Thank you Sir. My ZX81 is where it all started.
Sir Clive Sinclair has died
271–280 of 455 posts
Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
Given the availability of tech like the Pi now, I wonder what it would take to build a modern, child-friendly device in the same spirit around it: something that offered a fun and instructive introduction to programming, in a box that was self-contained, safe and practically indestructible. Design a case with a sealed keyboard? Expose standard power and display connectors with robust ports? Write some child-friendly…
TLDR - Kids who want to learn to program already have access to the tools to do this... It's just that most kids don't want to learn to program. Wasn't this what the One Laptop Per Child (OTLP) project was trying to achieve? The problem is that when the ZX, C64 etc were around there was no alternative. If you wanted to play games, you could either shell out for more hardware and purchase the games on disk or cartridg…
> I wonder how many of those ZX Spectrums, C64 etc were given to kids, who on finding that they had to actually do some work to make them do anything useful relegated them to a shoebox under the TV.
In my experience, that tended to happen more with the kids who got the C64s. Those were the ones with color TVs and Betamax at home, too.
Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha, that's really wholesome. I remember how I destroyed my first PC on the first day by flipping a switch on the PSU before turning it on. Good times.
Out of curiosity, what switch would that have been? Was it a 220/120V setting?
I'd bet it is, because I did the same (in a 240V country). I knew it wouldn't end well and did it anyway because, I guess, as a kid I was used to the world not letting bad things happen so didn't really believe it would. There isn't a switch on the toaster or TV that bricks it after all.
Anyway got a spark and the magic smoke, and bought a new PSU from a guy at school for $15.
Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
I started with Apple 2+ but back then there were many computers to be fond of. There were Vic 20, Dragon 32, Amstrad, Thomson TO7, TRS-80, BBC. All were different, all had their capabilities. But what was fun is that everyone had access to the whole thing : hardware, software. Nothing was hidden behind layers of security. You could relate software and hardware in a very natural way. Everybody was fiddling around. Als…
I started with an Amiga 500. Wonderful machine, but the lack of a built in compiler/programming language that allowed you to access the power of the machine was a lack that limited your learning. I think it resulted in me taking a very wide path to my current programming job than would otherwise have happened. Looking back, there is a lot of power in having to work hard to get a program from a magazine entered and wo…
When I was about 15 me and my friends put what little money we had together and send it out I think to England or Germany to buy a license for the Amiga C compiler. 3 months later it arrived in the mail. I could not wait so I actually learned C in those 3 months, straight form K&R, without access to the compiler. It was all so gloriously magic back then. I do not think I ever enjoyed a piece of software as much as that compiler.
Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died
#275As a 14 year old in 1981, I bought a Timex Sinclair from Sears with money that I had been saving up for a over a year. Best. Purchase. Ever. What I learned on that $99 machine would change the course of my life.
Thank you, Sir Clive, for helping me to find my calling.
Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died
#276RIP Sir. I was gifted the 48K when I was 6 yrs old - it changed my life. I am here because Sir Sinclair built a machine whose setup instructions said: Now that you have set up the computer, you will want to use it. The rest of this booklet tells you how to do that; but in your impatience you will probably already have started pressing the keys on the keyboard, and discovered that this removes the copyright message. T…
My story is so similar to yours (and I’m sure many others). Santa brought my house a Spectrum 48k Lo Profile when I was a kid with a cool KnightRider style keyboard. Over the years I haven’t seen it talked about much if at all, so I always assumed it was a fairly niche model. After hearing about Sir Clive, I looked it up to find out how many sold and was surprised to learn that it never actually existed as a standalo…
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Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh wow, it turns out the QL hardware was reused in the ICL One Per Desk. We had one at home growing up (for some reason?!). Kind of funny to read that it's greatest success was in networking hundreds of bingo halls together across the UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Per_Desk
The QL failed because (amongst other things) they had outsourced the basic interpreter to another company for the ZX series and decided to bring it in house for the QL :(
I attribute the decline of the UK’s domestic computer industry (including Acorn) to the scene as-a-whole being either uninterested or unwilling to embrace PC-compatibility. Had they done that, I think they could have secured better distribution deals, especially in education, but eve more-so overseas. What if Sinclair, Amstrad, and Acorn were able to establish themselves as a third-way (like Amiga and Be almost did) alternative to both IBM PCs and Apple Macintosh?
I know that being PC-compatible would automatically make them commodity, but if they had positioned themselves as a value-added “PC+” platform and focused on competing in areas where PC clones at-the-time sucked and alternatives like Amiga reigned (e.g. Video Toaster), could they have succeeded? What if they merged with Quantel and made their Paintbox more affordable sooner? That would have taken the wind out of Adobe’s Photoshop sails.
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I feel the UK computing scene suffered from a lack-of-ambition. The world is too small for each medium-sized country to have their own computer-makers, so it’s important to go-big early and establish footholds in all the major markets - which isn’t something anyone in the UK except ARM (and to an extent: Sinclair) has done.
Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died
#278When i hear the term "Manic Miner" i think of endless weekend sleepovers at my pal's place trying to solve those goddamn levels .. we would take it in turns on that crazy rubber keyboard of his Spectrum .. what a machine of the times .. awesome :)
Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died
#279RIP Sir Clive Sinclair!
I grew up on a Soviet clone of the ZX Spectrum 48, the Hobbit! Many hours spent. Many games written. Used to write BASIC on graph paper before entering it in.
Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died
#280Probably the saddest day in my IT career, this man started it all for me.