Micro Live

The home-computer industry has recently seen important changes of fortune for some of its major players, including Sir Clive Sinclair , Alan Sugar of Amstrad, and Bryan Long of Acorn. Their views, plus a look at the latest hardware and software, make up an assessment of changes since the last Micro Live back in March. Also a review of do-it-yourself computer animation software and then, hot-footing it from this year's Computer Animation Film Festival ceremony, Lesley Judd reviews the best of this year's mainframe masterpieces.

Fred Harris looks at some of the best games for the home micro - including those which involve more than mindlessly 'zapping' aliens - from the electronic version of "Trivial Pursuit' to a game that tests your knowledge of physics and allows you to design your own pin-ball machine. Ian McNaught-Davis tells the sad story of the Wingsail - an ingenious computer-controlled sail which when bolted to a ship saves a tenth of its fuel bill, but has almost ruined its inventor. And award-winning journalist Steven Arkell reports from the City of London on the technology, and the mistakes, behind the 'Big Bang'.

Choosing a word processor? Advice on how to get what you really need. Are computers going to the dogs? Harringay stadium is one of the few tracks which haven't replaced their electromechanical tote system with a computer. And tomorrow's computers, will they run on laser light rather than electricity?

Miami city managers have commissioned a new system of computerised radios that can be reprogrammed from headquarters - particularly useful for the police. If you run a small business and are considering a computer Ian McNaught-Davis and Kathy Lang from "Personal Computer World" give some basic advice. And a unique project in Northamptonshire where programmers in a sheltered workshop are writing software for an adult training centre.

Finding your way around a computer system can be frustrating; psychologist Professor David Canter explores the endless corridors of unfriendly operating systems. All software great and small in a country practice - vet John Drew 's specialist business needs. And a look at Life-Card, a new kind of 'read/write' optical storage device on a credit card. It's soon to be introduced into the wallets and purses of 85 million Americans to hold medical information which could be vital in an emergency.

Twelve-inch laser discs had a short, unsuccessful life for domestic video, but the smaller compact discs have really taken off. Now discs similar to CDs can be used to store data for computers. But the larger video discs are making a come-back in 'interactive' systems, such as the one launched this week by the BBC's Domesday Project and are potentially ideal for education and training. If primary schools don't yet have video disc players at least most of them do have a computer. British educational software leads the world, but lack of teacher training and resources may mean it is simply not used. Kenneth Baker , Secretary of State for Education, spearheaded the introduction of computers in schools when he was Minister for Information Technology. Now he faces his critics over the lack of follow-up.

Fred Harris and Lesley Judd look at the increasing use of computers in cars and show how the Rover Sterling uses a micro to control everything from its fuel supply to its anti-lock braking. With so many electronic devices appearing in some cars the manufacturers are looking for other solutions to the problem of how to connect the electrics together. On the racing circuit, Tyrrell cars demonstrate how higher speeds are achieved by designing their cars on computer. And from America, Freff reports on ETAK, a remarkable car navigation system which shows a driver exactly where he is on a street plan which moves in front of his eyes on a screen as the car moves along the road. Also from the States, a simple touch screen which will do away with most of the levers and knobs which hang off a car's dashboard.

A recent survey showed that about 70 per cent of telephone calls fail to get through - either because numbers are engaged or people aren't at their desks. The consumers' magazine Which reported that two in five first-class letters don't get there the next day; and people doing business with, say, Australia or California can find virtually no time when both they and their business contacts are at their desks. Faced with these frustrations, many people are turning to electronic mail - including 'voice mail' - to get their messages across. Electronic mail systems offer the chance for people to send written documents immediately to their offices over the phone, from home or from anywhere in the world. Increasingly the systems also offer - at a price - access to databases such as World Reporter and the Official Airlines Guide.

This week the latest hardware and software for creating music on micros, a look at an amazing new driving simulator just arrived in this country which was the sensation of the recent Tokyo Electronics Show, and from California comes a story of a wine grower who is trying to use computer-controlled analysis equipment to discover what makes a good wine.

Miami has the dubious distinction of being America's drug capital and one of the most difficult cities in the world to police. Now a new system, using computerised portable radios that can be programmed from headquarters, is helping in the fight against crime. In Oxford, Kittredge Cowlishaw runs a unique course called 'Computing for the Terrified'. One of the applications the students are introduced to is the 'spreadsheet' - the software which has probably sold more computers than any other. Micro Live shows the basics of how to use one.

Are computers going to the dogs? Harringay Stadium is one of the few tracks which hasn't replaced its electro-mechanical tote system with a computer. American reporter Freff visits Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, one of the key centres in computing research. Rock-eating robots, world-beating chess machines, a Cray supercomputer - you name it, CMU probably has it.

This week's programme includes a visit to Salt Lake City, Utah, headquarters of the Mormon Church. The Mormons believe that if they convert you to Mormonism, they will convert all of your ancestors. This has led them to create the largest genealogical database in the world. They are now transferring all this information onto a computer network so that it will be available to everyone with a home micro.

Customised chips - complex and specialised chips for specific needs - used to be very expensive. But now there is a way of producing them cheaply. In an exclusive interview Sir Clive Sinclair gives an insight into past successes and failures and looks forward with new plans for the next generation of computers. Four- and 5-year-olds are now getting hands-on experience of computers in nursery classes.

Robots Special: The humanoid robots of fiction and today's industrial robots are as far from each other as chalk from cheese. But slowly robots are being incorporated into systems capable of bringing some of the flexibility of man on to the factory floor. Robotics scientists are making great headway in giving robots vision, touch and even the ability to play a mean game of table tennis. Explaining developments is Professor Mike Brady , who recently returned to Britain from one of America's leading technological universities to run an Oxford research team.

From Washington Freff investigates the way that American politicians use computerised direct mail to target key groups of voters. The technique is so effective that it is now an essential part of US political campaigning. Could it happen here? Also the best and the latest computerised film animation from the Imagina Conference at the Monte Carlo Television Festival, where Hollywood film-makers and academic researchers recently showed their work.

This week an examination of the use of computers and microelectronics in the world of medicine - the successes, the failures and the ideas still waiting for trial, including superb new diagnostic tools for the future. But will the NHS be able to afford them? From America, a robot being instructed in plain English might eventually be used to help disabled Vietnam war veterans. And an examination of medical software for the home micro - some of it good and some of it very bad.

The Epcot Center in Florida is next door to Disneyworld, but it's not just there for entertainment. It was the last great dream of Walt Disney and it's designed to give the visitors who flock through it every day an image of past, present and future. Micro Live takes a look 'backstage' at the computers in control. The technologies of computerised graphics, text processing and printing are being brought together in a new way that allows almost anyone to do their own desktop publishing. Micro Live assesses the competing systems that claim to turn a home micro into a mini Fleet Street.

If you book an airline ticket you're likely to be in the hands of a computer until you pick up your luggage at the other end. Micro Live investigates the system. When the Torrey Canyon sank in the English Channel 20 years ago this week, the oil it spilled caused great damage to the coast and to wildlife. If it happened today, a computer model would be used to speed up decisions on how to fight the disaster. Micros have become a familiar sight in our schools, but they may become as familiar in the nursery.

Fred Harris and Ian McNaught-Davis In the last, extended edition of the series, Micro Live visits the Haymarket Theatre and the world of Alan Turing , the father of modern computing, portrayed by Derek Jacobi in the stageplay Breaking the Code. Turing's computers in the 1940s and 1950s were 'first-generation' machines; now computer scientists are working on the 'fifth generation'. In Scotland the institute named after Turing has a world reputation in artificial intelligence work, but its software products are hardly used in the UK. In California, where seemingly limitless sums are thrown at research projects, 'Chinese temples', brainstorming' and robots for war veterans are the subjects of fifth generation work. Dr Ian Page of Oxford University puts such present and future work in perspective.