Andrew Edney from Connected Digital World wrote a really great piece (lots of photos, too) about the remarkable day we and about 150 other people spent at ARM a week ago, celebrating the 30th birthday of the BBC Micro. Eben and I were misty-eyed on the day with a mixture of horrible jet-lag (we’d just got in from Heathrow) and nostalgia, which we shared with a very proud and cheerful Jack (who as well as being a Trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation was one of the people who worked on the very early software for the BBC Micro 30 years ago).
Eben’s first computer, like mine, was a BBC Micro, and he says that he owes everything he has now to the people who made that machine. After a panel discussion with those people (you can see video of some of the other talks at the link to Andrew’s article above), Eben gave the keynote speech. Andrew’s video of it is the first I’ve seen published, and I’ve embedded it here. (Thanks Andrew!)
We feel very, very small and insignificant next to people like Chris Curry, Steve Furber, Hermann Hauser, Sophie Wilson, Nick Toop, Chris Turner and Andy Hopper – it’s no exaggeration to say that they shaped our childhoods, and made our adult lives take the direction they have today. We were overwhelmed by their enthusiasm for the Raspberry Pi project; we feel we’ve got a lot to live up to, and a lot of work ahead to ensure that their hopes and expectations for us match up with the reality. There’s motivation for you.
