BBC Computer Literacy Project

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. We hear their views, plus 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, Ian McNaught-Davis tells the sad story of the Wingsail, 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, we take a look at vet John Drew 's specialist business needs in a country practice, and at Life-Card, a new kind of read/write optical storage device on a credit card.

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.

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.

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. This week's programme looks at this fastest-growing use of the personal computer, expanding at a rate of 100 per cent a year. One commentator says that E-Mail may rival the use of the telephone by 1995.

A look at latest hardware and software for creating music on micros, an amazing new driving simulator 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.

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.

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.

The BBC and the ITV companies used to disagree cordially when it came to audience figures, but recently they joined forces and turned to electronics to measure the ratings. Fred Harris finds out if the numbers are more reliable, and Lesley Judd investigates a project at Stanford University where engineers and philosophers are working with the VA to create a robot that will be of real use to disabled ex-servicemen.

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. 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. 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.

An examination of the use of computers and microelectronics in the world of medicine, 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. Micro Live takes a look 'backstage' at the computers in control, and 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. Also, a look at how current computer models, if they had existed, could have been used to speed up decisions during the 1967 Torrey Canyon oil spill.

Micro Live visits the Haymarket Theatre and the world of Alan Turing , the father of modern computing. 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