Discussion
General Price said:
Alan Sugar must be a reasonably well educated bloke and has obviously built up a good business and made a lot of money.How in hell can he still throw his support behind this Labour government.I am just a normal working Man yet I can see the Country is completely f
ked.
Do you mean the party which made him a Lord?ked.Nope, I can't see why he might pretend to like them either... If he was a socialist would he want a chauffer and all the trappings of wealth? Oh wait, of course he would.....
DSM2 said:
Yes, started selling poor quality Chinese car aerials out of the boot. Moved on to poor quality hi-fi, then poor quality telephones etc and has been consistent ever since.
One of the few who can afford to vote labour.......................
Don't forget poor quality TVs made in Turkey that burst into flames (someone that used to work for Amstrad told me about it, apparently they couldn't admit that they had a problem with these TVs on the phone to the customers).One of the few who can afford to vote labour.......................
I have nothing useful to add to the thread, but I am compelled to post this youtube clip. I'm afraid that this video pops into my head whenever the man gets mentioned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxi6QDwQyLU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxi6QDwQyLU
oldbanger said:
I have nothing useful to add to the thread, but I am compelled to post this youtube clip. I'm afraid that this video pops into my head whenever the man gets mentioned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxi6QDwQyLU
That is bloody funny, cheered me up for 6 minutes!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxi6QDwQyLU
oldbanger said:
I have nothing useful to add to the thread, but I am compelled to post this youtube clip. I'm afraid that this video pops into my head whenever the man gets mentioned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxi6QDwQyLU
That is bloody funny, cheered me up for 6 minutes!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxi6QDwQyLU
I, like many others have had the 'pleasure' of repairing some of the quality equipment. Some examples:
Fake component hifi.
These units were made to look like high quality separates by placing them into a tower arrangement with fake fronts etc give the full impression. In truth, behind the scenes it was all one PCB connected together vertically with soldering that even the Chinese would be embarrassed by. 99% of the box was empty except a small 3x3 PSU stuffed away in one corner. To give some feel to the tuning control it just had a large weight.
PCW range.
To be fair these were not that bad and converted many a typewriter user over to the digital age. Just a shame the early versions used 3" disks where everyone else were using 3.5! Also ran CPM. The enter key was separately wired key from the return key..odd.
The PC Range
Now, Amstrad here made a breakthrough and a major boob. A great breakthrough that shew other manufacturers that you CAN produce a cheap IBM compatible machine but also a bit of a boob as for cheapness the PSU was also in the monitor.
This created two problems. When it overheated and died the computer base was useless! Also you could NOT upgrade the monitor as it needed it for the PSU.
Oh, nearly forgot they purchased a load of Seagate(Tandon?) hard disks on the cheap that used to fail on the bearings causing a God awful squeak. Although, not really his fault and I believe he sued for them.
It was also a nightmare trying to sell customers a quality computer as they used to pull a copy of 'Computer Shopper' out of their pocket and ask why they should NOT buy an Amstrad.
Double decker VCR
Idea was to copy tapes from one machine to another. Ok. But only had one tuner and if I remember you could NOT record one and watch another.
The original council house dish
I think I am right in saying that it used to warp in the heat.
The portable (PPC-640).
Oddly, on the Amstrad history site there is no mention of the portable. This thing used a very early display that only seemed to work at one angle AND ate TEN, yes TEN "C" size batteries for breakfast.
Here you go. Knock yourself out.
http://www.amstrad.com/products/archive/index.html
Fake component hifi.
These units were made to look like high quality separates by placing them into a tower arrangement with fake fronts etc give the full impression. In truth, behind the scenes it was all one PCB connected together vertically with soldering that even the Chinese would be embarrassed by. 99% of the box was empty except a small 3x3 PSU stuffed away in one corner. To give some feel to the tuning control it just had a large weight.
PCW range.
To be fair these were not that bad and converted many a typewriter user over to the digital age. Just a shame the early versions used 3" disks where everyone else were using 3.5! Also ran CPM. The enter key was separately wired key from the return key..odd.
The PC Range
Now, Amstrad here made a breakthrough and a major boob. A great breakthrough that shew other manufacturers that you CAN produce a cheap IBM compatible machine but also a bit of a boob as for cheapness the PSU was also in the monitor.
This created two problems. When it overheated and died the computer base was useless! Also you could NOT upgrade the monitor as it needed it for the PSU.
Oh, nearly forgot they purchased a load of Seagate(Tandon?) hard disks on the cheap that used to fail on the bearings causing a God awful squeak. Although, not really his fault and I believe he sued for them.
It was also a nightmare trying to sell customers a quality computer as they used to pull a copy of 'Computer Shopper' out of their pocket and ask why they should NOT buy an Amstrad.
Double decker VCR
Idea was to copy tapes from one machine to another. Ok. But only had one tuner and if I remember you could NOT record one and watch another.
The original council house dish
I think I am right in saying that it used to warp in the heat.
The portable (PPC-640).
Oddly, on the Amstrad history site there is no mention of the portable. This thing used a very early display that only seemed to work at one angle AND ate TEN, yes TEN "C" size batteries for breakfast.
Here you go. Knock yourself out.
http://www.amstrad.com/products/archive/index.html
Edited by Morningside on Monday 3rd May 21:40
There was a story going around Sky about the satellite fitter who went to Sugars house to fit the dish etc.
The box had been allocated and of course it was an Amstrad. The fitter did not know Alan Sugar, but realised
he was in a posh house. He announced to Sugar who was watching his first dish being fitted with great interest that he would pop out to the van and get a decent make as the Amstrad he had been asked to fit was crap.
The box had been allocated and of course it was an Amstrad. The fitter did not know Alan Sugar, but realised
he was in a posh house. He announced to Sugar who was watching his first dish being fitted with great interest that he would pop out to the van and get a decent make as the Amstrad he had been asked to fit was crap.
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