@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

TomF

@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place

Graphics coder and HW architect, currently at Rec Room, previously at Muckyfoot, RAD Game Tools, Valve, Oculus and Intel.

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aras, (edited ) to random
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Ok, the fact that the "AI" (NPU) chip controller inside Intel's new Meteor Lake CPUs uses SPARC instruction set (from 1990?) was not on my bingo cards for this year. https://chipsandcheese.com/2024/04/22/intel-meteor-lakes-npu/

TomF,
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@aras Do not get me started. Of all the dumb-ass ISAs for an Intel team to be allowed to use...

TomF, to random
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Computers like the ZX Spectrum had each 8x8 block have 1 bit per pixel, and that 1 bit selects between two colours chosen by an 8-bit attribute. For the Spectrum the attribute had 3 bits for colour 0, 3 bits for colour 1, 1 bit to make them bright, and a completely pointless "flash" attribute.

But what if you had twice as many bits?

Well, you'd have four colours per pixel to choose from, and a 16-bit attribute chunk. So 16/4 = 4 bits per colour. Same as the Speecy. Buuuut....

TomF,
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...what if the 16 bits were 3 colours of 5 bits, and a single bit to say whether colour 0 was black or white? Having the other 3 colours be one of 32 colours is veeeery interesting. That's twice as many as the C64!

TomF,
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BTW it is distressing to me that the Speccy could have had the same palette as the C64 if they'd just used their bits better. Burning an entire bit for "flash" - a thing the CPU could have trivially done in SW - is just criminal. It also chewed about 10% of the ULA. We could have had 1-bit PCM sound with those gates!

TomF,
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@mogwai_poet UNTHINK THIS IMMEDIATELY.

TomF,
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@mcmartin @mogwai_poet An 8x1 mode (as in many of the later Speccy clones) would have been so much better. Of course chewed a bit more memory, but not that much more. ah well.

TomF, to random
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

<me, trying to remember a movie>: Errr - it's the hacker one with the guy. He was in the pirate thing.

Wife: Johnny Depp?

Me: no, the gay pirate thing.

Wife: Black Sails?

Me: no, the OTHER gay pirate thing.

Wife: Our Flag Means Death?

Me: yes!

(I was looking for the movie "Free Guy" - got there eventually)

aeva, to random
@aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

if I got granular enough data off of my heart rate monitor, I wonder I could accurately differentiate between bpm variance from breathing specifically vs autonomic activation in general while exercising. If I could do that, then my program could determine if I'm inhaling or exhaling at a given part of the exercise.

Right now I just gather the BPM score off the rowing machine which is only updated once a second, and is not useful for this particular thing.

TomF,
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@aeva It's probably easier than that. You typically breathe once during the stroke, then 1 or 2 times on recovery depending on how hard you're pulling and the relative stroke-vs-recovery duration. So it's all linked.

TomF,
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@aeva Yup. Typically your recovery SHOULD be slower than the stroke. The "goal" is twice as long, but in practice at race pace it's more like 1.5x.

TomF,
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@aeva The breathing pattern is something I was acutely aware of when I started rowing and was gradually getting better, and then at some point my autonomic system figured it out and now I don't think about it - it just changes by itself. But yeah, I do remember thinking about it.

TomF,
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@aeva Humans are a very strange shape indeed, and it's because they're optimised for exactly one thing - walking. But yeah it turns out if you don't RTFM and walk exactly correctly, it's exhausting.

TomF,
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@aeva Can't RTFM? Use The Source, Luke!

ZachWeinersmith, to random
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Wouldn't post it on that other similar site, because it'd result in inflammatory stuff, but... why do we care what college students do or don't protest? I mean like if a substantial Rotary Club in Idaho had a loud offensive argument about something in the zeitgeist, I don't imagine it'd make news anywhere. Possibilities:

  1. These people are perceived as future leaders and so we want to know their values
  2. These people represent the youth so we want to know their values
  3. Anger-bait?
TomF,
@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@ZachWeinersmith WHAT they are protecting is not usually interesting - it's fairly obvious stuff.

The interesting thing is the response. Typically students get given considerable latitude to protest because the consequences for them doing so is low. So it's when they DON'T get given that latitude is when things get interesting!

castano, (edited ) to random
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Let’s say I discover a significant shader optimization for one IHV that’s easy to leverage and people don’t seem to be aware of.

TomF,
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@castano A hybrid answer - share it with clients only for a certain time (not sure what that would be - a year?) and then make it public.

TomF, to random
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Dreams can be very specifically weird sometimes.

Last night I was swapping out the ECU on John Carmack 's black E30 BMW so it would drift better. Annoyingly the sunroof leaked and kept dripping on me.

Maybe I should eat less cheese before bedtime.

aeva, (edited ) to random
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what do you think the odds are that the sports bra I ordered from a webpage will actually fit

TomF,
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@aeva I sometimes just buy 5 of each clothing item in slightly different sizes. Because I will certainly be returning 4 of them, so returning 5 of them is barely any extra hassle.

TomF,
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@aeva I feel like this is an area that could be revolutionized by a laser scanner and some cloth simulation software. We just need to somehow get tech bros interested in looking at boobs. Oh well, another fine plan ruined by practical impossibilities.

TomF,
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@aeva @jon_valdes This is the problem. "We pinkie-promise we'll never share this bodacious data" is not a compelling argument. Sometimes I wonder if you need a specific class of app where every byte of data it sends has to be clear-text JSON, and you get to read it first.

TomF,
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@aeva @damiangray @jon_valdes And/or compressed with some esoteric compression - just to save bandwidth. It would need a contract between the app, the OS and the user. Not sure how that could really happen.

TomF, to random
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I had not realised that the "Baltimore Oriole" is not just a sports team, it is also the actual name of the bird.

But as a US bird named after a person (Lord Baltimore, first proprietor of Maryland) it is due to be renamed shortly, because colonialism.

But even if it is renamed something like the Slightly More Yellow Than Black Than That Other Oriole (they're all yellow and black - naming them gets tricky) I guess the sports team will retain its name, since they are in Baltimore?

mcc, to random
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What do you suppose it was like to be in the room when they finished recording "Baby Got Back". Do you think all present understood the significance of what they had created. Did they know they were about to change the world

TomF,
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@mcc You know you've got a banger when it passes the Bechdel Test.

mcc, to random
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deleted_by_author

    •
    TomF,
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    @streganil @mcc In fact it's all territories. I am a US resident, but not a US citizen, and cannot vote. I have taxation without representation.

    msinilo, to random
    @msinilo@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

    There is a world dumbest bird in my backyard. It repeatedly hits my window when flying, not hard enough to hurt itself, but enough to make some noise.

    TomF,
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    @msinilo Might be defending its territory and attacking its own reflection?

    lritter, to random
    @lritter@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

    GOP Bans Electric Cars and Mention Thereof as "Un-American", Forces Rock Band 'They Might Be Giants' to Redub Lyrics of Famous Song as 'Eclectic Bar'

    TomF,
    @TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

    @lritter @mcc I know a Tesla with a gas tank! It has two modes. One is where it sprays it out of fake exhaust tips on fire to make "Lambo pipes". The other is it drips the fuel on the road and then ignites it to do the flaming tire track effect from Back To The Future.

    TomF, to random
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    All these years I've listened to Dire Straits - only just realised the "six blade knife" is a guitar. I am very intelligent.

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