London Banter - It's catching

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- - It's catching (https://www.londonbanter.co.uk/london-transport/14276-its-catching.html)

On Sun, 5 Apr 2015 11:00:28 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message
-septemb
er.org, at 08:28:55 on Sun, 5 Apr 2015, Recliner
remarked:
When we first moved into a certain office block in Brentwood, despite
being 60's build, there were only two ring mains for each 4,000 sqft
floor - enough to run a few electric typewriters perhaps. Having plugged
in numerous PCs and similar stuff, we were initially a bit surprised that
the breakers went if someone also turned on an electric kettle.

I'd have expected Amstrad to find a particularly cheap and nasty block!

It was quite a nice block (unlike the Tottenham warehouse they moved
from), and the *quality* of the electrical work was top-notch. There just
wasn't *enough* of it.

Maybe that's why it was cheap?

It cost less than it might otherwise have done because it needed a lot
of refurbishment. Pretty much every venetian blind fitted to the
considerable number of windows was broken beyond repair, for example.
And the inside was mainly fitted with very outdated and inefficient
partitions dividing it into numerous exec-offices with room for a
secretary outside, rather than the open-plan which the vogue at the
time.

The owners had being unsuccessfully trying to rent it out floor-by-floor
(the previous tenant had taken the whole thing, and there was no demand
locally for that much space in one lump) and had recently had one floor
refurbished as a "showroom" to demonstrate what it could be like. A
small group of us were looking at renting that one floor.

The boss came round to have a look, and decided to buy the whole block
outright (having already ascertained that most of the staff already
lived in Essex and he was looking to replace the Tottenham facility with
one nearer the Shoeburyness factory).

We moved into our 5th floor a couple of day later - the deal being
"deliver the keys tomorrow or it's off". And then we AMSOFT staff
moonlighted as building managers organising the refurbishment of floors
6-9, ahead of the arrival of the Tottenham crew.

It was tremendous fun, because we got to play with things like the
equipment in the lift-room, the massive central heating installation in
the basement, and a manual telephone exchange with about a dozen
stations (the latter being stripped out to be replaced by one cabinet of
PABX). One of the legacies was I was the only person in the building
with a direct phone line, which had been put in early on to maintain
contact with the outside world - no consumer mobile phones then.

Next was replacing all the metal-framed windows [I'd have wished that
was done *before* we moved in!] then floors 0 (it was numbered in
American style) -1 and 1-4 were refurbished and rented out steadily to
local firms one at a time. Over the next few years Amstrad expanded
downwards as the tenants moved out, and built the Penthouse/boardroom on
the roof. Amsprop hasn't looked back since.

Nice view of the GEML, too.

Sounds like quite an educational experience! I guess you got to learn
all sorts of unlikely skills working for a 'pioneering' (cowboy?)
outfit like that. Ironically, Amstrad in its entrepreneurial heyday,
sounds like a very different company to the ones that the modern day
sharp-suited/high-heeled Apprentices dream of creating.

In message , at 11:50:26 on
Sun, 5 Apr 2015, Recliner remarked:

The boss came round to have a look, and decided to buy the whole block
outright (having already ascertained that most of the staff already
lived in Essex and he was looking to replace the Tottenham facility with
one nearer the Shoeburyness factory).

We moved into our 5th floor a couple of day later - the deal being
"deliver the keys tomorrow or it's off". And then we AMSOFT staff
moonlighted as building managers organising the refurbishment of floors
6-9, ahead of the arrival of the Tottenham crew.

Sounds like quite an educational experience! I guess you got to learn
all sorts of unlikely skills working for a 'pioneering' (cowboy?)
outfit like that.

I resent the conflation of pioneering, with cowboy with what our day job
was which was bleeding-edge personal computing. That completely
re-purposed the company from audio to PCs, and incidentally made it
vastly more profitable as well as providing the tools for numerous
customers to kick-start their own careers as programmers or
self-publishers.

Ironically, Amstrad in its entrepreneurial heyday, sounds like a very
different company to the ones that the modern day
sharp-suited/high-heeled Apprentices dream of creating.

We in AMSOFT like to think of ourselves as the original Apprentices
(back in 1984) and learnt an incalculable amount by being parachuted
into the day-to-day sales/marketing business of such a high profile
organisation where the boss had something I've never met before or since
- the ability to make a decision on the spot and stick to it.

It was often very challenging to justify what needed doing (he has the
knack of asking the one question you don't have an answer for), but
having committed to it, the funds were always available - even
six-figure cheques issued minutes later.

Rather mundane, perhaps, but when I joined the company he sent me off to
Vauxhall dealership somewhere in the Tottenham area with instructions to
pick whichever car (within budget) I wanted and drive it back. No
paperwork at all, just his word having phoned ahead that the garage
would get paid.

It worked the other way round too - if, as happened a few times, a
journalist rang saying "please give me the details of your new computer,
I've just been talking to AMS and he said it would be OK", I knew that
the first call after putting the phone down to the journalist would have
been to me, and not having received such a call, it was a scam.
--
Roland Perry

The odd thing about Amstrad was that they only made one product, the eMailer, and it was total and utter garbage!

In message , at
10:38:20 on Sun, 5 Apr 2015, Offramp remarked:
The odd thing about Amstrad was that they only made one product, the
eMailer, and it was total and utter garbage!

Huh? Amstrad made scores of audio/tv/ video products, and then the
464/6128 home computers, PCW word processors, 1512/1640 PC clones, about
half a dozen 286/386 AT-clones, the PPC luggable, a clamshell portable,
and several re-launched Sinclair machines. Plus a fax machine and a
couple of printers. That was all in the six years I was there (until
1989).
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
10:38:20 on Sun, 5 Apr 2015, Offramp remarked:
The odd thing about Amstrad was that they only made one product, the
eMailer, and it was total and utter garbage!

Huh? Amstrad made scores of audio/tv/ video products, and then the
464/6128 home computers, PCW word processors, 1512/1640 PC clones, about
half a dozen 286/386 AT-clones, the PPC luggable, a clamshell portable,
and several re-launched Sinclair machines. Plus a fax machine and a
couple of printers. That was all in the six years I was there (until 1989).

I think that people who watched early Apprentice series might have got the
impression that the ridiculous eMailer was the only Amstrad product, as it
appeared in as many scenes as possible. It was that sort of product
placement that put me off watching it. In fact Amstrad was almost history
by the time the Apprentice started, and I think Viglen was by then AMS's
only computer product. Wasn't he also into satellite set-top boxes by then?

On Sun, 5 Apr 2015 19:54:51 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

Huh? Amstrad made scores of audio/tv/ video products, and then the
464/6128 home computers, PCW word processors, 1512/1640 PC clones, about
half a dozen 286/386 AT-clones, the PPC luggable, a clamshell portable,
and several re-launched Sinclair machines. Plus a fax machine and a
couple of printers. That was all in the six years I was there (until
1989).

I remember PC reviewers mocking Amstrad for integrating components on
the motherboard - common practice now.

In message
-septem
ber.org, at 19:04:56 on Sun, 5 Apr 2015, Recliner
remarked:
In fact Amstrad was almost history by the time the Apprentice started,

Yes, it had changed a lot.

and I think Viglen was by then AMS's only computer product.

Very likely.

Wasn't he also into satellite set-top boxes by then?

Had been since the beginning, started in about 1989.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 20:43:14 on
Sun, 5 Apr 2015, Peter Johnson
remarked:
I remember PC reviewers mocking Amstrad for integrating components on
the motherboard - common practice now.

What people didn't understand was that we were using the latest silicon
technology to reduce the parts count and make the computers easier to
build and more reliable. As well as lowering the cost. iirc there were
as many chips on IBM's graphics adapter card as in the whole of the
PCW1512, and similarly the parts count inside a contemporary EPSON
matrix printer was higher than the whole PCW - system unit, VDU,
keyboard and printer combined.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 21:39:38 on Sun, 5
Apr 2015, Roland Perry remarked:
In message , at 20:43:14 on
Sun, 5 Apr 2015, Peter Johnson
remarked:
I remember PC reviewers mocking Amstrad for integrating components on
the motherboard - common practice now.

What people didn't understand was that we were using the latest silicon
technology to reduce the parts count and make the computers easier to
build and more reliable. As well as lowering the cost. iirc there were
as many chips on IBM's graphics adapter card as in the whole of the
PCW1512,

Sorry, that's PC1512.

and similarly the parts count inside a contemporary EPSON matrix
printer was higher than the whole PCW - system unit, VDU, keyboard and
printer combined.

--
Roland Perry