I've updated my Christmas Lights. Mainly rewired the cable for the lights so that the box doesn't have to be so close to the start of the lights and reworked the logic to make it less seizure-inducing.
GitHub project
Tuesday, May 08, 2018
Sunday, April 15, 2018
Lost in Space - Reboot
We watched the first 3 episodes of the Lost in Space reboot this weekend. And.... If lost me before episode 3 finished.
My expectation was that they would take the original idea, turn it around a bit to some up with a different story, but still keep the "Swiss Family Robinson in Space" theme. I was disappointed.
The balance between sci-fi and drama was not there. It was a drama set in space. If you had replaced the space ships with wooden ships and planets with islands, you could have the same story.
First off, what was good:
1. The visuals. Great special effects. Great scenic shots.
2. I can't fault the acting. I thought that they played their parts very well.
If you don't want any spoilers, you probably want to stop reading now.
What pissed me off:
From an article I read, the space travel technology that they were using was stolen from aliens - who wanted it back. Hence the robot being there. In a later episode, all the surviving Jupiter ships regroup and head back, but, of course, Dr. Smith messes everything up and warps only the Jupiter 2 to someplace else.
The planet with its storms, glaciers, forests, etc. would have been a great place to spend the first season just trying to survive, explore, etc. And maybe save the Dr. Smith Warps The J2 thing at the end to move them to another planet to survive on for Season 2.
My expectation was that they would take the original idea, turn it around a bit to some up with a different story, but still keep the "Swiss Family Robinson in Space" theme. I was disappointed.
The balance between sci-fi and drama was not there. It was a drama set in space. If you had replaced the space ships with wooden ships and planets with islands, you could have the same story.
First off, what was good:
1. The visuals. Great special effects. Great scenic shots.
2. I can't fault the acting. I thought that they played their parts very well.
If you don't want any spoilers, you probably want to stop reading now.
- The family unit was too dysfunctional. They needed to have some to create some drama and action, but it just too much.
- Too much angst from Will, who thought he wasn't up to the mission.
- Too much "I'm immortal" teen attitude from Penny.
- Too much brooding from Judy.
- John Robinson is not a strong male role model. He's supposed to be a soldier, but is too uncertain. Maureen seems to be the "leader" of the expedition. I had expected more of a partnership between them.
- The Dr. Smith character was as evil as the original series intended - which was a good thing. But without a strong family to counter her, it just didn't work.
- The robot is an alien artifact. As such, it's always suspect and not part of the family unit.
- Too much "and the gods (i.e. alien robot) came down and fixed everything". Boring.
- Too many "suspend reality" moments.
From an article I read, the space travel technology that they were using was stolen from aliens - who wanted it back. Hence the robot being there. In a later episode, all the surviving Jupiter ships regroup and head back, but, of course, Dr. Smith messes everything up and warps only the Jupiter 2 to someplace else.
The planet with its storms, glaciers, forests, etc. would have been a great place to spend the first season just trying to survive, explore, etc. And maybe save the Dr. Smith Warps The J2 thing at the end to move them to another planet to survive on for Season 2.
Friday, April 13, 2018
Penguicon 2018 - R.I.P.
Looking at the categories this year, if we assume equal distribution of panels there are 14 categories. I’m only interested in 6. That’s actually pretty good. But that assumes equal distribution.
Wow. 48 hours of programming with only 1 panel that's really interesting and 9 that are sort of interesting. I remember when the norm was that I had to choose between 3 different panels that I really wanted to see, but were scheduled at the same time - and find time to eat lunch since there was no open slot for that.
Once again, there is little Linux, real science or tech. Mostly alt-left stuff. Penguicon is dead as a "geek" convention. It's really just an alt-left festival now.
I guess it is true: The left really does ruin everything it touches.
| Track | Really interested in | Sort Of Interested in | Notes |
| DIY | 0 | 3 | Most panels are craft, not really DYI. |
| Food | 0 | 2 | Many Vegan panels |
| Life | 0 | 1 | Lots of alt-left lifestyle panels |
| Penguicon | 0 | 2 | Really, only the opening and closing ceremonies, but that's nothing different for me. |
| Science | 0 | 0 | Not really science for many panels. Sorry, but anything with "J.R.R. Tolkien" in the title is not "science". Bob Trembly pretty much carries this track. |
| Tech | 1 | 1 | Programming panels were beginner level, which shows the level of the attendees. Not much "tech" in the Tech track. |
Wow. 48 hours of programming with only 1 panel that's really interesting and 9 that are sort of interesting. I remember when the norm was that I had to choose between 3 different panels that I really wanted to see, but were scheduled at the same time - and find time to eat lunch since there was no open slot for that.
Once again, there is little Linux, real science or tech. Mostly alt-left stuff. Penguicon is dead as a "geek" convention. It's really just an alt-left festival now.
I guess it is true: The left really does ruin everything it touches.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Penguicon 2018 - a pre-mortum
Once again, we won't be attending Penguicon this year (I feel no loss at all). But I do like to see what's going on with the convension I attended for many years.
Looking at the guest list this year, I broke them down into categories.
Writers:
MARK OSHIRO
DR. KRISTINE LARSEN
MARY ANNE MOHANRAJ
MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL
AMAL EL-MOHTAR
Karen Burnham
Kevin MacLeod
Technical:
JOHNNY XMAS
Jeff MacLeod
Curtis Potterveld
Chad Sinke
Bob Trembley
Other:
CHRISTINE SUNU
MAGIC MEEPLE GAMES
Nemo T Rathwald
Charles Severance
Claire Winn
Which puts Penguicon as a very writing-heavy convention.
Reading the Penguicon 101, they still describe Penguicon as
I would describe Penguicon today as a SJW-oriented event praising bad writers (who are SJWs) where you have people falling over one another trying to be more "victimized" than others. And, oh, ya, there are few technical talks and geeks running around too, but try not to notice them.
Doing some (admittedly cursory) research on each GoH, I see that most of the guests are SJW (or lean in that direction).
Some have laid claims to knowledge/experience that they obviously never had.
In a month or so, they will have the list of panels for Penguicon 2018. I'll look through them and post on them later.
When did Penguicon become a writing convention and not a Linux/Anime/Games convention?
Looking at the guest list this year, I broke them down into categories.
Writers:
MARK OSHIRO
DR. KRISTINE LARSEN
MARY ANNE MOHANRAJ
MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL
AMAL EL-MOHTAR
Karen Burnham
Kevin MacLeod
Technical:
JOHNNY XMAS
Jeff MacLeod
Curtis Potterveld
Chad Sinke
Bob Trembley
Other:
CHRISTINE SUNU
MAGIC MEEPLE GAMES
Nemo T Rathwald
Charles Severance
Claire Winn
Which puts Penguicon as a very writing-heavy convention.
Reading the Penguicon 101, they still describe Penguicon as
"Think of a weekend-long Linux Users Group meeting with hundreds of other very curious geeks, nationally acclaimed guests, hotel room parties, debates about world-building and the practicality of ion drives, video games and gaming tournaments, nerdy makers selling t-shirts and hardware, anime, costume contests, and free caffeine and snacks always available in the ConSuite."
- But Linux has been lacking in the last 6 years. None of the GoH or Featured Guests have anything to do with Linux. And no Eric S. Raymond as a Featured Guest.
- "Nationally acclaimed guests"? What? Who? I've never heard of any of these people before (except for MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL who is a known SJW, and Bob Trembley who I've known from past Penguicons).
- "Debates"? Not with the politically correct crowd running things.
- And they are pretty low on Anime again this year, except for the cosplay people.
I would describe Penguicon today as a SJW-oriented event praising bad writers (who are SJWs) where you have people falling over one another trying to be more "victimized" than others. And, oh, ya, there are few technical talks and geeks running around too, but try not to notice them.
Doing some (admittedly cursory) research on each GoH, I see that most of the guests are SJW (or lean in that direction).
Some have laid claims to knowledge/experience that they obviously never had.
***Tangent***Reading the bios of many of the Guests at Penguicon this year reminds me of this person we interviewed. Lots of nice sounding things, but if you really read the bios, you see that they really didn't (and still don't) do anything.
Some years back, I remember interviewing a "highly technical" person for a technical position. His resume was filled with "headed", "lead" and "managed" terms but had no "programed", "wrote" or "created" terms. That didn't fill me with confidence in his skills, but he might have tailored his resume to get past the managers. So we interviewed him (mostly because our management made us). To make a long story short, he never did any of the work on any of the projects he was on. He just went to meetings and talked a lot. Needless to say, we didn't hire him.
***Tangent***
In a month or so, they will have the list of panels for Penguicon 2018. I'll look through them and post on them later.
Thursday, December 14, 2017
PC-2 Password Generator
So after the pyrrhic success with my PC-2 Enigma, I decided to repurpose a previous version for something else: Password generator.
This version started out as an Enigma, but instead of needing an array to store the characters that I could us, I just used the ASCII character set 32-127. Instead of looking up a value in an array, I could just do an "ASC" or "CHR$". Much faster.
It had a big drawback, though. Some of the characters in the table could not be input from the PC-2 keyboard. So much for decrypting something.
But a password generator only needs to "encrypt".
1000 "V" clear: dim a$(1)*80: wait 0
1010 input "Start value:";r
1020 input a$(0)
1030 for i = 1 to len(a$(0))
1040 a= asc(mid$(a$(0),i,1))
1050 a=a-32+r
1060 if a > 95 LET a=a-96
1070 a=a+96/2
1080 if a > 95 LET a=a-96
1090 a=a+32
1095 :rem PC-2 chars not in standard ascii
1100 if a = 39 let a = 34
1110 if a = 91 let a = 123
1120 if a = 92 let a = 47
1130 if a = 93 let a = 125
1140 if a = 96 let a = 44
1150 if a = 127 let a = 32
1160 a$(1)=a$(1)+chr$ a
1170 r=r+1: if r >95 LET r=0
1180 cursor 0:print a$(1)
1190 next i
1200 wait: print a$(1)
1210 end
This version started out as an Enigma, but instead of needing an array to store the characters that I could us, I just used the ASCII character set 32-127. Instead of looking up a value in an array, I could just do an "ASC" or "CHR$". Much faster.
It had a big drawback, though. Some of the characters in the table could not be input from the PC-2 keyboard. So much for decrypting something.
But a password generator only needs to "encrypt".
1000 "V" clear: dim a$(1)*80: wait 0
1010 input "Start value:";r
1020 input a$(0)
1030 for i = 1 to len(a$(0))
1040 a= asc(mid$(a$(0),i,1))
1050 a=a-32+r
1060 if a > 95 LET a=a-96
1070 a=a+96/2
1080 if a > 95 LET a=a-96
1090 a=a+32
1095 :rem PC-2 chars not in standard ascii
1100 if a = 39 let a = 34
1110 if a = 91 let a = 123
1120 if a = 92 let a = 47
1130 if a = 93 let a = 125
1140 if a = 96 let a = 44
1150 if a = 127 let a = 32
1160 a$(1)=a$(1)+chr$ a
1170 r=r+1: if r >95 LET r=0
1180 cursor 0:print a$(1)
1190 next i
1200 wait: print a$(1)
1210 end
The only thing special was the 6 characters that the PC-2 uses that doesn't match up with the standard ASCII character set. The PC-2 doesn't any single quotes (forward and back quotes). It doesn't have "[" or "]" - instead it uses Yen and Square Root. The "\" was some up-down square bracket that the PC-2 uses to denote an empty place in the string (sort of like a null). And DEL was just like space. So I convert those characters to something else.
This works much better and much faster.
So you enter something like "Tasty Cookies" and get "0>QSYa%RSPOL{" (start value of 12).
Given the same inputs, you will always get the same output.
I can say that the PC-2 is still useful today.
PC-2 encryption
So I decided to play some with programming my PC-2. After much trials and tribulations (not to mention a nice long walk down memory lane re-learning how to program in BASIC), I was able to get the original project working.
The original idea was to make a version of the german Enigma working. But that wasn't working out. So I settled for something that had an encryption and decryption component.
The cypher is a simple polyalphabetic cypher with a rot-13 thrown in just for fun.
Text is limited to 80 chars (limitation of the PC-2) but since it takes so long to encrypt, I doubt anyone will hit that.
The aa() array is used so that we only encrypt to values that are enterable on the keyboard - otherwise we can’t enter the values to decrypt.
The main problem is that it's very slow. I mean really slow. *sigh* It works, but the lack of speed makes it impractical.
DEF A - Encrypt text
DEF D - Decrypt text
10 "A" gosub 610:Wait 0
20 input a$(0)
30 for i = 1 to len(a$(0))
40 a= asc(mid$(a$(0),i,1)): gosub "L": a=e: gosub "F"
45 a$(1)=a$(1)+chr$ e
50 gosub "Z"
55 cursor 0:print a$(1)
60 next i
70 wait:print a$(1)
80 end
110 "D" gosub 610
120 input a$(0)
130 for i = 1 to len(a$(0))
140 a= asc(mid$(a$(0),i,1)): gosub "S": a=e: gosub "F"
145 a$(1)=a$(1)+chr$ e
150 gosub "Z"
160 next i
170 print a$(1)
180 end
200 :rem encrypt with current rotor value
210 "L" gosub 810:e=b+r
220 if e > 83 LET e=e-84
230 return
300 :rem decrypt with current rotor value
310 "S" gosub 810: e=b-r
320 if e < 0 LET e=e+84
330 return
400 :rem reflector
410 "F" e=a+84/2
420 if e > 83 LET e=e-84
430 e=aa(e):return
500 :rem rotate rotor
510 "Z" r=r+1: if r >83 LET r=0
520 return
600 : rem setup
610 clear: dim aa(83), a$(1)*80:restore
620 input “Start value:”;r
630 for i = 0 to 83: read aa(i): next i:return
640 DATA 32,33,35,36,37,38,40,41,42
650 DATA 43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52
660 DATA 53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62
670 DATA 63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72
680 DATA 73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82
690 DATA 83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90,94,97
700 DATA 98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106
710 DATA 107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115
720 DATA 116,117,118,119,120,121,122
730 return
800 :rem lookup
810 for ii =0 to 83: b = ii
820 if aa(ii)=a then return
830 next ii
840 return 0
The original idea was to make a version of the german Enigma working. But that wasn't working out. So I settled for something that had an encryption and decryption component.
The cypher is a simple polyalphabetic cypher with a rot-13 thrown in just for fun.
Text is limited to 80 chars (limitation of the PC-2) but since it takes so long to encrypt, I doubt anyone will hit that.
The aa() array is used so that we only encrypt to values that are enterable on the keyboard - otherwise we can’t enter the values to decrypt.
The main problem is that it's very slow. I mean really slow. *sigh* It works, but the lack of speed makes it impractical.
DEF A - Encrypt text
DEF D - Decrypt text
20 input a$(0)
30 for i = 1 to len(a$(0))
40 a= asc(mid$(a$(0),i,1)): gosub "L": a=e: gosub "F"
45 a$(1)=a$(1)+chr$ e
50 gosub "Z"
55 cursor 0:print a$(1)
60 next i
70 wait:print a$(1)
80 end
110 "D" gosub 610
120 input a$(0)
130 for i = 1 to len(a$(0))
140 a= asc(mid$(a$(0),i,1)): gosub "S": a=e: gosub "F"
145 a$(1)=a$(1)+chr$ e
150 gosub "Z"
160 next i
170 print a$(1)
180 end
200 :rem encrypt with current rotor value
210 "L" gosub 810:e=b+r
220 if e > 83 LET e=e-84
230 return
300 :rem decrypt with current rotor value
310 "S" gosub 810: e=b-r
320 if e < 0 LET e=e+84
330 return
400 :rem reflector
410 "F" e=a+84/2
420 if e > 83 LET e=e-84
430 e=aa(e):return
500 :rem rotate rotor
510 "Z" r=r+1: if r >83 LET r=0
520 return
600 : rem setup
610 clear: dim aa(83), a$(1)*80:restore
620 input “Start value:”;r
630 for i = 0 to 83: read aa(i): next i:return
640 DATA 32,33,35,36,37,38,40,41,42
650 DATA 43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52
660 DATA 53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62
670 DATA 63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72
680 DATA 73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82
690 DATA 83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90,94,97
700 DATA 98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106
710 DATA 107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115
720 DATA 116,117,118,119,120,121,122
730 return
800 :rem lookup
810 for ii =0 to 83: b = ii
820 if aa(ii)=a then return
830 next ii
840 return 0
Saturday, December 02, 2017
The end of "vacation"
So yesterday was my last "vacation" day. I start work at a new job on Monday. Which is a good thing because I finished up most of my projects.
The MemoSaver project was (finally) a success. I had the expected issues with the serial interface, but I got it working at 1200 BPS. At that speed, even with large memos, it works pretty well.
I finished up my Christmas Lights project.
150 NeoPixels hooked up to an Arduino Uno. I powered it off a 5V 10A power supply. Everything's protected with (laugh) a utility bucket with a tight fitting lid and some silicone sealant.
The MemoSaver project was (finally) a success. I had the expected issues with the serial interface, but I got it working at 1200 BPS. At that speed, even with large memos, it works pretty well.
I finished up my Christmas Lights project.
Still more projects in the queue, though. I have a Fun Light Switch Box. I made one of these before, but made some mistakes (partly due to a poor design and partly my ignorance). They updated the design and I've learned, so this one should work out much better.
I have a couple of Matchbox restoration projects that are almost done. Just waiting for parts now.
I want to write some meaty software for my PC-2. So I'm looking at porting the Enigma (yes, the German WWII encryption machine) to my PC-2. Since it's a complete rewrite from a modern programming language to a very constrained BASIC, I have to take it all the way down to basics and redesign things. A nice, meaty, project.
The rest of my projects remain in hold status. When I get time... (Probably after I retire in 18 years.)
Saturday, November 18, 2017
More DVD reviews
So, while finishing up the Christmas Cookie work (which is now done!), I decided to finish up the movies in my DVD queue.
Captain America: Civil War
It was OK. Not as good as the first Captain America or Winter Soldier, but still good. I think the reason the movie was just OK was that it was a "set up" movie for something later on.
Spiderman: Homecoming
This movie just failed to grab me at all. It wasn't a bad movie, though. I just couldn't get in to it. But then I realized that they made it like the first Spiderman comic: for teens. The reason Spiderman took off was that the hero was in the same demographic as the comic book readers.
So this DVD went off to the "give away" pile.
So now the DVD queue is empty.
(Well, that's not quite true. Dawn has the Little (out)House on the Prarie box set there, but I'll only watch that with her.)
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Pocket Computer 4 printer (more)
So, here's more details about what I did (along with pictures).
The green/black wires used to be hooked up to the battery. The yellow/purple (hard to see since I cut most of them away - near where the black/green wires attach to the circuit board) used to be hooked up to the AC adapter plug.
The green wire is negative and it's hooked up to the center pin. The AC adapter that I used...
is something I picked up at the "junk store" and is just a 6V power supply. I normally use these with my TRS-80 Model 100/102s.
The original battery pack was a set of 4 AAA NiCd rechargeables, so 6V was right.
Side note: I tried a couple of other "6"V power supplies, but they were showing me 9-10V on my volt meter. Strange.
Anyway... it's working.
Sorry for the sideways video. I had hoped that it would have auto rotated.
All I did was a simple program that loops 1-20 and displays the number and the number multiplied by 10. I used Mode 7 to send the output to the printer.
Notes:
1. This will not work with the cassette interface hooked up. Only with the printer directly connected. I don't know why. But since I use the cassette interface so rarely, I probably won't look into it.
2. You must have the power supplied to the printer before turning the PC-4 on. Otherwise, you'll get an Err 9.
But overall, I'm pretty happy. I liked working with these. It was a nice learning experience.
The green wire is negative and it's hooked up to the center pin. The AC adapter that I used...
The original battery pack was a set of 4 AAA NiCd rechargeables, so 6V was right.
Side note: I tried a couple of other "6"V power supplies, but they were showing me 9-10V on my volt meter. Strange.
Anyway... it's working.
All I did was a simple program that loops 1-20 and displays the number and the number multiplied by 10. I used Mode 7 to send the output to the printer.
Notes:
1. This will not work with the cassette interface hooked up. Only with the printer directly connected. I don't know why. But since I use the cassette interface so rarely, I probably won't look into it.
2. You must have the power supplied to the printer before turning the PC-4 on. Otherwise, you'll get an Err 9.
But overall, I'm pretty happy. I liked working with these. It was a nice learning experience.
Monday, November 13, 2017
Pocket Computer 4 printer
They live!
So I have 3 Pocket Computer 4 printers. I smoked one of them a while ago. So that one is on the "display" unit.
The PC-4 printers were originally powered by NiCd batteries. After 30 years, they are shot. This was always one of the issues with the PC-4 printer. You couldn't charge it and use it. You could only do 1 at a time. So once the batteries wore out, the printer was kinda useless.
My solution was sort of against the rules. I diked the batteries out. I de-soldered and cut out the wires that led from the AC adapter to the charging circuit. Then I attached the wires that came from the batteries to the AC adapter port.
This means the the printer is now powered by the external AC adapter.
As expected, the 6V 20mA adapter that originally came with the printer was pretty much useless. But using a 6V 400mA adapter (that I use with my Model 102) powered the printer just fine.
I performed the same process on the other PC-4 printer and it worked fine too.
So I have 3 Pocket Computer 4 printers. I smoked one of them a while ago. So that one is on the "display" unit.
The PC-4 printers were originally powered by NiCd batteries. After 30 years, they are shot. This was always one of the issues with the PC-4 printer. You couldn't charge it and use it. You could only do 1 at a time. So once the batteries wore out, the printer was kinda useless.
My solution was sort of against the rules. I diked the batteries out. I de-soldered and cut out the wires that led from the AC adapter to the charging circuit. Then I attached the wires that came from the batteries to the AC adapter port.
This means the the printer is now powered by the external AC adapter.
As expected, the 6V 20mA adapter that originally came with the printer was pretty much useless. But using a 6V 400mA adapter (that I use with my Model 102) powered the printer just fine.
I performed the same process on the other PC-4 printer and it worked fine too.
Pine A64
But all is not well.
I pulled out my Pine A64 to see if I could replace Dawn's aging Dell Optiplex with it.
Upon hooking it up, it failed to boot. So I reflashed the SD card. Still no go.
I've tried on 2 different keyboard/monitor/mouse configurations and nothing. Just the red power indicator. No indication that it's doing anything.
I'm pretty sure it's dead. 8(
Another item for the elementary school "show and tell" box.
Addition: I checked the 'Why won't my Pine A64 boot' sites. One of the reasons was a corrupt SD card. So I used a nicer card, verifying the card after flashing it. No go.
I pulled out my Pine A64 to see if I could replace Dawn's aging Dell Optiplex with it.
Upon hooking it up, it failed to boot. So I reflashed the SD card. Still no go.
I've tried on 2 different keyboard/monitor/mouse configurations and nothing. Just the red power indicator. No indication that it's doing anything.
I'm pretty sure it's dead. 8(
Another item for the elementary school "show and tell" box.
Addition: I checked the 'Why won't my Pine A64 boot' sites. One of the reasons was a corrupt SD card. So I used a nicer card, verifying the card after flashing it. No go.
Pocket Computer 2 printers
So when I got my lot from the Tandy Corporate Auction a while back, in it was a Pocket Computer 2.
When I "examined" the lot (from the pictures on the web site), it had a bunch of stuff. Including some Model 100/102 stuff and Pocket Computer 4 stuff. I had a PC-4 through college (I purchased it with my high school graduation money) and I wanted to get the stuff that I couldn't afford back then. And then there's my Model 100/102 addiction that I seem to have gotten. 8)
So the working PC-2 was an unexpected bonus. And I've fallen in love with the device. So I purchased some cassette/printer interfaces from eBay. I did get some cassette interfaces in the Tandy Lot, but they were for the PC-1.
The two PC-2 cassette/printer interfaces that I got were not complete functional. The cassette part worked just fine (did you know that you can load/save programs via the sound board in your PC?) but the printer part didn't.
So I decided to see if I could get the printers working. But no luck. I did find a problem with one of the printers. The guide rail for the print head was loose. I fixed that. But they still give me an "Error 6" when first powered up.
Now, I did have to do a battery-ectomy on both. The NiCd batteries were 30 years old and starting to leak. According to the information on line, the batteries were only there to give the printer a boost since the solenoids for the print head needed > 1A of power when firing and the AC Adaptor only produced 500mA. So I made sure that I had a big enough power supply (2A in this case).
The printer seemed to come alive with the print head moving a bit, but still no go. Ah, well. 30 years is a long time. I'm surprised that these lasted as long as they did.
But I also took apart one of my PC-4 printers. And I'm reasonably sure that I can get that working. Another project!
When I "examined" the lot (from the pictures on the web site), it had a bunch of stuff. Including some Model 100/102 stuff and Pocket Computer 4 stuff. I had a PC-4 through college (I purchased it with my high school graduation money) and I wanted to get the stuff that I couldn't afford back then. And then there's my Model 100/102 addiction that I seem to have gotten. 8)
So the working PC-2 was an unexpected bonus. And I've fallen in love with the device. So I purchased some cassette/printer interfaces from eBay. I did get some cassette interfaces in the Tandy Lot, but they were for the PC-1.
The two PC-2 cassette/printer interfaces that I got were not complete functional. The cassette part worked just fine (did you know that you can load/save programs via the sound board in your PC?) but the printer part didn't.
So I decided to see if I could get the printers working. But no luck. I did find a problem with one of the printers. The guide rail for the print head was loose. I fixed that. But they still give me an "Error 6" when first powered up.
Now, I did have to do a battery-ectomy on both. The NiCd batteries were 30 years old and starting to leak. According to the information on line, the batteries were only there to give the printer a boost since the solenoids for the print head needed > 1A of power when firing and the AC Adaptor only produced 500mA. So I made sure that I had a big enough power supply (2A in this case).
The printer seemed to come alive with the print head moving a bit, but still no go. Ah, well. 30 years is a long time. I'm surprised that these lasted as long as they did.
But I also took apart one of my PC-4 printers. And I'm reasonably sure that I can get that working. Another project!
Friday, November 10, 2017
Thursday, November 02, 2017
Doctor Strange
Now that I have extra time on my hands, I'm catching up on my DVDs. So I finally popped Doctor Strange into the DVD player.
I have to say that I'm rather disappointed.
It's not that good compared to the other Marvel movies that I've seen. Too much eye-candy (but not to the extent of Speed Racer) and too little story. Plenty of action, so it's not boring.
I guess that I just expected so much more.
I have to say that I'm rather disappointed.
It's not that good compared to the other Marvel movies that I've seen. Too much eye-candy (but not to the extent of Speed Racer) and too little story. Plenty of action, so it's not boring.
I guess that I just expected so much more.
Unemployment
Another new experience: I just signed up for unemployment.
Talk about bureaucracy (or should I say burro-cracy). I still have to jump through a couple hoops, but things actually went rather smoothly.
I probably won't get anything (yet) because of severance and the like. But still... New experiences are always a good thing (even when they aren't fun).
Talk about bureaucracy (or should I say burro-cracy). I still have to jump through a couple hoops, but things actually went rather smoothly.
I probably won't get anything (yet) because of severance and the like. But still... New experiences are always a good thing (even when they aren't fun).
Wednesday, November 01, 2017
Latest
Wow. No update since May. But I have an excuse since I've been busy and big changes have happened.
I've gotten a TPDD2 for my T102 and I had fun playing with that. I've also gotten LaddieAlpha working on my Raspberry Pi 0 W. My latest project there is to make a drive activity light work. I also need to make a button that reboots LaddieAlpha.
LaddieAlpha is C#/Mono. I tried to update it to use .Net Core 2.0, but there is still no hardware support in .Net Core, and LaddieAlpha needs to change the serial port settings.
I'm playing with the idea to logging into the Pi 0 W using the serial port. But the TELCOM program on the T102 is very limited. While it does work to play some games (like Adventure), it's very hard to edit a file using vi.
I've also gotten my PC-2 and PC-4 software loaded through the cassette cradle and the sound card on my PC.
I am no longer on my condo board! Yay! Certain people on the board want to personally be "The Board" and make decisions without the input from the rest of the board. Those people are also unprofessional, abusive and (should I say it? Yes!) stupid. Rather than deal with this, I'll just let them self-destruct (or hopefully get the abusive one out when she does something improper).
But the big change is that I have, for the moment, joined the ranks of the Unemployed. Yes, after 20 years, my "position has been eliminated", which we figure is pretty true. They aren't doing any new development. Heck, all the programmers pretty much went to the outsourcing company. So if we don't have any programmers and aren't doing any new development, why do they need an architect? Makes sense.
The only problem with their thinking is that the outsourcing company is pretty much staffed by newbies. They aren't dumb by any means. But they don't have any experience. Some don't even know how to install the developer tools. I figure that sometime later this month, I'll get a call to "consult" with them (i.e. "please come in and work hard to pull our rear ends out of the fire").
I intend to have a new job before then.
I now have 6 recruiters looking out for me. I have 2 companies that have expressed an interest and I've applied at about 10 in the last week. So not too bad.
I'm not in any big rush since the severance package kicks in soon (which is one big reason why my ex-company and the name of the outsourcing company will not be posted here). So I basically get my paycheck until Feb. 2018.
I've gotten a TPDD2 for my T102 and I had fun playing with that. I've also gotten LaddieAlpha working on my Raspberry Pi 0 W. My latest project there is to make a drive activity light work. I also need to make a button that reboots LaddieAlpha.
LaddieAlpha is C#/Mono. I tried to update it to use .Net Core 2.0, but there is still no hardware support in .Net Core, and LaddieAlpha needs to change the serial port settings.
I'm playing with the idea to logging into the Pi 0 W using the serial port. But the TELCOM program on the T102 is very limited. While it does work to play some games (like Adventure), it's very hard to edit a file using vi.
I've also gotten my PC-2 and PC-4 software loaded through the cassette cradle and the sound card on my PC.
I am no longer on my condo board! Yay! Certain people on the board want to personally be "The Board" and make decisions without the input from the rest of the board. Those people are also unprofessional, abusive and (should I say it? Yes!) stupid. Rather than deal with this, I'll just let them self-destruct (or hopefully get the abusive one out when she does something improper).
But the big change is that I have, for the moment, joined the ranks of the Unemployed. Yes, after 20 years, my "position has been eliminated", which we figure is pretty true. They aren't doing any new development. Heck, all the programmers pretty much went to the outsourcing company. So if we don't have any programmers and aren't doing any new development, why do they need an architect? Makes sense.
The only problem with their thinking is that the outsourcing company is pretty much staffed by newbies. They aren't dumb by any means. But they don't have any experience. Some don't even know how to install the developer tools. I figure that sometime later this month, I'll get a call to "consult" with them (i.e. "please come in and work hard to pull our rear ends out of the fire").
I intend to have a new job before then.
I now have 6 recruiters looking out for me. I have 2 companies that have expressed an interest and I've applied at about 10 in the last week. So not too bad.
I'm not in any big rush since the severance package kicks in soon (which is one big reason why my ex-company and the name of the outsourcing company will not be posted here). So I basically get my paycheck until Feb. 2018.
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
Penguicon - the last post
After reading through ESR's letter about Penguicon, I did some more digging and located Jay Maynard's post about the event.
This validates my feeling that the left-wing regressives have taken over Pengiucon.
On Jay's post, many of the comments are just attacks, doing a "you don't agree with me, so you must be a bad person".
But one of the comments is stood out for me:
Penguicon is no longer for me. I had hoped that things would change, especially after Jay and Eric spoke out about the problems. But I see that will never happen now. I had hoped that after a couple years things would get better and I would return. But that won't happen now either.
But that makes me sad. I assume that Eric, Jay, and others are sad about this as well. That's why we spoke out about these problems. We don't want to see Penguicon die. But there's nothing we can do now to stop that.
This is the last post. I will no longer even follow Penguicon anymore.
This validates my feeling that the left-wing regressives have taken over Pengiucon.
On Jay's post, many of the comments are just attacks, doing a "you don't agree with me, so you must be a bad person
But one of the comments is stood out for me:
A very large portion of the programming presented by the convention was suggested by, and run by, attendees. As the demographics of the convention skew younger, less white, and less male than typical tech conferences, the panels presented reflect the submissions of those panelists. You see less panels aligned with your beliefs not because they are excluded but because less people with those beliefs attend the convention that hit nearly 1,600 people this year — a convention that’s grown by 100 to 200 every year for the past 5.I agree 100%. Penguicon has changed. It started off as an inclusive convention that welcomed everyone. We welcomed the left-wing regressives. And they showed their gratitude by excluding everyone that doesn't think like them.
Penguicon is no longer for me. I had hoped that things would change, especially after Jay and Eric spoke out about the problems. But I see that will never happen now. I had hoped that after a couple years things would get better and I would return. But that won't happen now either.
But that makes me sad. I assume that Eric, Jay, and others are sad about this as well. That's why we spoke out about these problems. We don't want to see Penguicon die. But there's nothing we can do now to stop that.
This is the last post. I will no longer even follow Penguicon anymore.
Sunday, April 30, 2017
The Penguicon that never was
Penguicon was this weekend. We didn't even notice that we had missed it until today.
What I did this year was go through the panel list and pull out everything that I wanted to see. After thinking about each one, I pared that list down to about 5 panels. Pretty bad. Out of 48 hours of panels, I could only find 5.
I researched the topics on the 5 panels in less than one day.
So I believe that we made the right decision to skip it. Unless I see big changes for next year, we probably won't be going ever again.
Today (5/2/2017), a message to the Penguicon-General mailing list from Eric S. Raymond (if he posts it on his web site, I'll edit to add the link here) basically echoed the issues that I already documented with Penguicon. But I guess this year, it was even worse, vindicating our decision to not attend.
I didn't realize, but one of the GOHs was a SJW (Social Justice Warrior). I'm really glad I didn't waste my time and money going this year. Penguicon has been taken over by the left-wing regressives as I thought.
What I did this year was go through the panel list and pull out everything that I wanted to see. After thinking about each one, I pared that list down to about 5 panels. Pretty bad. Out of 48 hours of panels, I could only find 5.
I researched the topics on the 5 panels in less than one day.
So I believe that we made the right decision to skip it. Unless I see big changes for next year, we probably won't be going ever again.
Today (5/2/2017), a message to the Penguicon-General mailing list from Eric S. Raymond (if he posts it on his web site, I'll edit to add the link here) basically echoed the issues that I already documented with Penguicon. But I guess this year, it was even worse, vindicating our decision to not attend.
I didn't realize, but one of the GOHs was a SJW (Social Justice Warrior). I'm really glad I didn't waste my time and money going this year. Penguicon has been taken over by the left-wing regressives as I thought.
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
RDOS - Beta version ready
The beta version of rdos is ready.
Features:
Features:
- "Boot" everything from a clean Tandy. This will load the "RLOAD" program which will let you load all the other programs.
- Load, Save data files (sorry, the BASIC doesn't let me load tokenized BASIC files). You can still load programs as text files, then "LOAD XXX.DO in the BASIC interpreter.
- List files on the drive.
- Change directories on the drive.
- Rename and delete files on the drive.
- You can "reference" a file on the drive. Then you can LOAD "COM:98N1D the file at the touch of a button.
- Also, file seek is supported plus the reading of a number of bytes (writing was already supported). This will allow you to write a program that uses the drive as "virtual memory".
The project has all the clients written and fairly well tested. Also examples for the file seek feature.
I haven't "beat the heck out of it" yet as far as use. It seems to work just fine for the limited use and testing that I did. So I'm pleased right now.
Sunday, April 09, 2017
RDOS - Arduino TPDD Reborn
The programs that I wrote to talk to my Arduino set up worked, even though the original clients didn't. So, I decided to write my own clients to talk to it.
The new project is called RDOS (for Ron's Disk Operating System - hey, I created it, so I get to name it). You can get it here.
Since I now control both the client and the device, I decided to simplify things. So it no longer does the full TPDD protocol.
The new project is called RDOS (for Ron's Disk Operating System - hey, I created it, so I get to name it). You can get it here.
Since I now control both the client and the device, I decided to simplify things. So it no longer does the full TPDD protocol.
Commands:
- Directory Reference - Option 0, 1 and 2 are used. Option 3 was changed from "request previous directory block", to "change directory". Option 4 is removed.
- Open file - Implemented
- Close file - Implemented
- Read file - Implemented
- Write file - Implemented
- Delete file - Implemented
- Format Disk - Unsupported
- Drive Status - Unsupported
- DME Req - Unsupported
- Drive Condition - Unsupported
- Rename file - Implemented
- TS-DOS Mystery Command - Unsupported
- TS-DOS Mystery Command - Unsupported
File names were padded, internally, to be 6 bytes, dot, 2 bytes. This restriction was removed. You can use the full 24 bytes for the remote file name. You still need to name it to be only 6 bytes on the Tandy size, though.
Checksum will not be supported (since the communications is much better, it's no longer needed).
Client programs:
- RLIST.BA - List the files in the current directory
- RLOAD.BA - Load the file into the Tandy - the program loaded by the boot button
- RSAVE.BA - Save the file into the SD card
- RUTIL.BA - Delete/rename files, change working directory
Notes:
- Tandy BASIC does not permit you to open a .BA file for writing, so you can't load a tokenized BASIC program. You can only load it as a .DO file and then do a LOAD "xxx.DO" in the BASIC interpreter. Note that you can SAVE a .BA file, though. So this project only works for data files, not binary program files.
- Don't bother trying to save a file with any extension other than .DO. You will get an "?MN Error". Just leave the extension off for the Tandy file name and let it default to .DO.
- It will "boot" the loader program by doing a LOAD "COM:98N1D and pressing a button. Once the loader program is there, you can load the save, list and utility programs.
- I implemented directory handling, so you can use a nice, big SD card and subdirectories.
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