Jack Tramiel at Computer History Museum - Dec. 10 !!!

[RobertB]

Gigantic surprise!  Former CEO of Commodore Business
Machines, Jack Tramiel, will be making a rare public appearance!
Yesterday I received a message on the answering machine from
Karen Tucker, CMO/VP of Public Programs for the Computer
History Museum in Mountain View (San Jose area), California.
Here is part of what she said:


... I thought you might be happy to know that the museum is
going to have a celebration of the impact of the Commodore 64
on December 10.  It's kind of a 25th anniversary celebration,
and Jack Tramiel will speak as well as Steve Wozniak and
William C. Lowe, the father of the IBM PC, and Adam Chulaniak
(sp?) who was the Amiga guy at Commodore, and we're still
settling on the moderator.  But I thought that if you are still
part of the Fresno Commodore User Group... that you guys
might want to make the trip down to Mountain View for this
event on December 10.


All day today I've been playing phone tag with Karen in
order to get more details and received another message
saying that the exact title of that night's program is "The
Impact of the Commodore 64: A 25-Year Celebration".  More
details to come when I find out more.

The Computer History Museum is located at 1401 N.
Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, California 94043.  The
website is  http://www.computerhistory.org

I am so there for this event!
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[airship]

Man, I didn't even know old Jack was still alive!

Say what you will about the old SOB, he made Commodore a household name, and under his leadership CBM built the best 8-bit computers the world will ever see. Maybe in spite of him rather than because of him, but he was still the Captain.

Tramiel trivia: Did you know that he has a number tattooed on his forearm from being in a Nazi concentration camp?

[RobertB]

Today I was able to make phone contact with Karen Tucker of
the Computer History Museum and question her on the details for
the event, "The Impact of the Commodore 64: A 25-Year
Celebration".  Here are the specifics:

Location: Computer History Museum, 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd,
(exit from the 101 Freeway) Mountain View, California  94043
Phone: 650 810-1010

Time and format of the event: Monday, Dec. 10
6 pm - 7 pm -- Museum member's reception with the guests.
Beer, wine, and hors' doeuvres served.
7 pm - 8:30 or 9 pm -- First words/speech by Jack Tramiel,
panel discussion, question-and-answer session
Afterwards, informal chit-chat and possible autographs

Admission -- for the reception, free to museum members ($65
membership)
for the event, free general admission ($10 donation requested)

Seating capacity -- 400

Webpage -- Karen remarks that they are "stupidly slow" at
updating the events' page at
http://www.computerhistory.org/events/  but assures that
the event "is really going to happen... definitely".

Guests to speak/appear (updated) -- Jack Tramiel (pronounced
/tra mel/, Karen tells), former CEO of Commodore Business
Machines

Steve Wozniak of Apple fame

William C. Lowe, father of the IBM PC

Adam Chowaniec, former vice-president of technology for
Amiga at Commodore Business Machines

John Markoff, moderator of the panel discussion and New
York Times reporter and author of the computer history
book, "What the Dormouse"

Leonard Tramiel, former vice-president of software
development and v.p. of advanced technology at Atari
Corporation

Jeri Ellsworth, engineer behind the CommodoreOne and the
C64 DTV

Media recording - photography (no flash), videography, and
audio-taping permitted.  Possible webcast from Liquid
Computing of Canada (Chowaniec's current company),
which is sponsoring the event.


Some items are still in flux; when I have further updates, I will
post them.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[nikoniko]

I really hope the webcast will come together. No way I can be in CA in December, but I'd love to see the discussion and Q/A session.

Guests to speak/appear (updated) -- Jack Tramiel (pronounced
/tra mel/, Karen tells)

Oops... in that case, I've been mispronouncing it for years, adding an extra syllable in the middle.

[airship]

Most people do mispronounce it. I still do on most occasions, even though I know better. Jack himself corrected me the first time I met him.

I don't dare show up for this event. As I understand it, Jack and his two boys were LIVID about the '3 Stooges' parody picture we printed of them in INFO.

[nikoniko]

Aw, come on... I'm sure ol' Jack must have found a sense of humor by now. Show up with the picture and see if he'll autograph it.

[Blacklord]

Aw, come on... I'm sure ol' Jack must have found a sense of humor by now. Show up with the picture and see if he'll autograph it.

And post a photo of the results of the request back here :skratta:

Lance

[RobertB]

Met with Dale Luck, Amiga software engineer, yesterday at the
Vintage Computer Festival 10.0.  After congratulating him and teasing
him a bit on his recent marriage, I mentioned that Jack Tramiel would
be speaking at the Computer History Museum on Dec. 10.  Surprised, he
remarked that he didn't know anything about it.  I described the event
to him and the times.  I mentioned that Adam Chowaniec would be there,
and he said that knew Adam.  Dale was interested in going to the event
and would tell other Amiga engineers, too.

         Truly,
         Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group
         http://videocam.net.au/fcug
         The Other Group of Amigoids
         http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

The event, "The Impact of the Commodore 64: A 25-Year
Celebration", with Jack Tramiel is now listed at the Computer
History Museum's website at
http://www.computerhistory.org/events/

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug
          The Other Group of Amigoids
          http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

On Nov 10, 8:17 am, Cameron Kaiser wrote:

> Robert, have you heard anything about when tickets will be available?

     Spoke to Valerie, events person at CHM.  She said that the event looks as if it's going to be a sell-out (capacity set at 400 with no extra space due to fire marshal restrictions).  Ticket pre-registration for sponsors and invitees opens up tonight.  Regular registration for the general public opens up at the end of the month.  Registration details will be at the website -- http://www.computerhistory.org

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug
          The Other Group of Amigoids
          http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

On Nov 14, 4:08 pm, I wrote:

> Ticket pre-registration for sponsors and invitees opens up tonight.
> Regular registration for the general public opens up at the end of
> the month.

     Another phone call with Valerie, and she provided clarification;
if you become a Computer History Museum member for $65, you
can be put on the pre-registration list for the event.

           Truly,
           Robert Bernardo
           Fresno Commodore User Group
           http://videocam.net.au/fcug
           The Other Group of Amigoids
           http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

Bil Herd, CBM lead engineer in the development of the Commodore
128, has now confirmed that he will attend the event.

                Truly,
                Robert Bernardo
                Fresno Commodore User Group
                http://videocam.net.au/fcug
                The Other Group of Amigoids
                http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

Received an e-mail from Dave Haynie today.  He has
offered to put my event videos up on his YouTube site.  And
so, it seems that I will be mailing him DVD copies after the
show (Merry Christmas, Dave!).  :-D

                Truly,
                Robert Bernardo
                Fresno Commodore User Group
                http://videocam.net.au/fcug
                The Other Group of Amigoids
                http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

Registration for the general public has now opened up.  Go to
http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?id=1193702785

     Also notice the link at that page for watching the event live
over the Net.

         Truly,
         Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group
         http://videocam.net.au/fcug
         The Other Group of Amigoids
         http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[bmacri]

I'm trying to find the webcast link for this event.  Am I missing something?

[Andrew Wiskow]

I'm trying to find the webcast link for this event.  Am I missing something?

Looks like the live webcast link was removed.  Hopefully there will be a recording of the event available later...  

-Andrew

[RobertB]

Received an e-mail from Dave Haynie today.  He has
offered to put my event videos up on his YouTube site.  And
so, it seems that I will be mailing him DVD copies after the
show

Boing!  CNET beat all of us to posting videos on the Net.  See
a 2 minute, 25 second video of the event at

http://www.news.com/Celebrating-one-of-the-best-selling-PCs-ever/1606-2_3-6222379.html?tag=nefd.lede

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug
          The Other Group of Amigoids
          http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

From: Cameron Kaiser

References trimmed.

A rough cut should be up shortly at

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=504862715223996474&hl=en

I just noticed two typos while scanning the cut. I mistakenly rigged the date as 12/11 (not 12/10), and it should be Monte Sereno, not Mount. This is what you get for trying to do this quickly, but it takes about nine hours to render, transcode and upload, so people can just deal with that for now.

The quality of the video is not very good because I had only a single camera, there was audience activity I could not always get, and there were glitches in the PA system. Robert's two camera video will undoubtedly be better, so I am not going to lose a lot of sleep over it.

[RobertB]

Whoa!  Thanks to Al Kossow for telling this... the Impact of
the Commodore 64 event, filmed by the Computer History Museum,
is now available, along with many other videos, at

http://youtube.com/computerhistory

     For those who want to go exactly to the event video, it is at
 
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NBvbsPNBIyk

              A pro production,
              Robert Bernardo
              Fresno Commodore User Group
              http://videocam.net.au/fcug
              The Other Group of Amigoids
              http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

Thanks to Larry Anderson for following up on this...
the Computer HIstory Museum now has the video of the
event at their website, in addition to the same one being
at YouTube.  The CHM website video is downloadable
and of higher quality than that of the one at YouTube.
Go to

http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?id=1193702785

and click on Full Lecture

             Truly,
             Robert Bernardo
             Fresno Commodore User Group
             http://videocam.net.au/fcug
             The Other Group of Amigoids
             http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

Received an e-mail from Dave Haynie today.  He has
offered to put my event videos up on his YouTube site.  And
so, it seems that I will be mailing him DVD copies after the
show...

The DVD copies of my videos have been posted via first class mail to Dave and to Ian Matthews of Commodore.ca

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

     Several more photos taken at the Dec. 10 Computer History Museum's "Impact of the Commodore 64" event with Jack Tramiel are now on-line at

http://www.dickestel.com/comm25ann.htm

       Truly,
       Robert Bernardo
       Fresno Commodore User Group
       http://videocam.net.au/fcug
       The Other Group of Amigoids
       http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

     In a follow-up to the CHM event, Computerworld has posted an interview with Amiga v.p. of technology, Adam Chowaniec.  He talks a
bit about the Commodore and a lot about Amiga.  Go to

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9052598

       Truly,
       Robert Bernardo
       Fresno Commodore User Group
       http://videocam.net.au/fcug
       The Other Group of Amigoids
       http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

The DVD copies of my videos have been posted via first class mail to Dave and to Ian Matthews of Commodore.ca

Ian has replied that he is "now starting to work on cutting up the content". He remarks, "There is a lot of "great stuff" in that...", and he will post it up as he goes, i.e., he will put it up section by section when he finishes with each.

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug
          The Other Group of Amigoids
          http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
From:    "Bruce Thomas"
Date:    Wed, January 16, 2008 9:17 pm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robert Bernardo wrote:

>      In a follow-up to the CHM event, Computerworld has posted an interview with Amiga v.p. of technology, Adam Chowaniec.  He talks
> a bit about the Commodore and a lot about Amiga.

Speaking of Adam Chowaniec, just this week I received the Dec 17 issue of eWeek magazine at the office. I don't recall seeing this article on their site and they don't seem to have a searchable archive to point to so I scanned it in.

Chowaniec relates a story I hadn't heard before. Wonder who the rabbit guy was?

Also this story below is contradicted by the Computerworld story Robert pointed to as the CW story says Chowaniec "joined Commodore Computer just a year after the popular Commodore 64 was launched" so how could he have been in on getting the C-64 OS finished? Perhaps the eWeek story is about the AmigaOS.

enGEOy!

Bruce


>From eWeek Magazine
Volume 24, Number 38
December 17, 2007
Page 8

IT Memory Lane

It isn't often that the pioneers of IT get together and swap stories in public about the old times - those long-ago days before iPods, Facebook, instant messaging, and all the quick and easy technology we enjoy and take for granted.

When these gatherings do happen, the de-facto home for them is the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. The museum is located in what used to be a building belonging to SGI, just off the landmark Bayshore Freeway that zips straight down the middle of Silicon
Valley.

On Dec.10, the museum played host to a panel discussion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Commodore 64 personal computer. Sporting all of 64K of memory, the trusty desktop machine performed very well and garnered millions of fans during its decade-long run as the most popular (with the masses) PC.

If the IBM PC and the Apple II were expensive SUVs in 1982, the Commodore was a Volkswagen Beetle, and it was just as beloved.

At a mere $199, most people could afford it.

"We didn't make a lot of money on margin," company founder Jack Tramiel told a standing-room-only audience at the museum, "but we made a lot of friends. They loved our product. I just wish we could have continued to do what we did."

Panel members that night included Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder and co-developer of the Apple I and II; Bill Lowe, whose division at IBM produced the first PC in 1981; Tramiel, who founded Commodore and later took over Atari; and Adam Chowaniec, former CEO of Amiga and a Commodore original.

There were many funny moments in an evening full of memories. But Chowaniec might have had the best story:

"When we were getting down to the wire on the Commodore launch, the operating system was our biggest concern because it wasn't finished yet," he recalled. "We were getting nervous. So we flew to the chief developer's home in some back-woods town and found him in his lab. He had all these computers in there, plus a big cage with a rabbit in it.

"When we found he was spending more time talking to his rabbit than writing code, we really got nervous. But, fortunately, it eventually all worked out."

-Chris Preimesberger