Commodore 64 Creator Jack Tramiel Dies

The first computer I ever touched was a Tandy TRS80 model 3, which my mother borrowed from the school district she taught for one summer. The first computer I owned was a Commodore 64. I can't tell you how many hours I sat behind that thing learning to program, writing papers, goofing off. I can tell you that I used it from my junior year in high school, 1984 or so, through high school, through undergraduate school, and that I surrendered it only in 1990 as I began grad school and really needed a PC. Until the computer I'm writing this on, it was my longest lived computer ever. Hard drive? Who needed it? I had a 1581 800k floppy drive (and a burst mode rom chip to drive it.) It was fast, three or four floppies would hold all the software I owned, and it didn't make the hideous sounds the 1541 drive did. Graphics? Got 'em. Sound? Best in the industry until Mac, Amiga, and so forth came out. Truly a wondrous thing. And now the man who built both it and the company is gone at the age of 83. From a once-upon-a-time budding young nerd who still remembers how much fun computers were back then. A toast to you, sir. And farewell. -JRS