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> "So I got my dad's shoes, I cut the sole of the shoe open, I built the circuit board and placed it inside of the shoe with a 90 megahertz speaker, a microphone and a wired area network card," says Freddie.
None of this makes any sense.
I would love to believe that this person built such a device out of old radio and computer parts, but it just doesn't seem feasible.
Description of fixing a broken Mac > "As I was looking in it I saw capacitors that were broken. I had soldering guns there and I had radios and alarm clocks, so I took parts out of my father's radio alarm clock and I soldered them into the circuit board." Were computers that repairable back then, that you could swap in bits of old alarm clocks to make them work?
Does anyone have any information about the "90Mhz speaker GPS shoe" that he claims he invented and sold the rights to? Google can't find any reference to it outside of similar anecdotes. It's a rather exceptional claim, based on the state of technology at the time that he would have had to have invented it. For example, how was it powered such that it was constantly transmitting on FM band and would work any old time…
Description of fixing a broken Mac > "As I was looking in it I saw capacitors that were broken. I had soldering guns there and I had radios and alarm clocks, so I took parts out of my father's radio alarm clock and I soldered them into the circuit board." Were computers that repairable back then, that you could swap in bits of old alarm clocks to make them work?
Based on reading the article and folks comments on this thread, though, I wouldn't trust anything this person claims.
Description of fixing a broken Mac > "As I was looking in it I saw capacitors that were broken. I had soldering guns there and I had radios and alarm clocks, so I took parts out of my father's radio alarm clock and I soldered them into the circuit board." Were computers that repairable back then, that you could swap in bits of old alarm clocks to make them work?
https://kuulpeeps.com/2018/12/14/freddie-figgers-meet-the-29...
But there was no capacitor, it was just taken apart 5 (or 6) times. Not abandoned here either, just a crack-addicted mother.
You would think they have the sense to do 5 mins of google research on people they write about at the BBC? > "So I got my dad's shoes, I cut the sole of the shoe open, I built the circuit board and placed it inside of the shoe with a 90 megahertz speaker, a microphone and a wired area network card," says Freddie. None of this makes any sense.
Very simply: the people who write these stories are on other beats, they are usually people who don't know about business or technology or anything, and the "story" is about something else (i.e. overcoming adversity, something that gets clicks).
This may sound trite but has consequences. Various types of financial scammers (a big industry in the UK) use media outlets to write profiles on them, which they then use in marketing. Tens of millions (maybe more) have been lost because of stories like this (it isn't only newspapers, a TV show about "rich, young people"...obviously all scammers...covered one of the biggest binary option scammers, before binary options were banned, he ended up in jail shortly after for trying to run over someone he owed money to).
Slightly more worryingly: you see this kind of coverage in the business sections of some major newspapers now too (i.e. even business journalists are clueless). It is what happens when you tell students repeatedly that business is bad, and anyone who starts a business is a thief (ironically, that primes you for scammers). Additionally, journalism is mostly an upper-middle class occupation in the UK, rich ppl are left-wing here, and regard anyone who wants to work to acquire wealth with suspicion. The only exception is the FT (not always good, but their staff actually understand business at some level...surprising given that they mostly hire toffs too). But yeah...it is a real problem that feeds on itself: low integrity reporting, ppl question reporting, they just see scammers in the media, they question business...circle of ignorance.
Description of fixing a broken Mac > "As I was looking in it I saw capacitors that were broken. I had soldering guns there and I had radios and alarm clocks, so I took parts out of my father's radio alarm clock and I soldered them into the circuit board." Were computers that repairable back then, that you could swap in bits of old alarm clocks to make them work?
In a different story that Mac later runs Windows 7: https://kuulpeeps.com/2018/12/14/freddie-figgers-meet-the-29... But there was no capacitor, it was just taken apart 5 (or 6) times. Not abandoned here either, just a crack-addicted mother.
How is that possible?
Description of fixing a broken Mac > "As I was looking in it I saw capacitors that were broken. I had soldering guns there and I had radios and alarm clocks, so I took parts out of my father's radio alarm clock and I soldered them into the circuit board." Were computers that repairable back then, that you could swap in bits of old alarm clocks to make them work?
In a different story that Mac later runs Windows 7: https://kuulpeeps.com/2018/12/14/freddie-figgers-meet-the-29... But there was no capacitor, it was just taken apart 5 (or 6) times. Not abandoned here either, just a crack-addicted mother.
Huh.
I don't know a ton about Freddie or his communication business, so want to separate that out. That said, the Figgers branded devices seem to be pure scamming. Chinese reclones that are outright lying about specs, from everything I've read.
I don't want to be down on the man at all either, but unfortunately what you just said very much follows from a combination of a deprived upbringing lacking in the education necessary for understanding the technology a young boy glorifies inevitably as a status symbol and a harsh socio economic dividing line, in combination with the obviously profound torment he must have felt and endured and focused into a controlla…