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Computing 

Commodore founder Jack Tramiel passes away

Jack Tramiel, who founded Commodore International, passed away this past Sunday at the age of 83.  Born in 1928, Tramiel survived Auschwitz and a labour camp in during World War II, and later emigrated to the United States and started building typewriters.  He later set up Commodore Business Machines in Toronto for supply chain purposes, and branched into computers with the Commodore PET, which was a staple of computer classes in schools at the time. It was the Commodore PET that inspired me to get my first computer, the VIC-20. …

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Computing Featured Hardware 

Will we see a Commodore 64 in the NHL? Let’s hope so…

The venerable Commodore 64 has seen a bit of a revival of late, with the release of a new Intel based computer shoved into the shell of the 1980’s 8-bit dream machine. Its reach is extending beyond the computing realm to the world of hockey (only the best sport in the world).

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PC64 aims directly at the nostalgia crowd

One of the more oddball computer announcements in the past week or so was Commodore USA would be coming out with the PC64, and all in one computer that will be a 1:1 replica of one of the most successful computers of all time – the Commodore 64.  The basic concept is that they’re going to stuff the guts of a modern nettop, complete with an Intel Atom dual core 525 processor and Nvidia ION2 graphics processor into the original chassis, along with a modern variety of ports. The machine…

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A Brief History of the Modern Pixel, 8-bit Heroes, and more…

Simon Cottee, animator of the pixel art cartoon Rule (created in Sleep is Death, see it after the jump) has put together this short documentary on pixel art, where he talks to SiD creator Jason Rohrer, chiptune musician Dot.AY, and Studio Joho, creators of the Dan the Man video (also after the jump) Ars Technica also recently posted a great pixel art article, 8-bit heroes: Ars explores the resurgence of pixel art. They talked to some of the field’s best artists and developers, such as Gary J. Lucken (Army of…

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