About the seminar

PCs changed business for good from the mid 1980s onwards. They brought computing into every office, revolutionising document production, design and data handling. In this nostalgic talk we look at early PC technology and the companies involved and discuss the issues with keeping a fleet of old hardware and software working 25 or so years later.

About the speaker

Lecturer in Computer Science, currator of Salford's Digital Retro computer collection.

Expert in Advanced Human Computer Interaction, Computer Programming and Learning Technologies I have over fifteen years experience as a Lecturer in user centered aspects of Computer Science. I begin my career in the mid 1980s as an Electrical Engineering technical apprentice for the international Oil and Gas Company, Schlumberger Limited. Following this I studied Electrical Engineering to the level of BEng (Hons), and then studied for an MSc in Computational Physics.

I came to Salford as a lecturer in 1998 following a three year Research Assistantship on a successful large scale Framework 4 European Union project (IMMP) investigating deployment issues with broadband multimedia services. I am especially interested in usability of state-of-the art technology such as the Internet, mobile devices, social media and future digital media and maintain a collection of vintage computing hardware.