In about 1980 or so i got a TI 99/4A (I was about 12) and figured out how to do high-res graphics within the limitations of what was essentially a text-only machine. By redefining the 8x8 character blocks you could manipulate individual pixels. The main limitation was that when you redefined one character, every one of that number on the screen would change, and I think there were 256 available...still though, i managed to create programs that could graph a line and draw circles, and something that was similar to Missile Command. it was also interesting in that if, for example, you filled the whole screen with a single character and then redefined it in a loop or something, the whole screen would instantly update creating mesmerizing effects. You had to be creative in those days.
My favourite 8-bit machine, the Oric-1/Atmos range of systems, had a secret video mode embedded in its bowels that we didn't know much about until this century. It turns out there is a way to do color rendering on the Oric that precludes the attribute clash that inflicted so many systems of the era .. and we didn't find out about it until one of our most elite hackers dug deep.
Since then, there's been a re-birth of new titles written for the Oric to exploit this graphics mode .. and it has resulted in titles that, had they occurred in the 80's, would have propelled the Oric far further into the scene - perhaps. (Perhaps, it was already too late for the Oric by the time it arrived...)
I find it fascinating that these machines still hold so many treasures yet to discover. And, it sure is fun to be writing software for an 8-bit machine, with only perhaps a few hundred users out there who would give a damn ..
Thank you - this is quite a find. I remember banging my head against the limitations of the HIRES mode and eventually doing everything in text mode with redefined characters - I was working on a windowing system at the time.
Best thing in for summer was two weeks with my grand father, my Atmos and my monitor - and certainly not my mom telling me to get out in the sun (and my grand father couldn't care less.)
Great to encounter another Atmos fan on HN .. have you been following the OricExos project? Its a system consisting of 4 Oric's, tied together, sharing duties for graphics and sound .. pretty amazing hack, if I do say so myself:
Check out some of the demo's at the end of the thread .. it was recently booted up and demonstrated adding new color resolutions to the system. Truly mind-boggling!
What you described is graphics mode 1 or standard graphics. The TI 99/4a also had a mode 2 or bitmap mode. In this mode the screen was divided into thirds each being assigned their own character pattern and color table. This allowed you to change each pixel on the screen individually.
There was still a color restriction. Each row of a character could only contain 2 colors, so every horizontal grouping of 8 pixels could only be one of two colors assigned to that row in the character. This is still an improvement over standard mode which required all pixels of an 8x8 pixel grid defined by a character to be one of two colors assigned to that character.
I typed in many a BASIC program from '99er magazine, Family Computing, Compute!, and the like that used the mode you speak of, redefining characters to be shapes of the needed sort. This was used in the program I typed in for this blog post last year: http://www.bytecellar.com/2017/10/03/a-program-from-a-35-yea...
I've lived in South Korea for a long time. It has deep, deep cultural issues that are bound to drag it down eventually. Until the education system completely changes, the political system reforms, and people's attitudes change about many things, it will be doomed to be a small-time player that continues to make copies and continues to have a handful of large conglomerates that support the economy. I could write a book about it.
IMO it will be hundreds or thousands of years (if ever) until humans will fully understand the intricacies of DNA...the complexities are just enormous.
We went from not knowing how hereditary information is passed on to actually manipulating it in humans in the span of a few decades, don't be so pessimistic !
I suppose some people would argue that 'no known side effects' extends to 'no known effects' as well in this case. Scientific evidence that it does anything at all in humans appears to be non-existent to very weak at best.
Well, you can believe what you may, of course. But at least no one is dying from it...you can't say that about very many modern medicines, even Tylenol kills a lot of people.
Probably half of the world's peoples have had good effects from ginseng, whether that is "placebo" (as scientist and western doctors might say...) or based on chemical compounds that haven't been extracted yet (they are still extracting them from another plant medicine in use for over 5000 years called Cannabis...scientists have no idea about most of the 500 or so in that plant either), or based on some kind of spiritual element as is said about Ayahuasca and Peyote is really all besides the point. Ginseng has cured many people and kept many more from ever getting ill in the first place.
I have family who work in TCM, and I think their guidance is pretty decent: if it's serious go see a doctor, get medicine, get better. If it's not serious (you're okay with living with it), go with the herbs, because the downsides are much smaller (and the effect sizes too), but that's okay because it's not a serious disease.
But I must stress this: if you have cancer, don't eat herbs and pray, go to a damn doctor.
Asbestos was in use for 3900 years (roughly :o) ) before it was noticed that it can be dangerous (we now treat it as utterly deadly in the UK at least, I wonder if that is proportionate though - I am not slightly qualified to say!)
good point. and people used to paint their faces with lead, use leeches as medicine, and so on and on. can't argue with you there! weren't asbestos used in early cigarette filters, even? i think they were.
look: i'm not suggesting to throw the baby out with the bathwater here! might as well use the tools we have the best we can. but why not look to nature and various medicinal traditions too?
as far as I know only in one brand of cigarette. it was a particularly hazardous form of as estos. ironic since it was marketed as being safest healthiest cigarette.
If you aren't being a little sarcastic, you are lucky. The bug saved you money for shit that you obviously are not wishing very hard for. Kids at Christmas time certainly don't need a backup....
I just realized the influence of Hacker News. I read techcrunch every day and it is rare for an article, any article, to get more than 2 or 3 comments (although, to be fair, they just added commenting in the last few months)...this one got 35 already!
Anyways, I think that this is NOT a fail for Amazon at all, but a major win. They obviously created all kinds of attention! I'm sure they will get it right next time, and maybe, if they think fast, can reverse this situation by offering those who were disappointed a 2nd chance at an even-greater discount...at least that's what I would do.
I thought I just read that Google will have some operating in Arizona "by the end of this year" ...no? These things are basically a solved problem already and just waiting to get approval.
