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Shatner and the Vic-20

You mean besides Bill Cosby's face appearing everywhere, praising the glories of the TI99-4A? Or what about "Charlie Chaplin" and the Peanut? Ok, here's one that no one else will think of. ToughTVTrivia: Which home computer did Sarah Purcell used to plug? (Extra points if you can remember the name of the show).
Do embedded product placements count? If that's the case, then let's not forget Peggy Hill and Marge Simpson, both of whom have been known to utter the name KayPro on-the-air.

--T
 
i know this is the commodore site but does anyone know where i can watch the early Apple II computer commercials? (Premacintosh)
 
Terry Yager said:
If that's the case, then let's not forget Peggy Hill and Marge Simpson, both of whom have been known to utter the name KayPro on-the-air.

--T
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i remember that, it was the y2k episode. a woman waiting in line at the store
tells peggy "i use to work at dell computer..... i know stuff" (since when do people at dell know anything?, News to me)
peggy ask's if her kaypro is y2k compliant and the woman say "ha kaypro!, My watch has more memory then that piece of crap!"

killer website btw i love look at old ad's and such.
 
Aahh, Y2K. I'm still using up the batteries and bottled water well meaning relatives bestowed me with. It was a big wash-out. I didn't even manage to cash in on the big code-patching wave. Of course, the batteries are nearing the end of they're shelf-life.
I remember it quite well, being my usual sarcastic self, when Marlyand didn't explode, or implode, or whatever, I quipped that perhaps, since we've got this whole time zone thing going, the world started ending in Greenwich, or maybe in the middle of the Atlantic, or something.

Secretly, I think Y2K was a marekting ploy invented by Costco.

It's interesting how Nostradamus never managed to predict the computer. How could he have missed it ? I mean, Russians, the end of the World, etc. are laid at his door, but no computer.

patscc
 
It's interesting how Nostradamus never managed to predict the computer. How could he have missed it ? I mean, Russians, the end of the World, etc. are laid at his door, but no computer.
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Now that you've mentioned it, somebody somewhere will dig up a quatrain that could be translated as predicting the computer. (Actually, I'm surprized that Leonardo didn't invent it, he seems to have invented everything else). And what about the Bible Codes? What do they have to say on the subject...?

--T
 
Wait, wait, maybe this is one of those Terry Gilliam moments. Perhaps, now, that the final secret of Nostradamus...*squish*..

And now, for something alomst different
 
I'm more interested in the secret of Commodore. Not only the computers, but the brand name. The official story, retelled many times in slightly different forms was that Jack Tramiel was sitting in a cab - either in Germany, somewhere in the US or elsewhere thinking about what to call his company. He wanted something with military rank, but General and Admiral were already occupied. Then he saw an Opel Commodore in front of the taxi, and decided this should be the company.

The story is swallowed as a whole by many web sites and enthusiasts, but recently I've found a few flaws:

* Tramiel left Germany in 1947 to move to the US
* He start to repair typewriters in 1952-53 and started the company in 1954
* Opel Commodore was launched in 1967
* I'm not sure that the Opel brand even exists in the US, but he could of course have been in Germany while seeing it

It means that the most innovative scenario is that Jack Tramiel sits in a cab on the way to leave Germany in 1947, and in front of it is a car that will not be produced until twenty years later. He decides that if he ever starts a typewriter company, something he will wait at least 5-7 years to do, it will bear the name of the car. Nostradamus, eat your heart out!

My solution to the story is that he was in a cab somewhere in the US in 1953, saw a Hudson Commodore and got inspired. Later, when someone inquired from where he got the name, he said "it was a car called Commodore" and someone else filled out "aha, an Opel?". This story takes away all the foresighting abilities of the man, but seems more probable, don't you think?
 
No actually Tramiel set up a business called Commodore Business Machines in Toronto. I still have one of their filing cases. There was a bar in Toronto during the 50s called The Commodore. Maybe that's what inspired him. I remember applying for a job at a office-machine place on Bay near Bloor sometime in that time-frame. Could have been Commodore or Burroughes. Didn't hire me in any case.

Lawrence
 
Aye. It was an attempt on irony or how I should call it. Actually it says that Tramiel became a citizen of the USA, but moved to Toronto, Canada to found Commodore Business Machines in 1955, as $25000 he had borrowed would "last longer" there than in New York City.

OTOH, Commodore.ca has a short note under "Miscellaneous" about the misfact about the Opel and Commodore, and the new story goes that Jack Tramiel picked up the name/rank from a military troup carrier, not a cab. It is quite a difference, unless the military used a cab to carry themselves.

This page, all in German, makes the same suggestion as I do, although with the difference that the Hudson car would have appeared in Berlin:

http://www.commodore-amiga.de/cbm.html

For what it is worth, he could just have looked in a handbook over military ranks, if he was destined to get one. How about Corporal 64, Sergeant Business Machines or Batman PET? :lol:
 
carlsson said:
For what it is worth, he could just have looked in a handbook over military ranks, if he was destined to get one. How about Corporal 64, Sergeant Business Machines or Batman PET? :lol:
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hmm general electric. hmm dont know if you spell it the same way?
in any case sounds the same. while commodore's are intresting computers
i think the name is a real turn off. reminds me of bull fighers maddor those
guys running around in tights. i remember in school reading about maddor's
the name meaning "to kill" but still you here commodore i think maddor.

if i was him i would have named it after a animal, natural force Or use a acronym for a name.
of course whats in a name?
 
Since the military is often associated with the highest of technologies, I have to wonder if he wanted his potential customers to (unconsciously) make the obvious connection...

--T
 
As far as I know, he was dealing with typewriters to start with, and other typewriter brands on the market already were named after military ranks. It seems a common strategy is to make a subconcious connection between your company and an existing one, if nothing else so to make your product seem equal to the market leader.

Who in 1953 wants a typewriter named Bumblebee or Solar Eclipse? :?
 
carlsson said:
As far as I know, he was dealing with typewriters to start with, and other typewriter brands on the market already were named after military ranks. It seems a common strategy is to make a subconcious connection between your company and an existing one, if nothing else so to make your product seem equal to the market leader.
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ah i had'nt thought of that but that makes a lot of sense

carlsson said:
Who in 1953 wants a typewriter named Bumblebee or Solar Eclipse? :?
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LOL point well taken
 
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