The BBC show Click Online had a short interview with Sir Clive Sinclair. Rather erroneously listing him as the PC creator. His machines were slightly before that, and more aimed at home users, quirky with a eye for style. Not quite in the Apple league on style, but it was a different age.
He pretty much ignores the internet, does not have a mobile phone, and is still intrigued by electric vehicles. But it was interesting to hear him talk of those early 1980s where they produced the ZX81, with a chip count of 4, where the other models were using many more.
One thing I could not agree with was that the golden age was something to admire and want to see a return to, with PCs being too complicated now. This is true, but there is also now so much more help and free software. I can remember there were no good free compilers 20 years ago and that was a real hinderance.
I'm never quite sure how he has kept going, I once saw a trading summary of Sinclair and they were not a high profit company by any means, even the sell out to Amstrad did not seem that big a deal.
The extended interview sees him making an interesing parallel to how early cars looked like horse drawn coaches, and today's electric vehicles look like cars. The implication being that they are not looking more carefully at aerodynamics.
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