Where great old Macs live again!

Bits and Bytes (a classic computer show from 1983) now on Youtube

Hi all,

Augh, it's been far too long since my last visit to this site — thanks James and John for what is still my favourite retro-computing podcast.

Anyway, this post is, perhaps, slightly off-topic (in that it predates the Macintosh), but I wanted to share a link to this archive of episodes and clips with people here — partly because there probably are a few people who saw this show when it originally aired and might enjoy a trip down memory lane, partly because it features many of the microcomputers that were popular in North America back then, and partly because its explanation of many of the key concepts are still relevant today. (Plus, like this podcast, it's also quite entertaining.)

The channel is over at http://www.youtube.com/user/bitsandbytestvo, and I've included a modified blurb from that page below for people's information.

Hope this brings back a few memories, and even educates a few of the people who are too young to have caught it first time 'round. This is the show that got me into computing and programming (even if my first computer was the Commodore 64), and I know that the episode on computer music, and the clip about compilers and interpreters have both been used to explain concepts in current computer science and computer music classes.

Cheers, and thanks again,

Peter

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Bits and Bytes is a classic, and still foundational, Canadian television series about microcomputers and the key concepts behind them. It was produced by TVOntario in 1983, and stars Luba Goy as the instructor, and Billy Van as the student.

The show consisted of 12 episodes and featured many of the classic 80s microcomputers including the Apple ][, Commodore PET, VIC 20 and 64, Atari 800, TRS-80, TI 99 and the IBM PC. The subjects were:

Program 1: Getting Started
Program 2: Ready-Made Programs
Program 3: How Programs Work?
Program 4: File & Data Management
Program 5: Communication Between Computers
Program 6: Computer Languages
Program 7: Computer-Assisted Instruction
Program 8: Games & Simulations
Program 9: Computer Graphics
Program 10: Computer Music
Program 11: Computers at Work
Program 12: What Next?

Tags: and, bits, bytes, educational, microcomputers, shows, tv