back to article ZX Spectrum reboot scandal man sits on Steve Bannon design tech shindig committee

David Levy, one of the players in the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega+ scandal in the UK, has reappeared in the news – in connection with a gaming and design tech conference that invited notorious alt-right firebrand Steve Bannon to be its keynote speaker. The Advances in Computer Entertainment 2018 conference, an obscure academic …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    He’s too busy playing manic miner to talk.

    1. ThomH

      Were it not for the unreliability of tapes and the homework-doing opportunity offered by their loading speed, I suspect I might have exited my childhood essentially uneducated.

  2. wolfetone Silver badge

    I did not know that Steve Bannon was in the market for Levy's sex bot.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Maybe Steve Bannon *is* a sex bot, gone rogue...

      1. ThomH

        I feel like there's a Woody Allen joke to be found here.

  3. Dan 55 Silver badge

    "lucky few who have managed to avoid hearing about the boiling cesspit that is American politics"

    Why stop at American politics? The current political climate means we get to see all kinds of strange flora and fauna flourish around the world that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

    Like this lot who have hijacked a gaming conference for their own agenda.

    As we are finding out, the checks and balances we thought we had are mainly just people's own self-control.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "lucky few who have managed to avoid hearing about the boiling cesspit ....

      "As we are finding out, the checks and balances we thought we had are mainly just people's own self-control."

      Some of us have known that for a long time. Welcome to the world of grown ups. The current hard right push is mainly down to a decade of political liberalism being thrust upon people in the west whether they wanted it or not. So naturally there's a reaction. And eventuallly there'll be a counter reaction. As someone who sits in the political middle I've watched the pendulum fly past me in both directions a number of times with a forlorn hope that one day it might stop. Fat chance.

      1. cream wobbly

        Re: "lucky few who have managed to avoid hearing about the boiling cesspit ....

        "political liberalism"

        You mean respectful behaviour. People (I use the word lightly) like Bannon aren't reacting to "political liberalism"; they're reacting to being told to be respectful, if they want to participate in society. Society is a big mix of differences, not just in what people think and prefer, but who they essentially are, as people. It's not "political liberalism" to say that people who are essentially different from the majority should be extended equal treatment and equal opportunity; and that those who think different(ly) should be leashed when they try to prevent equality, equivalence, and equity.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "lucky few who have managed to avoid hearing about the boiling cesspit ....

          "You mean respectful behaviour. "

          No, I don't. I meant the elevation of minority grievances to levels far beyond that which they deserve coupled to the race relations industryr. "Positive" discrimination, virtue signalling gobby student snowflakes who have an Orwellian approach to truth - ie tell a lie enough and it will become the truth such as getting to decide your own gender. (Well in that case maybe I can decide my own race - I'll be black from tommorow, ok?) "Inclusivity" which seems to include group except whites. Well guess what - treat people as the enemy and they'll act like it and you get Trump. Well done.

          MIcro aggressions, safe spaces, cultural appropriation, patriarchy, non binary, mis-gendered etc etc - all this juvenile student union level political bullshit that now comes under the liberal banner, THAT is what I mean by modern liberalism.

          1. Insert sadsack pun here

            Re: "lucky few who have managed to avoid hearing about the boiling cesspit ....

            Unfortunately, you didn't include mention the phrases "health and safety", "vegan sausage roll" or "Tony B-liar", so I'm afraid you didn't win Self-Pitying Bullshit Bingo this time. Please do keep playing (I'm sure you will).

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: "lucky few who have managed to avoid hearing about the boiling cesspit ....

              "so I'm afraid you didn't win Self-Pitying Bullshit Bingo this time"

              You have to love the Naivety of Mr Sadsack. Its almost touching.

      2. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: "lucky few who have managed to avoid hearing about the boiling cesspit ....

        Welcome to the world of grown ups. The current hard right push is mainly down to a decade of political liberalism being thrust upon people in the west whether they wanted it or not.

        All that treating people nicely obviously had to backfire one day, right?

        As someone who sits in the political middle I've watched the pendulum fly past me in both directions a number of times with a forlorn hope that one day it might stop.

        I have to say I don't have your certainty that that I've never changed my political views.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "lucky few who have managed to avoid hearing about the boiling cesspit ....

        "The current hard right push is mainly down to a decade of political liberalism being thrust upon people in the west whether they wanted it or not. So naturally there's a reaction."

        sounds awfully childish. didnt get what they want so they behave like idiots?

        unless there's some doubt the alt right are a mainly bunch of fecking self-entitled, whiny, man-child idiots..?

        1. Naughtyhorse

          Re: "lucky few who have managed to avoid hearing about the boiling cesspit ....

          i think that hits the wossname right on the thingy!

          the last 40 years have been about rhe infantilisation of the consumers of the 1st world.

          aint nuthin to do with left or right.

          just spoiled kids everywhere...

          'cept me of course!

    2. Steve the Cynic

      Re: "lucky few [etc]"

      As we are finding out, the checks and balances we thought we had are mainly just people's own self-control.

      The main problem with the American model of checks and balances (and, indeed, any other such system) is that it relies on a delicate balance between the speed at which the system is disturbed (by, say, a President who wants more power) and the speed at which the checks and balances can push back against the disturbance.

      When the US Constitution was framed, that balance of speeds was a reasonable thing to assume, although it wasn't perfect even then. Today, however, if one of the participants, especially the President, decides to steamroller the boundaries of his power, the checks and balances cannot keep up, since the tools at their disposal haven't really caught up with the evolution of technology. (You can easily break the system with repeated use of "the weaponized tweet", but that's a poor tool for fixing it.)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If his sex robot is of the same build quality as his spectrum prototype, he has probably injured himself.

  5. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

    Levy's wiki page is quite interesting....

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Levy_(chess_player)

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge

      AH! So this is NOT the David Levy that used to write for Creative Computing back in the '80s, which was one hell of an awesome computer rag, and which got me started. They talked about object oriented programming back when it was still called "actor languages"

      I am no longer quite so confused.

      I also see the "Creative Computing" David Levy is not listed by Wikipedia, which is quite an omission in my opinion.

  6. SVV

    Do not pre-order a sex robot off this man!

    It'll never come.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Re: Do not pre-order a sex robot off this man!

      It'll never come.

      That doesn't matter, you're the one that's supposed to......

  7. Rob Crawford

    Maybe Bannon is after a discount Mussolini sex bot?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Mussolini bot?

      I wonder if it has something to do with auto-erotic asphyxiation

    2. Tomato Krill

      Well at least it'd come on time...

  8. Mystic Megabyte
    FAIL

    I personally would not invite Steve Bannon to the opening of a new land-fill site. He's a fecking moron!

    1. Stoneshop
      Pirate

      I would

      Just to make sure he goes in first.

    2. WolfFan Silver badge

      I would invite him to a landfill. And leave him there.

      1. WolfFan Silver badge

        I see that the serial downvoter is alive and well...

    3. cat_mara

      The opening of a new quicklime pit, on the other hand...

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Steve Bannon would lower the tone of a landfill site too much.

      Except possibly if he was buried beneath one.

  9. Oh Homer
    Windows

    Re: "would not invite Steve Bannon to the opening of a new land-fill site"

    I would if he was the toxic waste being dumped into it.

  10. jason 7

    Bannon aint the draw he once was.

    Most events he attends as guest of honour struggle to reach double figures now.

    Rightfully so.

    1. Stoneshop
      Windows

      Re: Bannon aint the draw he once was.

      Most events he attends as guest of honour

      That's some rather ... peculiar phrasing.

      struggle to reach double figures now.

      Given his drinking habits he probably sees double all the time, so that helps.

  11. Dan 55 Silver badge

    Meanwhile, people are still enjoying the Vega+

    Perhaps not quite the way it was intended...

  12. JeffXXXXXX

    Absolutely

    I agree. Bannon's brand of Economic Nationalism is a direct reaction to the Liberal Globalist policies of the last century which is a good thing. This cannot be allowed to habben/./

    1. ThomH

      Re: Absolutely

      Yeah! E.g. it's only the far-sighted policies of Bannon et al that have finally saved 94% of those farmers who were exporting soy beans to China from having an income. After a terrible half century of international economic progress and relative peace, Bannon has come to save us!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rename the event?

    How about "Z-List Celebrity Douche-Off"?

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon