Hell hath no fury like a Timex-Sinclair owner whose computer has been scorned. The scurrilous comment in this column was that the little wedge-shaped Timex-Sinclair had finally found its true calling, as a doorstop. At least, that is what the folks at Commodore say, and Commodore is an honorable company.
Steven H. Kaye, who teaches science in Brooklyn, was irate. He responded with a spirited defense of his “ingenious little T/S 1000” and provided proof that for him, at least, it serves a higher calling. He said he has expanded the pokey little T/S 1000 from its original 2K toy status, and It now boasts 64,000 bytes of random access memory, a real keyboard instead of the virtually useless membrane board it was afflicted with at birth, a modem and a printer. One of Its uses is to send personalized warning notes to the parents of his students. he said.
Mr. Kaye said about 100 devoted followers of the Sinclair have formed a life-support system for the machine, the Long Island Sinclair Timex Users Group. Its address is P.O. Box 438, Centerport, NY, 11721.
Also, he noted, the Zebra Electronic Bulletin Board is dedicated to the Timex-Sinclair users, and is so popular it is almost impossible to get through to it. (That may also be because the Radio Shack computer that runs the bulletin board conked out and is now being fixed. Try again a week from now.)
It Keeps on Ticking
Mr. Kaye suggests that one way to atone for the slur (canard is not quite the right word, since the T/S 1000 is a turkey, not a duck) is to list new products available for Sir Clive Sinclair’s family of computers, including the Timex 2068 color computer, the Spectrum, the T/S 1500, which is an upgraded version of the 1000, and the new QL, for Quantum Leap (although some wags are already calling it Quality Lacking).
Stewart Newfeld to the rescue. Mr. Newfeld’s company, Zebra Systems, offers a free 48-page catalogue of products for the Timex-Sinclair line. One that is particularly interesting is a Koala Technologies graphics pad that Zebra has modified for the 2068.
The Spectrum is one of the most popular computers in Britain, and thousands of programs have been written for it there. There are several ways for owners of the Timex 2068 to modify their machines to run Spectrum software, and Zebra Systems has the details. Because of the weakness of the British pound against the dollar, the Spectrum software can be a bargain.
American-made programs are being developed as well. S. J. McMurray of Brooklyn said he and associate, Alan Poretsky, have written a program for the 2068 to ease the preparation of 1984 Federal 1040 income tax returns. The program, which has not been reviewed, is called “Spec-Tax” and is available from Poretsky & Poretsky.