It is time of the season to look back at the past year and to look
forward to the new year. It's also the appropriate time to give my
tardy response to our newsletter editor.

Many months ago Lenard R. Roach, editor of the Interface, wrote

> We just got back from sunny Las Vegas after attending the
> Fresno Commodore User Group and Clark County Commodore
> Computer Club's CommVEx v3. I must tell you that those who
> did not attend missed a great time of Commodore fun and
> information.

I'd like to sincerely thank all who came to CommVEx v3 back on
July 28-29. Traveling to Las Vegas in the middle of the summer is
not always easy nor cheap, and you are to be commended on your
devotion to Commodore and Amiga computers. I'd like to
especially thank Lenard and his family for driving all the way from
Kansas City, and Greg Soravilla and Theresa for coming all the
way across the continent from Florida. You guys are the heroes of
the show! Without you or those from the 5C's or those from the
Classic Gaming Expo who decided to visit, our show would have
been less than what it was. It would have been less fun.

> We went to the 3rd floor and entered the Jockey Room, and
> there amongst the tables of Commodore equipment sat Robert
> Bernardo and Larry Anderson of FCUG.

For the second year in a row, Larry Anderson, sysop of the Silicon
Realms BBS and PET guru of the West Coast, was my right hand
man. Without Larry and his logical, organizational abilities, I
would have had a harder time in getting CommVEx v3 off the
ground. Larry was there to plan, to pack and unpack and repack,
to see to it that things ran smoothly, to explain, and to help. A
sincere debt of gratitude goes to Larry.

I'd also like to thank Al Jackson and the members of the 5C's who
have attended the show and who have loaned us equipment to use
at CommVEx every year.

> What did I take to CommVEx? Well, from the Dodge we
> unloaded a SX64, a Commodore 64, a black-and-white JC
> Penney portable t.v. for a monitor, the GABE.U.PAK.64 v1, the
> remaining copies of Run/Stop-Restore (about 4), Gabriel's
> battery pack he invented for his Playstation One, some Interstate
> Batteries calendars and hats, and a copy of TEA 4 2.

> At 11:00 am Robert Bernardo introduced the CommVEx, and we
> started working around the tables, introducing ourselves. Next to
> me on the left was Charles Gutman of FCUG, who was selling
> wares from his company, 8-Bit Designs.

Thanks for the support of the vendors, namely Lenard who sold his
book and Charles who sold his 8-Bit Designs gear. Our vendors
didn't bring enough! Attendees were looking to buy C= computers
and disk drives and just lots of software. We'll know better for the
next CommVEx.

> To lead off the festivities was the video of the Commodore
> engineers celebrating 30 years of Commodore. These men
> discussed what it was like to work on the machine and make it
> into what we have today.

It was a treat to have another C= engineers' video to show, this time
the engineers with Chuck Peddle teleconferencing into the Vintage
Computer Festival East. It has become a tradition to have a Bil
Herd/Dave Haynie et al production to start off each CommVEx, a
video greeting to CommVEx attendees. Of course, I'd like to thank
Bil, Dave, Bob Russell, the faraway Chuck Peddle, and Evan
Koblentz (organizer of VCF East) for allowing me to tape and
present the video at CommVEx v3. Crossing my fingers, I hope to
lead off the next CommVEx with another worthy video.

> I was scheduled to be first speaker of the day...

> Next was a short visit by the people who are behind the
> company, Oldergames.com . They [R.W. Bivens and John
> Armstrong] told of the need for new games for older platforms...

> Finally for the day was [Andrew Wiskow] the SysOp of the
> Cottonwood BBS, who demonstrated a new program called
> Kaleidoscope Animator...

> Next was Charles Gutman's turn with his invention for the video
> port I aforementioned...

> ...it was Robert's turn to speak, and he was going to take the last
> three hours talking about Wheels and some new programs that
> came in from Europe...

And what would CommVEx be without our presentations? Thanks
to Lenard, R.W., John, Andrew, and Charles for standing up and
speaking out.

> A surprise guest popped into CommVEx this time. Jeri
> Ellsworth came in...

Not so much of a surprise, because Jeri had confirmed her
attendance months in advance. I'd like to thank Jeri for her
continued support of CommVEx. She has showed up at every
show, and her presence has brightened the proceedings every time.

> The last convention I had high hopes for, but it turned out to be
> a dud, and we went sightseeing instead. But CommVEx was
> different. CommVEx proved to be the best of the two
> conventions I have attended.

I'm glad that the show met your expectations. We try hard to keep
the show moving, not too formal nor too informal. There's time
to listen to presentations; there's time to relax and talk and play
with the computers. You come for the fun, for the learning, for the
socializing.

> Thank you also for making the book, Run/Stop-Restore a sell
> out.

If you produce more books, we'll gladly sell them at our
CommVEx tables. My thanks to Lenard for bringing his book,
and to Rob O'Hara for bringing his book, “Commodorkâ€￾, to
present and to sell at CommVEx.

> Thanks again for listening to my spiel about the CommVEx and
> the trip to Las Vegas. The fun thing about this trip was I got to
> meet some great Commodore users...

Likewise. It was great to meet you and your family. It was great
to meet or re-meet all the other C= attendees at CommVEx.

> In any case, if you get a chance to go to CommVEx in 2008,
> please plan to attend. You won't be disappointed.

The Commodore Vegas Expo v4 is set for Saturday and Sunday,
July 26-27, at the third floor Jockey Room 1, Plaza Hotel &
Casino, 1 Main Street, Las Vegas, Nevada. Official times are
11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Unofficial times are whenever the
Jockey Room 1 door is open. Admission is $10, whether you
come for one day or for both days. Raffle prize tickets are
one for $10, three for $20. Door prize tickets are given to each
attendee. Eight to ten Commodore and Amiga systems are set up
for attendees to use. Presentations and exhibits are still being
lined up.

Happy New Year!
Robert Bernardo
CommVEx organizer
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

We now have a Viewsonic PJ503D video projector to use at the show.

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

Here are the first planned presentations for the July 26-27 CommVEx v4 (2008): * Connecting the Commodore to a dial-up shell ISP account * Using the Lt. Kernal hard drive with a C64 Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://videocam.net.au/fcug The Other Group of Amigoids http://www....

The San Jose Mercury News newspaper has finally posted a report of the event. Go to http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2007/12/a_few_words_with_jack_tramiel_and_the_commodore_64_gang.html Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://videocam.net.au/fcug The Other Group of Amigoids http://...

I just got my 1541 delivered today and given that I have a C64 and all the cables, I figured I'd see if I couldn't get a disk working. [snip] Bad cable, bad drive, bad 64? One of our S. California members had the same problem. We replaced the 1541 drive with a working one. When it still didn't work...

The DVD copies of the video I shot have been posted via first class mail to you, Ian, and to Dave Haynie. Dave Haynie e-mailed me yesterday, saying that he has received the DVDs. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://videocam.net.au/fcug The Other Group of Amigoids http://www.ca...

POSTED! I have created a large selection of options for those who are interested in seeing the mighty Jim. See the bottom of: http://www.commodore.ca/gallery/video/video.htm Thanks, Ian! I'll spread the word. :-) Merry Christmas! Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://videocam.net.au/fc...

O.K., I will supply the video to you and to Dave Haynie. The DVD copies of the video I shot have been posted via first class mail to you, Ian, and to Dave Haynie. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://videocam.net.au/fcug The Other Group of Amigoids http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

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.computerhistor...

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=NB...

If you all haven't seen them, 9 more photos are available, starting at http://content.techrepublic.com.com/2346-10877_11-179806-5.html Also Jack Tramiel is interviewed at http://www.news.com/The-man-behind-the-Commodore-64/2008-1042_3-6222406.html Hey, I might have filmed part of that interview, Rob...

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...

PC World has posted an article of the event. Go to http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/006047.html Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://videocam.net.au/fcug The Other Group of Amigoids http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

From: Cameron Kaiser Anyway, here are some photos. This is Jack at the press reception: http://www.floodgap.com/temp/qDSCN0785.jpg Jack and his wife, talking to Bil Herd: http://www.floodgap.com/temp/qDSCN0795.jpg The cake Liquid Computing brought along: http://www.floodgap.com/temp/qDSCN0796.jpg Bi...

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...