Wakefield's October speaker was Andy Marks from RISCOSbits telling us about his RISC OS history and talking about his current/future plans.

Andy started with his 'Acorn history'. Started with BBCs at school and an Electron at home. Did have an Amiga and Amstrad PPC512 at University. Used lots of RISC OS machines (A3000, A420, A3010, Risc PC, Alpha, Iyonix, Beagleboard, etc). Current machine a RISCOSbits FAST. Named many of his hard drives Edna as it fitted nicely on Icon Bar.

RISCOSbits started with cases and developed into full systems. PiPOD put a Pi inside a Risc PC. Made an early fatal error of risque names with PiSSD and habit stuck. Obsessed with all the ports on one side, not all over the box.

Some interesting experiences importing hardware from China and trying to return defective kit.

Covid gave him lots of time to experiment with cases.

Shutdown screen on FOURtress disappears into  a single dot - that animation took longer than the rest of the software.

Has developed a range of systems based on eMMC and NVMe (driver was open sourced via ROOL) as well as the FAST systems.

FAST is still the 'premium' product with its native SATA drive. Looking at enabling HATX, fan and Onboard real-time clock

At the London Machine, there will be FAST machines to buy along with some other systems including the VENOM, eNVy.Me, ROBUST, PiRO Qube, and Chimera. There are some DIY options for the show. Another reason to attend the London Show.

In the pipeline is a new Linux/RISC OS machine running both independently and even switched on separately. BOB? (Best of Both).

I really enjoyed the talk, which was littered with interesting anecdotes, and well worth watching if you missed it.

As usual, the talk was on Zoom with an audience from all over 'greater' Wakefield. Talk was recorded on Zoom if you missed it.

Details on all meetings (and email address to ask for a Zoom link) can be found on the WROCC website