I just released a WordPress Plugin for the Withings WiFi Scale.
The plugin just allows you to easily embed the Withings smaller gadget into the sidebar of your WordPress blog. It should be appearing in the WordPress plugin gallery sometime in the near future.
You can download it now (assuming you have a Withings Scale and WordPress blog) by going here.
Between the earlier blog posts on BASIC programming, RobotWar and this article over at PC Advisor, I suppose I got nostalgic for my first home computer. The Texas Instruments 99/4A — what an awkward name that was.
At school, I had first experience a couple of different Apple ][+ computers (a Bell & Howell and a standard), and then Commodore Pet computers.
Initially, I didn’t have any storage device for the computer, so I had to key in programs as I needed them. Not long after the machine I got a cable that allowed a standard tape deck to work as a (manually controlled) storage unit. Eventually, I’d end up with sidecar expansions for: the speech synthesizer, 32KB memory, 5.25″ disk drives, and an Okidata printer.
There was a strict ANSI compliant BASIC included in ROM (TI BASIC) on the TI-99/4A, but it wasn’t too hard to work around most of the language differences. I remember keying in a text processing program from a magazine (pretty much a clone of roff), and saving my work to tape to print at school; only to find out that our school computers would read tapes made by my home computer. The most fundamental (to me at the time) missing functionality had to do with graphics. The TI came with neither sprites (included on the Commodore 64) or line drawing routines (on the Apple ][) built-in.
I eventually got the Extended BASIC cartridge which added sprites, much more powerful direct memory access routines (PEEK & POKE). The TI also became my gateway into assembly language as I used the Mini Memory Module Line-By-Line Assembler and eventually the Editor/Assembler to (attempt to) add line drawing facilities to the TI. That same project also taught me all about slope-intercept form.
Gaming on the TI-99/4A was a two-edged sword. One one hand there were a limited selection of nice games available (unlike the Apple or Commodore systems), and on the other that forced me into a lot more programming. There were a few really good games available for the TI, a couple stick out even to this day. Parsec was probably the most popular and best made title for the system with a really superb female synthesized voice. I also fondly remember a Star Trek cartridge, also Atarisoft ports of Defender and Pole Position. But it’s clear that I lusted after the large variety of games available on other systems. In the end I spent most of my time writing software. The last project for the TI was my attempt to port Konami Track & Field to the system (that time I learned a bunch about trigonometry). I even went so far as to build a 3-button controller specifically for the game.
That early experience with the TI-99/4A actually affected my computing experience for years to come. I’ve spent the majority of my time and energy working on alternative, “underdog” systems pretty much programming and porting software.
So what was your first home computer and did it impact your direction in life?
I’ve started a separate blog to chronicle my journey towards a healthy lifestyle. You can find it at:
I’m guessing the day-to-day posts are going to be pretty mundane, but your encouragement and support would be appreciated.
This 10 top list of computer games includes an honorable mention for RobotWar. I actually discovered RobotWar when my friend Steve Green created a version for X11. While we had a great time coding robots I think the most interesting things was figuring out how Silas Warner managed to program it on an Apple ][. For a good bit Steve struggled with performance issues on hardware several times more powerful than those early Apple systems.
My experience with RobotWar probably indirectly led to my changing majors to computer science, and it certainly affected my perception of the need to efficient coding to this day.
There are a couple of things that are absolutely necessary for me to get the most out of my Mac. Without them I either fumble around or go out of my way to make up for the loss. Some are free, others I got as part of one of those software bundles tha occasionally come around. (Do they even have these in the Windows world?)
I’d like it if I could add Marco Polo and MacFusion to the list, but neither work under Snow Leopard (10.6). Which is a shame, because they’re really useful when they do work.
(Apparently Squeeze might need be removed from the list, since it seems to make my Mac less stable.)
Got any tools that I should add into to my arsenal??
I ran across these while looking around Zazzle last night, and frankly I just had to order one. Modified from vintage WPA travel posters of the 30’s, these Star Wars posters just hit too many pressure points for me not to love them. I ordered the Hoth version, but really both are great. I’m not sure why they never got around to the Coursant version they planned. More importantly where’s the obvious Endor variant made in conjunction with the creators of this poster.
After years of being pro-Firewire and (relatively) anti-USB, my Macbook Air has finally converted me over to an all USB existence. I just added a 36′ long USB cable to my setup, allowing me to hook up my scanner across the room from the rest of the computer system (and freeing up valuable desk space.
I had wanted to use a USB over ethernet solution, but USB 2.0 high-speed compliant solutions ran $300+. Kudos to Tripp-Lite active repeater USB cable for a robust and reliable solution for under $30. I haven’t tested it with anything really serious (multiple hubs, RAID array, etc), but so far so good. I’ll update if the story changes, but otherwise consider this a firm recommendation if you need to do a reasonable length USB 2.0 run.
I’m considering getting something that will bring more media from our computers to our TV. There are a couple obvious choices (Apple TV
We already have an Xbox 360
The features I’m most interested in are pulling down tvrss.net feeds and possibly streaming videos and music from our iTunes libraries. I’m currently leaning towards picking up an Iomega iConnect
Let me know if you have any insight or suggestions into possible solutions that will meet our needs.
I’ve been particularly quiet these last couple of days because I’ve been working on the new wedding website. Well that and slogging through some data analysis for a journal article. Anyway, head on over there and let me know what other CSS nightmares I’ve caused.
PS: No, I didn’t plan that when we got the knot.org domain.
Or more specifically, the nonsense that some sites are propagating in the name of the iPad. I know they’re just trying to garner page-views by starting controversy, but it’s still sheer nonsense nonetheless. Here’s a quick sampling:
5 Reasons Why We Are Already Depressed About The iPad — Seriously? This article wouldn’t even be worth mentioning except to question the waste of ad dollars on the site for this sort of drivel. I know the iPad is big news, but this sorry excuse for a hack journalist (yeah, Tim Difford, I’m talking to you) shouldn’t be collecting a paycheck with so many other worthy people out of a job.
