As someone who has used Windows as my primary operating system for years, I got very comfortable with modding various parts of the user interface. One of the things that was most fun to change is the startup image - my favorite was a very official looking FBI splash screen that made it look like you were logging onto a government computer.

Since switching to the Mac platform, I've been surprised at the relative dearth of modding options for the operating system. Thankfully, Steven Sande over at our sister site TUAW recently posted about BootXChanger, which allows you to change the monochromatic Apple logo that you see when booting into OS X to something different. While it's not an entire boot screen, it is enough to give your machine a bit of personality.

It turns out that creating images for use on the boot screen is very finicky, but BootXChanger comes with a set of fifteen sample images to get you started. Right away I was torn between using the radioactive symbol, or the classic Commodore 64 logo. The radioactive symbol won for now, but given the ease of switching boot logos, I can imagine I'll be swapping between the various options or maybe even taking a shot at making my own soon enough.

[via TUAW]

I have a confession to make: though I am an unabashed iPhone lover, nothing will ever top the infatuation I had with the Commodore 64. The C64 was my family's first computer, and it was soon to become my computer.

Harry McCracken over at the Technologizer blog latches onto a recent story about a Commodore 64 emulator (reputedly a very good one) that was rejected for entry into Apple's iPhone App Store due to the fact that code interpreters and emulators are expressly forbidden. Unfortunately, this appears to be a a blanket application of this rule, which seems to have been intended to block things like Adobe Flash, but the point is that it was blocked.

That story lead Harry to come up with a magnificent grid comparing the venerable C64 to the iPhone 3GS, a comparison which seems apt considering the fervent popularity of each platform.

A couple statistics from Harry's form really jumped out at me. For example, the iPhone already boasts over 50,000 software titles in the App Store. Compare that to only 10,000 titles total that were released for the Commodore 64 over the course of its life. Also, did you know that the iPhone's resolution is higher than the C64's was? The iPhone's display is 320 x 480, while the C64 sported a 320 x 200 pixel display.

The comparison grid isn't serious business; it's clearly intended to have some fun with a couple iconic computing devices, and for me at least it hits home.

Sure, there are plenty of Twitter clients for Windows, OS X, Linux, the iPhone, Windows Mobile, and pretty much any other modern operating system. But what if you've got a soft spot for 25 year old computers? No problem. BREADBOX64 is a twitter client for Commodore 64 and 128 computers.

No, seriously.

The results aren't pretty. In fact, they're kind of ugly. But BREADBOX64 let's you view your friends timeline and post status updates. The timeline is updated every two minutes. Setup is a bit more complicated than most Twitter clients. You'll need to compile the source yourself. But if you're still using a C64 machine, something tells me that's not going to be a problem for you.

You can check out a video of BREADBOX64 in action after the break.

[via Digg]

Ahh, the good old Commodore-64. Many of us here at Download Squad count the C-64 as one of their first computers. While the Apple IIc was arguably more important, nobody would dispute the fact that the C-64 had what kids want: games, and lots of them. It was also pretty cool that the operating system was also a BASIC interpreter. How many young programmers learned GOTO and LOOP commands in those days, only to have to unlearn them later on?

But even with the educational value that the C-64 could provide, its place in our collective heart was cemented by all of the great games that were available for the platform.

While C-64 emulators are available for every platform from XBox and PSP to Windows, Mac, and Linux, many of them can be finicky to set up. If you're looking for a quick hit of C-64 goodness but don't want to commit to a hackathon to get things working right, check out Commodore Gaming's Play Classic Games page.

The list of games that are available is not as long as we might like, but you'll almost certainly find an old friend in there. For us it was Jupiter Lander; this game has been made and remade seemingly a million times, but none have the charm and addictive game play that can be found in the original.

To play, simply click on the screenshot of the game you'd like to try in the scrolling marquee on the left. Click the Stick 1 button, then remember to click inside the game window before resorting to your number pad for controlling the game. We forgot that at first, and were frustrated at not being able to control anything.

What's your favorite old C-64 game? Anybody remember M.U.L.E.?