Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-29 Thread geneb via cctalk
On Wed, 29 Sep 2021, John Many Jars via cctalk wrote: I had a TI 99/4 when I was a kid. It was my first computer (although I used my friend's Apple ][ much more). All I can say is, what a piece of garbage. It was horrible in every way, and it overheated if you left it on too long. SLOWEST

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-29 Thread Liam Proven via cctalk
On Wed, 29 Sept 2021 at 17:45, John Many Jars wrote: > > I had a TI 99/4 when I was a kid. It was my first computer (although I used > my friend's Apple ][ much more). > > All I can say is, what a piece of garbage. It was horrible in every way, and > it overheated if you left it on too long.

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-29 Thread Liam Proven via cctalk
On Tue, 28 Sept 2021 at 22:05, Peter Corlett via cctalk wrote: > > I went and looked up the numbers. A 1983 Fiat Panda was £3k (list). At the > same time, the C64 was selling for £345. So it's an order-of-magnitude out, > but still a formidable sum of money: a factory-new rustbucket (e.g. Renault

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-29 Thread John Many Jars via cctalk
I had a TI 99/4 when I was a kid. It was my first computer (although I used my friend's Apple ][ much more). All I can say is, what a piece of garbage. It was horrible in every way, and it overheated if you left it on too long. SLOWEST BASIC EVER! On Wed, 29 Sept 2021 at 16:37, Liam Proven

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-29 Thread Liam Proven via cctalk
On Mon, 27 Sept 2021 at 22:49, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: > > > I think that it is truly tragic about the price gouging. Strongly agreed. The TI-99/4A wasn't a great computer, with foolish design compromises, but it was driven out of the market by unfair pricing. The Amiga was a superior

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-28 Thread Teo Zenios via cctalk
-Original Message- From: Jecel Assumpcao Jr via cctech Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2021 3:21 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Subject: Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company I had a choice between the MC-10 and the Timex 2068

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-28 Thread Jecel Assumpcao Jr via cctalk
Yeechang Lee wrote on Tue, 28 Sep 2021 10:36:15 -0700 > The US industry thought that the $99 price point needed to be reached, in > part because of the Timex/Sinclair 1000's example; besides the 99/2 and > Commodore 16, the TRS-80 MC-10 is another example of the ultra low-cost > "Sinclair

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-28 Thread Yeechang Lee via cctalk
Jecel Assumpcao Jr says: > While the American public were very ignorant of Sinclair's > achievements, the US home computer makers were very worried about > them. In 1983 both Commodore and Texas Instruments were working on > their "ZX81 killers". The US industry thought that the $99 price point

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-28 Thread Peter Corlett via cctalk
On Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 01:14:54PM -0700, Yeechang Lee via cctech wrote: > Liam Proven says: [...] >> If you were going to spend as much as a new car on an early home >> computer, > If you're going to exaggerate for effect, don't exaggerate so much that > your meaning is lost. I went and looked

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-28 Thread Liam Proven via cctalk
On Mon, 27 Sept 2021 at 22:14, Yeechang Lee via cctech wrote: > > This was true in more wealthy countries outside the US, too. Sinclair never > got anywhere in Germany compared to Commodore, for example. This may be true; I work for a German company but I've never lived there. I know

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-28 Thread Joshua Rice via cctalk
Commodore in the USA/CANADA was often pressed into service for a cheap text video overlay for broadcast TV. Was that TV overlay ever used in the UK or Europe? Ben. In the UK, Acorn gear was used quite a bit for overlays and computer generated graphics. I think the Amiga was used to a

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-28 Thread George Rachor via cctalk
I remember in college we raised some money and bought 10 in kit form. It went so well that 2 weeks later we ordered 10 more kits. We were astonished to find the second order of 10 already assembled and tested. Cool stuff… George Rachor > On Sep 27, 2021, at 1:49 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-28 Thread Yeechang Lee via cctalk
Liam Proven says: > I know that Sinclair computers were _so_ cheap that in the USA they > were perceived as toys, not worthy of any serious consideration. This was true in more wealthy countries outside the US, too. Sinclair never got anywhere in Germany compared to Commodore, for example. The

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-27 Thread ben via cctalk
On 2021-09-27 5:38 a.m., Jules Richardson via cctalk wrote: On 9/26/21 9:05 AM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: I found this interesting for perspective. The British media (and AFAICS of Australia, New Zealand and several bits of Europe) have been saturated with coverage of a much-loved,

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-27 Thread Fred Cisin via cctalk
My girlfriend commented to me that Americans don't understand London"s Fleet Street scene of the 70's and early 80s and how Sinclair products were represented there. In the US the "Timex Sinclair TS-1000" was a budget $99 computer for sale in Hallmark gift stores and its marketing represented

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-27 Thread Jecel Assumpcao Jr via cctalk
While the American public were very ignorant of Sinclair's achievements, the US home computer makers were very worried about them. In 1983 both Commodore and Texas Instruments were working on their "ZX81 killers". https://www.99er.net/992.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_16 -- Jecel

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-27 Thread Liam Proven via cctalk
On Mon, 27 Sept 2021 at 13:38, Jules Richardson via cctalk wrote: > > From the other side of that, growing up in the UK, nobody I knew talked > about Apple or Atari, and Commodore was only on the radar because of the > C64's capability as a games machine (and later the Amiga) - I don't think I >

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-27 Thread Liam Proven via cctalk
On Mon, 27 Sept 2021 at 03:44, Bill Degnan wrote: > > My girlfriend commented to me that Americans don't understand London"s Fleet > Street scene of the 70's and early 80s and how Sinclair products were > represented there. In the US the "Timex Sinclair TS-1000" was a budget $99 > computer

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-27 Thread Jules Richardson via cctalk
On 9/26/21 9:05 AM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: I found this interesting for perspective. The British media (and AFAICS of Australia, New Zealand and several bits of Europe) have been saturated with coverage of a much-loved, widely-celebrated and revered hero of tech. As FC points out, even

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-27 Thread ben via cctalk
On 2021-09-26 7:44 p.m., Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote: My girlfriend commented to me that Americans don't understand London"s Fleet Street scene of the 70's and early 80s and how Sinclair products were represented there. In the US the "Timex Sinclair TS-1000" was a budget $99 computer for sale

Re: An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-26 Thread Bill Degnan via cctalk
My girlfriend commented to me that Americans don't understand London"s Fleet Street scene of the 70's and early 80s and how Sinclair products were represented there. In the US the "Timex Sinclair TS-1000" was a budget $99 computer for sale in Hallmark gift stores and its marketing represented

An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

2021-09-26 Thread Liam Proven via cctalk
I found this interesting for perspective. The British media (and AFAICS of Australia, New Zealand and several bits of Europe) have been saturated with coverage of a much-loved, widely-celebrated and revered hero of tech. As FC points out, even the American _tech_ media barely noticed. « The