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Being able to apply statistics is like having a secret superpower. Where most people see averages, you see confidence intervals. When someone says “7 is greater than 5,” you declare that they're really the same. In a cacophony of noise, you hear a cry for help. Unfortunately, not enough programmers have this superpower. That's a shame, because the application of statistics can almost always enhance the display and interpretation of data. That's no mean feat for the average coder.
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I dumped the ROM of a Tamagotchi using the code execution ability I posted previously. I wrote 6502 code that dumped each byte of the memory space of the Tamagotchi, and output it over port A (which is usually the Tamagotchi button input) via SPI.... I started by dumping the entire memory space, from 0×0000 to 0xffff, which included all mapped memory, such as ROM, RAM and ports. This only dumped some of the ROM, though, as the GPLB52x microcontroller supports paging outside of 6502 paging. The first 16 kilobytes of the ROM are always mapped to 0xc000-0xffff, and then the rest of the ROM is split into 19 pages that can be mapped to 0×4000-0xbfff as needed. To dump the entire ROM, I needed to figure out how to page. There's nothing sadder than a puppet without a ghost...
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We recently transitioned a large portion of our backend infrastructure from Microsoft SQL Server to Apache Cassandra. Today, this Cassandra cluster backs our mobile advertising network, supporting over 10 million daily active users that produce over 10,000 transactions per second, with an average database request latency of under 2 milliseconds! The journey to get there is one of struggle and perseverance, where everyone lives happily ever after. The thing's hollow — it goes on forever — and — oh my God — it's full of data!
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I just got back from HotOS 2013 and, frankly, it was a little depressing.... I could not help being left with the feeling that the operating systems community is somewhat stuck in a rut. It did not help that the first session was about how to make network and disk I/O faster, a topic that has been a recurring theme for as long as "systems" has existed as a field. HotOS is supposed to represent the "hot topics" in the area, but when we're still arguing about problems that are 25 years old, it starts to feel not-so-hot. What do you wish OS developers would break new ground on?
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Like many great consumer Linux products... manufacturers assume in nearly every case that your "other" computer will run Windows.... The good news is, with the installation or configuration of a few programs, it's pretty easy to get your Android device (all the steps in this article are equally applicable to phones and tablets unless stated otherwise) to play nice with your Linux boxen. Check the comments for neckbeard-compatible alternative tools.
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Clickety[^]
/ravi
modified 20-May-13 12:51pm.
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"The 2-3000 computer owners in SF..." Hilarious - who'd a thunk it? I lived in SF back then but don't recall this at all. It was at least another year before I could save up and buy a computer at Radio Shack (Commodore 64).
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair.
Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection
nils illegitimus carborundum
me, me, me
me, in pictures
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I love it when he said (something to the effect of), "the future is being able to copy the news you see on the screen to paper". And later on in the clip, the announcer says it will take 5 hours to download an entire newspaper (devoid of images and ads). How times have changed. 
/ravi
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OT: What's the f stop of the lens on the SLR in your profile pic? 1.4? Looks like a pretty fast lens.
/ravi
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No, it's this: EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens[^].
Had this quite a few years: my walking-around-lens.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair.
Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection
nils illegitimus carborundum
me, me, me
me, in pictures
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Nice. Hard to beat the versatility of a 28-135.
/ravi
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Agreed though that seemed like a good choice at the time. I dip in and out of photography: sometimes carry the camera around, other times won't touch it for months. Thinking of trying astro-photography and found a good site to get me started: Astrophotography Techniques[^]. Now I just have to buy a new camera body (I'm stilling using my old D400/Rebel XTi). This[^] would also be really nice to have. Alas, priorities, priorities...
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair.
Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection
nils illegitimus carborundum
me, me, me
me, in pictures
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Meanwhile, in Europe[^]
Also[^]
Plus others.
Today's youth will not feel the excitement as they hear their modems dialing out, or the sickening click as the provider hangs up, meaning no "artistic" pictures of ladies for you today!
“Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills, or abilities - that's training or instruction - but is rather making visible what is hidden as a seed”
“One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled but few are educated”
Sir Thomas More (1478 – 1535)
modified 20-May-13 11:50am.
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Yes, I remember reading about MiniTel. It was way ahead of what we had in the US.
/ravi
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Was that a Trash-80 that he was using? 
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What do you mean "Before the internet"? There has always been Internet. 
(At least, from my point of view  )
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Sorry, I meant to say "the web". 
/ravi
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That's still always been there from my point of view. If Wikipedia is accurate[^], the first web page ever created was created the same day I was born (November 13th, to save you some time searching the page).
modified 20-May-13 13:45pm.
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 Really? Only 1990? I'm pretty sure I have some tee-shirts older than that.
ps your link is bad.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair.
Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection
nils illegitimus carborundum
me, me, me
me, in pictures
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mark merrens wrote: <layer><layer>Really? Only 1990? I'm pretty sure I have some tee-shirts older than that.
That's why I come here, I get to feel young. 
mark merrens wrote: ps your link is bad.
Weird, apparently it didn't like me not having http on it...maybe that's why it refused to auto-format it for me too. Should be fixed now.
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You're off by a decade.
/ravi
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By that you mean from your video? But that's my point - in my lifetime, there has never been a time without the internet or even the web. (Arguably, there was a gap between the proof-of-concept and it's wider scale implementation, but that was still before I started forming long-term memories.)
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This script enables you to control your computer via text message. Think of it almost as a version of SSH over text message. It is designed to intelligently and quickly check unread Google voice messages. If certain parameters are passed, it runs the command you send and returns the result. Where autocorrect follies meet sysadmin nightmares.
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Usborne's 1983 classic Introduction to Machine Code for Beginners is an astounding book, written, designed and illustrated by Naomi Reed, Graham Round and Lynne Norman. It uses beautiful infographics and clear writing to provide an introduction to 6502 and Z80 assembler, and it's no wonder that used copies go for as much as $600. How did you learn machine code?
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