BeebMaster - What's New

What's New 2012

Please see below for this year's updates to BeebMaster

1st December 2012	Today you can have a look at the second of my two Retroclinic Compact Flash hard drives here. I'll really be putting it through its paces in the next update, so please come back early in the new year to see more! Before you go, for the final BeebMaster update of the Diamond Jubilee Year, I have brought together my collection of Diamond Jubilee souvenirs and commemoratives which I have been gathering during 2012, and you can see them all here. That's all for 2012, a remarkable and historic year for Britain; please come back as soon as 2013 comes along to find out all about how I will be celebrating 10 years of BeebMaster!
1st November 2012	Usually at this time of year, I put out updates on the theme of Domesday. But I'm still mourning the demise of Ceefax, which happened on 23rd October 2012 at 11.30pm when the last UK analogue transmitter was switched off in Northern Ireland, and with it, the remaining analogue channels carrying Ceefax. It also isn't a major Domesday anniversary this year, but to keep up with recent precedent, today's update is a cross-over between Domesday and Teletext. I've started a new section all about LaserVision, which you can see here. BBC Video's British Garden Birds was the world's first laserdisc with Teletext, and in the new section, you can see three picture sets showing the disc, playing the disc and viewing the Teletext pages on the disc here. Today I have also added a new set on using the FileStore Dealer Test disc with my FileStore E01S, which you can find here.
1st October 2012	Research has told me that over 85% of my visitors are tuning in with a screen resolution of 1,024 pixels wide, or more. I've therefore taken the opportunity to reorganise the home page a bit, and fit 5 columns in the table. I'm also going to be using 5 columns in picture set tables much more from now on as well. I should also say at this point that research also tells me that only 22% of visitors are using that Winxxxx rubbish to look at my site, with 63% viewing from Linux: please keep up the good work, Microsxxx haters of the world! The home page revamp has allowed me to squeeze in new links to some of my existing sections which I hope will now get some more exposure: these are Hard Drives and Master 512. There has also been room for a home page link to my new section all about one of my favourite Beeb topics, Teletext. You might already know that the last remaining analogue television transmitters in Great Britain were switched off at the end of last month - and with it, the Teletext signal, which has sadly not survived the switch over to digital TV. Only Northern Ireland now has analogue television and Teletext, and that gets shut down on the 24th of this month. Although a good number of cable channels carry Teletext subtitles, there are very few Teletext services and no Ceefax at all. At the minute, the only Teletext services I can find on cable are Channel 4, which is a limited service mainly about horse-racing, and At the Races, a dedicated horse-racing TV channel, whose Teletext service is, naturally, all about racing! One good thing, though, is that At the Races appear to have brought back their Teletext service after previously abolishing it altogether, so maybe there is still some hope! Just at the moment, I'm busy capturing pages from "At the Races", which I'll get round to showing you eventually! Whilst we're waiting for that, and for other broadcasters to reinstate their Teletext services on cable, please have a look at my new section all about Teletext here.
1st September 2012	Since I last clocked in, I've been out and about, to another gathering at the Lass O'Gowrie: take a look at my photos here. Also this month, I've started work on the runners-up from the STH poll, so please take a look at my new picture set on Repairing my FileStore E01S.
1st August 2012	Last month, I conducted a poll on the STH Forums to decide the subject matter of the BeebMaster August 2012 update. The candidates were "Biscuit Win", "Solidisk BBC", "Repair E01S" and "NetProg". By a reasonable margin, "Biscuit Win" won, which I was quite pleased about, because it allows me to continue the hard disc theme I established in May. I hope you will take a look at my pictures of assembling a double Winchester disc inside a cheese biscuits box here.
1st July 2012	It took a bit of time, but that's because I needed to work through 1,981 pictures taken during the Diamond Jubilee Central Weekend to make up 5 picture sets of 303 images in total - please take a look here and come back next month for a return to Beebing!
5th June 2012	It's Jubilee Day, the special bank holiday Tuesday at the end of the central Diamond Jubilee weekend. It's been a very long day of a very long weekend, and I haven't been drinking nearly enough tea this month. It's a case of come back later for more, but you can see the beginning of what is to come by clicking here.
2nd June 2012	Today is Coronation Day, and it marks the beginning of the Diamond Jubilee central weekend. The BeebMaster Diamond Jubilee Garden Party is taking place later today, and then I'm off to London tomorrow for all the Jubilee celebrations. Here's a quick sneak preview of the Garden Party preparations and there will be plenty more pictures from the entire weekend when I get back! Just before you go to your own Jubilee events, please take a look at this short set on using the Econet FLAT Box and a backup procedure for my Technomatic Winchester disc.
1st May 2012	BEEBMASTER'S NINTH BIRTHDAY Another year and I've decided for this year's anniversary update, the theme is going to be hard discs. To start, I can bring you pictures of my Akhter Winchester Disc. After you seen that, I've collected all the picture sets together showing my first Acorn Winchester Disc, from its arrival as a collection of remains to two new picture sets today it being revived and converted into a dual drive here and then being put to use here. There is also a set showing the setup of the CF Drive I bought at Byte-Back. Fresh back from this year's Wakefield Show, you can see 108 pictures of the event here. It's only a month until the Diamond Jubilee main weekend, so I hope you will take a look at my feature on my new Diamond Jubilee Flags here. It's also time to announce my Diamond Jubilee Sale at the BeebShop: all items are available at a discount of 19.52% to the normal price: take a look here.
2nd April 2012	Last time, I had been hoping to bring you more about my Master Compact, well, both of them really, but I got waylaid by a 208-picture set on using the Compact. I've managed to get it finished now, at last, and you can see the biggest single picture set in BeebMaster history here. As a special treat, I'm also bringing two new picture sets showing my Master Compact with Mertec Companion and the Mertec Compact in use. Whilst you are here, I hope you will take a look at my Diamond Jubilee section to see the latest pictures of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee tour here.
1st March 2012	I'm now officially three years behind, with all the picture sets in today's update having been taken in March 2009. I reckon it's going to get worse before it gets any better, so I ought to press on: Today, a fairly standard BBC B but with a very non-standard filing system ROM - two picture sets all about my Symbnet Beeb, and a new set showing my first Master Compact.
6th February 2012	This is a historic day, even an historic day if you prefer: 6th February 2012 is the day Her Majesty The Queen celebrates 60 years on the throne. It's only happened once before in all our long history, so I hope you will take a moment to appreciate this mind-boggling achievement and to reflect on these extraordinary times: please visit my Monarchy Pages here. Back to Beebing, and continuing with the Econet theme begun last time, I wanted to bring you some more up-to-date pictures of my BBC B with the Special Econet board. There are two new picture sets which you can find here, although they do date from 2009 so although previously unseen, they're not exactly new! What is new, however, is the picture set from my latest venture out into the community, a weekend at the end of January at the Lass O'Gowrie.
4th January 2012	It's quite amazing how out-of-date things become if you don't keep on top of them: 2012 is going to see 9 years of BeebMaster, and I've been using the Christmas holidays to revisit some of my older webpages and give them a bit of a revamp. Some have hardly been touched since I put them up in 2003/4, and what seemed current and to-the-point back then often seems hopelessly outdated now! There are over 6,000 pages of HTML in BeebMaster so I have only been able to prick the surface, but I have revised all the pages in my BeebHelp section, to bring the pages in line with the BeebMaster house style and to update the contents where possible. I've also had a good go at the All About BeebMaster section, which didn't look like I'd done anything to it since 2009. The main "About" page is very text intensive, which I don't particularly like, but since it's a kind of potted history of me & Beebs, there isn't a lot I can do about it. I've split up the text into separate headings and reduced the font size a fraction, to make it more readable, and added a new section on my pre-Beeb activities. Also in this revamping session, I've updated all my BeebStats pages for the new year. For 2012, I've made a start on updating my Econet pages, with a particular focus on the section about Econet interfaces. There is also a new picture set of my SJ Research Econet Starter Pack. I reckon just about everyone knows that 2012 is the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty The Queen. If you visited BeebMaster between Christmas and New Year, you'll have seen the unannounced update (on 27th December) where I added the Diamond Jubilee logo to the top left-hand corner of all pages. Clicking the logo will take you to my Diamond Jubilee home page, which will contain information and pictures about all of my Jubilee activities during this historic year - why not take a look now.

For previous updates, please see here.