I’m currently looking for a new theme for the site. When I initially created it, it was on the list of ‘to do’ things, but I never got around to it (sound familiar?).

In the meantime, if anyone would like to design me a new theme for the site, please leave a comment at the bottom of the post.

My only requirements are for a three column layout, and some space to put advertising and adsense (I need to pay for my webhosting :- ). Oh and of course, I need a 80′s feel to the layout ……

If I like it and end up using it, I will let the lucky person have some (permanent) aknowledgement and advertising space on my site.

Remember when you were were younger and you heard that NASA were going to space in this new aircraft that looked like a plane, and when the mission was finished the craft would then glide bac to Earth and land like a plane?

I do, and of course it was the Space Shuttle. It seemed a big deal then (and it was). But I was only reminded today listening to the radio when it actually was…………….

The space shuttle Columbia launched on April 12, 1981 which happened to be the 20th anniversary of human spaceflight, and returned on April 14, 1981, after orbiting the Earth 36 times.

Another space shuttle to fly in the 80s was Challenger, whose maiden flight was on April 4, 1983.

It completed nine missions before breaking apart 73 seconds after the launch of its tenth mission on January 28, 1986, resulting in the death of all seven crew members.

The accident led to a two-and-a-half year grounding of the shuttle fleet, with missions resuming in 1988 with the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery (whose first mission was actually in 1984).

Bit of trivia – Discovery was the shuttle that launched the Hubble Space Telescope.

‘The’ Computer of the 80′s was the Commodore 64 – the best thing since sliced bread. Released in August 1982, the C64 took the world by storm, and is even popular today amongst the cultist computer nerds.

Yeah it looks ugly, but this 8 bit (yes that’s right) computer was capable of so many things. Essentially it was a gaming computer, but there were are few non gaming titles released.

When it was first released, games came out on cassette tape, and load times were horrendous by today’s standards, Then, as the C64 became more popular, the 1541 floppy disk drive was more affordable. According to Wikipedia, over 10000 titles were released for the C64. The computer had advanced graphics and sound (for the time), and the limits of the processor was pushed by many a software writer.

Commodore Business Machines also brought out the SX-64 – a portable(?) version of the C64. It was a very heavy machine, but boasted a built in 5 inch monitor.

Here is a youtube video of the TV ad, aired in Australia, to promote the C64 (which I remember very well):

The C64 is still very popular, with an abundance of information out there on the net. Just Google it and see how many matches you get ….