Sir Clive Marles Sinclair (30 July 1940 – 16 September 2021)

[Vir Campestris]

Just heard he died today.

Andy

[Bob Eager]

On Thu, 16 Sep 2021 21:36:52 +0100, Vir Campestris wrote:

> Just heard he died today.

I used to sell his radios (Micro 6 etc.) in the mid 1960s.

--
Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...

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[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On 16 Sep 2021 22:43:00 GMT

Bob Eager <news...@eager.cx> wrote:

> On Thu, 16 Sep 2021 21:36:52 +0100, Vir Campestris wrote:
>
> > Just heard he died today.
>
> I used to sell his radios (Micro 6 etc.) in the mid 1960s.

A little later than that I got an Antex model C and a matchbox
radio kit. That was not the best way to learn to solder but I did
eventually make it work.

I spent my early career in Cambridge chasing down jobs with anyone
but Sinclair or Acorn (Torch was too close really). I'd met too many people
who'd worked for them - including one who had the misfortune to work for
both (on the MK14 and the Electron - you may now try and guess who he is).

He was a wonderful character, from a suitable distance.

A friend of mine worked on the C5 (among other things doing
environmental testing), he brought one home for a weekend and showed us
some alarming features like the way the top of the front part could be
pushed to the ground ... with one hand and the way that rolling it
backwards would blow the diode that protected the motor relay contacts from
reverse EMF spikes so that one day soon it would weld closed and the motor
wouldn't stop until the battery ran out.

Apparently racing the twin battery (with series/parallel switch)
version[5] with the heavy duty washing machine motor was hair raising fun,
they got up to about 30mph and cornered rather excitingly on two wheels.

[5] Never released of course, pure internal hackery for the test track.

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[maus]

On 2021-09-16, Bob Eager <news...@eager.cx> wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Sep 2021 21:36:52 +0100, Vir Campestris wrote:
>
>> Just heard he died today.
>
> I used to sell his radios (Micro 6 etc.) in the mid 1960s.
>

He tried developing a small car, to reverse it you got out and pushed it
back. I think he was like the mad professor in back to the future.

Inventor of many gadgets that never really worked, Microdrive, etc.

I was always sorry that I didn't buy a C64 instead.

--
grey...@mail.com
Down the wrong mousehole.

[John]

"Ahem A Rivet's Shot" wrote in message
news:20210917073203.53ee...@eircom.net...

>A friend of mine worked on the C5 (among other things doing
>environmental testing), he brought one home for a weekend and showed us
>some alarming features like the way the top of the front part could be
>pushed to the ground ... with one hand and the way that rolling it
>backwards would blow the diode that protected the motor relay contacts from
>reverse EMF spikes so that one day soon it would weld closed and the motor
>wouldn't stop until the battery ran out.

>Apparently racing the twin battery (with series/parallel switch)
>version[5] with the heavy duty washing machine motor was hair raising fun,
>they got up to about 30mph and cornered rather excitingly on two wheels.

Even better - Google Jet powered C5!

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Fri, 17 Sep 2021 12:31:41 +0100
"John" <Jo...@nospam.please> wrote:

> Even better - Google Jet powered C5!

Pure insanity, please nobody let Colin Furze have one.

[D.J.]

On Thu, 16 Sep 2021 21:36:52 +0100, Vir Campestris

Yes, I saw him mentioned on BBC America.

I bought the Sinclair ZX-81, and later the 16kilobyte ram pack. I used
it for months.

( I had to edit the subject line, due to reject by eternal-september
server)

[Andy Leighton]

On 17 Sep 2021 09:31:47 GMT, maus <ma...@dmaus.org> wrote:
> On 2021-09-16, Bob Eager <news...@eager.cx> wrote:
>> On Thu, 16 Sep 2021 21:36:52 +0100, Vir Campestris wrote:
>>
>>> Just heard he died today.
>>
>> I used to sell his radios (Micro 6 etc.) in the mid 1960s.
>>
>
> He tried developing a small car, to reverse it you got out and pushed it
> back. I think he was like the mad professor in back to the future.
>
> Inventor of many gadgets that never really worked, Microdrive, etc.

Maybe I should dig out the QL and the Cub monitor and see if it still
works. The last time I played with it everything was OK (even read
the microdrives well) - although that was about a dozen years ago.

--
Andy Leighton => an...@azaal.plus.com
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!"
- Douglas Adams

[Kerr-Mudd, John]

On Fri, 17 Sep 2021 09:09:35 -0500
D.J. <chuckt...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 16 Sep 2021 21:36:52 +0100, Vir Campestris
> <vir.cam...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> >Just heard he died today.
> >
> >Andy
>
> Yes, I saw him mentioned on BBC America.
>
> I bought the Sinclair ZX-81, and later the 16kilobyte ram pack. I used
> it for months.

You couldn't do much without it!; 'ware the infamous wobbly connection.

> ( I had to edit the subject line, due to reject by eternal-september
> server)

--
Bah, and indeed Humbug.

[maus]

Cool!.. even looks safer than some of the things that children run
around city streets

[Kurt Weiske]

To: D.J.
-=> D.J. wrote to alt.folklore.computers <=-

D.> Yes, I saw him mentioned on BBC America.

D.> I bought the Sinclair ZX-81, and later the 16kilobyte ram pack. I used
D.> it for months.

You wouldn't get carpal tunnel, you'd get calluses on the tips of your
fingers from that membrane keyboard. I had to use gaffa tape to try and keep
the contacts on the memory expansion connected, otherwise 3/4 of the way
into typing a program into it, you'd bump the case and it'd freeze or
reboot.

kurt weiske | kweiske at realitycheckbbs dot org
| https://www.realitycheckbbs.org
| 1:218/700@fidonet



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