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Urs

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Jan 10, 2010, 11:22:22 AM1/10/10
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Hi all,

I hope you started well into 2010!

Something about Sinclair related anniversaries:
Linus Torvalds, best known for having initiated the development of the
Linux kernel, became 40 on December 28th 2009. Linux v1 had its 15th
anniversary last year too. As a kind of a birthday present to him and
the ICT world I was digging out a piece of Sinclair QL software
written by Linus way back in 1986. Here’s the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxx6brHlwJI

With this email I’m closing the books on the 25th anniversary of the
Sinclair QL. I’ve updated the anniversary webpages recently.
http://tinyurl.com/ql-is-25

The last thing to be added will be the web statistics of the
anniversary year. To name a few figures:
- 8698 unique visitors on the site (some 2000 of it due to the
blogging of Linus, 891 alone on the day following his blog entry)
- 6341 visitors on the anniversary page
- 1301 downloads of the anniversary PowerPoint presentation
- 464 downloads of QPC (the virtual QL to run on the PC under
Windows)
- 15’000 video views on my YouTube channel

So, no need to repeat the ceremony every year, therefore no mailshot
on Jan 12th this year. ;-)

Today there is another special anniversary (have no fear; I will not
start another annual posting). On January 10th 1985 the Sinclair C5 –
a vehicle (don’t call it car) not computer – was launched. Enjoy the
viewing of ITV’s “NEWS at TEN” of that day:
h2ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9PivEygh_8

It was a sad day in retrospective. Look at Clive’s face on the picture
(http://tinyurl.com/sinclairc5-launch). He must have guessed it. This
day rang in the fall for Sinclair enterprises taking the computers
into downturn with it.

Here’s my opinion on the C5: “Brave idea but too much ahead of its
time. Giving the resources, money, management attention to the QL and
further computing developments instead of Sinclair vehicles, chances
would have been different that the IT world would look different
today.”

Today is also the last day of my sabbatical. Tomorrow I will start my
new job as an independent research & development consultancy.
http://www.cowo.ch/

My first project is “optimised quality of data access for dummies”.
I’m not allowed to tell you more about it today, but in case it
evolves I will post more details.

So that’s it. But before the final curtain call, please note that
there are 3 related movies for personal download. They will have to be
removed soon for various reasons, so please download them asap.

Horizon - Clive Sinclair, the anatomy of an inventor
http://tinyurl.com/horizon1989 (423 MB, 49:17, BBC 1989)

Visions - Interview with Sir Clive Sinclair on hopes and fears for the
future
http://tinyurl.com/visions1990 (251 MB, 29:13, BBC 1990)

Micro Men – Docudrama on the race for the home computer supremacy in
the 1980s.
http://tinyurl.com/micromen2009 (583 MB, 1:24:12, BBC 2009)

Best regards, Urs
http://www.qlvsjaguar.homepage.bluewin.ch

Some more URL’s which you might surf, favourite or share:
http://tinyurl.com/ql-story
http://tinyurl.com/ql-pics
http://tinyurl.com/ql-videos

Chris Young

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Jan 10, 2010, 5:53:47 PM1/10/10
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On Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:22:22 -0800 (PST) da kidz on comp.sys.sinclair were rappin'
to MC Urs:

> Today there is another special anniversary (have no fear; I will not
> start another annual posting). On January 10th 1985 the Sinclair C5 �
> a vehicle (don�t call it car) not computer � was launched. Enjoy the
> viewing of ITV�s �NEWS at TEN� of that day:
> h2ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9PivEygh_8

On that note, there's an interview with him in the Sindy today:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/sir-clive-sinclair-down-but-never-out-the-eternal-optimist-is-back-1863277.html

Amongst other things, he has this to say about Micro Men: "It was a
travesty of the truth. It just had no bearing on the truth. It was
terrible"

It concludes with his plans for a new electric car, which the author
describes as "a C5 with a roof".

Chris


--
+-------------------------------------------+
| Unsatisfactory Software - "because it is" |
| http://www.unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk |
| Your Sinclair: A Celebration |
+- http://www.yoursinclair.co.uk -----------+

DISCLAIMER: I may be making all this stuff up again.

Urs

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Jan 11, 2010, 3:16:18 AM1/11/10
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On 10 Jan., 23:53, "Chris Young" <chris.use...@mail-filter.com> wrote:
> On that note, there's an interview with him in the Sindy today:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/sir-clive-sinclair-...
Thanks for that!

Urs

Brian Gaff

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Jan 11, 2010, 3:17:54 AM1/11/10
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Well, for anyone who was at Ally Pally that week in85, I hope nobody got
frostbite.

Brrrrr

Brian

--
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"Urs" <sincla...@gmail.com> wrote in message
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Brian Gaff

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Jan 11, 2010, 3:21:53 AM1/11/10
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Yess, talking to him even in the yar of the Z88 tells me that there were a
lot of things going on behind the scenes that really, few had control over.

I do think sometimes that docudramas these days are just afraid to go into
details and they end up showing personalities writ large and not the actual
netty gritty of why things went the way they did.

Still, there you are, it has always been the same, I wonder what some of the
big names we learn about in History would say about our retelling of the
events nowadays.

Brian

--
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"Chris Young" <chris....@mail-filter.com> wrote in message
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> On Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:22:22 -0800 (PST) da kidz on comp.sys.sinclair were
> rappin'
> to MC Urs:
>
>> Today there is another special anniversary (have no fear; I will not

>> start another annual posting). On January 10th 1985 the Sinclair C5 -
>> a vehicle (don't call it car) not computer - was launched. Enjoy the

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