Commodore

Now I don’t want to take too much credit here but TMC is probably where it is today in part because of the Commodore 64. In 1982 a computer consultant dropped a computer system into TMC but didn’t program it. He just took off. I think he was just too busy to do the job. The system was based on the BASIC programming language.

At the time I was 16 and working in the mailroom here at TMC. A few months earlier I had received a Commodore 64 as a gift and I spent many of my hours writing video games for the machine. I wrote a Star Trek and Centipede game. Neither were good enough to be sold retail -- I just having fun.

When I realized the consultant had chosen a system that ran on BASIC, the same language I learned on the Commodore, I realized I could just figure out how to program it for myself. I knew BASIC but nothing about how databases work. I spent hours programming the system and my main motivation was obsoleting my mailroom job. You see I could become a programmer and outsource my mailroom duties to the printer. Do you know how tedious it is to mail, sort and stuff 6,000 envelopes per month that were filled with magazines? It was a terrible job. Oh and that was the highlight of the job!

So that’s when I decided to learn about computers in college and further decided to change my major from biology (I was fascinated by medicine) to computer engineering.

This longwinded autobiography is just to set you up for the fact that
Commodore may be making a come back into the market. Imagine that. I would buy something of theirs just for old-time’s sake.

The opinions and views expressed in comments, blogs, etc. are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of TMC, TMCnet, or its editors. TMCnet reserves the right to edit, delete, or otherwise make changes to the content that appears on these pages at its own discretion and as it deems necessary.
| 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

Listed below are links to sites that reference Commodore:

Commodore TrackBack URL : http://blog.tmcnet.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/21206

Leave a comment

Recent Activity

Sunday

  • Rich Tehrani tweeted, "Droid Won't Kill the iPhone But Google Guide Might: For the record, Google Guide is not a product or service develope... http://bit.ly/idsyt"
  • Rich Tehrani posted Droid Won't Kill the iPhone But Google Guide Might

Saturday

Friday

More...

Recent Comments

  • uglyphilkarn: Of course, ugly Karn, it´s Harry Walker, no, no it´s read more
  • cram: This stuff about "noise bandwidth" sounds suspiciously like Hal Walker read more
  • Exactly: My point is Shannon was a half wit who had read more
  • cram: But when Shannon presented his famous capacity equation, he ignored read more
  • bartyoudummy: bart you anon dreg, do you even know what you read more
  • Bart: "This is what happens when you pay for good info." read more
  • anon: But when Shannon presented his famous capacity equation, he ignored read more
  • anon: Chez, you know what I love about you 4 guys...you read more
  • Backbooner: "worth a gazillion dollars"??? It's valued at around $33 million read more
  • anon: All that happens when you have something worth a gazillion read more

Subscribe to Blog

Blogroll

Recent Entry Images

  • itexpo-east-2009-exhibit-hall-aisle.jpg
  • tmc-halloween-2009-tom-keating.jpg
  • google-tricycle.jpg
  • benioff-apple-behind-the-cloud.jpg
  • sip-forum-logo.jpg
  • blackberry-watch-real-2[1].jpg
  • shazam.jpg

Category Archives

Around TMCnet Blogs

Latest Whitepapers

TMCnet Videos