August 2007 Meeting Notes
Compiled by Dave Jaffe
Contributions from Kevin Appert and others
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09:45
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Coffee and a chat
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10:15
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Floating Point Mandelbrot Computation
Revisited - CH Ting
"I will show the Mandelbrot plots done with integer math and with floating
point math using the Floating Point Unit in the Intel processor. I am learning
HTML, and will do the presentation in HTML. Mandelbrot plots are great for the
background of HTML webpages. I have also learned how to add background music to
the webpages."
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12:00
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Lunch
Some folks bring their lunch, some folks go to Togos.
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13:00
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Introductions, announcements, rumors, and
random access
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13:15
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Interesting Items - Volume 8 - Dave
Jaffe
Dave will continue his survey of interesting newly-introduced microcontrollers,
I/O peripherals, sensors, products, and gadgets that can provide useful and
unique capabilities to Forth embedded systems. If anyone has come across
anything that fits this category, pass them along to him for inclusion in his
presentation.
- Slides - 155 Kb pdf file
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13:30
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Audible Computing - Masa Kasahara
What would happen if we only relied on our hearing when using a computer? Masa
will discuss his project that uses Forth to provide an audible interface to a
minimal computer, just a motherboard with firmware. He'll describe his thinking
and his goals and solicit advice from the group.
- Slides - 1.7 Mb pdf file
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13:55
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- Break
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14:15
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Two-Stack Design from CPU Class -
John Rible
"I'll describe the architecture of the SP2 and its "hardware threaded
code." It's a 16-bit, two-stack, design following Chuck's uP21 family of
chips. Coded in Verilog, it's meant for inclusion in FPGA projects. Bill Muench
worked with me to write an eForth compiler for it."
- "The sp2-cpu.pdf file in this zip file
(104 Kb) describes the instruction set for my long-in-arriving two-stack
machine. Promised over ten years ago in my cpu class, it's being licensed
currently. It will appear on my website later this Fall."
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15:45
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Think of something for next month
This means you!
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16:00
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Adjourn
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Other items:
ZoneAlarm may be extremely popular, but that doesn't necessarily mean
that it's the best firewall you can find. Many people believe that
Comdo
Firewall Pro takes that prize, largely because it was rated as the top
firewall by the independent testing site Matousec. - Preston Gralla
The Belarc
Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware,
missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet
Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your
PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web
server.
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