Bringing Back Old School

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Remember the Commodore 64? Most of us feel very fond and nostalgic towards it. If the Commodore was reborn in 2010, it will probably look like Commodore USA’s Phoenix. The Commodore Phoenix looks like how a Commodore should: a thick PC-in-a-keyboard, not that it isn’t attractive.

I deeply desire it.

phoenix Bringing Back Old School

Commodore Phoenix

The keyboard all-in-one form factor has been missing from the market for some time and Commodore USA is a nice throwback to the brand. No, this isn’t the same company that made the Commodore back in the day. They’re licensing the Commodore name from Commodore Gaming, but as far as we’re concerned, the spirit lives on.

Their entry level model will run $695 with an E7500 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB or RAM, a 160 GB hard drive and Ubuntu, though you can just pop in a Windows disk and get that installed.

eeepc keyboard 250x166 Bringing Back Old School

eeepc keyboard

Then, there’s the Asus Eee Keyboard. Much sleeker than the Phoenix, it’s more of a spiritual throwback, but a throwback nonetheless. It’s got all the present-day amenities, sporting a 5-inch 800×480 capacitive multitouch display, HDMI-out, WiFi, and UWB (Ultra Wideband) to stream content to your television set via the included receiver. You’re getting the more netbook-grade specs with an Atom processor, 1 GB or RAM and a 16 GB SSD, but for what it does and it’s boyishly good looks more than justify its existence.

You can pick up one of these babies for $600. Check out the official promotional video to see the Eee Keyboard in action.

Conan O’brien and Revision 3? 5 Tech Things

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This week on the 5 Tech Things You Should know:

  1. Google TV – What we should be looking forward to with Google Android for a Television Set top box
  2. Commodore might be coming back with a new system
  3. A Sprint / HTC Phone might be coming along with 4G service.
  4. The FBI wants to go undercover to some social Networks. A 30 Page DOJ document has been drafted. What does that mean to you
  5. A joke at SXSW that Conan has joined Revision 3. Sometimes jokes turn into reality. Should we get on Facebook and petition it?

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Get 5 Tech Things You Should Know through iTunes or through Zune , or add the RSS – Check out Techpodcasts.tv

Week in Tech History – 7-06-09 – Major DNS issues

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play audio Week in Tech History   7 06 09   Major DNS issues

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July 8th: In 2007, developer Dan Kaminsky found a flaw in the addressing of the Domain Name System, or DNS. DNS is found on home to commercial routers around the world. The issue was so severe, that they were not divulging the issue until a patch could be implemented on a wide scale.

On March 31st, Kaminsky – along with 16 other developers – gathered at Microsoft to work on a massive patch and synchronize the release so all details could be released as well. Today was the day that patch was released. Microsoft also released patch MS08-037 on the Windows side to counter the issues. Cisco, Sun and BIND fixes would come out shortly after.

Other historical notes: The first Sundae was created (Ok, geeky note). Commodore’s rebirth from the Netherlands. Captain and Tennile on a TI99/4a. Check out the Podcast for all the info

Week in Tech History – Proxy Battle On; Microsoft’s Last Bid

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This was a pivitol week on the Yahoo Proxy battle as everything was approved to go. Carl Icahn was given the green light to lobby shareholders and possibly win control to ready for a new Yahoo. The previous week, we saw all the reports of Carl Icahn making the statement: Jerry Yang must go. This week was no different.

In the meantime, Microsoft made one more offer. This time it wasn’t for the whole company – it was only for the search engine. $35 a share for Yahoo Search. This was significant because this was the same bid Microsoft did back in February for the whole company.

Other great items in the Week in Tech History Quickcast – TI/99 restructures, Jacques Cousteau was born. We also saw Commodore, new Intel and AMD processors and the Ruputer was introduced. All this on the Geekazine Quickcast.

Week in Tech History – 3-23-09 – Gateway Buys Amiga

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play audio Week in Tech History   3 23 09   Gateway Buys Amiga

The Amiga has been sort of an enigma in the computer industry. It started in 1982 as the Amiga corporation, then Commodore purchased the line to put in their family of computers. The computer was held high for video production – with a video toaster, the system could do as much as a mac or PC, but for less price.

Commodore of course folded up, but the Amiga line still tried to thrive. On March 27th 1997, Gateway 2000 decided to take over the reigns and be the home to this great machine. We have since seen Gateway come and go.

Other historical notes for this week – the EU lands a fine on Microsoft, Microsoft splits into 5 while Motorola splits into 2. Seagate gets bought by Veritas and Kevin Mitnik pleads guilty to wire fraud. Finally we see Excel 4.0 introduced, as well as Mac OS X.

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Week In Tech History – 1-26-09 – Tim McVey Day and MicroYugo

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play audio Week In Tech History   1 26 09   Tim McVey Day and MicroYugo

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It was a year ago Sunday that started what I called the soap opera “As the MicroYugo turns”. Microsoft put on a bid for Yahoo of $31 a share – 44.6 Billion in cash and stock. Of course the news went on til August as Yahoo said no, then Carl Icahn stepped up, Yahoo gave him a board seat, Jerry Yang stepped down as CEO and finally in January of 2009 Yahoo replaced him with Carol Bartz. However, did you know that the day before the announcement, former CEO Terry Semel broke all ties with Yahoo?

Some other items of note you’ll hear on the Podcast – It’s Timothy McVey day! The LaMaccia Loophole, Craigslist hitman and Yahoo buys Geocities. The first version of Tetris is released, Commodore 264 and 364 – and Microsoft Vista is released to the General public.