I popped into my local florist the other day (the only place I can get a back scratcher now the shoe shop has closed) and was amazed to see an Electron bolted onto something that wasn't a Plus 1, all underneath a mono monitor.
"Oh yes," said the shopkeeper. "I've got to have one of these if I want to be an Interflora agent."
She then gave a quick demo of what it does. Not surprisingly, it processes orders for flowers. She dismissed my remark that it was a bit on the aged side and therefore difficult to service with, "Oh, that's alright. I phone this number and a man has it back working within a day."
So Electroneers, head not for the sparks shop when your beast fails, but get an Interflora agent to give you her 'secret' number! Why isn't this sort of thing in the Acorn Electron User Guide? I think we should be told. Seriously, I was always rather sceptical of those "Dog passes A-Level Philosophy exam with Elk" stories in EU (RIP) and dismissed the Interflora scam as another liquid lunch editorial when it appeared. Glad I was wrong.
Something I can't remember seeing in EU was mention of the differences between an Issue 4 Elk and an Issue 6 Elk. I recently acquired said Issue 6 at a boot sale (£3 and missing the keyboard assembly, which I had anyway). There are quite a few differences in the layout of the motherboard, various components are moved about, and the ULA is not the spring-loaded contraption favoured by the Issue 4, but in one piece with a blob of rubber over the works. Is the Issue 6 to the Elk what the Issue 7 is to the Beeb? Can anyone elucidate?
I have discovered that View E1.0 as released for the 'hever so umble helk' (Thank you Parker), is in fact View 3 less a few Master-specific commands. Lesser mortals using View 1.4 and 2.1 on their Beebs have a slightly inferior product! Fab or what?! I don't know the release history of View across all machines but I expect it would tell a similar story.
Now he's also done the history lesson, I can see that Derek Walker was right to warn people off AP2 v1.17. Another difference is that v1.19 allows print output after using *KILL. I think the AP2 is a particularly important piece of hardware, so it might be interesting to know if there is a release higher than v1.19, what bugs are fixed and any extra functionality it contains.
Christopher Chadwick, Wilts
I would like to make it clear that the above line "Christopher Chadwick, Wilts" is meant to service as an indication of the writer's name and location and is in no way meant to imply that Mr "C" has any problems when placed under hot lights. Does anyone have any info on the "Issue" history of the Electron??????
Will Watts, EUG #6