My youngest one (two) finally got a grip on pedaling. For a while she would be pushing herself left and right up and down, but today she finally started doing it. First backwards, then forwards. The fun thing was when she started doing it she was doing it... she kept riding for about half an hour.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Retro Moment - Prehistoric on Atari ST Emulator (hatari)
Don't get me wrong... not saying that some of the new games are not that good, but you got to love some of the classics. My four year one enjoys the good old "platforms". He is getting a hold of the keys and got to tell the "hatari" emulator under Ubuntu is great. I love the full screen mode...
My "retro expert" here also enjoys typing programs on TRS-80 Model 102 (in the picture at the right) and Laser 5s.
My "retro expert" here also enjoys typing programs on TRS-80 Model 102 (in the picture at the right) and Laser 5s.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
"Kodak Moment" - Mr. Lizzard
Look at this guy resting on the window of my kids' bathroom. He was pretty cool and posed for few shots like this...
Thursday, May 8, 2008
In Search for Perfect Bread (Part IV) - Seljacka Pogaca
Village People Bread ("Seljacka Pogaca")
This is supposed to be simple and raw. And it is.
It has little wild taste, but its yummy (and crunchy) and nice thing about it is it does not require long wait period for dough to rise.
I always like to check the bottom of the bread. I tells you how well baked it was. When the baking is done the bread should easily snap out of the pan.
This simple recipe probably goes way back. In Serbia (former Yugoslavia) it is called Seljacka Pogaca. A cool modification that can be done is use of self-rising flour and pretty much repeat the same recipe.
This is supposed to be simple and raw. And it is.
- 3-4 cups of flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- little bit of vegetable oil (1 teaspoon)
- about a cup of warm water
It has little wild taste, but its yummy (and crunchy) and nice thing about it is it does not require long wait period for dough to rise.
I always like to check the bottom of the bread. I tells you how well baked it was. When the baking is done the bread should easily snap out of the pan.This simple recipe probably goes way back. In Serbia (former Yugoslavia) it is called Seljacka Pogaca. A cool modification that can be done is use of self-rising flour and pretty much repeat the same recipe.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
High Resolution Graphics on Commodore C64
Intro
I am reading this book "On The Edge - Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore" and enjoying the history of some of the coolest home computers ever. It was a wild ride for Commodore and people that were part of that history. C64 was my first computer when I was growing up. Anyhow, I did not have much input on C64 details at the time. I also got Simon's Basic cartridge so I did not have to learn all the PEEK and POKE tricks. Not that I did not know some.
I do have couple of Commodore 64s, but I find VICE emulator running on my Ubuntu Linux very useful. I occasionally enjoy some of the games. From time to time I explore some of the features I never played with. This entry is on how to set up high resolution graphics (calling 320x200 pixels high resolution, he he). There is whole shabazz of VIC II locations (control registers) and several options what can be done with the graphics. Not very impressive now, but quite powerful at the time. VIC II chip was probably one of the most important parts in the C64. Wish they did not screw up the fast serial lines and were not that much in a hurry and used better version of BASIC.
Program
I am checking the Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference Guide. The following program combines info from its pages into a small demo plotting a line on the screen.
The program switches on the graphics mode. Sets the memory location for the bit map. Then, both the bit map memory area and the text area are set to clear the screen and define the colors for each 8x8 region on the screen. Finally, a routine for plotting a line is called.
Running the Program
The cool thing is that the C64 BASIC is so slow that you can see stuff happening before your eyes. Please note that VICE emulator does pretty good job on timings.
Once the graphics was turned on, there is this garbage on the screen. The two loops there are to POKE graphics memory to clear the screen. This takes several seconds to finish.
Second loop fills in the text memory and defines colors. This is little faster as we talking about 1000 locations as compared to 8000 locations of graphics bit map.
Finally, the last loop plots the line point by point. The subroutine for plotting the line starts at line 1000. The subroutine to plot individual dot starts at 2000.
Reference
http://www.devili.iki.fi/Computers/Commodore/C64/Programmers_Reference/page_iii.html
I am reading this book "On The Edge - Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore" and enjoying the history of some of the coolest home computers ever. It was a wild ride for Commodore and people that were part of that history. C64 was my first computer when I was growing up. Anyhow, I did not have much input on C64 details at the time. I also got Simon's Basic cartridge so I did not have to learn all the PEEK and POKE tricks. Not that I did not know some.
I do have couple of Commodore 64s, but I find VICE emulator running on my Ubuntu Linux very useful. I occasionally enjoy some of the games. From time to time I explore some of the features I never played with. This entry is on how to set up high resolution graphics (calling 320x200 pixels high resolution, he he). There is whole shabazz of VIC II locations (control registers) and several options what can be done with the graphics. Not very impressive now, but quite powerful at the time. VIC II chip was probably one of the most important parts in the C64. Wish they did not screw up the fast serial lines and were not that much in a hurry and used better version of BASIC.Program
I am checking the Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference Guide. The following program combines info from its pages into a small demo plotting a line on the screen.
The program switches on the graphics mode. Sets the memory location for the bit map. Then, both the bit map memory area and the text area are set to clear the screen and define the colors for each 8x8 region on the screen. Finally, a routine for plotting a line is called.Running the Program
The cool thing is that the C64 BASIC is so slow that you can see stuff happening before your eyes. Please note that VICE emulator does pretty good job on timings.
Once the graphics was turned on, there is this garbage on the screen. The two loops there are to POKE graphics memory to clear the screen. This takes several seconds to finish.
Second loop fills in the text memory and defines colors. This is little faster as we talking about 1000 locations as compared to 8000 locations of graphics bit map.
Finally, the last loop plots the line point by point. The subroutine for plotting the line starts at line 1000. The subroutine to plot individual dot starts at 2000.Reference
http://www.devili.iki.fi/Computers/Commodore/C64/Programmers_Reference/page_iii.html
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Commodore 64C
I lucked out on eBay and got me another old reliable 8-bit machine. It came in the original box with power supply and weird video cable. During first test with my TV box I use with my VGA monitor it seemed like it is black and white. When I finally tried it with my video cable the thing showed nice familiar blue picture.
It went through "standard" alcohol rubbing procedure and I had to super glue little plastic chip chip at rear corner. This was actually my first 64C that I opened. Have to admit it looks more like a finished product than my good old 64 (without C).
Have not had a chance to try it with disk drive yet. It is nice how a simple POKE can make you excited as compared to new PCs where it is really hard to get a feel what is going on (Vista 2GB Duo Core torture that takes 5 minutes to boot).
It went through "standard" alcohol rubbing procedure and I had to super glue little plastic chip chip at rear corner. This was actually my first 64C that I opened. Have to admit it looks more like a finished product than my good old 64 (without C).
Have not had a chance to try it with disk drive yet. It is nice how a simple POKE can make you excited as compared to new PCs where it is really hard to get a feel what is going on (Vista 2GB Duo Core torture that takes 5 minutes to boot).
Friday, May 2, 2008
Solved: Sound Setup on Dell Vostro 1400 (Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron)
Intro
I have just installed 8.04 LTS Ubuntu on my Dell Vostro 1400 laptop. Everything went pretty smoothly. I had an issue with sound and internal mic.
Solution - Step 1
The trick is to do the following:
sudo alsamixer -V all
Move with cursors to the right and bring the Capture and Digital up to 100%.
Step 2
The next thing is to double click on the sound applet. In the Volume Control window, select Edit, then Preferences. Click on the checkboxes to select Capture, Digital, and Digital Input Source.
While still in Volume Control windows, switch to Options tab and select Digital Mic 1 as input source. After this, my internal mic started working with Skype and Sound Recorder. Step 2 might need to be repeated for each user.
I have just installed 8.04 LTS Ubuntu on my Dell Vostro 1400 laptop. Everything went pretty smoothly. I had an issue with sound and internal mic.
Solution - Step 1
The trick is to do the following:
sudo alsamixer -V all
Move with cursors to the right and bring the Capture and Digital up to 100%.
Step 2
The next thing is to double click on the sound applet. In the Volume Control window, select Edit, then Preferences. Click on the checkboxes to select Capture, Digital, and Digital Input Source.
While still in Volume Control windows, switch to Options tab and select Digital Mic 1 as input source. After this, my internal mic started working with Skype and Sound Recorder. Step 2 might need to be repeated for each user.
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