Just watched King of Kong Fistful of Quarters

Just watched King of Kong Fistful of Quarters and I have to say that it was really interesting.

I had no idea that setting the world record in Donkey Kong had so much intrigue and drama. It got pretty emotional at times watching Steve Wiebe try and try again to break the record.

Records were meant to be broken and there's a new rivalry, but the story of Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell was very entertaining. Good stuff even almost a decade later.

Jumpman Zero

Back in the day, one of my favorite games was Jumpman. About 10 years ago I found this game by Dave Campbell called Jumpman Zero and I really liked it. In fact I would say that it is one of the best games I've ever played.

What was cool is that you could run it from the command line and select which level you wanted to play (that way I could play all 30 levels without incessant restarts). The levels really had great design and inventiveness.

Here's a guy playing Jumpman Zero with German commentary (I have no idea what he's saying).

knoppix 7.6 released

Yay! the long wait is over for the next version of knoppix. I've gotta get my knoppix fix, so I downloaded it. I copied the iso to my flash drive and it failed because my flash drive is FAT32 and FAT32 has the dreaded 4GB limit. Unfortunately, knoppix7.6 is 4.1 gigabytes. Rats! So it looks like I'm going to reformat my flash drives to something other than FAT32, probably NTFS.

So bliss is postponed until then.

Looking at the actionprinter rom

I was curious what the ap2000 rom characters looked like so I wrote a crap qbasic program to draw them to the screen.


DECLARE SUB plotbyte (xpos!, ypos!, byte!)
DECLARE FUNCTION bitset! (nextbyte!, bit!)
DIM file%(0 TO 32700)

OPEN "ap2k~1.ic3" FOR BINARY AS #1

skipto = 13650
SCREEN 13


WHILE NOT EOF(1)
bytenum = bytenum + 1

a$ = INPUT$(1, #1)
nextbyte = ASC(a$)
IF bytenum < UBOUND(file%) THEN file%(bytenum) = nextbyte IF skipto <> 0 THEN
IF bytenum > skipto THEN
plotbyte xpos, ypos, nextbyte
xpos = xpos + 1
IF xpos > 256 THEN xpos = 0: ypos = ypos + 10
IF ypos > 190 THEN CLS : ypos = 0
LOCATE 1, 262 / 8: PRINT bytenum;

END IF
END IF
IF bytenum MOD 25 = 0 THEN LOCATE 1, 262 / 8: PRINT bytenum


WEND

FUNCTION bitset (nextbyte, bit)
x = nextbyte AND (2 ^ bit)
IF x = 0 THEN bitset = 0 ELSE bitset = 1
END FUNCTION

SUB plotbyte (xpos, ypos, nextbyte)
FOR bit = 0 TO 7: PSET (xpos, (7 - bit) + ypos), 15 * bitset(nextbyte, bit): NEXT
END SUB





What I notice is that most of the rom (at least half of the 32k is the character data). It's a 9 pin printer so to get the NLQ characters it makes two passes of the printhead for 18 dots vertically.

Each character is given as a draft, then italics, then the vertically interleaved NLQ character. Some characters have more than one NLQ version for different widths (pica or elite possibly). Capital A for example. Many only have one NLQ version.

Flavorings in my turkey

We had a big turkey for Thanksgiving and it was really good. A couple of hours later though, I got a big headache. I checked the label on the frozen turkey and sure enough, there's "flavor" listed as an ingredient. It's getting so you can't even buy chicken and turkey without getting some ridiculous "broth" with flavorings injected into it. I don't get it. The meat always tasted fine without all of these additives, why are they putting this into the food now?

I've really got to watch those labels.

Jurassic World

I watched Jurassic World yesterday and was amused at how the Indominus Rex got out of his cage. It's funny that with all of the technology in the park, they don't have a tracking screen at the cage itself. It can only be tracked from the main command center. Seriously? I guess they never heard of networking or smartphone apps like "find my i-Rex".

That Indominus Rex is sure smart, like Moriarty.

Good movie, despite all the illogic.

Joys of using a tv as a monitor

So I've got this 24 inch tv with HDMI that I'm using as a monitor. Mostly it looks pretty good, but there are a couple of things that are irritating. One is that it wants to overscan HDMI at 1280x720p so I can't see the full screen. I'm using one of those Displaylink USB to HDMI adapters, which after some searching has the option to shrink the available display down so that it fits on the monitor.

It doesn't move in increments smaller than 64 pixels though, so I'm using a resolution of 1216x656 and everything is visible with a small black border around it all.

The displaylink goes up to 1680x1050 but it's easier to read at the lower resolution. Interestingly, the higher resolutions aren't zoomed at all by the TV, just the one I want to use, 1280x720p.

Also the displaylink has kind of a weird "interlacing" effect when scrolling. I think it's saving up on the amount of data it's sending over the USB bus.

Which brings me to my next feature, cleartype. The text has a weird red/blue fringing not too unlike the old apple II graphical text. It's most noticeable when on a completely white or black background.

And then the most annoying thing is that the TV doesn't want to go into standby upon losing the signal. A regular monitor wants to go into powersave immediately, but TV's do not, happily telling you for the next 10 minutes that there is no signal. Then it will power off but won't come back on when you bring the computer out of standby, making you find the remote control so you can turn the TV back on.


Some more things about this tv. I put another system on the VGA input, and the VGA will only go up to 1440x900 even though the TV is full hd. If I use the HDMI input on this TV with the same computer, I can get 1920x1080 and it looks great. It identifies itself as a "Mars-Tech 26 inch" in ubuntu even though the brand is Haier. If you don't use the full hd and use the "stretch" aspect at 1440x900 it looks terrible with ugly horizontal blurry scaling and there's no ability to sharpen up the image. The menu option for sharpness is greyed out.

Buddy personal robot

I like the telepresence/watchdog capabilities. It would be good to have a sentry robot around the house.

Transparent Car

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/03/check-out-this-amazing-transparent-car/

I thought this was awesome. Since we don't have transparent aluminum cars yet, this is the next best thing.

Howabout a transparent lexus made out of acrylic?

Movies with car accidents

One of the trends I'm noticing is how many movies revolve around car accidents as a major element of the plot.

I just watched Human Capital where a speeding SUV hits a bicyclist in a hit and run.

Bella has a man haunted by running a child over in the street.

In "The Lookout", Joseph Gordon Leavitt plays a man who has a tragic car accident that leaves him with brain damage and kills two of his friends.

Separate Lies has a car sideswipe a bicyclist and kill them.

Felony has Jai Courtney pursuing Joel Edgerton who ran over a child and covered it up.

Another one is Cake with Jennifer Aniston where she plays a woman whose son is killed and she left in terrible pain after a crash.

Arbitrage has Richard Gere killing his mistress in an accident.

Another Earth is a story about a woman who wants to atone for a tragic accident she caused.

The Machinist, Rabbit Hole, Stuck, Margaret, What Lies Beneath, Monster's Ball, Snow Cake, If I Stay and Premoition are a few others.

Just something that I was thinking about. In the future, these storylines will disappear with the advent of self driving cars. Until then, we'll have art imitating life. And vice versa.

Find your doppleganger

Twin Strangers gains 500,000 users in six months helping strangers find their doppelganger online.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/family-friends/twin-strangers-gains-500000-users-in-six-months-helping-strangers-find-doppelganger-online/news-story/f9df889dc0209d21a7818776f7c46042

and while we're on the subject, how about some paranormal doppleganger stories.


http://paranormal.about.com/od/Doppelgangers/a/doppelgangers.htm

Playing with ap2000

After reading about the Action Printer 2000 in mess I have been fascinated with actually seeing it run. I finally was able to get mame 167 compiled in ubuntu. I don't know what I'm doing so it's been pretty frustrating trying to get everything set up.


First, I tried ubuntu 15.10 and I was getting video corruption with the Intel 4 series integrated graphics. Then I tried ubuntu 14.04 and I got the same corruption. I read a post where the problem lies with an uneven amount of memory. 3GB created corruption. After pulling a 1GB stick, 2GB seems to be run fine with no problems.

I found Ramiro Polla's dummy centronics driver and was able to get it compiled with:

make SUBTARGET=dmcntr

https://github.com/ramiropolla/mame/commits/dmcntr

https://github.com/mamedev/mame/issues/350

and after the magic invocation (how I struggled to figure this out) I got to see it run. Yay!

./messdmcntr64 dmcntr -centronics ap2000 -window


First came up a layout that filled the screen, but after fiddling with the video options I could see the printer output.

I had to change the /dev/lp0 to just plain old lp0 and do a "mkfifo lp0" and then I could pipe stuff to see it print.

Fantastic!

Man rigs the lottery

"I've gotta go into the server room to update it for Daylight Saving Time"

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/07/inside-the-biggest-lottery-scam-ever.html

The $48,000 tow truck bill

I think that's more than the jeep probably cost new.

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/28/tow-company-charges-massachusetts-man-nearly-49000-to-pull-jeep-from-mud-pit.html

Uninsured and Unlicensed Motorists

Here's something to think about the next time you're on the road. There's a lot of uninsured and unlicensed motorists driving around.

There's a lot of "winking" going on regarding uninsured motorists I think. They could get the uninsured off the road if they wanted to.

Mississippi has an estimated 28% uninsured motorists according to the IRC.

"Mississippi, however, has no way for police to determine whether a driver has coverage, says insurance commissioner Mike Chaney. He says he worries about privacy and entrapment if data are misused, and his state doesn't require proof of insurance. "The legislature has never had the fortitude or the backbone to do it," he says."

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-09-11/uninsured-drivers/50363390/1

http://www.autoinsurance.org/how-many-drivers-dont-have-auto-insurance/

Unlicensed drivers are a real problem as well. In Youngstown, Ohio it's epidemic.

“The No. 1 crime in the city of Youngstown is people driving without a license, absolutely without a doubt,” said Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly of Youngstown Municipal Court. It’s a crime she deals with “at least 10 times a day.”

Police Chief Rod Foley calls the problem of unlicensed and uninsured drivers an “epidemic.”


http://www.vindy.com/news/2013/sep/02/epidemic-unlicensed-uninsured-drivers/

Terminator Genisys wasn't half bad

I watched Terminator: Genisys today after it came out on Redbox and I must say that it was pretty good. I was expecting something awful after reading some reviews but it was surprisingly decent.

Here's a interesting tidbit: According to this article at slashfilm, despite grossing $440 million worldwide, the picture lost money.

http://www.slashfilm.com/terminator-sequels-on-hold-indefinitely/

Honest Trailers came out with a perfect Trailer for Terminator Genisys. It's totally spot on.

Wargames PC 1998

I remember this old PC RTS strategy game from 1998. It's kind of obscure but I really liked it years ago. It didn't age well, and the 3d graphics look clunky now. To save cpu resources the infantry are sprites instead of 3d.

It did have its charm and some of the levels were pretty clever. There was one mission I recall where I didn't bother to listen to the briefing. Not knowing what I was supposed to do I figured that I'd try to build up my base and defend it. After failing miserably a few times, I found out that I had to get my forces on the move.

It's also notable for being the only game I ever bought that came with a virus on the cd. The program that registers you is infected. If you never run the registration program, the virus will never bother you. I don't think I've ever registered a game anyway.


http://www.ign.com/articles/1998/08/14/wargames-plagued-by-virus

Bolivia RFID tags on cars

"The startlingly simple solution is for gas stations to check the RFID tag of every car that pulls into the station. In a pilot program, the country identified 12,000 vehicles using illegal duplicate plates."

http://www.informationweek.com/it-life/rfid-chips-in-windshields-simple-way-to-catch-bad-guys/d/d-id/1320713

Ship of the imagination or Space Avocado

I was eating an avocado and was just noticing how much it reminds me of the ship of the imagination from Cosmos.

Complex cars

http://www.caranddriver.com/flipbook/10-cars-that-made-complexity-a-virtue

Furious 7 networking

I was watching Furious 7 a couple of days ago and was amused at the high tech networking gear that was in the Billionaire's building.

"It's gonna be a 350 megahertz CAT5e cable."

I guess they cut a few corners and didn't use Category 6 cable...

"but this will be the bonded pair with the plenum coat."

Elevators without cables

Here's an elevator design that doesn't use cables, running on tracks instead.

http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/thyssenkrupp-unveils-model-multi-vertical-mass-transit-system.html

Shoe production

I got a new pair of shoes out today and was curious what the acronym EVA meant on the info tag. According to wikipedia, EVA is ethylene vinyl acetate. So I started looking for EVA injection or EVA moulding on youtube.

It's interesting to watch the workings of a factory that makes shoes. It's quite an elaborate process from start to finish.

The amazing Do Nothing machine

Taurus "for us" commercials

I always got a kick out of the Taurus "for us" commercials. It's interesting how excited and high energy these commercials were. Most commercials today don't seem to have that "over the top" quality. It's not merely a car. It's a TAURUS! For us!

Come sailing in a Land Barge - 1975 ninety eight

I like the sound of it idling. He can just get it out of the garage without hitting the ground on the slope.

Lincoln Continental cook book

"Like the 1978 Diamond Jubilee edition, 1979 Collectors Series featured leather wrapped tool kit, owners manual, umbrella, and even a cook book."


http://www.classiccarstodayonline.com/2012/04/19/a-look-back-at-a-true-american-classic-the-1977-79-lincoln-continental-mark-v/1979-lincoln-mark-v-coll-navy-j/

http://www.classiccarstodayonline.com/2012/04/19/a-look-back-at-a-true-american-classic-the-1977-79-lincoln-continental-mark-v/

"Every new owner was given the special car keys and could request a Ford created cookbook entitled "Ford Diamond Jubilee Recipe Collection"."


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Continental_Mark_V

http://www.lincolnmarkv.com/LincolnMarkV/Diamond_Jubilee_Cookbook/Pages/DJ_COOKBOOK.html