| sinclairvoyance |
IT IS a bleak winter's day in the hiatus between Christmas and New Year a few years in the future. The thoughts of the family Typical-Sinclair-User stray from the usual feast of old films and Christmas spectaculars on television to visions of sun, sea and sand.
They switch off the television, attach their latest Sinclair machine, bought from one of the many high street stockists, add their Martochoice Prestel adapter and turn to the Prestel holiday pages.
Following the eventual development of the adapter for the Sinclair machines, Prestel enjoyed a boost in the number of domestic users. A full range of holiday operators have since found it worthwhile to give details of their holidays all over the world.
The Typical-Sinclair-Users select a group of holidays in which they are interested and request more details. Those arrive on the screen immediately and are printed out. Pictures of the resorts and the facilities arrive through the post a few days later.
From those, the TSUs decide. Unfortunately when they try to book, again through Prestel, they find their first choice of time, destination and operator is fully booked. They bring their second choice to the screen and find there are vacancies. They make their booking, paying the deposit by debiting their bank account directly by Prestel. Once that is done, a bill for the balance and a listing of the holiday details arrives on the printer.
As the time for the holiday approaches the TSU family, between playing the latest game of aliens and keeping their household accounts in order, check the weather conditions at their chosen resort and the strength of the peseta against the pound - all available through Prestel.
As the TSUs hate shopping, having to push their way through the crowds, they decide to buy all their holiday clothes and equipment by mail order, again using Prestel.
Their tickets finally arrive, printed on the ingenious micro colour printer developed by Sinclair Research. That add-on had been produced in response to a number of attempts by other companies to make something which allowed a record to be kept of the Spectrum displays and the claim by a number of people that not even Clive could produce a colour printer at a reasonable price.
Pausing only to cancel the milk and Sinclair User - by Prestel, of course - switch off the Sinclair-controlled air-conditioning system and transfer control of the home security to the neighbours' Sinclair so that they can look after the house, the Typical-Sinclair-Users begin their great adventure.
The luggage consists of the usual suitcases but also includes a large black briefcase. When they arrive at the airport, they find many other families have the same black briefcases. All are treated with great care, are taken inside the aircraft as hand luggage and stored carefully under the seats.
They arrive in Majorca, everyone still taking great care of their black cases. On reaching their hotel everyone immediately rushes to their rooms, where the secret of the black box is revealed. Inside there is a complete Sinclair computer system, neatly packed in plastic foam. The VDU is one of the Sinclair flat-screen televisions and it is powered by a light but powerful battery developed as part of the Sinclair electric car project.
The following day the TSU family goes to the beach and, in common with many others, they take their briefcase and spend half the day enjoying the sun, sea and sand and the other half playing with the Sinclair.
The case also contains a device which allows the Typical-Sinclair-Users to contact their neighbours via the telephone service or collect any recorded messages on their telephone answering service.
If this sounds a little far-fetched, as though the Sinclairvoyance crystal ball is even less clear than usual, consider that most of the items are already in existence and are available either for the Sinclair machines or can be adapted from hardware available with other computers. The two items which do not exist are the colour printer and the lightweight battery but that is no guarantee that they will not appear on the market.
The rest of this look into the not-too-distant future depends on how people react to the possibilities provided by a light, fully-portable computer system. It may be a little unreal to suggest that people will take every opportunity to avoid leaving their homes. It would be pleasant to think that the gregarious nature of people would rebel against being cut off from their fellow human beings.
The enthusiasm with which many take any opportunity to cut themselves off and carry around their own little world, however, would appear to argue against this. It is one of the reasons why cars are preferred to public transport and why growing numbers of people can be seen walking around with headphones listening to small cassette players.