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A Brief History of Sinclair and Its Five Most Interesting Gadgets
AmazonBasics Is Company's Foray Into Private Label Consumer Electronics
Circuit City to Liquidate, Prices May Go Up to MSRP
Breakthrough Spintronics Single-Electron Pump To Bring Faster, More Efficient Processors
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Gary_7vn
10/10/09

In reply to A Brief History of Sinclair and Its Five Most Interesting Gadgets
Clive Sinclair did NOT invent the first electronic pocket calculator.. It was the Japanese.

The first portable calculators appeared in Japan in 1970, and were soon marketed around the world.
The first truly pocket-sized electronic calculator was the Busicom LE-120A "HANDY", which was marketed early in 1971. Made in Japan, this was also the first calculator to use an LED display, the first hand-held calculator to use a single integrated circuit (then proclaimed as a "calculator on a chip"), the Mostek MK6010, and the first electronic calculator to run off replaceable batteries.

The first American-made pocket-sized calculator, the Bowmar 901B (popularly referred to as The Bowmar Brain), measuring 5.2×3.0×1.5 in (131×77×37 mm), came out in the fall of 1971, with four functions and an eight-digit red LED display... Wiki
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infmom
10/10/09

In reply to A Brief History of Sinclair and Its Five Most Interesting Gadgets
We owned a Sinclair ZX-80. Our first home computer.
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Navin R Johnson
10/09/09

In reply to A Brief History of Sinclair and Its Five Most Interesting Gadgets
I left my first Sinclair Spectrum turned on overnight on my living room floor because I was in the middle of a huge basic program. When I woke up the next day it had melted the floor :(
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Edited by Navin R Johnson at 10/09/09 4:33 PM Navin R Johnson was starred Navin R Johnson was unstarred

Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
10/09/09

In reply to A Brief History of Sinclair and Its Five Most Interesting Gadgets

I still have the JVC P-100 version of that portable TV packed away somewhere. I wonder if it still works...
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jeffk
10/08/09

In reply to A Brief History of Sinclair and Its Five Most Interesting Gadgets
I wanted a Timex/Sinclair, when my high school had terminals typing on paper rolls for displays. I am not kidding or exaggerating.

I was also bicycling then and now. And I can tell you that the Sinclair folding bike sucks. But you can see that from the picture.
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S-Express
10/08/09

In reply to A Brief History of Sinclair and Its Five Most Interesting Gadgets
Surely their greatest ever invention was the C5 electric 'car'
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jakebathman
10/08/09

@S-Express has a pet troll: Nathan: oh I want one
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EpiphyteCorp.
10/08/09

In reply to A Brief History of Sinclair and Its Five Most Interesting Gadgets
Great read Sean. Thanks!
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LastError
09/21/09

In reply to AmazonBasics Is Company's Foray Into Private Label Consumer Electronics
Companies like Monoprice showed that it was possible to sell decent cables for cut-rate prices and completely undercut retail pricing. It works in part because cables are pretty stupid simple and many of them get made in the same Chinese factories as the branded ones. The Chinese factory mantra "Best Price! Best Price!" works in this case.

Amazon is legitimizing the idea with some serious cred. Good.

That said, there are still tons of people who really DO believe that paying 10 times the money for a cable really does give them something better or special or at least something they can brag about to their friends. Nobody "keeping up with the Joneses" is going to brag about Amazon-branded cables. No, they'll want to brag about Monster gold plated oxygenated fiber optic double shielded quad core buzzword cables that cost a lot.
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Bandit promoted this comment LastError was starred LastError was unstarred

Bandit
09/20/09

In reply to AmazonBasics Is Company's Foray Into Private Label Consumer Electronics
Terrific idea. I wonder why they haven't done private label goods before. All the large retailers do.
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weatherman
09/20/09

In reply to AmazonBasics Is Company's Foray Into Private Label Consumer Electronics
I like this a lot. I just bought a 6' HDMI cable for about $8 the other day from Amazon, and that was after I tried to buy locally from Best Buy and Radio Shack where the wanted at least $30 for their cheapest cable. The only problem with buying cheap basics from Amazon is that there is a lot of crap on there from unknown manufacturers, so AmazonBasics will actually give me some confidence that there are quality standards in place from a brand I can trust, while still getting a good price.
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Magnavox
09/20/09

In reply to AmazonBasics Is Company's Foray Into Private Label Consumer Electronics
Guys I'm going to blatently plug where I get all my cables from (audio / video /etc.) - monoprice.com. I have never seen any cable prices lower (consistently). I just bought a 15' hdmi, 6' component, and 6' optical cable for $12 (inc. shipping).

Again, monoprice.com

(later receives bags of internet monies in the mail)
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Bandit promoted this comment Magnavox was starred Magnavox was unstarred

Bandit
09/21/09

@Magnavox: I agree. Monoprice is the best. I wired my entire home theater using their HDMI cables and speaker wire.
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AT203
09/20/09

In reply to AmazonBasics Is Company's Foray Into Private Label Consumer Electronics
Can anyone translate that Paul Ryder quote? I don't speak marketing-douche.
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Chewbenator
09/20/09

@AT203: "We are putting our name on products that are already sold on our own website so that consumers can confidently buy $3 cables for $8." "Also, those vendors that sell these $3 cables for $15+ can suck it down."
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ThePeacemaker02
09/20/09

In reply to AmazonBasics Is Company's Foray Into Private Label Consumer Electronics
Another place to not buy monster cables and get HDMI on the cheap. Well done amazon.
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phunnyballs
09/20/09

@ThePeacemaker02: I seriously bought a 50ft 3.5mm headphone extension cable from Amazon with Free Shipping for only $.01

I challenge anyone to find that good of deal anywhere.
And the cable isnt actually that bad. does the job well. and no static or feedback.
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Edited by phunnyballs at 09/20/09 3:27 PM phunnyballs was starred phunnyballs was unstarred

EBone
01/16/09

In reply to Circuit City to Liquidate, Prices May Go Up to MSRP
CC's decline started when they decided to dump their appliances department, at a time they were second only to Sears in number of appliances sold. Bad business thinking.
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Kaiser-Machead
01/16/09

In reply to Breakthrough Spintronics Single-Electron Pump To Bring Faster, More Efficient Processors
This is very cool indeed. With the Gigahertz Wars starting to wind down and fade into the Battle of the Cores, it'll be very interesting to start seeing the Quantum Holy-fuck-that's-a-fast-electron... Wars, and have Netbooks attain artificial intelligence.
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