Forthcoming RISC OS events | Drobe.co.uk archives

Forthcoming RISC OS events

By Chris Williams. Published: 24th Aug 2004, 08:20:08 | Permalink | Printable

RISC OS in public

The year certainly wouldn't be complete without the autumn round of RISC OS shows and related events to cap it all off, so here's a list of the plans so far.

The RISC OS South East show in Guildford, UK, is going ahead this year and will be held on the 23rd October. Anyone interested in exhibiting should contact the organisers. The main news from the show at the moment is that the charity stall (a RISC OS show institution), isn't going to be offering hardware this year due to "recycling legislation coming into force in August".

Looking over to the mainland Europe, ArcSite reports that there'll be a RISC OS presence at the alternative computering event, Fun of Computing 2004, held in early October. Also, there's XzentriX 2004, a three day alternative computering event where RiscPCs and other RISC OS kit should be seen.

Finally, we're told the UK Midlands 2004 show, organised by the ARM Club and usually held at the National Motorcycle Museum in November, is still going ahead - this is following the fire last year that destroyed it. The ARM Club's David Ruck said, "[The Museum] claim it will be ready for us, but as we'll be the first to use it, any delays could be critical."

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Another forthcoming event ist the annual German RISC OS meeting organised by GAG (German Archimedes Group) on October 9 to 10 in Grafhorn near Hannover. See [link]

hzn on 24/8/04 9:15AM
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Can we have more information on this recycling legislation and how it affects the charity stall?

jonix on 24/8/04 11:21AM
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Do a Google for "EU recycling legislation" - various results come up from UK and EU governmental websites detailing the new legislation.

Hope this helps :-)

sascott on 24/8/04 12:54PM
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I believe the legislation in question is called the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, which must be translated into UK law by August 2004 and comes into full force in August 2005.

So no more Beebs/Elks/Arcs in skips any more then ;-)

sascott on 24/8/04 12:59PM
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Yes, but how does this affect the charity stall? I presume they won't be able to dispose of any unsold hardware?

jonix on 24/8/04 1:23PM
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I'm no legal expert, but reading the actual 'Directive' it seems to say that disposal of WEEE will be free of charge, at least for individuals. It also seems to imply that, although the Directive will be adopted in Aug 2004, it won't affect things until Aug 2005, and even then disposal will not cost the individual anything - just that we can't chuck it in the bin! Have the Charity Stall Organisers taken professional advice about this? I think they may be worrying unduly (but don't hold me to that!), but it would mean a few trips to the local recycling centre, though. Of course, I might have got it all wrong ...

Jeremy on 24/8/04 5:11PM
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I guess eBay is going to become the last chance saloon for hardware from now on. The problem with low value, heavy items is the postage costs which can end up being more than the item is worth. Plus you've got the hastle of taking a photograph and writing up the item description, answering purchasers questions, non paying bidders, clearing cheques.... I can see why many schools just quiety skip them, although it dosn't make it right. Maybe if someone offered to take away the leftovers for free....

martin on 24/8/04 8:13PM
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The Belgian RISC OS User Group RISCOS.be [link] will be present at the next Infomedia show at Antwerp [link]

joty on 24/8/04 11:14PM
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jonix: I guess you're right. Anything left over after the show ends, will become a major headache. But like Jeremy says, perhaps some professional advice would do.

How about events like the recent Classic 8-bit Expo (the one sponsored by Retro Gamer?) - would they have the same problem? Methinks this could be the subject of an article for one of their forthcoming issues. This directive could make old stuff harder to find? Maybe I'm wrong.

Perhaps visit the website [link] will help matters? There's a section there about WEEE. The answer may be somewhere without having to approach a legal firm and pay costs...

sascott on 25/8/04 3:58AM
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Perhaps the answer is to ask those donating items to be prepared to take them away again after the show if they are not sold.

mrtd on 25/8/04 8:54AM
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Is anyone actually volunteering to take such old computers, and/or willing to provide storage for them? In this Microsoft world of computers aging very fast, it's so difficult to convince schools to take old machines for free use, let alone individuals. It's near impossible these days to get anyone new to use (not change to) the RISC OS platform. Only a couple of months ago, I had a double slice Risc PC600 (similar to my own) given to me and the owner tried to donate it to some schools but was declined to have it off loaded. This computer is loaded with Acorn stuff from the days when he sai that he did some work for Acorn. My personal views about old Acorn machines, is that many of schools could get a lot of basic computer learning skills out of these machines. While MS Windows machines do have their advantage being a feature packed (some good as well as all those bad features!!) well modernised (not including design by default), old Acorn could keep going giving desktop, graphics (!Draw & !Paint), DTP and typing skills to these Windows Using school children whom I feel many without RISC OS lack these skills. I notice this point enormously when PC skilled children come to my RISC OS music computers department and the (user friendly) RO desktop environment is often new and unfamiliar to them. I can see a great use for the old Acorn / RISC OS machines to be used in the classrooms when so many schools cannot afford more than they have, one would "imagine" the more being used the better... especially very low cost / maintenance RISC OS. ("imagine" = is stretching it a long way required here?) I also know in my mind that these old machines wouldn't tickle their interest (even for free) for tha lack of their "modernised" ability and compatibility with the "Matrix" world of Windows today. Any bright ideas who, how, what, where these old machine could be persuasively given an extended life in stead of been thrown out the Windows (sorry about the last word!!) Regards, Steve. :blush:

Sawadee on 25/8/04 9:33AM
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The power of technology: what about the Google adverts appearing on this page? Do any of the outfits featured offer any reasonable advice?

guestx on 25/8/04 1:54PM
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Regarding Sawadee's comment - it's not just RISC OS - it's useability - we use Textease Studio Plus as our base software across a PC suite and across classroom StrongArm (any thing less is a waste of time) machines. The children know the difference regarding saving work for the first time (even that can be got round with Textease), and saving graphics from Oregano 2 and IE5. Together with a host of top class software to support both ICT skills and most subject areas RISC OS and Windows machines are merely the means to an end - as long as they continue to do that RISC OS has a place in 2004-5 at my primary school. More importantly, children are not disadvantaged by RISC OS, they are empowered as a result of using it, as they are with Windows XP Pro on the PCs. Our entrance hall Parent information screen is a redundant classroom A7000+ with Textease Presenter and a donated 19 inch screen.

DaveW on 25/8/04 6:56PM
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