Reading a book about an old computer, and it's a very cozy vibe. Before getting properly started, it needs to explain what a silicon transistor is, because it's very newfangled and the reader may not be aware of the knock-on benefits of the NPN topology in silicon, compared to the more traditional germanium devices.
I also love that, afaict, the name is never explained. Yes, central memory control circuitry is called the STUNT BOX. Yes it is always fully uppercase when written. There will be no further questions.
Wow firefox makes it hard to add custom search engines. If you're using google and want it to default to the quietly launched "web results only no AI shit" view:
Open about:config, set the pref "browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh" to true. You may have to create the pref, or it may exist and be false.
Open about:preferences#search, scroll to bottom, you can now add a search engine (that's what the pref above does)
@julian Oh and I guess given how things went with chrome and edge, I get a little bit of a sinking feeling when a company decides it wants to have both a browser and a search engine, and it represents another split in focus from trying to be the best possible search engine. I understand why they're doing it, but it suggests some misalignment with what I (think I) value personally.
If I could pay a subscription in lieu of ads... I might consider their search, maybe. Dunno.
I've also been pointed to https://udm14.com/ , which after loading the site you can right-click the URL bar and add a "udm14" search engine, which you can then make the default. At time of writing this, I've verified that the OpenSearch engine definition (https://udm14.com/search.xml) sends queries straight to google with no intermediary, and also does not come with an auto-update configuration that might silently change that later.
@sgf Yeah diode ROM was the other silly plan! Another was trying to figure out some kind of one-hot decoding with a 4:16 demux, combined with some open drain drivers... But I think that ends up being more chips than other options no matter what
@sgf ... or rather, to make the chip count reduction work, I end up needing to sprinkle diodes into things... And now I've reinvented diode ROM with extra steps 😅
As a sibling to the "making fun of AI being shit" thread, I will also say that yosys is really quite lovely. Even tackling a synthesis problem outside of its comfort zone (synthesizing discrete logic vs. for FPGA LUTs and hard blocks), and even with an idiot like me at the controls, it's a remarkably rich toolkit to explore and play with circuitry.
Plus the shortcomings for my application aren't structural, it's just that it rightfully focuses on more impactful goals.
And I suspect with a little more work from me, I could get a lot fancier. But also it does okay, completely hands-off synthesis of my silly little problem gives me a ~40 gate solution, where human-optimized golfed circuits achieve 24-30 gates.
I did just discover I was holding opt_demorgan wrong, which may have hidden some available optimizations from other passes.
I suspect also that if I wrote a techmap from gates back to muxes, iteration between muxtree optimization and functional reduction/extraction at the gate level might do useful things... Or maybe not, I don't "see" the optimizations well enough to know if that would sidestep some blockers to lower gate counts.
I suspect also that if I learned to wield ABC directly, I could get it to do direct combinatorial optimization, and get access to better theory tools for my problem.
@danderson I started ADHD meds in early 2020, and there really wasn't the infrastructure then to monitor me properly for obvious reasons, and I can't get a family doctor where I live.
Adderall gave me the best improvement in concentration compared to others, and because my resting heart rate and blood pressure were low to begin with, it just put them into normal/good levels (essentially increasing all the numbers by 10). But then with exercise it's too much.
@giflian Yeah I'm stuck with no family doctor and similar situation (hi from Vancouver island!). I ended up with an online adhd clinic after several failed attempts at treatment elsewhere, and bought a blood pressure monitor to be able to record data for them. Not great compared to being able to see a doctor in meatspace, but... :/
With my new spicy issues, I'm going to have to monitor again when I start exercising again, but right now just a little light walking is enough to set off alarms :(
darn, pretty blue LEDs have an annoyingly high Vf. So either I have to find some driver IC that does non-resistive current limiting, or run a 5V rail just to get enough margin for the LEDs. Or I guess use comforting traditional red/amber/green LEDs instead of this newfangled InGaN stuff.
How to tell your OSS is ridiculously popular: people aren't 100% sure they didn't embed it, and tack on the software equivalent of "packaged in a facility where peanuts were also present" to the license list.
This watch contains software, so statistically probably contains at least traces of curl.
@evana That's a driving force for me as well. If I might exaggerate a bit, I guess you'll have a hard time looking at just 10 Github repos without finding some issue, issue comment, PR or review by me 🙈 Especially if it's the repo of some Android app.
And it's usually a clear win-win. Not being an Android dev, I've learned a lot about that during the discussions – while my reports usually uncovered something the devs were not aware of. Respect from both sides, precious outcome for all :awesome:
Achievement unlocked: when prompted to sketch a design for a file distribution system that would combine the good parts of old school HTTP mirrors and bittorrent, I accidentally freestyled a high-level design that exactly matches what a current hyperscaler does, with the exact same justifications.
Back on my bullshit in a limited capacity, doing some therapeutic stupid stuff. Today: which of the 7400 series chips are still being made at a vaguely reasonable price? Because I have Plans, and they involve quite a bit more than just logic gates and flip-flops.
@lofty I know some of those words 😅 Someday I should get to grips with yosys at a deeper level than "I got bluespec to spit out some verilog yosys/nextpnr didn't hate and it ran correctly on ecp5"
This detour into winamp-like Garmin watch faces did make me learn something bizarre. For a couple years starting in 1999, NCR - the people who make ATMs and cash registers - sponsored the development of XMMS, at the time the leading open-source Winamp-alike.
@rf One of my earliest OSS experiences was contributing PulseAudio and Icecast support to XMMS2. It was good software, back when we were allowed to own things 😢
I found all the people who made the unhinged ultradense unusably elaborate winamp skins back in the day! They're now making watch faces in the Garmin app store.
Hi. Quick break from the posting for a serious PSA.
Please have a bottle of aspirin in your home. Make sure the tablets can be chewed as well as just swallowed. Make sure you remove any fiddly foil seal and such. Don't use this aspirin for regular pain relief, just keep it around and know where it is.
Hopefully, you'll never need it and will just feel silly for having it. But if a bad time comes for you someday, being able to chew aspirin when emergency services tells you may save your life.
Aspirin is an anticoagulant, meaning it reduces your blood's ability to clot. Normally this is an undesirable side effect, because if you're bleeding you want your blood to clot and stop the bleeding.
But heart attacks and other cardiovascular events can be caused by blood clots obstructing blood vessels. Your body's not supposed to let that happen, but for various reasons sometimes it does. When it does, minutes count and you need to tip the odds in your favor.
Chewing aspirin is like sending reinforcements to the "pls no clots" faction of your body, as quickly as possible. It stops new clots forming, and existing ones growing. It gives your body some extra margin that it can use to start dissolving the one(s) causing your cardiac event.
It's not a cure, not even close. It's an emergency mitigation that may buy you extra time while paramedics reach you and get you further help.