subject:"\[FRIAM\] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence"

Steve,

It's actually my brooding fascination, but pretty much the same principle.


On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:42 PM, Steve Smith  wrote:

> Doug -
>
>  No, I actually meant it, Steve.  Careful or I'll start waxing nostalgic
>> for my old NorthStar Horizon CP/M machine.  Or the Amdahl 470 that replaced
>> the IBM 360 that ran my first APL programs.
>>
> Now THAT is what I like to hear... and in fact it WAS a Northstar that I
> was thinking of when I mentioned CP/M...   I was but 19 at the time, you
> must have been a ripe mid-twenties by then!
>
> I'm pretty sure you don't speak (write) on FRIAM without your tongue
> planted somewhere in your cheek!  And I'm pretty sure most everything that
> comes tumbling through here entertains you, if only your morbid
> fascination...
>
> - Steve
>
>
>
> ==**==
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe 
> http://redfish.com/mailman/**listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>



-- 
*Doug Roberts
d...@parrot-farm.net*
*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*
* 
505-455-7333 - Office
505-672-8213 - Mobile*

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence


Doug -
No, I actually meant it, Steve.  Careful or I'll start waxing 
nostalgic for my old NorthStar Horizon CP/M machine.  Or the Amdahl 
470 that replaced the IBM 360 that ran my first APL programs.
Now THAT is what I like to hear... and in fact it WAS a Northstar that I 
was thinking of when I mentioned CP/M...   I was but 19 at the time, you 
must have been a ripe mid-twenties by then!


I'm pretty sure you don't speak (write) on FRIAM without your tongue 
planted somewhere in your cheek!  And I'm pretty sure most everything 
that comes tumbling through here entertains you, if only your morbid 
fascination...


- Steve



FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence


Marcus -
> P.S. Brush with greatness: I have a copy of Knuth's seminumerical 
algorithms which was once owned by Brosl Hasslacher.


Grin...  *I* knew Brosl back in the CNLS (mid-80s) days, everyone who 
played computers had the three volume (at the time) set of his books on 
their shelves.   I neither realized he was still at LANL through 2003 
nor that he had passed in 2005... I'm feeling old!


 I sadly lost track of a MANIAC Manual once owned by Nick Metropolis!   
I used to schlep in and out of the lab on a similar schedule with Nick 
(mid 90's?)...  *he* was a presence, even then...   I felt like I was 
transported back to the days of the manhattan project!


In *my* day, The Art of Computer Programming was about all there was (or 
needed to be) for the bulk of scientific and engineering programming.   
It took the place of the many (very useful and high quality) libraries 
so available today to all of us at the click of a link.


It was standard practice to go refresh yourself on something as simple 
as a binary sort before coding it up *!inline!* in some important thing 
you were doing or another.   Feels grossly inefficient today, but wasn't 
that different than the master craftsman who whets his blades every time 
he sets out to make something... it takes but a few minutes and is a 
good meditative reflection.


I'm wondering what the equivalent is today?   I know it sounds 
nostalgic, and I don't recommend *anyone* going back to the style of 
programming ( goto ) and algorithm implementation/development I grew up 
on, but I do wonder what takes it's place?  The meditative/reflective 
aspect?


I know I'm probably one of the younger of the elders here in this 
domain, and I know some such (e.g. Doug) spend more hands-on time with 
code today than I do by a longshot, and keep up (sort of) with 
contemporary methods (I'm still stuck in Vi and sometimes get nostalgic 
about Ed/Ex that *it* grew out of, not to mention *VIM* or the evil 
Emacs!).  But I know there are a new crop of power programmers here too 
who might not have been born (or at least introduced to programming) 
before OO methods, etc.


- Steve





 
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Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence

No, I actually meant it, Steve.  Careful or I'll start waxing nostalgic for
my old NorthStar Horizon CP/M machine.  Or the Amdahl 470 that replaced the
IBM 360 that ran my first APL programs.

--Doug


On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:13 PM, Steve Smith  wrote:

>  Roger/Sarbajit-
>
> Doug's comment that "this" is what keeps him on the FRIAM ist was probably
> only partially "tongue-in-cheek".
>
> This level of geekery is surely near and dear to half of our hearts if the
> other half naturally sit and puzzle at our arcane mumblings...   but in
> defense of the other forms of geekery (including philosophical
> maunderings), it's all good.   I really appreciate the level of engagement
> and interest across a broad range of topics that can be found here.
>
> I *do* have at least 3 of these devices (or nearly) in my  collection of
> "stuff", the more obvious being the digital readouts on my Sony Amp and my
> Sony CD changer as well as a (longer version?) on a rack-mount USB
> keyboard/trackball system designed for use with rackmount clusters.
>
> I was expecting Sarbajit to remind me about some really obvious digital
> readout that is *even* more ubiquitous that I hadn't thought of.   Like the
> car odometer or radio tuner... but they all seem to be of a species of
> semi-special displays.. probably not custom per model or even manufacturer,
> but clearly evolving and changing often.  On the other hand, their
> interface might very well *BE* a superset or variant of what you describe
> here!
>
> - Steve
>
> Another mystery of these displays was solved for me the other day when
> Bunnie took his Media Lab visitors to a direct chip bonding shop in
> Shenzhen.  On the back of the bog standard LCD display there will often be
> a dome of black epoxy in place of a chip.  I thought they were hiding the
> chip, but in fact the dome covers a piece of raw silicon integrated circuit
> glued to the board and wired to the board with tiny wires.
>
>  -- rec --
>
>  http://learn.adafruit.com/character-lcds/overview
>
> http://www.freaklabs.org/index.php/Blog/MIT-Media-Lab-Shenzhen-2013/MIT-Media-Lab-Shenzhen-2013-01-22-Chip-on-Board-Bare-Die-Attachment.html
>
>  freaklabs.org is off-line at the moment, but that looks like the right
> posting.  Lady Ada's tutorial gets to the 8/4 bit bus after several pages
> of prelims.
>
> Steve
>
>
> Being a devotee of ancient computing devices myself, I was responding to
> Doug's TRS-80 ascii comment
>
> here's what a 16x2 LCD module looks like
>
> http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hN2n9HggfCw/T2TOHEMIAsI/AAc/LrJ6uy2cNrs/s1600/lcd162b-yhy.jpg
>
> These critters are so ubiquitous that you fail to see them. These modules
> have an 8 bit data bus to communicate with Z-80s, 8085 etc (nowadays though
> PICS, AVRs and ATMELs). They also have a facility to split the 8 bit data
> into 2 successive nibbles of 4 bits (ie 4 pins + 2 control pins= 6 pins).
> This allows for instance a 12 or 14 PIC (with 8 - 10  I/O lines) to be used
> to implement very small devices. The design advantage ot using these
> standard displays versus dedicated/custom displays is that they have no
> end-of-life problems. They were available 20 years ago and still seem to be
> going very strong with prices falling to @ US$1 per unit
>
> Sarbajit
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:31 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:
>
>> You see, this is the kind of material that keeps me on FRIAM.
>>
>>  --Doug
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:29 AM, Roger Critchlow  wrote:
>>
>>> The interface to the bog standard LCD display can use either 8 or 4 bits
>>> parallel, which only changes the number of outs you need to do to fill the
>>> line buffer, which has an 8 bit byte for each character   The 8 bit
>>> character ROM often has fascinating character sets in the high half
>>> depending on where the surplus came from.
>>>
>>>  -- rec --
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:16 AM, Steve Smith  wrote:
>>>
  Sarbajit -

 Can you elaborate?  I think this one just flew past me...  2 lines of
 16 characters with only 4 bit indexing (alphabet of 16 characters?)...
 This sounds like (much) more than a digital watch (do those even exist
 anymore?) or even a calculator (only 1 line?).

 I feel like you handed us a riddle like the sphynx!

 I tried a massive,  brooding, indifferent posture to Dougs posts on
 this one, but I could only hold the pose for a few seconds before breaking
 into a belly laugh appropriate only for the Buddha or Santa Claus.

 - Steve

  Just to update fellow FRIAMers.

 The most common standard display device in the world today is the 16x2
 character LCD display. The vast majority of installations use it in 4 bit
 mode.

  On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:08 AM, Douglas Roberts >>> > wrote:

>  As a courtesy to our old-fashioned (to put it politely) FRIAM list
> members who are still reading email on their TRS-80 ascii terminals, I 
> will
>>

Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence

Roger/Sarbajit-

Doug's comment that "this" is what keeps him on the FRIAM ist was
probably only partially "tongue-in-cheek".

This level of geekery is surely near and dear to half of our hearts if
the other half naturally sit and puzzle at our arcane mumblings... but
in defense of the other forms of geekery (including philosophical
maunderings), it's all good. I really appreciate the level of
engagement and interest across a broad range of topics that can be found
here.

I *do* have at least 3 of these devices (or nearly) in my collection of
"stuff", the more obvious being the digital readouts on my Sony Amp and
my Sony CD changer as well as a (longer version?) on a rack-mount USB
keyboard/trackball system designed for use with rackmount clusters.

I was expecting Sarbajit to remind me about some really obvious digital
readout that is *even* more ubiquitous that I hadn't thought of. Like
the car odometer or radio tuner... but they all seem to be of a species
of semi-special displays.. probably not custom per model or even
manufacturer, but clearly evolving and changing often. On the other
hand, their interface might very well *BE* a superset or variant of what
you describe here!

- Steve
Another mystery of these displays was solved for me the other day when
Bunnie took his Media Lab visitors to a direct chip bonding shop in
Shenzhen. On the back of the bog standard LCD display there will
often be a dome of black epoxy in place of a chip. I thought they
were hiding the chip, but in fact the dome covers a piece of raw
silicon integrated circuit glued to the board and wired to the board
with tiny wires.

-- rec --

http://learn.adafruit.com/character-lcds/overview
http://www.freaklabs.org/index.php/Blog/MIT-Media-Lab-Shenzhen-2013/MIT-Media-Lab-Shenzhen-2013-01-22-Chip-on-Board-Bare-Die-Attachment.html

freaklabs.org is off-line at the moment, but
that looks like the right posting. Lady Ada's tutorial gets to the
8/4 bit bus after several pages of prelims.

Steve

Being a devotee of ancient computing devices myself, I was responding to
Doug's TRS-80 ascii comment

here's what a 16x2 LCD module looks like
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hN2n9HggfCw/T2TOHEMIAsI/AAc/LrJ6uy2cNrs/s1600/lcd162b-yhy.jpg

These critters are so ubiquitous that you fail to see them. These
modules have an 8 bit data bus to communicate with Z-80s, 8085 etc
(nowadays though PICS, AVRs and ATMELs). They also have a facility to
split the 8 bit data into 2 successive nibbles of 4 bits (ie 4 pins + 2
control pins= 6 pins). This allows for instance a 12 or 14 PIC (with 8 -
10 I/O lines) to be used to implement very small devices. The design
advantage ot using these standard displays versus dedicated/custom
displays is that they have no end-of-life problems. They were available
20 years ago and still seem to be going very strong with prices falling
to @ US$1 per unit

Sarbajit

On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:31 AM, Douglas Roberts > wrote:

You see, this is the kind of material that keeps me on FRIAM.

--Doug

On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:29 AM, Roger Critchlow mailto:r...@elf.org>> wrote:

The interface to the bog standard LCD display can use either 8
or 4 bits parallel, which only changes the number of outs you
need to do to fill the line buffer, which has an 8 bit byte
for each character The 8 bit character ROM often has
fascinating character sets in the high half depending on where
the surplus came from.

-- rec --

On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:16 AM, Steve Smith mailto:sasm...@swcp.com>> wrote:

Sarbajit -

Can you elaborate? I think this one just flew past me...
2 lines of 16 characters with only 4 bit indexing

(alphabet of 16 characters?)... This sounds like (much)
more than a digital watch (do those even exist anymore?)
or even a calculator (only 1 line?).

I feel like you handed us a riddle like the sphynx!

I tried a massive, brooding, indifferent posture to Dougs
posts on this one, but I could only hold the pose for a
few seconds before breaking into a belly laugh appropriate
only for the Buddha or Santa Claus.

- Steve

Just to update fellow FRIAMers.

The most common standard display device in the world
today is the 16x2 character LCD display. The vast
majority of installations use it in 4 bit mode.

On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:08 AM, Douglas Roberts
mailto:d...@parrot-farm.net>> wrote:

As a courtesy to our old-fashioned (to put it
politely) FRIAM list members who are still reading
email on their TRS-80 ascii terminals, I will supply
a synopses of the material contained in that

Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence

2013-02-05 Thread mar...@snoutfarm.com

Steve wrote:

"I recently found some 
curled faded sheets of dry-silver process paper (most likely FROM a 
4631) in one of my stashes of nostalgic documents which I *think* were 
originally printouts of my junior project in computer graphics where I 
"invented" a cursive alphabet (stroke) which required a hash table 
(straight out of Knuth) to look up appropriate "joinery" between various 
Cap and lower case letters."

It's heartbreaking to browse through those old catalogs and technical
manuals.  Full circuit diagrams -- machines crafted by hackers for hackers.

Marcus

P.S. Brush with greatness:  I have a copy of Knuth's seminumerical
algorithms which was once owned by Brosl Hasslacher.


mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://link.mail2web.com/mail2web




FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence

We call it chip-on-glass, and it actually improves the reliability of the
device. When thiese devices first came out they used a Hitachi
processor/IC. Then some Koreans made a clone (shifted around some control
words), then the Chinese made their clone ICs (more control word shifts and
incompatibilities). Sanity descended, now everything is hidden under the
epoxy bond, and compatibility has returned.

On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 12:18 AM, Roger Critchlow  wrote:

> Another mystery of these displays was solved for me the other day when
> Bunnie took his Media Lab visitors to a direct chip bonding shop in
> Shenzhen.  On the back of the bog standard LCD display there will often be
> a dome of black epoxy in place of a chip.  I thought they were hiding the
> chip, but in fact the dome covers a piece of raw silicon integrated circuit
> glued to the board and wired to the board with tiny wires.
>
> -- rec --
>
> http://learn.adafruit.com/character-lcds/overview
>
> http://www.freaklabs.org/index.php/Blog/MIT-Media-Lab-Shenzhen-2013/MIT-Media-Lab-Shenzhen-2013-01-22-Chip-on-Board-Bare-Die-Attachment.html
>
> freaklabs.org is off-line at the moment, but that looks like the right
> posting.  Lady Ada's tutorial gets to the 8/4 bit bus after several pages
> of prelims.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:31 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:
>
>> You see, this is the kind of material that keeps me on FRIAM.
>>
>> --Doug
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:29 AM, Roger Critchlow  wrote:
>>
>>> The interface to the bog standard LCD display can use either 8 or 4 bits
>>> parallel, which only changes the number of outs you need to do to fill the
>>> line buffer, which has an 8 bit byte for each character   The 8 bit
>>> character ROM often has fascinating character sets in the high half
>>> depending on where the surplus came from.
>>>
>>> -- rec --
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:16 AM, Steve Smith  wrote:
>>>
  Sarbajit -

 Can you elaborate?  I think this one just flew past me...  2 lines of
 16 characters with only 4 bit indexing (alphabet of 16 characters?)...
 This sounds like (much) more than a digital watch (do those even exist
 anymore?) or even a calculator (only 1 line?).

 I feel like you handed us a riddle like the sphynx!

 I tried a massive,  brooding, indifferent posture to Dougs posts on
 this one, but I could only hold the pose for a few seconds before breaking
 into a belly laugh appropriate only for the Buddha or Santa Claus.

 - Steve

 Just to update fellow FRIAMers.

 The most common standard display device in the world today is the 16x2
 character LCD display. The vast majority of installations use it in 4 bit
 mode.

  On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:08 AM, Douglas Roberts >>> > wrote:

>  As a courtesy to our old-fashioned (to put it politely) FRIAM list
> members who are still reading email on their TRS-80 ascii terminals, I 
> will
> supply a synopses of the material contained in that new-fangled url 
> thingie
> below:  the article discusses a massive, indifferent, brooding silence.
>
>  You're welcome.
>
>

 FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
 Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
 to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

 FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
 Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
 to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

>>>
>>>
>>> 
>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Doug Roberts
>> d...@parrot-farm.net*
>> *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*
>> * 
>> 505-455-7333 - Office
>> 505-672-8213 - Mobile*
>>
>> 
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>>
>
>
> 
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence

2013-02-05 Thread Roger Critchlow

Another mystery of these displays was solved for me the other day when
Bunnie took his Media Lab visitors to a direct chip bonding shop in
Shenzhen.  On the back of the bog standard LCD display there will often be
a dome of black epoxy in place of a chip.  I thought they were hiding the
chip, but in fact the dome covers a piece of raw silicon integrated circuit
glued to the board and wired to the board with tiny wires.

-- rec --

http://learn.adafruit.com/character-lcds/overview
http://www.freaklabs.org/index.php/Blog/MIT-Media-Lab-Shenzhen-2013/MIT-Media-Lab-Shenzhen-2013-01-22-Chip-on-Board-Bare-Die-Attachment.html

freaklabs.org is off-line at the moment, but that looks like the right
posting.  Lady Ada's tutorial gets to the 8/4 bit bus after several pages
of prelims.



On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:31 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:

> You see, this is the kind of material that keeps me on FRIAM.
>
> --Doug
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:29 AM, Roger Critchlow  wrote:
>
>> The interface to the bog standard LCD display can use either 8 or 4 bits
>> parallel, which only changes the number of outs you need to do to fill the
>> line buffer, which has an 8 bit byte for each character   The 8 bit
>> character ROM often has fascinating character sets in the high half
>> depending on where the surplus came from.
>>
>> -- rec --
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:16 AM, Steve Smith  wrote:
>>
>>>  Sarbajit -
>>>
>>> Can you elaborate?  I think this one just flew past me...  2 lines of 16
>>> characters with only 4 bit indexing (alphabet of 16 characters?)...  This
>>> sounds like (much) more than a digital watch (do those even exist anymore?)
>>> or even a calculator (only 1 line?).
>>>
>>> I feel like you handed us a riddle like the sphynx!
>>>
>>> I tried a massive,  brooding, indifferent posture to Dougs posts on this
>>> one, but I could only hold the pose for a few seconds before breaking into
>>> a belly laugh appropriate only for the Buddha or Santa Claus.
>>>
>>> - Steve
>>>
>>> Just to update fellow FRIAMers.
>>>
>>> The most common standard display device in the world today is the 16x2
>>> character LCD display. The vast majority of installations use it in 4 bit
>>> mode.
>>>
>>>  On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:08 AM, Douglas Roberts 
>>> wrote:
>>>
  As a courtesy to our old-fashioned (to put it politely) FRIAM list
 members who are still reading email on their TRS-80 ascii terminals, I will
 supply a synopses of the material contained in that new-fangled url thingie
 below:  the article discusses a massive, indifferent, brooding silence.

  You're welcome.


>>>
>>>
>>> 
>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 
>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>>>
>>
>>
>> 
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>>
>
>
>
> --
> *Doug Roberts
> d...@parrot-farm.net*
> *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*
> * 
> 505-455-7333 - Office
> 505-672-8213 - Mobile*
>
> 
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence

Steve

Being a devotee of ancient computing devices myself, I was responding to
Doug's TRS-80 ascii comment

here's what a 16x2 LCD module looks like
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hN2n9HggfCw/T2TOHEMIAsI/AAc/LrJ6uy2cNrs/s1600/lcd162b-yhy.jpg

These critters are so ubiquitous that you fail to see them. These modules
have an 8 bit data bus to communicate with Z-80s, 8085 etc (nowadays though
PICS, AVRs and ATMELs). They also have a facility to split the 8 bit data
into 2 successive nibbles of 4 bits (ie 4 pins + 2 control pins= 6 pins).
This allows for instance a 12 or 14 PIC (with 8 - 10  I/O lines) to be used
to implement very small devices. The design advantage ot using these
standard displays versus dedicated/custom displays is that they have no
end-of-life problems. They were available 20 years ago and still seem to be
going very strong with prices falling to @ US$1 per unit

Sarbajit

On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:46 PM, Steve Smith  wrote:

>  Sarbajit -
>
> Can you elaborate?  I think this one just flew past me...  2 lines of 16
> characters with only 4 bit indexing (alphabet of 16 characters?)...  This
> sounds like (much) more than a digital watch (do those even exist anymore?)
> or even a calculator (only 1 line?).
>
> I feel like you handed us a riddle like the sphynx!
>
> I tried a massive,  brooding, indifferent posture to Dougs posts on this
> one, but I could only hold the pose for a few seconds before breaking into
> a belly laugh appropriate only for the Buddha or Santa Claus.
>
> - Steve
>
> Just to update fellow FRIAMers.
>
> The most common standard display device in the world today is the 16x2
> character LCD display. The vast majority of installations use it in 4 bit
> mode.
>
>  On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:08 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:
>
>>  As a courtesy to our old-fashioned (to put it politely) FRIAM list
>> members who are still reading email on their TRS-80 ascii terminals, I will
>> supply a synopses of the material contained in that new-fangled url thingie
>> below:  the article discusses a massive, indifferent, brooding silence.
>>
>>  You're welcome.
>>
>>
>
>
> 
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>
>
>
> 
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence



I just ordered another Google Nexus 4.  LG is gearing up to produce a new
batch, for which the estimated shipping date of 2 - 3 weeks matches the
now-estimated release date of Android4.2.2, which is purported to contain a
less-buggy Qualcomm wifi driver, and patches to the buggy 4.2.1 wifi and
bluetooth code. Plus, it wouldn't surprise me if LG hasn't tweaked a
manufacturing issue or two that I believe existed in their first production
run.

Hey, what have I got to lose?  Google pays the return shipping if the phone
is broken.  At the very least I get some more writing material.

--Doug


On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 6:19 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:

> Well, the Parrot Farm is recovering nicely from the small neutron bomb
> detonation that temporarily knocked us off the air yesterday, mid-email.
>  Fortunately, the WiFi on the GNB (Google Neutron Bomb) was defective, and
> so we only received a short burst.
>
> Oh, and thanks to the Android Police (and not The Google), we received the
> answer as to when the WiFi and bluetooth problems with the Nexus 4 will be
> fixed:  http://things-linux.blogspot.com/2013/02/what-is-evil.html
>
> --Doug
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 11:31 PM, Jochen Fromm  wrote:
>
>> That was a good one  ;-) If you see a group of people with fancy glasses
>> approaching your house, then it is indeed time to grab up your belongings
>> and run. Although as you know - resistance is futile..
>>
>> -J.
>>
>>
>> Sent from Android
>>
>> Steve Smith  wrote:
>> Doug -
>>
>> You may think they are ignoring you, but I think they are just going
>> through internal review on whether to let the ICBM division or the
>> quadcopter swarm division of Google have first crack at solving the
>> problem.
>>
>> If you notice all your neighbors evacuating abruptly and the local
>> chapter of the SPCA sweeping in to grab up all the peacocks in your yard,
>> you should probably dive down that bolt-hole you have under your desk to
>> the end-of-the-world bunker!   Google is, after all, sworn to do no evil
>> (thus the neighbors and the peacocks).
>>
>> - Steve
>> this was written on my Tektronix 4013 (APL keyboard) storage vector
>> graphics terminal with ASCII and EBCIDIC emulators and an awesome version
>> of Battlezone running from my CP/M machine.  Shall I typeset a complex
>> equation and take a polaroid of it for you?
>>
>>   As a courtesy to our old-fashioned (to put it politely) FRIAM list
>> members who are still reading email on their TRS-80 ascii terminals, I will
>> supply a synopses of the material contained in that new-fangled url thingie
>> below:  the article discusses a massive, indifferent, brooding silence.
>>
>>  You're welcome.
>>
>>
>> http://things-linux.blogspot.com/2013/02/massive-indifferent-brooding-silence.html
>>
>>  --
>> *Doug Roberts
>> d...@parrot-farm.net*
>> *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*
>> *
>> 505-455-7333 - Office
>> 505-672-8213 - Mobile*
>>
>>
>> 
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>>
>>
>>
>> 
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>>
>
>
>
> --
> *Doug Roberts
> d...@parrot-farm.net*
> *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*
> * 
> 505-455-7333 - Office
> 505-672-8213 - Mobile*
>



-- 
*Doug Roberts
d...@parrot-farm.net*
*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*
* 
505-455-7333 - Office
505-672-8213 - Mobile*

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Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence

You see, this is the kind of material that keeps me on FRIAM.

--Doug


On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:29 AM, Roger Critchlow  wrote:

> The interface to the bog standard LCD display can use either 8 or 4 bits
> parallel, which only changes the number of outs you need to do to fill the
> line buffer, which has an 8 bit byte for each character   The 8 bit
> character ROM often has fascinating character sets in the high half
> depending on where the surplus came from.
>
> -- rec --
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:16 AM, Steve Smith  wrote:
>
>>  Sarbajit -
>>
>> Can you elaborate?  I think this one just flew past me...  2 lines of 16
>> characters with only 4 bit indexing (alphabet of 16 characters?)...  This
>> sounds like (much) more than a digital watch (do those even exist anymore?)
>> or even a calculator (only 1 line?).
>>
>> I feel like you handed us a riddle like the sphynx!
>>
>> I tried a massive,  brooding, indifferent posture to Dougs posts on this
>> one, but I could only hold the pose for a few seconds before breaking into
>> a belly laugh appropriate only for the Buddha or Santa Claus.
>>
>> - Steve
>>
>> Just to update fellow FRIAMers.
>>
>> The most common standard display device in the world today is the 16x2
>> character LCD display. The vast majority of installations use it in 4 bit
>> mode.
>>
>>  On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:08 AM, Douglas Roberts 
>> wrote:
>>
>>>  As a courtesy to our old-fashioned (to put it politely) FRIAM list
>>> members who are still reading email on their TRS-80 ascii terminals, I will
>>> supply a synopses of the material contained in that new-fangled url thingie
>>> below:  the article discusses a massive, indifferent, brooding silence.
>>>
>>>  You're welcome.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> 
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>>
>>
>>
>> 
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>>
>
>
> 
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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>



-- 
*Doug Roberts
d...@parrot-farm.net*
*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*
* 
505-455-7333 - Office
505-672-8213 - Mobile*

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence

2013-02-05 Thread Roger Critchlow

The interface to the bog standard LCD display can use either 8 or 4 bits
parallel, which only changes the number of outs you need to do to fill the
line buffer, which has an 8 bit byte for each character   The 8 bit
character ROM often has fascinating character sets in the high half
depending on where the surplus came from.

-- rec --


On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:16 AM, Steve Smith  wrote:

>  Sarbajit -
>
> Can you elaborate?  I think this one just flew past me...  2 lines of 16
> characters with only 4 bit indexing (alphabet of 16 characters?)...  This
> sounds like (much) more than a digital watch (do those even exist anymore?)
> or even a calculator (only 1 line?).
>
> I feel like you handed us a riddle like the sphynx!
>
> I tried a massive,  brooding, indifferent posture to Dougs posts on this
> one, but I could only hold the pose for a few seconds before breaking into
> a belly laugh appropriate only for the Buddha or Santa Claus.
>
> - Steve
>
> Just to update fellow FRIAMers.
>
> The most common standard display device in the world today is the 16x2
> character LCD display. The vast majority of installations use it in 4 bit
> mode.
>
>  On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:08 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:
>
>>  As a courtesy to our old-fashioned (to put it politely) FRIAM list
>> members who are still reading email on their TRS-80 ascii terminals, I will
>> supply a synopses of the material contained in that new-fangled url thingie
>> below:  the article discusses a massive, indifferent, brooding silence.
>>
>>  You're welcome.
>>
>>
>
>
> 
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>
>
>
> 
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>

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Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence


Marcus -

Sadly, and this may make you choke on whatever you are drinking at the 
moment, so put it down, what prompted me to think of this (aside from 
Doug's reference to the Trash80 era) was that I recently found some 
curled faded sheets of dry-silver process paper (most likely FROM a 
4631) in one of my stashes of nostalgic documents which I *think* were 
originally printouts of my junior project in computer graphics where I 
"invented" a cursive alphabet (stroke) which required a hash table 
(straight out of Knuth) to look up appropriate "joinery" between various 
Cap and lower case letters.


I was so excited when Knuth (himself) came out (several years later) 
with Metafont...   Does the new generation even *know* of Knuth's work 
before TeX?   I never hear reference even to Metafont, much less his 
seminal work in algorithms and data structures.


- Steve

On 2/4/13 4:11 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
this was written on my Tektronix 4013 (APL keyboard) storage vector 
graphics terminal with ASCII and EBCIDIC emulators and an awesome 
version of Battlezone running from my CP/M machine.  Shall I typeset 
a complex equation and take a polaroid of it for you?
Now don't freak out, but you may have to upgrade to MS-DOS to use 
http://www.ctan.org/pkg/dvgtk
but otherwise just print it out on your 4631.. 
http://w140.com/kurt/tek_new_products_mar-apr_1975.pdf


Marcus



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Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence


Sarbajit -

Can you elaborate?  I think this one just flew past me...  2 lines of 16 
characters with only 4 bit indexing (alphabet of 16 characters?)...  
This sounds like (much) more than a digital watch (do those even exist 
anymore?) or even a calculator (only 1 line?).


I feel like you handed us a riddle like the sphynx!

I tried a massive,  brooding, indifferent posture to Dougs posts on this 
one, but I could only hold the pose for a few seconds before breaking 
into a belly laugh appropriate only for the Buddha or Santa Claus.


- Steve

Just to update fellow FRIAMers.

The most common standard display device in the world today is the 16x2 
character LCD display. The vast majority of installations use it in 4 
bit mode.


On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:08 AM, Douglas Roberts > wrote:


As a courtesy to our old-fashioned (to put it politely) FRIAM list
members who are still reading email on their TRS-80 ascii
terminals, I will supply a synopses of the material contained in
that new-fangled url thingie below:  the article discusses a
massive, indifferent, brooding silence.

You're welcome.





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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence

I'm usually happy with a close approximation of the current time.  Such as:
the current time is Wednesday.

On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 7:30 AM, Sarbajit Roy  wrote:

> A sundial only works consistently (sort of) between the tropics.
>
> On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 7:50 PM, Douglas Roberts wrote:
>
>> I prefer the sundial, myself.
>>
>>
>
> 
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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>

-- 
*Doug Roberts
d...@parrot-farm.net*
*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*
* 
505-455-7333 - Office
505-672-8213 - Mobile*

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Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence

A sundial only works consistently (sort of) between the tropics.

On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 7:50 PM, Douglas Roberts wrote:

> I prefer the sundial, myself.
>
>

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Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence

I prefer the sundial, myself.


On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 7:18 AM, Sarbajit Roy  wrote:

> Just to update fellow FRIAMers.
>
> The most common standard display device in the world today is the 16x2
> character LCD display. The vast majority of installations use it in 4 bit
> mode.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:08 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:
>
>> As a courtesy to our old-fashioned (to put it politely) FRIAM list
>> members who are still reading email on their TRS-80 ascii terminals, I will
>> supply a synopses of the material contained in that new-fangled url thingie
>> below:  the article discusses a massive, indifferent, brooding silence.
>>
>> You're welcome.
>>
>>
>
> 
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>



-- 
*Doug Roberts
d...@parrot-farm.net*
*http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*
* 
505-455-7333 - Office
505-672-8213 - Mobile*

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence

Just to update fellow FRIAMers.

The most common standard display device in the world today is the 16x2
character LCD display. The vast majority of installations use it in 4 bit
mode.

On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:08 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:

> As a courtesy to our old-fashioned (to put it politely) FRIAM list members
> who are still reading email on their TRS-80 ascii terminals, I will supply
> a synopses of the material contained in that new-fangled url thingie below:
>  the article discusses a massive, indifferent, brooding silence.
>
> You're welcome.
>
>

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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Re: [FRIAM] Massive, Indifferent, Brooding Silence