Sinclair computer inventor no longer uses PCs

Sir Clive Sinclair, the inventor of the legendary Sinclair ZX80 computer, told Guardian that he no longer uses computers. He explains his machines were lean and efficient, and that it makes him sad that today's computers totally abuse their memory and are very wasteful. Sinclair doesn't even use e-mail, he says he's hired people to do all the computer work for him, and that he prefers phone calls anyway.

The ZX80 sold about 50,000 units, and the ZX81 which replaced it cost £69.95 and sold 250,000. The brochure promised that a child of 12 would soon be mastering "decimals, logs and trig", although the trig would have to be saved to a cassette recorder. The average 2GB laptop of today has 2,000,000 times more memory than that offered by Sinclair's first machines, although he is keen to stress that computing ability isn't everything. "Our machines were lean and efficient," he says. "The sad thing is that today's computers totally abuse their memory – totally wasteful, you have to wait for the damn things to boot up, just appalling designs. Absolute mess! So dreadful it's heartbreaking."

You can read the full interview over here.