Re: [Ql-Users] SINCLAIR QL's 25th birthday
P Witte wrote, On 25/03/09 19:20: I found the original receipt of my first QL ;o) Its dated 12th March 1985, serial no. D12-059637. It sported JM ROM. Viking, Norway were the distributors, although this was a UK version, not a Norwegian model. The price was a whopping 6900 NOK, or about £600. A month or two later I bought a Cub colour monitor and a Brother EP44 typewriter/printer. The Cub blew up after a few weeks, but the QL has worked flawlessly for years and, AFAIK, still does. The only repair I can remember having made was replacing the keyboard membrane. Prior to all that I had waited months for the QL to arrive in Norway. In the end I bought some other home micro instead. A lot of people deride the QL microdrives, but they never gave me much trouble, apart from being rather slow. The alternative for most home micros of the day was a tape deck which, to my mind was a lot worse. That was the case with the one I bought. I hated it and sold it again when the QL finally arrived; technically the best machine of its time! In the summer of '85 I went on holiday to the UK. There I ordered a Medic 512k interface with dual 3.5 floppies. When it didnt arrive on the date promised, I went to Basingstoke to pick it up in person. The address I was given turned out to be an empty house! I spent the better part of the day sleuthing, which included a phone call to QL World (or User), who warned me, off the record, that there was something fishy going on at Medic. However I finally located the Medic workshop. Mr Whatshisname was there (as was Mr Beatty Batty , of Sector Software) and explained the trouble they were having with suppliers, etc, which was the reason for the delay. Being forewarned, I opted to take away the stuff without finished software or the cover on the interface. Luckily! as a few months after the whiff came the bang! Ah, happy days! I got mine in the post without a case. I too went to their warehouse, but to get a case, which I got. Skoglund was there and they were copying the free games software. They had a couple of dustbinfuls of microdrives! Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SINCLAIR QL's 25th birthday
In message 49ca83f8.40...@witte.fsbusiness.co.uk, P Witte p...@witte.fsbusiness.co.uk writes Hi Per, Interesting recollection. I guess we all have similar stories to tell. Relatively speaking, we are still paying around that sort of price for a new computer / PC of a good specification now. PS - I have several colour monitors stored that are suitable to go with a QL computer., or similar. Mostly of the Cub type. A very robust manufacture. I found the original receipt of my first QL ;o) Its dated 12th March 1985, serial no. D12-059637. It sported JM ROM. Viking, Norway were the distributors, although this was a UK version, not a Norwegian model. The price was a whopping 6900 NOK, or about £600. A month or two later I bought a Cub colour monitor and a Brother EP44 typewriter/printer. The Cub blew up after a few weeks, but the QL has worked flawlessly for years and, AFAIK, still does. The only repair I can remember having made was replacing the keyboard membrane. Prior to all that I had waited months for the QL to arrive in Norway. In the end I bought some other home micro instead. A lot of people deride the QL microdrives, but they never gave me much trouble, apart from being rather slow. The alternative for most home micros of the day was a tape deck which, to my mind was a lot worse. That was the case with the one I bought. I hated it and sold it again when the QL finally arrived; technically the best machine of its time! In the summer of '85 I went on holiday to the UK. There I ordered a Medic 512k interface with dual 3.5 floppies. When it didnt arrive on the date promised, I went to Basingstoke to pick it up in person. The address I was given turned out to be an empty house! I spent the better part of the day sleuthing, which included a phone call to QL World (or User), who warned me, off the record, that there was something fishy going on at Medic. However I finally located the Medic workshop. Mr Whatshisname was there (as was Mr Beatty, of Sector Software) and explained the trouble they were having with suppliers, etc, which was the reason for the delay. Being forewarned, I opted to take away the stuff without finished software or the cover on the interface. Luckily! as a few months after the whiff came the bang! Ah, happy days! Per ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm -- Malcolm Cadman ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SINCLAIR QL's 25th birthday - aftermath I
On 12 Jan 2009, at 07:05, Urs Koenig (QL) wrote: On January 12th 1984 Sir Clive Sinclair presented the Sinclair QL Professional Computer in a Hollywood-style launch event at the Intercontinental Hotel, Hyde Park Corner, London. This was exactly 12 days earlier than Steve Jobs presented the Apple Macintosh. Today, 25 years later we congratulate and celebrate the 25th birthday of the Sinclair QL! http://www.qlvsjaguar.homepage.bluewin.ch/SinclairQL_25th_anniversary_1984_t o_2009.html Hi all, if in the end my announcement was bringing some old memories to the present it was worth it. Originally I planned to do a big thing, a wide-spread PR case, media breakfast with Clive, etc. at the same venue as the launch 25 years ago. The idea was in my mind since last summer, I even set some dates in my agenda for preparing it, but as you can imagine there was just not enough time in my life to do such a thing. Those dates in the agenda got skipped with work and life and in the end I had only some hours last Sunday - very bad weather in Switzerland, very cold, no sun. - to do some Powerpoint, Photoshop and html work, set the battle plan for the mailing, etc. On Jan 12th all to be done between breakfast with family and start of work was to upload the html pages, send eMail to you all, some more eMails to others, NewsGroups and media. I got a lot of positive comments. So for me it was worth the time. I share some of the good ones... http://blogs.msdn.com/andypennell/archive/2009/01/12/the-sinclair-ql-is-25-y rs-old-today.aspx http://labs.pcw.co.uk/2009/01/sinclair-qls-25.html http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2009/01/odd-hardware.html http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/01/linus-gets-misty-eyed-over-sinclai r-ql.html Personally I must say that I was very young - a 17 years old teenager - when I got my QL. I was impressed by the machine and its concepts. Maybe this was because I was young and easy to impress (good thought of Linus) but fact is that all important things on microcomputers I've learnt I did on/with Sinclair computers. There are so many in ICT profs out there who have no clue on what they are doing... Take care and have a nice weekend, Urs ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SINCLAIR QL's 25th birthday - aftermath I
I got a lot of positive comments. So for me it was worth the time. I share some of the good ones... http://blogs.msdn.com/andypennell/archive/2009/01/12/the-sinclair-ql-is-25-y rs-old-today.aspx http://labs.pcw.co.uk/2009/01/sinclair-qls-25.html http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2009/01/odd-hardware.html http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/01/linus-gets-misty-eyed-over-sinclai r-ql.html Now I confess I have been mischievous after reading this - I went on all those blogs and posted comments and some publicity for QL Is 25 on 18+19 April this year ;-) Would be nice to see well known QL names like Andy Pennell turn up for some nostalgia at the event. -- Dilwyn Jones ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SINCLAIR QL's 25th birthday - aftermath I
In message 8d88190793ce4c7485484051445ad...@d, Dilwyn Jones dil...@evans1511.fsnet.co.uk writes I got a lot of positive comments. So for me it was worth the time. I share some of the good ones... http://blogs.msdn.com/andypennell/archive/2009/01/12/the-sinclair-ql-is-25-y rs-old-today.aspx http://labs.pcw.co.uk/2009/01/sinclair-qls-25.html http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2009/01/odd-hardware.html http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/01/linus-gets-misty-eyed-over-sinclai r-ql.html Now I confess I have been mischievous after reading this - I went on all those blogs and posted comments and some publicity for QL Is 25 on 18+19 April this year ;-) Would be nice to see well known QL names like Andy Pennell turn up for some nostalgia at the event. Hi Dilwyn, I believe that Andy Pennell now resides in the USA. -- Malcolm Cadman ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SINCLAIR QL's 25th birthday
Marcel Kilgus wrote: But what's the story behind the David Karlin picture? I've met David in January 2002 in London for diner. We talked about work and life including his Fairchild and Sinclair days. The story would fill a comprehensive article in QL Today. When is the next deadline for QL Today? Best regards, Urs ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SINCLAIR QL's 25th birthday
Javier Guerra wrote: I would have liked to know more about the careers of David Karlin, Jan Jones, Tony Tebby and others. I will write an article on David Karlin and myabe update my powerpoint presentation with some more information soon. Two of our spanish colleagues have developed 2 web videos. I put the links you want to see them. Thank you for all the work done on your side for the 25th anniversary. Well done to you and your Spanish colleagues! I originally planned to add some more videos to YouTube, but time was - as often - not enough to complete production and upload. But there's more to come... Regards...Urs ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SINCLAIR QL's 25th birthday
- Original Message - From: Urs König (QL) q...@bluewin.ch To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 5:01 PM Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] SINCLAIR QL's 25th birthday The story would fill a comprehensive article in QL Today. When is the next deadline for QL Today? 16th February 2009 I am thinking of running the QL's quarter centenary as the lead news story so any news contributions on this theme would be welcome, Best wishes, Geoff ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SINCLAIR QL's 25th birthday
Very nice presentation Urs. But what's the story behind the David Karlin picture? Cheers, Marcel ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SINCLAIR QL's 25th birthday
Urs König (QL) escribió: On January 12th 1984... A very enjoyable. I would have liked to know more about the careers of David Karlin, Jan Jones, Tony Tebby and others. Two of our spanish colleagues have developed 2 web videos. I put the links you want to see them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqOXsLIb3QQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0VGlRl3S-8 (afx is the nick) Happy 25th anniversary and QL forever! ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
