Dexter wrote: > > On Sat, 29 Dec 2001, Bill Waugh wrote: > > > Ok Dave here's a starter, I was one of the folks that ordered a Futura, > > possibly it might have been a dead end job considering the hardware that > > come since but my question is this - > > Who was Maria Futura ( I may have the name a bit wrong ) she seemed to > > be in charge of the admin side of things, I thought the name being > > similar or the same as the computer was a bit funny. > > My boss was Tony Ianiri, and his partner was Maria. There was also a man > whos name I just can't remember. He was about 45 and raced motorcycles. I > remember the Futura project too. Nothing was actually designed in the UK. > Tony was italian, and closely related to an italian company that was > making budget memory for the QL (I think it was SPED but I'm not sure) and > they seem to have been doing the actual design work. Occasionally, > Italians with very little English would come and do some PCB design or > prototyping for it. > > I remember the big day when the case and keyboard came in. There was also > an unpopulated board I saw which was definitely a 680X0-based design. > > They decided not to proceed with the Futura because the risk was too great > - the market was too small and the costs too high. > > Hope this helps... > > Dave > > PS: The name just came to me. Arnie Gardner was Tony's business partner.
Yep I spoke to Arnie once or twice, I think the Italian keyboard was SPEM, they flogged them off eventually as they fitted straight into the QL connector and I bought one it was pretty good. IIRC Arnie bemoaned the fact that Tony kept changing the spec and I do recall him (Arnie) telling me that the Italian parent company had pulled the plug ( can't recall the Italian companies name, definitely was not Sandy ) All the best - Bill
