Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms The Apprentice

Was Amstrad any good?

I thought in my ignorance that it was Polski-FIAT standard.

No AMSTRAD was never much good - but i might worth a fair bit on ebay as its so "retro" now. Always looked much better than it actually was.

I'm with SBM - the apprentice program always states "cars leave in 20mins" when its obvious it takes them sooooo much longer to get ready. We have always wondered about this in MOT-towers. Breakfast too - when do they have that? Agree with steve.

I was a field engineer hitting that stuff with assorted things to fix faults back in those days. The first AMSTRAD PC that came out was a simple clone - PC1512 and 1640 I think. They sold well as they were cheap but worked.

Then they went all clever on themselves and designed their own to cut out the middleman. The PC2286 was a disaster. They replaced the proven western digital hard disc controller with some bit of dodgy east end pap. You would use it for a few months and then it would just fail to boot up and your data was no longer there.....big burp.

I worked with a brilliant sales guy called George Georgiou who was king of the last minute tender responses. He would work overnight and then print and deliver it on his way home in the morning.

We bought a couple of the 2286's and one morning I came in to find it spread across the car park in a thousand bits. It rebooted at 2am and then never came back. He literally went postal and sent it out the 2nd floor window at about 3am.

Never bought an amstrad product since.

Sid James was a lot better looking than he is though .

The Antiques programmes are the same.
I have a friend with a antique shop in the next town.
The researchs come in a week before look through his stock and suggests that they put certain items in cabiners etc for the experts to find.Also allow a good discount and they will pay the difference!
On Flog It there is always an under valued item and when it goes for auction the bids are skyhigh !

Probably why I only really watch Fiona, ahem I mean Antiques Roadshow
I have watched parts of Antiques Roadtrip, but only to see what car they are attempting to destroy...

Can't stand any sort of so-called reality show. I had never heard of Apprentice but now I have been warned.

I had also never heard of Alan Sugar but, due to my long history in the computer industry, I certainly knew of Amstrad. I always considered them cheap rubish for home use.

Alan Sugar himself seems an interesting character and a genuinely self made man who has come from nothing. There is an intersting analogue in Australia:Dick Smith, who I think perhaps even more interesting and a nice person.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Smith_(entrepreneur)

I know it is the British way but personally I don't like the peerage system and I think that it is outdated. It is based on an archaic system that rewarded the biggest bully in town.

I can’t watch reality TV, there is no realality involved. It’s the brain child of get rich quick TV ceo’s. Who don’t want to pay for good quality drama series. But it certainly appeals to a certain demographic. Heaven help our future generation.

I don't like the programme for lots of reasons, most of which are mentioned here, although I will add the "price negotiations with suppliers". What a farce!

In the late 1980s the Amstrad 1640HD was the bees knees for cheap business machines. It superseded the 1512DD, and there was no longer any need to load programs and data from floppies. Everything was stored on a 20mb on-board hard drive. Honestly, I thought it can't get any better than this...

We were selling massive 40Mb drives for a mere £1200. If you were really brave you could link them with a primitive 2Mb network for only £300 per machine. Oh life was so simple.