talkingdigital

The Commodore has returned. A very solid argument could be made that the Commodore 64 was the first real home computer. Sure, there were other home computers, but the Commodore 64 was the standard.

Although Commodore eventually disappeared as a casualty of the Mac vs. Windows battle, Commodore has always had a cult following and it is remember by millions as the first computer they ever used.
photo credit: farnea

The tech blogs are abuzz today over the resurrection of the Commodore name. Although today’s Commodore is not the same Commodore that existed in the 80s, the device they have announced pays homage to the Commodore 64.

There is no model name for the new Commodore system – it is simply the Commodore. The logo is essentially the same and the design of the device itself pays homage to the 64.

The Commodore 64 was a computer in a keyboard. Gradually computers expanded in size as peripherals and power required bigger systems. Gradually the trend has reversed itself. Today we live in the world of the iPad, iPhone and netbooks.  Power and usefulness is no longer perceived as being relative to physical size.

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Just a very quick thank you to everyone who came out to the Windows 7 party. It was a huge success. We got crazy and discussed solitaire, shaking windows, the super bar, and crazy WiFi tricks.

Special thanks to Matt Kettlewell for taking this pic to document the madness that was the Windows 7 party of 2009!

Rick Castellini and Adam Cochran recovering from one wild Windows 7 party

I have been using Windows 7 for a few days. So far, I am pleasantly surprised at how snappy it is and how much Microsoft has cleaned up the interface. It is in most ways an improvement, even over Windows XP.

While I enjoy Windows 7, I have to wonder what Microsoft was thinking with the new character wallpapers. I will admit that I don’t hate them – I am a fan of Salvador Dali and similar artists that create disturbing artwork with great detail. Essentially, this is what you get with the new Windows 7 character wallpapers.

Some of the wallpapers seem to be a little Yellow Submarine inspired, others have a Powerpuff Girl’s appearance while a few are seem like they were inspired by nightmares of a 4-year-old after watching a Tim Burton marathon with a Wizard of Oz chaser.

Windows 7 Release Candidate Wallpaper: Characters – Windows 7 release candidate – Lifehacker.

Podcast: Play in new window

So, we got our Windows 7 House Party kit. Here’s what it looks like. We added some commentary and subtitles, so make sure that you close any YouTube ads that may come up by clicking on the little X on the lower right side..

Podcast: Play in new window

This is it! This is the very first actual episode of the talkingDigital podcast.

Yes, we did do another episode, but that was an episode 000 – essentially, it was just a pilot. This episode actually features content and even a little information.

In this episode we discuss:

Twitter spam followers - Folks who follow you on twitter, but they never do anything but send out spam such as marketing info, pitch diet plans or tweet about how you can get more followers with their program.

Windows 7 house party silliness - It is a mystery to everyone whether Microsoft knows how cheesy/campy/horrible their Windows 7 party videos and downloads are. But is the strategy working?

Smart phone update – Palm Pre received a major software update this week, Motorola recently announced two new Android phones (Cliq will release Oct 19 and another phone that is yet to be named or shown) and iPhone is as strong as ever.

Forum moderator rant – Some moderators take their position too seriously and prevent dialog (the purpose of a forum) from happening.

Picasa 3.5 – Face recognition, powerful tools and ease of use. So long iPhoto.