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http://www.acorncomputers.com/ |
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Justin L |
Message #115153, posted by myfavheadache at 00:23, 30/8/2010 |
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hello peeps,
has anyone seen the new page at http://www.acorncomputers.com/ ?
its just one page, but i wonder if theres more to come in the future?
-justin |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #115154, posted by filecore at 07:54, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115153 |
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Haven't we seen this stuff before? And didn't it have much trouble and come to a messy end? I sure ain't holding my breath on this. |
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Andrew |
Message #115156, posted by asm1 at 17:49, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115154 |
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Not getting too excited about this either. I would love to see an Acorn II (not counting the wintel box aberration of 2006) BUT - it would have to be something that followed on from where Acorn left off. All it has at the moment is a "Hall of Fame" link to the Acorn page on wikipedia. I and many others on here are more than capable of doing that 
What I would want to know is what they are promising/hoping to achieve.
1) Resource for Legacy equipment (we have this already)
2) New Machines ?! Not sure how they would do this. I can do without a Wintel/WinAMD box at a silly price because it has an "Acorn" badge on it thank you very much.
3) New RISC OS boxes (yes please!) with legacy compatibility. Although I'm not sure there's a big enough market. Right enough the newest Risc PC's are 7 years old now (2003) and the architecture is even older.
Look sideways at the "Amiga" scene - a new "Amiga" is supposedly on the way. Its basically a slow PC based on PPC architecture, thats not even a PC, but costs 3x as much. Do I want a new Acorn like this ? No. But it would be nice to have some newer hardware or redevelopment / extension of what exists already.
Thats assuming that there is even going to be a "New company" who are going to develop hardware. I hope it isn't someone who has just bought the domain.
Yes, both previous Acorn incarnations (1978-2000) and (2006) came to messy ends, we'll see what happens this time.
I've a mind to email them and ask what their plans are lol.
[Edited by asm1 at 18:50, 30/8/2010]
[Edited by asm1 at 18:52, 30/8/2010] |
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Edward Rogers |
Message #115157, posted by Monty at 18:28, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115156 |
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Not sure why there should be any company to take over where Acorn left off, given that both ROL & Castle tried and simply slowed the decline.
Assuming the Beagleboard compatibility is polished in the next year or so, I would see it as beneficial if various different companies box these things independent of each other.
Unless this or any other would-be Acorn revivalist brings a brilliant mind or a big pile of cash it makes more sense for him or her to just build a beagle-based machine (You could sell that for less than £400) rather than carry the burden of the Acorn name which suggests - heavily suggests - an intention to reunify the platform.
[Edited by Monty at 19:30, 30/8/2010] |
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Andrew Hodgson |
Message #115159, posted by Andy_Hodgson at 18:47, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115153 |
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hello peeps,
has anyone seen the new page at http://www.acorncomputers.com/ ?
its just one page, but i wonder if theres more to come in the future?
-justin Well good news or bad, it's nothing to do with me. In fact having a quick look at the Whois information shows that it is the same people behind Acorn (2006-2009).
It will be interesting to see what they have in store. |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #115160, posted by filecore at 19:14, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115159 |
Posts: 3868
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Glad to see you're still around! Well, as to some of the earlier points...
1) continuation of old software and legacy support: I do believe the naughty warez people have this one sewn up, regardless of what happens to the commercial scene. No matter how you like to view it or to justify it, the fact remains that most of the worthwhile stuff is out in the wild now, and so legacy stuff is a non-issue.
2) new hardware: this basically comes in the form of the BeagleBoard, as there are no other known projects implementing RISC OS on anything modern (Mr Hodgson had some ideas about new hardware and apparently some prototypes too, but it seemed not to come to anything).
3) new software/OS development: well, just look at what Castle/ROL did. I suppose somebody could step in and fill the role and do something new and exciting and innovative, but why would they? It's such a niche market that you'd need a really specialised fucntion that couldn't be filled by existing ARM or similar architectures, with lightweight OSes of their own. In short, there's no real commercial motivation.
Sorry to be so negative but that's just how things are - and we've seen how they go through the previous mess that I linked to earlier. What's left of the RISC OS scene is just too cynical and doesn't really care much. The small core of BeagleBoard enthusiasts might fit the bill but they are just that: small. |
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VinceH |
Message #115161, posted by VincceH at 20:01, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115159 |
 Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
Posts: 1600
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In fact having a quick look at the Whois information shows that it is the same people behind Acorn (2006-2009). Huh? Am I having a blonde moment? As far as my recollection goes, the 2006 company was set up by someone called Sultan, based in Nottingham. The whois information I'm looking at for acorncomputers.com doesn't mention that name anywhere.
The only name I can see is Julien Clairet, based in Paris - the guy you mentioned back in December as being the owner of the trademark. This seems consistent with the fact that the page and CSS appears to have been put together by someone with a bit of a French inclination.
Or was this Julien Clairet actually involved in the 2006 company? I don't remember seeing his name come up at the time.
It will be interesting to see what they have in store. Yes, provided it's not another case of playing on the name to sell Windows laptops, or some such nonsense.
(Noting that the site links to the Wikipedia page about Acorn with the text 'Hall of Fame' and not to the Acorn Computers 2006 page - although that's linked to from the Acorn page. TBH, to make it absolutely clear the new site isn't another attempt at using the Acorn name for generic rubbish, maybe the page maintainer ought to consider putting a link to that page, perhaps as 'Hall of Shame')
One way to get some real information is to ask, of course. That's why I sent an email this morning to the address on the web page. |
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Andrew Hodgson |
Message #115163, posted by Andy_Hodgson at 20:05, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115161 |
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Yes Mr Clairet is the owner of the Trademark and worked closely with Mr Sultan, both at Acorn computers and since 2009 at Apricot computers. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #115164, posted by Phlamethrower at 20:24, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115163 |
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Posts: 15100
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Yes Mr Clairet is the owner of the Trademark and worked closely with Mr Sultan, both at Acorn computers and since 2009 at Apricot computers. Apricot? Seriously?
Anyone want to place bets on what 80's/90's computer manufacturer's name they'll dig up next in order to flog generic x86 laptops?
Oh well, at least it won't be Commodore. |
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Andrew Hodgson |
Message #115165, posted by Andy_Hodgson at 20:44, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115164 |
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Seriously http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Julien/Clairet |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #115166, posted by filecore at 20:50, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115164 |
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Apricot? Seriously? Didn't we have this whole conversation already? |
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Daniel Nesbitt |
Message #115167, posted by solsburian at 20:55, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115166 |
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Posts: 23
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According to Companies House, Apricot Computers is dormant:
http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/73a0a7564a8047b0669213e569a2cfbd/compdetails |
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Mark |
Message #115168, posted by Mark76 at 21:05, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115167 |
Posts: 122
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Well, they can't have Amstrad or Sir Alan will sue the testicles off of them. And Sinclair is out on account of it being a personal name.
So the only obvious choice is...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Data |
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Andrew Hodgson |
Message #115169, posted by Andy_Hodgson at 21:07, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115168 |
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Posts: 65
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Well sir Alan brought Sinclair back in 1985ish. But since he sold the whole lot to sky it's anyones bet what they could come out with.
[Edited by Andy_Hodgson at 22:16, 30/8/2010] |
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VinceH |
Message #115170, posted by VincceH at 21:25, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115163 |
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
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Yes Mr Clairet is the owner of the Trademark and worked closely with Mr Sultan, both at Acorn computers and since 2009 at Apricot computers. Ah... I've just read further through that discussion in December. I'd completely forgotten about the mention of Apricot, where it was pointed out that both were involved. |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #115171, posted by filecore at 21:28, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115170 |
Posts: 3868
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May I repeat my 'fruits and nuts' joke? |
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VinceH |
Message #115172, posted by VincceH at 21:37, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115171 |
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
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May I repeat my 'fruits and nuts' joke? Will it be funnier this time? |
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VinceH |
Message #115173, posted by VincceH at 21:53, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115168 |
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
Posts: 1600
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Well, they can't have Amstrad or Sir Alan will sue the testicles off of them. And Sinclair is out on account of it being a personal name.
So the only obvious choice is...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Data Is that the only one you could think of? Back in the 80s, there were more little 8bit computer manufacturers than you could shake a stick at.
Tangerine might be a better choice than Dragon, to keep the fruit and nut thing going. (IIRC Tangerine became Oric - obviously not to be confused with Orac.) |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #115174, posted by filecore at 22:30, 30/8/2010, in reply to message #115173 |
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I sit here now with a copy of Computing Today from August 1981 - yes, it's my birthday - and a quick leaf through shows not only the usual suspects from the era (Apple, Atari, Sinclair, et al) as well as Dragon, Apricot, Acorn and Tangerine, but also some I'd never heard of, including Seed, Microtan, Hazeltine, Takeda, Ohio Scientific, Alder Business Systems, Cromemco, Newbear, Smoke Signal, and a rather charming advert for a RAM supplier called 'Happy Memories'. Ah, those were the days. |
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Andrew Hodgson |
Message #115175, posted by Andy_Hodgson at 06:32, 31/8/2010, in reply to message #115174 |
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Posts: 65
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Well at least you found two that they can not use. Apple and Atari. |
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Ian Cook |
Message #115177, posted by ilcook at 15:34, 31/8/2010, in reply to message #115175 |
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Posts: 1077
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Well at least you found two that they can not use. Apple and Atari. They can't use Texas Instruments, either. |
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Andrew |
Message #115377, posted by asm1 at 01:16, 14/9/2010, in reply to message #115161 |
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One way to get some real information is to ask, of course. That's why I sent an email this morning to the address on the web page.
I assume by the silence in this thread you haven't yet had a reply? |
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VinceH |
Message #115383, posted by VincceH at 08:14, 14/9/2010, in reply to message #115377 |
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
Posts: 1600
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One way to get some real information is to ask, of course. That's why I sent an email this morning to the address on the web page.
I assume by the silence in this thread you haven't yet had a reply?
I did, yes, a couple of days later.
I didn't mention it in this thread because I initially posted a comment about the existence of the site on riscository.com - so I updated that post with the reply.
There were three main points to Julien Clairet's reply. Firstly, the site was to protect the domain and trademark. Secondly, (my interpretation) he's distancing himself from the 2006 company, and thirdly he said there is a project under development for the Acorn name, but he couldn't comment any further for reasons of confidentiallity. |
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Trevor Johnson |
Message #117521, posted by trevj at 08:48, 28/4/2011, in reply to message #115383 |
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There's now a swanky Flash site, containing a cogwheel-ified Acorn logo and 3 ghosted computer outlines in the bottom left. |
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Xavier Tardy |
Message #117522, posted by Enzo at 10:00, 28/4/2011, in reply to message #117521 |
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Posts: 56
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Hello.
And they are rue d'Amsterdam, in the 8th district of Paris.
Less than a kilometer from my flat.
I might start investigating to discover who they are ...
;-) |
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Andrew Poole |
Message #117525, posted by andypoole at 13:34, 28/4/2011, in reply to message #117522 |
Posts: 5558
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Hello.
And they are rue d'Amsterdam, in the 8th district of Paris.
Less than a kilometer from my flat.
I might start investigating to discover who they are ...
;-) 57 Rue D'Amsterdam is a place called Buroservices (Google streetview)
According to their website, one of their services is that they offer business registration address/mail services/etc. So you likely won't find anything relevant there. |
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VinceH |
Message #117532, posted by VincceH at 19:19, 28/4/2011, in reply to message #117522 |
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
Posts: 1600
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Hello.
And they are rue d'Amsterdam, in the 8th district of Paris.
Less than a kilometer from my flat.
I might start investigating to discover who they are ...
;-) But we already know who it is - it's Julien Clairet. I contacted him about the site when it first appeared as a simple HTML page: http://www.riscository.com/2010/acorn-computers-another-day-another-domain/ |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #117534, posted by filecore at 19:27, 28/4/2011, in reply to message #117532 |
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Or you could've, you know, just done a very simple WHOIS lookup for the domain and gotten Julien's name off the listing. |
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Trevor Johnson |
Message #117535, posted by trevj at 19:31, 28/4/2011, in reply to message #117522 |
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I might start investigating to discover who they are ...
;-) Try DATA ACCESS. |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #117536, posted by filecore at 20:53, 28/4/2011, in reply to message #117535 |
Posts: 3868
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Yes, because Wikipedia is always more reliable than a mere WHOIS, especially from people who have laterly appear to have taken to believing that "ACORN" is some sort of acronym. |
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