For a period between the winter of 1983 and the summer of 1986, my life was completely dominated by the Commodore 64. The seminal home computer, launched 40 years ago this month, featured an 8-bit microprocessor, a huge 64k of memory and a set of graphics and sound chips that were designed by the engineers at Commodore's MOS Technology subsidiary to power state-of-the-art arcade games. Instead, Commodore president Jack Tramiel ordered the team to build a home computer designed to smash the Atari XL and Apple II. So that's what they did. I didn't know any of this when my dad brought home a C64 one afternoon a year after the launch of the machine.

For Darin Carver, the assistant clinical director for Weber Human Services, the often overlooked crisis in mental health treatment is not just one of access. It's that the care people do get often doesn't help. There are proven techniques for helping people with things like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse. But in Utah, only about 43% of adults receiving mental health treatment improve and recover, according to data from the Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. While Carver's organization tops the list of public behavioral health centers in urban counties, with about a 50% recovery rate, he said behavioral health overall is not where it needs to be.

A Canadian tinkerer who calls himself a'mad inventor' ditched his corporate job to follow his dream of'putting a little more joy into the world' with eye-catching vehicles and contraptions. Former advertising executive Allan Carver is still generating promotions for local businesses but they involve crazy creations -- like a 13-foot remote-control metal dinosaur, an electric witches' broom made from an old scooter, and a real-life Angry Birds video game -- rather than radio or TV spots. 'I want people to go'Wow!' and walk away with a smile,' Carver told DailyMail.com of his inventions. 'I want them to feel better about themselves, about others, and about humanity in general.' One of the most attention-garnering inventions to come from Carver's Mad Secret Labs is a rideable TIE fighter, the starship flown by Darth Vader and imperial troops in the Star Wars movies.

The curious case of the moving monolith has a new wrinkle as yet another mysterious silver structure has appeared in Southern California, this time in the Los Padres National Forest. The latest installation is the second shiny statue to pop up in San Luis Obispo County after one appeared -- and quickly vanished -- from the top of a hiking trail in Atascadero last week. San Luis Obispo resident Matt Carver was among a group who made the most recent discovery Saturday morning. He and several friends were camping at a site near Arroyo Grande when they came across the gleaming gargantuan structure while shooting drone footage. "When we realized it was a monolith, we started freaking out and flew the drone back, jumped in the truck, drove ASAP to the spot," Carver said Monday, "and then danced around it like idiots for a few minutes." The three-sided structure appears to be made of stainless steel and is about 2 feet wide and 10 feet tall, Carver said, noting that it would have taken "a bit of work" to get it up there.

A smart, elegant digital photo frame that you can set up and enjoy within minutes, the Aura Carver makes for an easy and handsome way to show off your snapshots, provided you have a steady Wi-Fi connection and you're comfortable with cloud storage. This sturdy, $200 photo frame comes with a bright, vivid screen; a landscape-only design; and an AI-powered photo-pairing feature for displaying portrait photos side-by-side. But the lack of user-accessible local storage means that photos must be stored in Aura's cloud servers, a requirement that raises privacy concerns (cloud storage is free and unlimited, at least), while the frame's support for voice assistants is perfunctory at best. Like Aura's other frames, the $299 SawyerRemove non-product link and the $399 SmithRemove non-product link, the Carver isn't wall-mountable; instead, it's designed specifically to sit on a table, a shelf, or another flat surface. Unlike Aura's other two frames, the Carver has a landscape-only orientation, while the Sawyer and Smith frames has a swiveling stand that allows you to switch from landscape to portrait modes.

Four promising research projects received funding from the University of Alabama CyberSeed program, part of the UA Office for Research and Economic Development. The pilot seed-funding program promotes research across disciplines on campus while ensuring a stimulating and well-managed environment for high-quality research. The funded projects come from four major thrusts of the UA Cyber Initiative that include cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection, applied machine learning and artificial intelligence, and cyberinfrastructure. "These projects are innovative in their approach to using cutting-edge solutions to tackle critical challenges," said Dr. Jeffrey Carver, professor of computer science and chair of the UA Cyber Initiative. One project will study cybersecurity of drones and develop strategies to mitigate potential attacks. Led by Dr. Mithat Kisacikoglu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Dr. Travis Atkison, assistant professor of computer science, the research will produce a plan for the secure design of the power electronics in drones with potential for other applications.

The state's new 25-member commission on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Associated Technologies picked its leadership and areas of focus in its first meeting. Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield was elected chairman and State Sen. Jabo Waggoner (R-Vestavia Hills) will serve as vice-chairman. Waggoner proposed a joint resolution creating the commission in the last legislative session, which Gov. Kay Ivey approved. The commission is expected to examine several areas of focus, such as how schools and universities can develop AI-educational programs and privacy issues for consumers. It will meet over the next seven months and deliver a report to Ivey in May 2020 on how AI can benefit the economy.