Hi QLers,
April 23rd, what does this date say to us? Saint George's Day, The Bayerische Reinheitsgebot (regarding the ingredients of beer) was signed 500 years ago, William Shakespeare died on that day 400 years ago, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was launched 34 years ago. Great day in history!
The QL’s official life span was from January 1984 to April 1986 when Amstrad axed the QL. Well, I’ve seen some Samsung QLs manufactured in May 1986, but those were most likely built that month on behalf of the last valid order from Sinclair Research Ltd.
Although 2 ¼ years sound like a short period and I cannot remember how long it felt back in the 80s, I personally felt exactly how long it is when I judge the “QL is 30” activities which started on the QL’s 30th launch anniversary back on January 12th 2014. Even I was busy in both life and work I’ve spent quite an amount of time (several hundred hours) for and with the QL during the last 26 months. To name just the major milestones like the “QL is 30” website
http://www.qlis30.org.uk/, “QL IS 30 2014 – THE DISTRIBUTION”, the ZX-TEAM-meetings 2014, 2015 and 2016 in Germany, meeting Rick Dickinson and David Karlin again in 2014 and 2015, attending La Nuit des Musées 2014 in Switzerland, the QLis30 dinner and workshop in Scotland, testing and integrating new versions of SMSQ/E and SMSQmulator, updates to QL/E and THE DISTRIBUTION, this was a very intense QL period, at least for me.
Today is the release of the final version 3.04 of “QL IS 30 2014 – THE DISTRIBUTION”. This marks the end of my “QL is 30” activities.
QL forever!
Urs