Home computing pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair dies aged 81

Guardian ^ | 9/16/2021

[Catfan15]

Sir Clive Sinclair, the inventor and entrepreneur who was instrumental in bringing home computers to the masses, has died at the age of 81.

His daughter, Belinda, said he died at home in London on Thursday morning after a long illness. Sinclair invented the pocket calculator but was best known for popularising the home computer, bringing it to British high-street stores at relatively affordable prices.

Many modern-day titans of the games industry got their start on one of his ZX models. For a certain generation of gamer, the computer of choice was either the ZX Spectrum 48K or its rival, the Commodore 64.

[Rurudyne]

A nice video about Sinclair … who started from his backyard shed … and his QL computer which was a sort of last hurrah before selling to Alan Sugar (if you don’t know who Alan Sugar is you lose 5 retro nerd points).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU_VUN9VVcM

Including an ad featuring Sir Clive jumping over rival computers … or rather building sized computers. And even get a clip of the, um, “car” he tried to sell.

And if anyone likes retro computing there is a new computer, the ZX Spectrum Next, and of course here’s a video about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckYN_TwbGiQ

I’m not the guy in these videos, I’m not associated with these projects.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[Varmint Al]

MY FIRST PC.... I got my first PC in the late 70's. It was a SOL Computer based on an Intel 8080 CPU with 8K of 8 bit memory and a cassette tape for storage. For software, I had one basic program loaded on the tape plus TREK. My boy played TREK 2 days straight, that's 48 hours! He learned all the commands by trial and error, except one about the photon torpedoes. To program in BASIC, I had to load the program plus BASIC and delete each line, then write a new program and save it back on tape. I finally got smart and saved a BASIC file with a one line program. I bought the SOL Computer as a kit for about $2000 and paid another $150 to have the kit assembled. The whole thing was about the size of a big IBM typewriter. The monitor was an 8 in. black/white. By the early 80's, I went to a computer fair over in SF and bought a 64K memory card for $599 and didn't know how I could possibly use all that much memory. I was running CP/M and finally bought a hard sectored 5-1/4 in. disk drive kit and punched extra holes in the paper jackets so I could use both sides of the disk.

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

[Waverunner]

I still have my Timex/Sinclair 1000.
One of my earliest computers.
My HZ120 Heathkit was my first. It booted either a flavor of MS-DOS called ZDOS or CPM as an operating system. I loved it because I had fortran at home.
I even think I still have the manual for the timex/sinclair.
Back when you worried about byte usage in a program.

[Yo-Yo]

....TRS-80 referred to Tandy Radio Shack, and the 80 was supposed to refer to the CPU inside. This led to the nickname Trash-80, which Tandy executives hated.

I wasted a lot of hours in college programming a Trash-80 running DR-DOS. Much better than TRS-DOS.

[frank ballenger]

I missed the whole era but my wife’s uncle told me the Tandy tales.

[MattMusson]

C: DELETE ALL

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Back in early 80s (I remember where I was living at time) I got this or something like it (maybe the tandy?)

IIRC you had a keyboard, the computer and you plugged it into a tv (black and white of course) and I think a cassette tape recorder).

I think I typed in a simple BASIC program, got it to run, then tossed the thing in the closet and never used it again lol. (I was pretty busy with other stuff).

[Revel]

Everyone can thank digital technology for giving power hungry people the ability to inflict on society, the Hell that is about to be unleashed on them.

[TChad]

I had a black Sinclair watch.

Now long gone.

[Organic Panic]

My dad gave me his old ZX 81 when he upgraded. I remember having scrounge up cassette tapes to load and save BASIC programs.

[Catfan15]

That’s the ultimate luddite statement. Amazing.

[fuzzylogic]

I’ve had a fabulous career that started at 12 yo on a ZX Spectrum. I wrote endless assembly language code.

RIP Sir Clive Sinclair.

[Revel]

Not opposed to all technology. But advanced digital technology is of a sort that the bad far outweighs the good. It allows the powers(And ultimately the antichrist) to track and control every individual. It is only going to get a lot worse.

It allows a cashless society

Advanced weapons are also being created that rely on it. Weapons that will be used against non compliance. Even bio weapons are created using digital tech. The list goes on and on.

Black, the door was locked I opened
And now I’ve paid that price ten-fold over
Knowledge - was it worth such torment, oh
To see the far side of shadow

[Revel]

Oh and I did not even mention AI, and Advanced digital Robotic technology. Johnny get your gun.... Why bother.

Society is moving to a very dark place.

[rockvillem]

IIRC you had a keyboard, the computer and you plugged it into a tv (black and white of course) and I think a cassette tape recorder).

Keyboard was integrated into the Timex/Sinclair - definitely plugged into B&W television and hooked up a cassette player, which you hoped could load the more complex programs. Fun trip down memory lane!

[Catfan15]

There’s some blackness, but a small tribute to Sir Clive isn’t really that much of a thing to ask.

Sure tech can and has gone bad, but it’s also saved more.

[Revel]

Better to live short life of love, fulfillment, freedom, and Liberty than to live a long life full of fear and slavery, and spiritual emptiness.

The quality of social life interactions has also gone down the tubes. Many people live a life in the textophere. Neighbors keep to themselves.

[Catfan15]

This was supposed to be a tribute to a tech leader back in the 70s/80s. You’re trying to holly rolling this into some sort of agenda.

Luddite for shame.

[Captain Compassion]

>I had a Sinclair Computer!

I had one as well along with a whole lot of others. TRS-80. Imsai. Apple II-e. Verious CPM platforms. NEC. Had a big CDC Cyber in a bedroom. When I turned it on the lights would dim. :O