Max <max@val.morgan> wrote
> keithr0 wrote

>> Sir Clive Sinclair, the visionary pioneer of computing for the British
>> masses and creator of the legendary ZX Spectrum, has died at the age of
>> 81. His legacy is the British tech scene as we know it today.
>>
>> Born in leafy Richmond, Surrey, at the height of the Battle of Britain in
>> July 1940, he came to epitomise the early era of British computing
>> through his company Sinclair Research Ltd and its iconic Spectrum product
>> line.
>>
>> Fondly remembered by a generation of modern-day British tech and
>> computing leaders, the ZX Spectrum was named for its colour output, a
>> rarity in the mostly monochrome days of 1982. Launched in April that
>> year, just as another conflict (the Falklands) seared its way into the
>> British national consciousness, Sir Clive's crowning glory brought not
>> only the simple fun of gaming but coding, programming, and the building
>> blocks of computer science to thousands upon thousands of eager young
>> minds.
>>
>> The son of a mechanical engineer, Sir Clive's early days in computing
>> began with A levels in physics, pure maths, and applied maths at school
>> in Weybridge. A design for a programmable calculator that ran punch-card
>> programs led him, inexorably, to the mysteries of the electronic circuit.
>>
>> In 1958, a remarkably precocious young Sinclair had not only sketched out
>> a design for a personal radio receiver but had also drawn up a bill of
>> materials weighing in at 9s 11d, and he began submitting articles to
>> Practical Wireless magazine, helping him secure a job as the mag's
>> editorial assistant. A series of helpful coincidences (an editorial
>> retirement followed by the deputy editor's collapse from nervous strain)
>> meant 18-year-old Clive ended up running the title, leading to an early
>> career in electronics journalism.
>>
>> That early focus on costs of materials carried over from the Swinging
>> Sixties' Sinclair Radionics and its personal calculators to Clive's most
>> famous company, Sinclair Research Ltd. SRL's former chief design engineer
>> David Karlin told The Register: "The thing about Clive I remember really
>> clearly was this massive focus on component cost. He was able to just
>> make you do things you didn't think you would be able to do."
>>
>> Sinclair's vision was to get a computer into every home in the country, a
>> tall order in the early 1980s when computers were synonymous with
>> room-sized beasts in academic institutions. Taking bets on talented and
>> enthusiastic young hires was part of the culture at SRL; what we would
>> now call an agile scale-up.
>>
>> Karlin was hired by Clive himself after answering an ad for "a completely
>> different role" after which the recruiter said: "I think you should meet
>> Clive Sinclair." Following "a very quick interview," Clive appointed him
>> on the spot, Karlin recounting: "I discovered only later that he had
>> actually advertised for 'the best computer designer in the world' and
>> that this was the job he had just given me. A source of great hilarity to
>> many of my friends! I was 23 or something at the time."
>>
>> Rupert Goodwins, scribe of this parish, remembered:
>>
>> Clive Sinclair hired the 19-year-old me after a drunken Mensa dinner
>> party in Chiswick! I'd been on the Six O'Clock News in silhouette talking
>> about my part in the Prestel hack, and he recognised my voice. He didn't
>> say what he wanted me to do, just put me in a room in the London office,
>> which was just him and his secretary, gave me a One Per Desk and left me
>> to it.
>>
>> The palatial Sinclair residence at Stone House, Cambridge ("the nice bit
>> of West Cambridge," observed Karlin), became a locus for Clive's
>> parties – and his generosity, though that could on occasion be a little
>> too revealing. Goodwins recalled that Clive put him up in the loft of the
>> house while he found permanent digs in town; upon opening the room's
>> wardrobe, Goodwins found it "had been painted as a Garden of Eden
>> landscape, with large figures of Clive and his first wife eating apples.
>> Naked. What a way to get to know the boss."
>>
>> Chaos inevitably reigned as a result of the hiring policy, with Goodwins
>> recalling oddballs who wore fluorescent (and odd) socks, decisions being
>> made and remade "far too close to launch" and lots of "clever people
>> convinced of their own genius" pitching in willy-nilly.
>>
>> Pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap
>> At its launch the ZX Spectrum was keenly priced at £125, complete with
>> 16kB of RAM. The pricing was no accident. Long-time Sinclair admirer Paul
>> Andrews observed of Sinclair's early business practices: "The penny
>> dropped to them that the way for a company to expand is, if you can have
>> a computer in everyone's house, everyone's got one mass market. That's
>> the real profit margin, as opposed to just business."
>>
>> Clive Sinclair unveils 'X-1' battery pedalo bubble-bike
>> The Speccie sold far and wide, competing with the Commodore 64 and
>> bringing the magic of early home computing to the masses – and
>> profitably, too. Unfortunately, Clive's keen eye for the bill of
>> materials meant just a few too many corners were cut in production, with
>> Karlin remembering that the numbers of irate customers awaiting warranty
>> repairs eventually outweighed the number of happy consumers.
>>
>> Clive's next memorable venture, the C5 electric buggy, has been sliced
>> and diced elsewhere at great length. It was a flop; from a safety point
>> of view the go-kart-sized electric vehicle was simply too small in a
>> world of growing cars, while their lack of reliability became a national
>> joke.
>>
>> Ever the pragmatist, with the C5 trashing SRL's reputation and finances
>> alike, Clive sold the Sinclair brand name and product lines to Amstrad
>> (under Alan Sugar) in 1986, keeping SRL for himself as an R&D vehicle.
>>
>> Away from the relentless commercialism of the office, Clive's personal
>> life raised a few eyebrows. His early taste for partying continued into
>> adulthood ("phenomenal events," said Karlin), with detailed recollections
>> of those events discreetly muted by time.
>>
>> El Reg's Goodwins shed a little light, though, saying that by the mid
>> '80s "there were still funds to build an office bar and fit it out as a
>> pub [in R&D HQ at Milton Keynes], but in the finest Sinclair fashion
>> nobody had thought to apply for a licence, so the beer had to be given
>> away."
>>
>> He continued: "The company did like a drink, and there was a certain
>> truth in the myth that we had to close down because we'd run out of
>> Cambridge colleges to have our Christmas parties at – we were never
>> allowed back a second time."
>>
>> Clive's first marriage to Ann Trevor-Briscoe brought the birth of three
>> children, though the Daily Mail (who else?) published an eye-catching
>> article in 2017 naming one Elaine Millar as an "unofficial wife" of 25
>> years.
>>
>> The inventor's decade-long engagement (and Las Vegas marriage) to model
>> Angie Bowness, who he met at infamous gentlemen's entertainment venue
>> Stringfellow's in the mid-1990s, prompted a round of Establishment
>> pearl-clutching; at the time of their 2010 nuptials, Angie was 33 and
>> Clive was a not-so-sprightly 69 years of age. They divorced seven years
>> later.
>>
>> On the whole Sir Clive kickstarted the British tech scene as we know it
>> today. Countless industry veterans owe their careers and their passions
>> to playing with Spectrums in their formative years. The British home
>> computing industry, indeed, owes its fortunes to Sinclair creating the
>> market for affordable general-purpose home devices.
>>
>> Was he a man before his time? It is easy to think so. The C5, mocked and
>> derided back in the 1980s, might have been a shoo-in these days, or at
>> least the concept of it, as electric scooters whiz around British cities.
>> Clive's later invention of a portable TV was also a flop, but today
>> everyone carries a device capable of receiving, if not TV transmissions
>> per se, live audio-visual broadcasts.
>>
>> Karlin, designer of the ill-fated Sinclair QL's electronics, observed:
>> "It's tragic because I think we could have been the British Apple. Apple
>> started out as a sort of similarly hobbyist kind of company, I think
>> Steve Wozniak was an old tech head of the old school. Apple understood
>> manufacturing and manufacturing quality in a way that Sinclair never did.
>>
>> "That's why we have Apple now and why Sinclair is a footnote."
>>
>> That 1958 bill of materials might have been prudent for one so young, but
>> in its very far-sightedness it also foretold Clive's downfall.
>>
>> Sir Clive Marles Sinclair, 30 July 1940 – 16 September 2021
>>
>
> What did he die of ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Sinclair#Personal_life

On 16 September 2021, Sinclair died in London following an illness
related to cancer that he had for over a decade. He was 81 years old.

Even you should have been able to manage that.