New toys!

[Blake]

My two CRT monitors have officially been retired. Their replacements came in the mail today. :D

Here's my new setup:

http://www.blake-foster.com/newtoys.jpg

I'm VERY happy.

[Twey]

Nice.

My brand-spanking-new LCD died yesterday :( Need to find something to take its place now.

[pcbrainbuster]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - what a computer !!!!!! :)

edit// - twey = ahhh man you must be crying on the inside and must be very angry !!! (i understand your feeling) :)
edit// - blake = how proud are ya :), how much the whole thing cost ?

[Blake]

The monitors set me back $500 ($460 once I send in the mail-in rebates). As for the rest of the system... I've kind of built it in pieces, upgrading one part at a time over the past 5 years. I have no idea how much the current configuration cost.

[pcbrainbuster]

Wo thats expensive - whats your income as a teacher i am guessing around 15,000 - 25,000 a year ...?

[mburt]

Er... I think you're seriously underestimating what a qualified job makes :)

[Blake]

I only teach 60% time, but I think my pay is based on a 25 - 30k salary for a full time position. I'm not doing it for a whole year, though. I started at the beginning of the winter trimester (after Thanksgiving). Next fall, I'm off to graduate school.

[pcbrainbuster]

Muhahahahahahah (:mad: - mburt - see no undertimation !!! :)
blake - good for you (good version :))

[mburt]

Hmm... undertimation. You mean underestimaton?
And yes, a full-blown teaching job around here (I didn't realize Blake was only doing part-time) is about 80 000 CAD a year.

[Blake]

There's nothing like Half Life 2 at 2560 x 1024:

http://www.blake-foster.com/h2.jpg

[pcbrainbuster]

Wow those are some great monitors -
And you play games ?

[Blake]

Yep, teachers do that too. :D In fact, the game was given to me by a professor (he had an extra copy).

For the record, I also build potato guns.

[pcbrainbuster]

LOL :)
- whats a potato gun ? (do you mean potato launcher ?)
- how good are you at the game ?

[Blake]

Well, you take about six feet of pcv pipe with a larger chamber on one end, jam a potato into it, fill the chamber with propane, ignite it, and you can guess what happens from there...

It is literally a potato gun.

I'm not very good at Half Life. This is the first time I've played it.

[pcbrainbuster]

Well i have no idea what you just said but by the way it sounds.... i would say that it shoots the potato with tremendous force :) - am i right ?

[Blake]

Yeah, that's the idea. I actually built a device to figure out exactly how fast it shoots them. I haven't head a chance to test it yet, but I would guess 200 to 300 miles per hour.

Here's the device, if you're interested:

http://www.blake-foster.com/timer.html

I don't have a pic of my potato gun, but if you do a Google image search, you'll see some others.

[pcbrainbuster]

Wo, did you build that ?

[Blake]

Yeah. I actually want to rebuild it using a microcontroller (probably a Zilog Z80, the same proc used in the TI graphing calculators.)

[pcbrainbuster]

Your a pretty cool teacher ! Compared to those lame dumb ones at my school... you get used to it....slowly !

And another thing please explain the thing above as i have no idea what any of it is :)

[Blake]

In other words, I want to rebuild the timer using a microcomputer to calculate the speed. The Z80 is a processor.

The current design only gives you the time, not the speed. You need to figure out the speed with a calculator. If I rebuilt it using a microcomputer, I could program it to calculate the speed automatically.

Here's a microcomputer I built that uses the Z80 processor.

http://www.blake-foster.com/z80.html

[pcbrainbuster]

Ahhh, i see - how does making any of it make sense to you ?

[Blake]

It's not that different from learning a new programming language. The first time you see it, it looks terribly complicated and doesn't make much sense, but once you understand it, it's easy to see how everything fits together.

[pcbrainbuster]

Makes sense :) - how do you configure everything to work ? - computer perhaps ?

[Blake]

It depends. The timer is completely hardwired (in other words there's no software involved), so there's no computer involved.

The Z80 system does require a computer, because it needs to be programmed before it will do anything. I write the programs on my PC, and send them to the Z80 over the parallel port.

Once it's programmed, it runs independently--It doesn't need to be connected to my PC to run.

[pcbrainbuster]

what languaged is used ?
- computer language (i doubt)
- other...

[Blake]

Z80 assembly. Here's what it looks like (this is the program that it's running in the picture):



org 0

LD SP, FFFFh ; init stack to top of ram

LD A, B8H ; program ppi
OUT (07H), A
LD A, 98H
OUT (03h), A
OUT (11h), A
LD B, 7Fh
CALL DELAY
OUT (11h), A

LD A, 01h ; clear display
CALL WRITEC
LD B,05h ; delay count in milliseconds
CALL DELAY
LD A, 0Ch ; display on, cursor off
CALL WRITEC
LD B,01h ; delay count in milliseconds
CALL DELAY
LD A,38H ; Set system (8 bits, 2 lines, 5x7)
CALL WRITEC
CALL DELAY
LD A,7
CALL GOTO
LD HL,MSG1
CALL PRINT
LD A,23
CALL GOTO
LD HL,MSG2
CALL PRINT
HALT

WRITEC: PUSH AF
OUT (05h), A
LD A, 02h

WFIN: OUT (07h), A
LD A, 01h
OUT (07h), A
LD A, 00h
OUT (07h), A
POP AF
RET

WRITED: PUSH AF
OUT (05h), A
LD A, 03h
JR WFIN

DELAY: PUSH DE
PUSH HL
LD DE,-1
LOOP1: LD HL,87
LOOP2: ADD HL,DE
JR C,LOOP2
DJNZ LOOP1
POP HL
POP DE
RET

; print a string terminated with $. Address stored in HL

PRINT: PUSH AF
PRT_LP: LD A,(HL)
CP "$"
JP Z,DONE
CALL WRITED
INC HL
JP PRT_LP

DONE: POP AF
RET

; go to position stored in A. 0-19 = line 1, 20-39 = line 2

GOTO: PUSH AF
SUB A,20
JP M,LINE1
ADD A,44
LINE1: ADD A,20
SET 7,A
CALL WRITEC
POP AF
RET

MSG1 DB "Blake's$"
MSG2 DB "Conflabatorium$"


That's the program that it's running in the picture.

[pcbrainbuster]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, how many different things can you do with that sort of code ? eg tih html you can create tables write on the page adjust other things...

[Blake]

Assembly is a very low level language. It's basically machine language written in a way that humans can understand (words instead of 0's and 1's). It's not related to web design.

[pcbrainbuster]

I understand all of that :), what i meant was what different things can be done with that "language" (html scripting was just an example of what one language in itself could do...)

[Blake]

If a computer can do it, it can be done in assembly. The problem is that with complicated tasks, assembly code gets immensely complicated and completely unreadable. That's why we have higher level languages, like C++.

[pcbrainbuster]

I see... were did you learn all this ?

[Blake]

I learned some of it in college, and some of it I taught myself.

[pcbrainbuster]

LOL :), this is so awkward i keep asking you questions of what you do (mechanics) and have asked many questions about your job (teaching)...

You don't find it wierd ?

[Blake]

It doesn't bother me. If you asked me for my phone number or something, that would be weird.

[pcbrainbuster]

OK sooooo, WHATS YOUR PHONE NUMBER - hahahaha :) (that was quite funny for me)

[Blake]

I saw that one coming...:rolleyes:

[pcbrainbuster]

LOL :) - wanna traid some jokes ? (we keep giving eachother jokes (only one joke at a time) turn by turn) Do you agree ?

[Blake]

It couldn't hurt to have a jokes thread.

[pcbrainbuster]

I agree, i will go first :)....

What did the traffic light say to the driver ? (answer it below)

[Blake]

stop?

[pcbrainbuster]

Nope, the traffic light said DON'T LOOK I'M CHANGING !!! LOL

[boxxertrumps]

That has nothing to do with ANYTHING.

[thetestingsite]

And everything to do with nothing. Wait, that didn't make sense.


Or did it?!?

[techno_race]

Question: Why did the chicken run away from the computer?


isJossa)-u-JoJq peu |\an-J pJeau au asne)aZ| :Jamsu\-/

[pcbrainbuster]

It saw its reflection and got scared... Then ended up in the CooCoo shack and got smaked all over and then was eaten... Am I right :)?