@tommythorn@chaos.social
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tommythorn

@tommythorn@chaos.social

In Silicon Valley, enthusiastic about superscalar out-of-order execution, block structured ISAs, asynchronous logic, and other exciting concepts

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root42, to random
@root42@chaos.social avatar

With the Limited Run edition of #maniacmansion I finally have a copy of the poster that came either the original release. It is chuck full of hints and funny tidbits.
#lucasarts #retrogaming

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@root42 I wanted to see the full poster and after a bit of searching, it looks like https://www.classicgaming.cc/pc/maniac-mansion/images/poster-hint-maniac-mansion.jpg is the best version, but I would love a better and uncompressed scan.

ekuber, to rust
@ekuber@hachyderm.io avatar

Request for feedback: how would you change this compiler error? Can you tell what's going on? What the problem is? Do you get a sense of how you might be able to solve it?

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@ekuber As a relative Rust newb, I think the message is fairly clear, but how to fix it would depend on context I don't have (AFAICT).

gabrielesvelto, to random
@gabrielesvelto@fosstodon.org avatar

Memory errors in consumer devices such as PCs and phones are not something you hear much about, yet they are probably one of the most common ways these machines fail.

I'll use this thread to explain how this happens, how it affects you and what you can do about it. But I'll also talk about how the industry failed to address it and how we must force them to, for the sake of sustainability. 🧵 1/17

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@gabrielesvelto Working with existing non-ecc system, couldn't some of this be caught if the OS ran a low-priority process scrubbing memory, eg. writing and checking a random, but check-summed pattern to free pages (similar to ZFS scrubbing). Even better, important data structures should be check summed (something I actually did in a database engine I wrote many decades ago).

tommythorn, to random
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

I want an @ActionRetro -like video channel but using . Not sure if there is an audience for it, but it would be amazing and should allow for some pretty old hardware to run modern software.

mntmn, to random
@mntmn@mastodon.social avatar

it's time to edit "the bitmap"

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@mntmn A 6x8 (5x7) font AFAICT. I much prefer the decentor (gjpqy) actually decenting.

Here's how I tackled it in a 5x8 (4x7) font (feel to use if you like):
https://github.com/tommythorn/spleentt-5x8-font

(I really need to generate a better example image).

ADD: your lowercase l looks like L to me...

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@mntmn This took a surprising amount of effort to generate:

root42, to amiga
@root42@chaos.social avatar

Oh, and what would the Amiga be without this chip? The mighty Motorola 68000. A massive DIP64 package. None of that puny 8086 crap that Intel made! With a little bit of squinting you could even think that it‘s a 32 bit processor. Of course nowadays Motorola lives a life rather in the limelight, under the name of Freescale.
What are your feelings towards the venerable 68k?

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@root42 I somehow didn't encounter m68k until I got access to the Sun 3/50 at Uni (~ 1988). It was all Z-80/6502/x86 before that and I didn't really have an opinion about m68k other than it felt similar to PDP-11 in some ways.

In hindsight, it was clearly the best ISA at its introduction, but RISC (SPARC, PA-RISC, Arm, MIPS, m88k, Alpha, etc) was a far superior alternative when available.

foone, to random
@foone@digipres.club avatar

bad idea: A mouse cursor that's not just a simple floating pointer, it's a cat/dog paw... but it stretches all the way to an edge of the screen like it's a really long leg

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@foone That’s a hilarious idea. would help a lot with missing the cursor. Tangential, but I like how some cad programs use screen filling horizontal and vertical lines, make it much easier to find where you are.

root42, to random
@root42@chaos.social avatar

Do you remember xv...?

http://www.trilon.com/xv/

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@root42 I do. It was my absolute go-to for years. I used most of the features in anger.

hywan, to TeslaMotors
@hywan@fosstodon.org avatar

An EV that charges 30% faster? Volvo and Breathe think their tech can do it, https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/03/volvos-new-battery-software-could-cut-ev-charge-times-by-30/.

> Instead of having prebaked charging data that governs that battery pack throughout its life, Breathe instead has developed a dynamic battery management system that provides much more granular control over the pack as it charges. Consequently, it says it can improve charging times by 15–30% over current packs.

Breathe: https://breathebatteries.com/

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@hywan Sigh. This is completely not the problem. The problem is: Cost and Range (and the two are related).

root42, to random
@root42@chaos.social avatar

And another milestone! Yay!

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@root42 Ah the perils of counting integers in floats

whitequark, to random
@whitequark@mastodon.social avatar

microSD Express PCIe Gen4 x2?!

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@whitequark @immibis @jhwgh1968 @pmdj No shit! In 2015 DSSD used PCIe G3 x4 as cableled interconnect in the rack. It was a massive collection of PCIe switches, but it slightly beat 40 GbE in bandwidth and destroyed it in latency (and we went straight to user-land bypassing the kernel).

root42, to retrogaming
@root42@chaos.social avatar

Back in Greysythe with Briley. We managed to sneak out to the gate. Sebastian opening it, and Alyssa fetching Chestnut while the others prepare their horses.

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@root42 A 17 hours C64 game? I don’t think I knew any games that long in the 1980es. Which game is this and is it new?

root42, to random
@root42@chaos.social avatar

So, my 2013 iMac crashed again. It froze while the screensaver was on. See attached screenshot of the crash report... Any idea what this means? Is it the graphics driver? The GPU on the CPU? Power supply issues?

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@root42 I have the same model but not this problem. Have you already replaced the thermal paste? It could be a thermal issue.

NanoRaptor, to random
@NanoRaptor@bitbang.social avatar

A small manufacturing defect destroys your computer's main storage, and it's nonrecoverable. All data lost.

Do you have backups so that you can restore what you cannot do without, and quickly? Have you checked those backups are happening? do you have multiple backups? have you checked they're restorable?

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@NanoRaptor I didn't learn until I lost data, but I have multiple levels from 30 min interval replicated checkpoints all the way to encrypted mirrors, kept offline, far from home (everything is ZFS). Setting it up took some time, but now I rarely touch it.

Don't be like me, don't wait until you learn from your mistakes.

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@darkling @NanoRaptor Reminds me of a couple of fires at various Cloud companies (like the OVH fire that took out millions of sites).

All this is inspiring. I'll go start another complete mirror. It's about time.

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@azonenberg @darkling @NanoRaptor You win, this story definitely takes the price!

It's a great point that in a realistic threat model, human error should come first, followed by burglary/theft, fire/other disaster and only then hackers. I had an unencrypted laptop with waay too much sensitive information nicked in a burglary and data paranoia will never leave me now.

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@azonenberg @darkling @NanoRaptor 100%, but I wanted to emphasize how focusing on the less likely "threat" might make the more likely "threat" even more likely.

For example, I know more examples of data lost to a forgotten password than data stolen due to a post-it on the monitor (not recommending this in general, but for my very aging parents, the post-it might be the better option).

tommythorn, to verilog
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

Ok, Google couldn't help, so suggestions solicitated!

I use both Icarus Verilog and Verilator for simulation and initialize my rams with

$readmemh(`INIT_MEM, code);

The drawback of this is that the produced simulation binary is tied to the

-DINIT_MEM=prog.hex

value used at compilation time. I would like to reuse the simulation binary on multiple workloads. Is there a way that works for both Icarus and Verilator?

root42, to random
@root42@chaos.social avatar

Instagram account deleted: ☑️
Facebook account deleted: ☑️

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@root42 Went there a long time ago but I understand why it’s not easy for my SO. At least I must firmly insist avoiding any native apps from Meta and only using browser based apps (which Firefox can sandbox).

ktemkin, to random
@ktemkin@chaos.social avatar

amazon recommended me a book called "learn C++ quickly"

and at this point, I think they'd be better off marketing me a "forget C++ quickly" book

tommythorn,
@tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

@ktemkin I hate that for certain jobs you are forced to use C++. I have managed to mostly avoid it for 30+ years, but it means walking away from opportunities. (I finally moved beyond C and Haskell to Rust which is my new first choice).

phranck, to random German
@phranck@chaos.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    tommythorn,
    @tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

    @phranck Not really "Alien", but we (incl. both kids) are making our way through "Stranger Things". Alas, they can't quite recapture the magic and the seasons get progressively more ridiculous. Roughly at S4E5.

    ktemkin, to random
    @ktemkin@chaos.social avatar

    Does anyone have a recommended FPGA development board that brings out 10Gbps+ transceivers?

    Preferably AMD/Xilinx GTX ones?

    tommythorn,
    @tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

    @dlharmon @ktemkin I don't know if I'm missing something, but Zynq boards seems so painful to work with compare to pure FPGA boards. For the latter you can literally just whip up a bit of Verilog (and usual constraints etc) and build without ever touching a GUI. For Zynq you have to slog through this system builder. I don't understand why they designed it thus.

    I have a couple of Zynq boards (like Ultra96V2) that I regret as I never use them.

    tommythorn,
    @tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

    @dlharmon @ktemkin I'm listening :) That would be pretty interesting. I got the Ultra96V2 as it was the only(?) path to UltraScale+ with gratis tools back before the Artix US+ was released.

    I would absolutely love to be able to use the DDR on Ultra96V2 as well.

    NanoRaptor, to random
    @NanoRaptor@bitbang.social avatar

    NeXTstation mini.

    tommythorn,
    @tommythorn@chaos.social avatar

    @martin @phranck @NanoRaptor Don't say I didn't warn you :) It should be better on a faster machine. The Pi 4 is pretty slow.

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