Domesday Reloaded III
Hearing about the project on BBC Radio brought memories flooding back. I had the honour of demonstrating and explaining the BBC Domesday machine to HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in 1987 and to Mrs Thatcher at World Expo88 in Australia. I was only looking at the photos the other day and I still have my original Domesday Disc. Is this any use to you?
It is indeed, Ian and thanks for the picture too. A nice reminder of just how important and groundbreaking the original project was and how great it is that it's been saved from the digital dustbin of cyberhistory.
I'm David Gregory, BBC Science Correspondent for the West Midlands. My first law states: "Science is the answer." There is no second law. Feel free to drop me a line: 
Comment number 1.
At 13:29 21st May 2011, Gerald wrote:In reporting on Domesday Reloaded as in Archive on 4 the use of a tracker ball is given as pre-mouse. The mouse was commercially available on the Apple Lisa in 1981. The BBC Model B and later BBC Master elected to use a tracker ball. Aimed at schools with minimum desk space. Laserdisc was not chosen because it was pre-CD-ROM either. There were standards for CD-ROM for several years but no leader in a developing market. There was also the CD-i which had limited uptake. A CD could not hold enough information. The Laserdisc was already being used to hold video and interactive with computers with frame accuracy using IBM XT and 286 computers. Where it failed was the cost of equipment, even using the BBC Master against £2000 PCs. There was also a lack of other material available for Laserdisc. I am surprised that the original sources for the Domesday project were not kept. The floppy discs would still be readable now or though may videos from that period might be un-playable.
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