1983: Meet the COMPUTER ADDICTS | Newsnight | Retro Tech | BBC Archive 

That's sad to hear. :-( I love her enthusiasm for computing, I remember that she also appeared in the first episode of The Computer Programme. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jtMWEiCdsfc.htmlsi=vBRvDTDPGtYBlAGW&t=705

I'm glad she was able to find meaning in the hobby of electronics when she did. I can only imagine what she could accomplish in the modern era with made-to-order PCBs, Arduinos, etc.

@@cptnkrenonthanks for sharing the link!

Ah very sad to hear that. She is shown in an episode of The Computer Programme, still available on the BBC iPlayer. Well worth a watch.

... Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Romans 6.23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus

Can you imagine what those people would be like if it did happen? They might be like ... people! People like you and me! 😮

It’s the same in the states, and even more isolated by the numbers.

.... Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Holy Spirit Can give you peace guidance and purpose and the Lord will John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus

you'll believe anything you see on trash tv

😂

I spend like 70-80 Hours at day on my computer.

@@chimpcurious3203 what is your secret? How do you live more than 24 hours a day?

@@dwithunbrahma9253 Im a being outside the space and time.

@@dwithunbrahma9253meth

@@dwithunbrahma9253 tryhard enough

I am crying with laughter reading your comment. Well done Graham.

@@ajs41 And standing while playing the adventure game........... good on you Graham!!

People generally dressed better back then.

Haha, that is one of the things that computers were responsible for as well... the destruction of dress codes at work. It was tech workers who first refused to get all dressed up for no reason, and companies had such a hard time finding anyone who could actually do the work that they relented about dress codes. It used to be a requirement at basically any office job that you had to wear a suit and tie every day. But what do you do when you can't fill a job because all the potential workers are weirdos who won't put up with that nonsense?

Don't lump other people in the notion of "we" What you describe is a handful of people who want to control and dictate other peoples lives as much as possible

@@lukemorgan6166 only a handful of people work in front of computers? In what universe?

8 hours? You gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers.

People say the same thing about my coca!ne enthusiasm... some day they'll understand.

Man's greatest fear, fear of the unknown. To a lot of people, home computers were a new idea, like something out of science fiction. Phyllis adapted quickly, though.

Those are rookie numbers.

Average GTA player, tbh.

@@f4ckutube fr

​@@f4ckutubeand then there are Rust players...

​@@f4ckutubeyou can't get XP sleeping.

saying you don't enjoy art is wild. Art is part of what it means to be human. Even karl pilkington likes lowry.

What a lot of people miss here is context. There were 10 years before these interviews, all the jobs donr by computers would have been done by hand, making them necessary jobs. That's all people saw computers as, a way to do necessary work. What people didn't realize in this EXTREMELY EARLY age of modern computing was that a computer could do more than the tasks laid out for it. Climbing a mountain is indeed an unnecessary task, but it poses the challenge of conquering something so physically straining. Computers didn't have such a reputation of being straining in any real way, besides learning to use one. Thus, in the early days, when people say others working at computers, they saw a person doing an unnecessary task without any visible strain to make it worthwhile. It was only when the internet got involved and computers started appearing everywhere that people realized that these machines were not simple tools, but a toolbox for making tools, a toolbox that required mental strain to understand and modify. In short, I'm saying not to be too hasty about what the interviewer said way back when. Context is important, especially when something so abstract to normal human achievement is so new.

Modern version of this - messing around with LLM's on your nvidia GPU.

@@mornnb Good point. It's also like the dating game. GPU is supplicated, intelligent and flawless. Whereas, some people like personality and quirkiness.

@@mornnb Or AMD GPUs with AMD ROCm or Zluda ;)

There's always something new & fresh with computers and technology

People i speak to who were around then say they thought they were rubbish even back

What they were saying was that he works with them all day at work (even in his lunch break), then again in the evening and sometimes (often?) through the night. People rarely drink in the same way.

Normal's just what most people do. It's when people object to conformity and go their own way that the "normal people" get startled with the thought that what they themselves are doing isn't normal anymore.

This is England, Alcoholism is a major part of their national identity.

Lots of business deals were stuck in pubs and many of the worlds problems solved

@@andywatts8654pretty certain London didn’t solve many world problems…cause them yes..solve no

From the Herald Express 18/9/1982: 'BRAIN in a sweet shop' THE 21st century has come a little carly to Phyllis Arrandale's tiny sweet shop. Tucked away in a room behind a shop decked out with jars of humbugs and cough candies and adorned with flowery chocolate boxes is a microcomputer, which makes her life so much simpler. Phylis is one of many small shopkeepers who are investing in a computer to save time and energy in dealing with their ac- counts, stocks, and other paper- work. Now aged 66 and having had the computer for three years, Phyllis said: "So many people in small shops and businesses do not realise what a boon a computer could be to them,"' Phyllis spent more than £3,000 on the computer and it has solved many of her pro blems. She said: "I buy my goods from 42 firms and before I got the computer, the paperwork was unbelievable, I was gelting so far behnd with it as I could not keep pace. "i used to open the shop at eight in the morning and close at six in the evening. Every night I had to deal with the paperwork until I flopped into bed exhausted.'' Phyllis learned how to pro- gramme the computer to keep details of her stocks of confec- tionery and tobacco and if bills had been paid. She is now so adept with the computer that three other firms based near the sweet shop in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, are us- ing it to help work out their ac- counts. Phyllis believes that this is the shape of things to come in small shops and Businesses as small computers are so useful in cutting out time - wasting paperwork. This is especially true in the case of her one - woman business which has sales of about £20,000 a year. A spokesman for Informa- tion Technology Year 1982, said: "'Systems like these can keep prices down and service is considerably improved by en- suring stocks do not run down and a wider choice is available. "In a competitive high street it is as important for the small stop to provide such benefits as it is for the large retatl outlet. "Even very small businesses can now afford microcom- puters. Many weighing machines and cash registers are now available for the small stopkeeper, processing tran- sactions in a form that makes keeping their books and con- trolling their stock far easier, "Inexpensive computers can now cut down the hours of paperwork which is pro- bably the most tedious chore for one person businesses and they also provide far better information on how the business is doing.

Those days you dropped right into a terminal where you could start programming. Well, you had to start programming to make it do useful stuff, so you learned how it worked. We have a lot of computers and computing and software today but there's so much of it and so complex that it doesn't occur to most people that you too could make your own programs. Or change how your computer behaves. Of course you can't readily just reprogram much of what runs on most computers anyway so you have that working against you. You still get a lot of people that are like Phyllis of course but I'd like to see more.

that is on purpose

That's the classic Luddite fallacy, people change jobs but there aren't less jobs to be done.

Yep and now we see this with AI.

It's amazing how the employees let that happen. They just scrambled amongst themselves and never said anything to the corporate Masters because they're so weak and cowardly.

@@swingtag1041You think you can do better?

*The 2030s and beyond...I have become A.I. 😄👍*

2040 We will be at war with Skynet 😂

2030s - I'll program my own AI and lease it to your competitors. Check Mate.

@@Politely_Indifferent 2100 Humans lost the battle against machines

imagine "ai" become a subscription model and people start hiring staff again because it was cheaper

Or cosmic rays flipping memory bits

Yeah that remark really captured how I fell out of love with computers after being totally obsessed for 30 years. They aren't predictable anymore. Working with them now is less like operating a machine, and more like trying to influence a person.

@@Xezlechonestly yeah agreed

@@Xezlec Yup. There's so much abstraction upon abstraction that tries to mimic human thinking that at some point it just becomes counterintuitive because not everyone thinks alike.

And to a degree he was conflating ‘perfect’ with ‘unbiased’ - the computer will only operate according to its programming… …imperfections these days are the result of programmer bias.

It's called ignorance

And you can be sure that they all had the potential to earn outrageous money with their level of knowledge at that time. 10 or 20 years later at least

It was refreshing to see and certainly destroys the old boomers of todays' way of thinking.

@@jamesherman3750Do you think she was the norm of her generation? Don't generalize entire generations part and parcel simply because there happen to be a lot of s***heads amongst them. Newsflash, that's true for every generation. (btw, I'm a Millennial. I've known a wide range of people and personalities of all ages. Boomers included)

If not completing her goals, I bet she had so much fun pursuing them, and that is what counts.

She’s a legend. I really hate it when people say they’re too old to learn x or change their ways. Very refreshing and inspiring.

Is this a sponsored comment?

@@awii.neocities looks like hhhhhahaha

Kkkkk cada uma!!

“As a thirteen year old I look back…” might be the most pompous opening I’ve ever read to anything

@@cassanatelilol I remember when my mother saved for a year to afford a PS2 for me & kids these days have a $4K setup it’s unbelievable how fast time changes

It's what happens when everything is served to you on a silver platter...

Yep and it’s hear everyday from muppets, I did t grow up with computers like you. Hold on old boy. I did t get a computer until I was 18, my primary school had 1 computer for 250 students to use . My highschool had one computer lab of 15 computers for 1000 students. I didn’t get a phone until I was 20 . Your excuses don’t fly with me old man

My grandpa was her age and refused to have anything more than a landline up until his death and he was a wealthy man!

In the years between 1984 and 1998, they bought their first computer. Still can't get to Gmail by themselves.

@@unnamedchannel1237 didn't have my first computer until i was 18(dell inspiron 1545) and first phone when i was 13. LOL

I wonder about those pots and caps tho. Did she order a computer or a synth kit??? "Well luv, they're supposed to go BLEEP and BLOOP, aren't they?" 😆 For that matter, wonder if she ever finished that project.

@@NuGanjaTron Maybe for manual control of cooling fan? :)

Would have been an awesome granny. I didn't really had one. Still became a computer addict ..eh I mean enthusiast.

It amazes me how prophetic that album is in terms of its central theme (Computer World and Computer Love especially) and how influential it was in the evolution of electronic music, and yet it doesn't get the 100th of the mass recognition it should rightfully have in both aspects.

Incidentally, I thought Chris Carter's computer was similar to the one on the cover of the album, but Wikipedia states it's actually the Hazeltine 1500.

@@jeshkam I remember my mum's Amstrad PC - her first home computer and one I also used occasionally (as a word processor, mostly). There was an annoying tendency for documents to get lost between sessions or turn up in the wrong folder - it was long before the later easy-to-use, intuitive library interfaces that would arrive during the 1990s...

@@louise_rose Yes, using those 1980s old timers was definitely not an easy thing to do. 😉

I dont know what to do . I need a rendezvous

Maybe... but it was pretty common to skip up to some very large line number like 10000, if you suddenly needed a GOSUB. You might be writing code at line 250, but you wouldn't want to start a subroutine at 251 or 300, because you might need to go back and modify the code above the subroutine, causing it to grow

I programmed a debtors system in the early 90's. 32000 lines of Turbo Basic and 34 modules. I'm now coding a code editor amongst other large system apps.

Last thing I did with BASIC was an AOL IM bomber in the mid 90s. I sucked. To be fair I was 12.

@@mach5406 That's just what the world needs..yet another code editor.

@@jinxterx The difference is that my code editor is way different to any others I've seen or used, so no, not YET another. It's a completely new take.

I mean they are. I still play around with my commodore and that thing impresses me to no end. Knowing that all of this is going on inside a tiny 8 bit processor that costs like 20 bucks is insane and then seeing how it scaled into my ryzen 5 on my gaming rig is miraculous. Its mental how much progress has been made.

To be fair, they could be both...! But I agree with you 100%. Literally everything there is changing. Nothing in this universe is unchanging and permanent. The best thing we can do for our own happiness is to embrace change and see all change with equanimity. ❤

"Hello I am your typical dull 1980s British TV reporter. I am here to make anything that doesn't fit the standard 9-5 office job lifestyle sound silly and strange, so you keep doing your 9-5 office job. Now get down to the pub at lunch like normal people and drink some beer"

@@ncot_tech crazy how it changed decades after.

Not every instance of change in society is good. Change isn't necessarily good for its own sake. "Getting stuck in your old ways" can be following the scientific method, for example. Why would you want to change the fact that 2+2=4?

@@arvaneret_329 that makes no sense since everyone has learned 2+2=4

I always wondered where Uruguay was.

Well said.

these people were genuine computer enthusiasts modern computers addicted are real, just looking for blasts of dopamine learning nothing im one of them

the first google result for Phyllis Arrandale shows that she lived in Hitchin, Hartfordshire for the rest of her life and died in 2003. So presumably she'll have moved on to more modern systems later on, or lost her interest in programming.

Pushing up the daisies 😅

dead

Many 80s "computer addicts" became successful business leaders. Those who bullied or labelled them? Working for them as janitors? Only in a perfect world.

Ooo!! What would you say your favourite language of all time is and why? I bet you’ve worked with a fair number!!

@mrgaudy1954 it was C++ for a long while, but I'd say C# now. C# is more forgiving of things like memory leaks. I also do a lot of TypeScript (strongly typed JavaScript). Used several others but never in large projects. I'd really want to learn Rust when I find the time. But I might go back to C++ for some game development (Unreal engine)

I am at a keyboard all day 😅

agile development my beloved

I'm a developer, and utterly confirm I spend over 50% work time in pointless meetings.

Since appearing in that show a year earlier I note that Phylis now has _two_ Commodore PETS! Business for her then must’ve been booming because PETS weren’t cheap and otherwise beyond the means of a sweet shop owner one would think.

She really progressed, what a star!

@@makara80 Under counter dealing perhaps? Her sweet shop just a front for organised drug gangs ?

@@makara80 I don't know anything about her business, but my guess would be she was not a person to spend her money on things like going out. And as this was her hobby, she probably spend some of her savings on that. You didn't exactly have to be loaded to own two computers in 1983.

I love how she wanted to multi-task... so just owns two Commodores :D

He's alive and doing quite well! Went on to create a hit show in the 90s called "The X-Files!" 😊

@@orangejjayNo. That's another Chris Carter.

@@baardbino same one

Technically not a PET. They were called Commodore CBM 3000 here in the UK because of Philips owning the PET trademark.

@@wasitacatisaw83 Are you sure? I know the name was different at some point, but I'm certain we had PETs at school and that's what they were called.

@@macronencer Yup. Everyone knows them as Commodore PETs these days, but at the time they came out in the UK, they were the CBM 3000.

@@wasitacatisaw83 Thanks. I just checked some photos on Wikipedia and I think the ones my school had were probably CBM 8000 with the proper keyboard. However, I know I've used an earlier one too with the toy keys. At some point I definitely used one that said PET on the front... but perhaps it was imported? I expect that must be what happened. It was at a facility owned by Bristol University IIRC. I suppose it could be a false memory! That can happen :)

Highly doubt she’s still a then again she may only be in her 70s now LOL English women look elderly by their 30s

@@maxhatush5918 She died in 2003 , in her 70's

@@bardo0007 Awh No way!! She seemed Like the Nicest old Lady Ever I Truly Mean That!! , I say old Lady,,, ( Even tho i knew she was only in here 40's at the time , it was just the era & the how most women he age would have dressed, Its how my Grandmother used to dress, But she seemed So *Nice* ) She Really did tho.. She Seemed Really Kind & Someone who Cared for others,, Is the vibe i get from her "Phillys" She Reminds me of a shop i used to buy sweets at on my way to school ..lol I'm 37 was born in 1986 & I grew up in a Small Town , But every town & Village had shops like that .. Where it was a family thing for generations.. But Sadly,, You never see shops like that any more,, Its all Asda , Gala , Centra Tesco etc ... Big Name brands ,Its Nothing like it used to be , & what i Really mean is ,, It was the Person more so than the Shop.. It was *Always* A really nice kind man or a Really nice woman in her 40's or 50's That Knew everyone And *Not* in a Bad way , Yes she would hear everything but it was people going in for a pint of milk & Staying half an hour for the company ,, Everyone at the time even the early 90's where i lived it was On a First name basis & I'm a pound short , James don't worry about it ill put you down in the book ,, Or I even remember been able to buy a single cigarette ( Been a bold boy lol ) Its sad that the Tesco's & Dealz forced them all out of business.. I *was Really hoping* She would still be alive, I Hope she has Kids & they get to see this .. The loss of a Loved one is So Hard & When a video or picture Pop's up out of the blue It gives you a sad but then a Really Warm Feeling ( I Lost my baby brother in his 20's we were best friends & there is not a 4 to 5 Min Gap Every hour of every day i do not think of him, It was Covid before the Jab ) .. I Only say this because last week i seen a video of him by accident because there really hard to watch But because it was out of the blue it gave me a really Warm & Happy feeling of there is my Brother & Best Friend.. Sorry went on a tangent there Well thanks @bardo0007 for letting us all know & I *Truly* Hope she has Family that she this as she is so Happy here. & Even tho i never met the woman im Irish You can tell how Nice & Kind & Caring she was! He Memory will never die thanks to the BBC.. Love this Channel

Yes I had a Sinclair QL and did just that. The sense of accomplishment was amazing

I still code in Basic. but I use Liberty Basic, which runs on windows, and i think, they also have Apple and Linux platform version as well. I started in H.S learning Apple basic on an II E, and have loved it ever since. I know there are other High level programming languages, but I am reluctant to learn them as Basic is what I am most proficient at.

Remember “Input” magazine? I was about 7 or 8 when the advert appeared on a TV commercial. I coudnt wait for it to appear at the newsagents 😵‍💫

Yeah loved that show!

I wanted a Bournemouth, but it was involved in the margarine riots.

Haha, I know this reference.

I don't know this reference 😢

@@MOSMASTERING Bletchley Park was where the first programmable valve computer was created during the second world war to break German Enigma codes. She'd be about the right age for working there.

@@MOSMASTERING Look around you!

What is the computer license?

They make you pay for a tv license, computer license doesn’t exist

Nah, everybody will just end up walking around glued to a screen, trust me...😅

​​@@jimsimpson1006 So don't put it in your pocket? I'm hearing angellic trilling... voices in my head saying... flip? Flip phone? Wonder what that could mean.

Is it worth it? I dunno, man. I hear on those things that people go woke and end up hating people less. Is that the world you want to be a part of? 😂

true, it was just a 80s and 90s fad

640kB of RAM is more than enough for anyone.

da heck are you talking about.

Bring back the abacus... all is forgiven 😂

I'm 34. I didn't have my first computer until my family got a hand me down in '98 or more likely '99. I always had wanted one and my mom tried to convince my dad (we had the money) to invest in one for my sister and I. Well into the 90s he insisted they were a fad. I really wish I'd been introduced sooner but what can you do?

Like you don't take your phone into the bathroom...

Bro would have to be a millionaire to afford that luxury in 2024.

She was. Died 2003 though.

She’d probably have loved the onset of the worldwide web in the early 90’s and have had her own website, bless her

@@okee9 Guaranteed she had a Geocities web site.

She probably would have been one of those people like me who is annoyed that most 500 dollar phones from a DECADE ago had 1440p screens, and now 1080p is somehow accepted on thousand dollar phones as well as sub-100 dollar phones. Some tech peaked to such a degree that OEMs had to gaslight people into thinking that less was somehow more (and it worked somehow!!!). Real tech enthusiasts don't make excuses for downgrades in tech, and I get the vibe that she would be out there as part of the right to repair movement, trying to get companies to remember that durability and stability can be a premium feature.

@@awesomeferret People is stupid. That's why apple sell well, and tesla and any other stupid company.

They have multiple accounts where they troll on reddit with.

@@nataliep6385the old lady is the worse, she drops the hard r at a moments notice

​@@danielktdoranie"That's just what we call them! I'm not racist! I don't see coloreds!" 😂

Yep, they are the PET machines. By 1983 those were already discontinued and deemed a relic since they weren't really expandable the same way an Apple // machine could be enhanced into. Plus, you had the 16 bit PCs out by then that was way better suited for business tasks.