All-day 'Virtual' Acorn session #1, Saturday 11th April 2020, 9am - 5pm

[vztfzc]

Evening,

I would like to participate as a "lurker" please.

Regards
Paul

[JudgeBeeb]

I've come up with following breakout room name suggestions:

1. Introduction to Zoom
2. ARM based hardware
3. Electron hardware
4. Beeb hardware
5. Atom/System hardware
6. Games development
7. Games releases
8. RISCOS coding
9. General 1
10. General 2

We have to set up the breakout rooms at the beginning of the day. Once they are set up, we cannot add new rooms without ejecting everyone from all the rooms. So please let me know if you want anything added to or changed in the list of rooms. Please also note that if you are using a Chromebook or Chrome OS you will not be able to join breakout rooms.

If anyone wants a bit of help getting used to Zoom, I can try to do a little intro in one of the breakout rooms. However, I cannot do that via screen sharing. If you try to screen share your Zoom screen you get some really trippy recursiveness .

[jbnbeeb]

Hi Simon -
I would like to join the virtual ABUG today from about lunch time.
Please can you add me to the list / PM me details?
Edit:
I will spend a bit of time working on my game and as ever nosing about to see what everyone else is up to.

Thanks,
Jason

[oss003]

Hi Simon,

I also want to peek now and then ..... I'm working on AGD for the Atom/Beeb and Electron

Can you PM me the codes for joining the meeting?
Thanks.

Greetings
Kees

[sPhilMainwaring]

I'd like to join as a lurker possibly dipping in deeper to misc rooms as and when needed

I have Zoom on my tablet but not on my laptop yet ... the cam works on the tablet but not on laptop so tablet would be better to use but not for typing

How do I join a meeting and go to rooms? (I've never used it before)

[sydney]

I've pm'd everyone up to here.

[SimonSideburns]

The virtual meeting is going well, and I'm learning quite a lot of interesting things and getting to know those who are attending.

If anyone has been unsure about popping in there's no reason why you shouldn't. Might be too late to join this one but I'm sure these will become a regular feature during lock down.

[JudgeBeeb]

It's not too late to join. Just post in this forum and we will PM you with the details to join in.

[SimonSideburns]

I am able to pop in and out, and if I get my Beeb area tidy by then I could demonstrate cleaning of a floppy disc with IPA prior to export to the datacentre, as was discussed on the forum recently with a new member.

If this isn't too basic a demo for most members I'd love to join in to see this as I'm the new member Simon's talking about. I'd also be interested to know how to find the heads in a 5.25 inch drive and how to clean those, again if that isn't something too basic to be covered (a decent YouTube video would work instead if anyone knows where I can find one!).

Rich

Let me know when you get on (if you can) and I'll go through it.

[Shift Lock]

Apologies, Simon. I haven't done video meetings before and coupled with the fact I don't really know anyone yet, I must admit nerves got the better of me. I'll get some practice in and try next time.

Rich

[1024MAK]

Apologies, Simon. I haven't done video meetings before and coupled with the fact I don't really know anyone yet, I must admit nerves got the better of me. I'll get some practice in and try next time.

Rich

We don’t bite!

This is the first time for most people, so you are in the same boat as many.

If you don’t want to speak, don’t, just sit back and watch.

Mark

[oss003]

Thanks guys for organizing this ..... worked great ...
See you all next time ..

Greetings
Kees

[SimonSideburns]

Apologies, Simon. I haven't done video meetings before and coupled with the fact I don't really know anyone yet, I must admit nerves got the better of me. I'll get some practice in and try next time.

Rich

I think I'm not a very people person, but these meetings don't seem particularly scary.

[BigEd]

To be fair though, it helps me that I have met most (nearly all) of the participants at previous ABUGs. It's a friendly crowd, but for me it's not a new crowd.

You can join with your video disabled, so you feel less exposed.

[SimonSideburns]

Apologies, Simon. I haven't done video meetings before and coupled with the fact I don't really know anyone yet, I must admit nerves got the better of me. I'll get some practice in and try next time.

Rich

One option is to use the Zoom system between just you and I at some point so you feel more comfortable using it before the next ABUG meeting happens.

[LordVaderUK]

Thanks for organising, I think that was great. My only feedback would be that as it's unlike a face to face ABUG, where people can wander around, chat, get together in small groups, etc. then maybe some sort of rough agenda or timeline would be helpful. That way people could drop in and out to see or discuss certain items they're interested in. But even without that, today was very interesting and very useful and I'd be keen to join a future virtual meeting. Thanks again for taking the time and effort to make it happen

[BigEd]

I think one thing which worked well was asking 'is everyone still OK to be discussing this' after 5 or 10 mins into a conversation. Most conversations were 3-5 participants, I'd guess, with a lot of spectators - but that's OK, if you know the conversation will come to an end!

We managed a bunch of subjects, without any strict timekeeping or booking - and it all went much better than I'd expected.

Edit: I suppose the question is, did anyone feel left out or cut off or without a chance to make a contribution they wanted to make?

[roland]

Please can you add me to the attendance list, I'll be available 10am-5pm.

I don't have any thing in particular to talk about, but I'm happy to answer questions on any of my past Atom or Beeb projects.

I've just this week started work on a Frame Buffer + Blitter for the 1 MHz Bus FPGA Adapter if anyone is interested. This will have:
- 640x480 VGA output with 8 bits/pixel
- programmable palette to map this to 12 bit RGB
- 1024x512 screen memory, so there is some off-screen memory for bitmaps etc.
- 8x8 Character ROM, giving a 80x60 text display with a simple OSWRCH driver
- Blitter that runs at 25M pixels/second

All of this is "work in progress" but it's getting there...

Dave

I am interested in this but not for my beeb but for my Atom. Maybe you can keep this in mind when you write the software for it.

[jgharston]

Only just woke up an hour ago, so I missed everything. I've been needing to experiment with Zoom for parish council stuff.

[JudgeBeeb]

The last few stragglers had a few thoughts about how we should run these going forward. Some of the things we discussed:

1. We should definitely have another one on 16 May (when we would otherwise have been at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge.
2. Subject to interest, we could have another one on 25 April or 2 May. Would there be interest for another one that soon?
3. We should drop the reference to 'ABUG' or 'Stardot' in the title as we have seen a couple of comments from people thinking you need to be a member to participate.
4. For the same reason, any listing should make it clear that the events are open to anyone with an interest in Acorn computers.
5. We should also make mention of these events on the Acorn Facebook group, albeit, perhaps, just directing people to the relevant page on Stardot.
6. We should offer the opportunity of a practice session to anyone who is unfamiliar with the Zoom platform.
7. It would be nice if the event on 16 May could be used, in some way, to raise some desperately needed funds for the Centre for Computing History.

Any comments on the above would be welcomed.

[tricky]

Still a few straggler here

[EdwardianDuck]

I agree, this went very well and I look forward to future online meetings. As a newish member of the community, I certainly didn't feel out of place and had plenty of opportunity to chip in. There seemed to be genuine interest in my little presentation of my implementation of Skirrid for the B/Master/Electron which was a nice bonus.

All in all a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday.

I do concur with LordVaderUK that, at least where someone has something specific to demonstrate or talk about, an approximate time allocation would help those dipping in and out.

Jeremy

[1024MAK]

Still a few straggler here

One less after my broadband had a wobble

It’s since restarted

Mark

[1024MAK]

1. We should definitely have another one on 16 May (when we would otherwise have been at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge.

I can join on this day

• Subject to interest, we could have another one on 25 April or 2 May. Would there be interest for another one that soon?

I can join for only a couple of hours on 2 May, I’m currently scheduled to be at work on 25 April.

• We should drop the reference to 'ABUG' or 'Stardot' in the title as we have seen a couple of comments from people thinking you need to be a member to participate.

These should never be labelled or called 'Stardot'. ABug is just shorthand for Acorn and BBC users group, however any notices or invitations should clearly say that there is no membership required, and that the event is open to anyone interested in Acorn or BBC computers. Hence I don’t think the ABug or Acorn and BBC users group identifies are a hindrance. But they would work as a ‘brand’ so that people have a name to use when they speak to other people outside our community.

• For the same reason, any listing should make it clear that the events are open to anyone with an interest in Acorn computers.
• We should also make mention of these events on the Acorn Facebook group, albeit, perhaps, just directing people to the relevant page on Stardot.
• We should offer the opportunity of a practice session to anyone who is unfamiliar with the Zoom platform.
• It would be nice if the event on 16 May could be used, in some way, to raise some desperately needed funds for the Centre for Computing History.

I agree

Mark

[SimonSideburns]

If only this were possible:

Bonus points for naming everyone on this image.

[Kazzie]

I'll try to call by and eavesdrop on some future sessions, but with two young kids (and heavily pregnant wife) to take care of, I can't guarantee anything...

[Diminished]

Bonus points for naming everyone on this image.

First two are easy ...

[tricky]

Several of us were sometimes working on stuff and just had the conversation on in the background. I think someone commented that it was like radio.
I'm not an admin', but I think I am correct in saying:
Anyone who just wants to connect and listen to ABUG radio is most welcome.
You don't need a webcam or microphone, although a mic might be useful to call-in in case you want to show a picture, video or something in an emulator.
EDIT Actually, you could just use a smartphone!

[rmbrowngr]

I’m definitely interested to attend these virtual abugs after seeing the list of sessions from the previous event. I don’t have something to present, but really interested to watch and listen. (And living in Greece it’s a bit difficult to attend a physical event).

Any possibility to record these sessions and maybe have a channel on YouTube or something like that to host these recordings?

[daveejhitchins]

Had a great time, yesterday. We've just got to do this again and again and etc.

I'd had a little practice with a similar multiple meeting that one of my daughters set-up for our granddaughters birthday party - she thought it was 'really-cool'

Looking forward to the next one . . .

Dave H