it was.
Prior to the launch of Channel 4, I remember the trailers featuring Hot Gossip. On a separate note - Pans People on Top of Pops on a Thursday night.
According to BBC news it's the 50 year anniversary of the first ever 'mobile' phone call, though it also says it took them another 11 years to make a hand set commercially available in 1984. Think this one might date from around that time, but not certain. Bought it decades ago for the MK1, cost peanuts at the time... might even have been on the Yahoo auction site, remember that one?
I remember when car magazinbes would give you free stuff on the cover like a keyring and sticker pack. Usually stolen when you went to WH Smith.
I much preferred when car makers did not put acres of plastic covers on the undersides of their cars and you didn't have to spend at least half an hour removing dozens of 8mm bolts/screws and then wrestle with those covers just so you can then start working on the car! That 128i I bought is a prime example of that nonsense.
I had a 405 line black and white TV in my bedroom as a kid, BBC 1 was only channel available. It took for ever to warm up.. They stopped transmitting 405 on the 4th of Jan 1985..
Whereas nowadays you again face a long wait before seeing what you've switched on for, as a 'smart' tv shows the manufacturer's logo, and then the software identifies itself, before finally deigning to show you an actual picture.
Well here’s something that I (embarrassingly) found out over the weekend. I was replacing the front shocks, top mounts and stabilizer links on the 128i. It was nothing I haven’t done before on other cars but lo and behold no way could I compress the springs enough with my standard spring compressor or the extra long compressor (that I had also ordered) or using the four together! I had to go to a garage and have them compressed using a heavy duty bench type setup. What the fcuk is going on with these newer type springs?
Yeah, stuff like Mondeo mk3 Vectras etc have super long springs that are frankly deadly to compress with a normal 'hook' type tool.
EML- engine management light which seems to cover a whole host of potential faults, yet we have a single light for ABS, low washer fluid, handbrake, TCS etc...
Right - it's rant time. As you may or may not know, I bought a 2011 128i recently. I bought it sight unseen in that, I was sent videos and pictures of it running etc. but as Burnaby BC is a 12 hour drive away I couldn't just pop round and look at it. The car had a clean history and according to the Mazda main dealer I bought it from it had a 'safety inspection/service (4 x new tires, oil and filter). My wife & I took a plane to Vancouver and then it was just public transport to the garage. As we had a 12 hour drive ahead of us, there was no hanging around and off we went - I would say less than a mile down the road, I noticed a clunk/thump from the front left and said it to Michelle. While by no means a car nut she agreed that there was definitely something knocking on that side. We had the clothes on our back and a 12 hour drive so we decided to drive on. The car had an out of province inspection scheduled for the following Monday (this was Saturday) and lo and behold it failed the inspection for a leaking front left shock and weeping valve cover gasket. Leaking valve cover gaskets along with other gaskets is common on the 1 series and sibling models and I had a gasket already ordered, that said it was coming fron the U.S. so I power washed the shocks and the engine bay and returned on the Tuesday and got the green light and was able to register the car in Alberta. This wasn't some backroad second-hand car dealership (Metrotown Mazda in Burnaby BC, if anyone wants to check) it was a main dealer which is even more disturbing and irritating. In the meantime I ordered 2 x Bilstein shocks, top mounts, bumpstops and stabiliser links for the front from Pelican Parts and would have to wait about a week for them to turn up. Meanwhile the sales rep. emailed me and made the mistake of asking how the drive back went so he got both barrels regarding the knock on the front left plus the failed inspection - said he would get back to me. The following day (Wednesday) the Mazda dealership GM emailed and said he spoke to the Service Manager and Customer Service Manager said they would refund the cost of the inspection ($199) even though and I quote "a lot can happen in a thousand kilometers". I told him to keep his $199 dollars and instead use that money in the purchase of hearing aids for whatever moron greenlighted that BMW as good to go. The parts turned up and I set about refurbishing the front suspension - the bearings on both top mounts were stuck solid, both stabilizer links were shot and the front left shock was indeed losing oil at a rate of knots. I'm tempted to post everything I replaced on that suspension back to that pr!ck GM and tell him to make it a static display for his service department on what constitutes a completely screwed suspension and how not to undertake a 'safety inspection'. It's not about the money for me, it's the principle of sending someone out with a potentially unsafe vehicle. Granted I should have done more due diligence or perhaps refused to take the car but that would have been much easier if I could have found one in Alberta which I couldn't at the time. Incidentally apart from the front suspension, I have replaced the front brake discs and pads, rear pads, the auxillary belt, oil filter housing gasket and flushed the brake fluid and I will also do the rear suspension based on what the front was like - certainly drives like a 128i should now.
My prediction for the future: we will soon become a nation of hunchbacks as pretty much everyone under the age of 25 spends 90% of thier day bent over staring at phones, no one will be able to mend a car, wire a plug, tighten a tap etc as people seem to be turning away from even basic life skills, then eventually the next generation of trump or jong-un will nuke the entire planet over a squabble that started out on social media between two powerful idiots. Oh and Musk/Fuckerberg will achieve immortality by having thier brains pickled in a jar and connected to a computer like that bloke in robocop 2
This, I believe, came up at the very start of this thread and still holds true - they are the very scourge of this earth.
