Thanks to Knuth SKA's Merging Stage 1 is 90% faster

[Fungus]

I know that they pioneered palmtops, made mistakes and got overtaken by another pioneer - Palm, who in turn got whacked and now shadow of itself.

They may have all failed but they were also pioneers recorded in history of computing.

They started out flogging games for the Spectrum and other computers. The software was made by nerds in their bedrooms and they made a mint. I've no idea if the nerds did well out of the deal. They started writing the games in-house, and then progressed to small handhelds. That was followed by a laptop with solid state memory, introduced just as the first DOS laptops appeared, which nearly sent them bust. So they quickly rushed out a hand held PDA, the Series 3, which saved their skins. But the mechanics were fragile, and the keyboard tedious. They never really broke into the US market, but were strong in Europe. They were eventually overtaken by Palm and then Windows based PDAs.

I worked for them round the time of the Series 3a and Series 5. I left because the pay was poor and the atmosphere was appalling with abuse of staff rife. I heard from several people that it did not get any better, and that Symbian was also a bad place to work, with no career progression. I've never before or since met such arrogant and obnoxious people as at Psion. The directors were appallingly rude and unpleasant. They weren't technically anything special though they never stopped telling all and sundry that they were superior.

I reckoned at the time - correctly as it turned out - that Psion had no future in the PDA market. I thought that Microsoft would eventually conquer the market. I was wrong on that score, as Symbian brought in capital and allies in the wireless telecoms market. Their advantage is that a lot of telecoms companies dislike Microsoft's attempted hegemony.

Fungus

[Churchill]

Didn't the early Psions run on the 6303 of immortal memory?

Yes, we've had this converation before.... I think.

It was also the same processor that was used in the early IBM PC keyboards.

[cojak]

*dodges trampling feet, grabs Orange Hopper by the ears and drags him out...*

I saw you going down for the 3rd time OH. How many thimes have I warned about playing with the big boys? You're no match for the egos out there...

[AtW]

xor eax,eax

[Jabberwocky]

Real men don't need mnemonics, and just use hex.

[Churchill]

xor eax,eax

Yeah, how many other ways are there of obtaining your IQ?

[Churchill]

Real men don't need mnemonics, and just use hex.

Hex?

I piss on your hex!!!!
11001001

[DaveB]

*reads thread*

Well that was a load of bollocks. Anyone got anything interesting to talk about?

[AtW]

In just couple of days I will be writing code in assembly...

[OrangeHopper]

Miss, oooowwww, don't do that miss!

Sorry, miss, won't do it again miss!

Yes miss, I'll go and finish my B22 integer arithmetic homework.

Can I have a lollypop please miss?