Move over Segway!

August 5, 2003 5:36 AM

Move over Segway! Sir Clive Sinclair, who invented the first pocket calculator (retailing at only £79.95 + VAT in 1972), the ZX80, and the ZX81 with its massive 8K operating system, is promising an update to the Sinclair C5 that will compete with the Segway.
posted by Pericles (20 comments total)

'the ZX-81 is beautifully designed' to give eleven year old fingers callouses, perhaps?
posted by biffa at 6:43 AM on August 5, 2003

Interesting that the Hoover connection brought out washing machine comparisons (for the low power motor) as opposed to vacuum comparisons (the "both products suck" style of thing).
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 6:49 AM on August 5, 2003

an update to the Sinclair C5 that will compete with the Segway

Because it was such a fantastic success last time? What am I missing here, apart from a sense of humour?
posted by walrus at 6:49 AM on August 5, 2003

I predict the C6 is going to be a rat brain-powered personal teleportation device.

It will, however, fail, because of it's crappy touch-sensitive keyboard will prove difficult to use when imputting co-ordinates, with many users drowing in the sea.
posted by Blue Stone at 6:51 AM on August 5, 2003

ps. when are they going to re-design the Segway, so it doesn't look like some municipal mobility aid?
posted by Blue Stone at 6:52 AM on August 5, 2003

Sir Clive Sinclair is an irritable man with a long history of crappy products. I remember years ago the pretty hi-fi equipment that fell apart if you put it on a windowsill in the sunshine, the LED watches that didn't work, the miniature t.v.'s (two different attempts at this one) that no-one bought and the C5 that was a joke from the minute it appeared. The calculator (in its early years) was a success and the ZX80 and the Spectrum became a legend, but they were the exceptions. What gets me about Sinclair is that he seems to the think the public is at fault when they don't buy useless products. He is the sort of man who gives wacky inventors a bad name.
posted by rolo at 7:18 AM on August 5, 2003

Only Ron Popeil can show us the way.
posted by SPrintF at 7:38 AM on August 5, 2003

The Segway is for use on the sidewalk right... while this retarded thing is to be used on the road? It would take all of about a day for someone riding one of these things in D.C. to get creamed into pavement putty. Design reasonable CARS fer cryin' out loud.
posted by Witty at 8:16 AM on August 5, 2003

How funny that you mention Charles Sinclair as inventor of the ZX80 and 81 but not the ZX Spectrum! One of the most popular computers ever built (at the time), mainly because of it's brilliant games.
posted by carfilhiot at 8:25 AM on August 5, 2003

All these "new innovations" in personal mobility are a farce and a joke. Shut the fuck up and walk.
posted by angry modem at 9:00 AM on August 5, 2003

yes carfilhiot, you're right that the Speccy was more popular and had better games. But it was the school ZX81 that really got me interested in computers. Ah, the joys of Z80 programming with no assembler, just a little self-written Basic routine that took my "hex" strings and converted it into numbers, then poked the values into memory. Kids today, don't know they're born...
posted by Pericles at 9:30 AM on August 5, 2003

Sir Clive Sinclair is an irritable man with a long history of crappy products.

if your high points are the zx81 and speccie then you're allowed to suck for millenia and still be thanked. have you done anything of comparable greatness in your lifetime, rolo? or are you some whining little brat of a beeb user?

(me? i had an oric)
posted by andrew cooke at 9:33 AM on August 5, 2003

You where lucky! When I started out, I had to make the bits one at a time, using a generator! Uphill!

You young 'uns and your fancy poke/peek commands...
posted by spazzm at 9:35 AM on August 5, 2003

Give me a segway anyday over an over-glorified trike.
posted by will at 9:37 AM on August 5, 2003

The reviewer who mentioned exhaust pipes in the face has my sympathy. Can you imagine sitting at a traffic light with a with a medium-sized flatbed truck's five inch side exhaust pipe literally blowing right in your face? You wouldn't be able to do anything about it short of getting out and standing somewhere else until the light changed. And as for visibility, I've damn near been killed in a sports car several times that size when trucks didn't see me and tried to roll right over me.
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:45 AM on August 5, 2003

I think the Tango Electric Car is a better option. Seating for two, yet you can park it horizontally to the curb, and it goes from 0-60 in 4 seconds!
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:48 AM on August 5, 2003

Oh, and it's tall enough so you're not staring at the bumper in front of you.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:48 AM on August 5, 2003

No, Andrew, I'm just a whining little brat.
O.K., so I never was a Spectrum boy, and I do recognise it changed the world a little bit, but Sinclair never did it again. I can't get the memory of a t.v. interview with him out of my mind where he blamed the financial failure of his digital wrist watch project on the fact that his after sales service was TOO GENEROUS, so everyone sent their watch back for repair!
But come on, explain to me in what possible universe was the C5 a good idea.
posted by rolo at 10:19 AM on August 5, 2003

My God...this Sinclair C5 will change civilization as we know it. It will be bigger than the Internet! Cities will rebuild themselves around the concept!

/it's a fucking tricycle
posted by mathis23 at 11:33 AM on August 5, 2003

I like my disposable $89.99 KMart Huffy. Durable enough for city traffic. Rider is high enough for visibility. Cheap enough to lock outside on a NYC street. Exercise. I'd shiat bricks trying to negotiate city traffic in one of those meager C5 machines.
posted by HTuttle at 7:39 PM on August 5, 2003