Hello COMP3222! Pictured: Windows 3.0 running on the FPGA. The Zet project is, loosely-speaking, a FPGA implementation of a x86 processor. Most fortunately it was compatible with the DE-1, after much fustration of trying to understad “what the FPGA board was”, and its flashing tools. Complete with VGA display and PS/2 Keyboard input (no mouse due to lack of ports). Re-living the horror of being able to delete the Control Panel once more!

A user interface is like a joke – if you have to explain it, it’s a bad one. No features were harmed in the making of this new UI. [source]

Some of my notes on hacking with openwrt: The TP-LINK WR841N is probably one of the cheapest routers, available for around ~$28 AUD. Have not had a single problem with it ever. It’s not Gigabit tho. TP-LINK WR841N v9 – runs Chaos Calmer 15.05 RC2 just fine. There is enough space to install LuCI, but not much else. TP-LINK WR841N v8 – prebuilt images from the openwrt website include LuCI already.

When my dad first bought the iPad 2, he thought is was the most amazing thing ever. Now it is just _screaming_ to be replaced – the system software is extremely sluggish (constantly lagging), unresponsive, or apps just plain crashing. Here’s a table (sourced from http://colourclassicfaq.com/mobo/mystic.shtml) which describes the system software versions for ye ol’ 1993 Apple Mac Classic: Strikingly, this table resembles the state of affairs of iOS on the iPad 2… even the 7, 8.

Note – I wrote this post whilst I still had Windows 8.1. Now that I have upgraded to Windows 10, things are different – since .NET 4.6 RTM is part of Windows! Windows 10 readers should note that it is possible to install the Windows XP C++ tools in Visual Studio, which will install the Windows SDK 7.1, but not the VC compilers. If you still need the older VC compilers, I discovered a workaround to get them on Windows 10!

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/real_programmers.png

A few from the ever-growing archives, most from stuff said by lecturers. See, attending lectures can be fun! that one is a very unpleasant integral. if I give you that, you’d just throw your hands and say “Oh this isn’t the course for me”. Something like that, or curse me or get a drink or whatever you do in that circumstance. Tutor to student asking a question: “I can completely destroy you easily”

This semester I am taking a course in microprocessors. We have been learning Atmel’s AVR 8-bit ISA. (I just finished a report on the differences between ARM and AVR) Check out the brand new kits that the school have been busy assembling: Well it turns out that the manufacturing itself was done in China. I asked. An experimental observation was that the board cannot handle 12V. I write “experimental observation” because I fried the first dev board and had to get it replaced.

“But it was working yesterday” Locked out of your Fedora installation? Maybe because you’ve just reinstalled Windows (again). Or you’ve been playing with some alternate UEFI boot loaders. But, there is (inevitably) a way to fix it. Disclaimer: Some stuff might be wrong. I am still learning. Start by booting the machine with a live Fedora system. The live system should be started in EFI mode. Once booted,

Just a few quick thoughts on ProPresenter 5 on Mac… (from a complete PC guy) Renewed Vision’s ProPresenter 5 has been an enjoyable experience as a very capable presentation software package. After spending just yesterday afternoon sitting down in front of the Mac, I was able a get a handle on the ProPresenter software pretty quickly – points of user-friendliness! The ‘My First Presentation‘ video tutorial on the Renewed Vision website covered just about all of the basics, and the gist of the workflow.