All posts by fash

Comedians and standup comedy

I previously wrote about English Humour, now generic standup comedy.

I’ll write what I know and like, can you help me add to my list??!?
Only a few worth mentioning posted below.

I’m having a hard time to distinguish between One man shows, Standup comedians and alike.

Dutch/Belgium

English/Scottish/American

  • Billy Connolly – (Nothing I didn´t like about this guy’s humour)
  • Johnny “Bagpipes” Johnston – A comedian piper! (Got a dvd of his show)
  • Rowan Atkinson – His one man show
  • Eddie Izzard – History/general knowledge fantasy comedy
  • George Carlin

Other

  • Ismo Leikola – Finnish/American mostly word jokes
  • Ari Eldjárn – Icelandic language jokes

Oneliner cannons – ( Funny as hell, no long stories )

  • Stephen Wright
  • Mitch Hedberg

Music comedians

  • Johnny “Bagpipes” Johnston
  • Hans Liberg (NL)
  • Victor Borge ( Hans Liberg got a lot of his material from him )
  • Bill Bailey

Naughty

  • Ali Wong
  • Nikki Glaser
  • Jimmy Carr

Top IMDB 250 Movies (2000-2023) visualized

Using some webscraping, bash scripts and a online bar chart race tool, I made a visualisation of the top movies.

Top 50
And an unreadable top 250

Copy/view here
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/14680792/

MartyPC

Perviously i’ve posted about PCem

But I wanted to have a emulator which could load extension biosses also.
This for my own tinkering.

I was told to look at MartyPC and PCE/ibmpc

I don´t like it being written in Rust, but it does the job.

Running the Basic Extension Rom
Running one of my own roms. I knew it didn’t work, now i can use the buildin debug to see why!
Another of my test roms, which is working!

ROM config part i’ve got in martypc.toml

rom_override = [
    { path = "./roms/BIOS_5160_09MAY86_U19_62X0819_68X4370_27256_F000.BIN", address = 0xF0000, offset=0, org="Normal" },
    { path = "./roms/BIOS_5160_09MAY86_U18_59X7268_62X0890_27256_F800.BIN", address = 0xF8000, offset=0, org="Normal" },
    { path = "./roms/myromextension.bin", address = 0xF6000, offset=0, org="Normal" }
]

GLABios for Laser XT/3

In previous post :

I mentioned a 2 ROM setup because the 8086 is 16bits instead of 8.
So I was wondering that maybe a recompile was needed, or the data being split over two roms (odd/even)

The guy from GLABios was so kind to build me two interleaved roms.

So while working on a padded bench, I tested the ROMs.

Working outside .. on the padded bench

Back to the roms, it didn’t work!

But I missed a detail in the technical manual (the bold text)

In Turbo XT /2 and Turbo XT /3, there are two 28-pin sockets for ROM,
both of them are occupied by 2764 which stored the BIOS. The contents
of the two 2764 are identical.
One of them contribute the ODD Byte to the system and the other EVEN Byte. Together they support 16 Bit BIOS
access.

I don’t know why this is how it works, but when I flashed two the same 28C64’s it worked!
(I also tought that is was strange that both original roms had the same markings.

It workes!

Only remarks/observations:

  • There was a longer wait time before the CF Card was detected/accessed
  • GLABios mentions 8088 in the splashscreen, but the machine is a 8086

UPDATE

GLABios was not updated for displaying 8086 yet.
Error 1701 was the (old spinning) harddisk not being connected.

Nice .. harddisk infomation like size, rom address and CHS

8086 sideway scroller ‘n stuff

Today I was working on my own brew ISA card (wirewrapping).
Did some mini modeling stuff.
Sorted some pipetunes.
And played around with my 8086.

Got it on a desk now, and replaced the harddisk with the CF card.
Also got an old SoundBlaster working, so i wanted to see what of my old code could still run.
Apparanty most code was compiled for 386/486 🙁
So i recompiled some stuff.
Below a horizontal scroller example.

Meanwhile i got my new fans in for my NUC (Kodi player, it was making a hell of a noise due to bad ball bearings.

WRITING A MINI INTRO WITH PICTURE AND SID TUNE (C64) PART 2

Adding a picture:
Most used is loading a koala picture.
Never done it like this before, luckily loads of retro lovers are posting code examples.
There are a lot of tools now available on PC. (Windows and Linux)

Acme : compiler i’ve used for this example
Retropixels : converting jpg into koala
Exomizer : packing/compressing the C64 prg (16k to 5.4k)
Sidreloc : relocator for SID files.

Exomizer command with effect:
(NOTE on linux you have to use single qoutes!)

retropixels -r 64 --format prg bottom.jpg ; for a prg (not used)
retropixels bottom.jpg ; for a koala picture

exomizer sfx 0x080d bottom.prg -x 'lda $fb eor #$01 sta $fb beq skip dec $d020 inc $d020 skip:'
# 0x080d is the starting address

Code

!to "bottomsm.prg",cbm
; start prg
* = $0801
; header for sys auto start
!byte $0b, $08, $00, $00, $9e, $32, $30, $36, $31, $00, $00, $00

PICTURE = $2000
BITMAP = PICTURE
VIDEO = PICTURE+$1f40
COLOR = PICTURE+$2328
BACKGROUND = PICTURE+$2710

* = $080d

	sei
	lda #<irq
	ldx #>irq
	sta $314
	stx $315
	lda #$1b
	ldx #$00
	ldy #$7f 
	sta $d011
	stx $d012
	sty $dc0d
	lda #$01
	sta $d01a
	sta $d019 ; ACK any raster IRQs
	lda #$00
	jsr $1000 ; Call music

	lda #$00
	sta $d020 ; Border Color
	lda BACKGROUND
	sta $d021 ; Screen Color

	; Transfer Video and Color
	ldx #$00
.LOOP
	; Transfers video data
	lda VIDEO,x
	sta $0400,x
	lda VIDEO+$100,x
	sta $0500,x
	lda VIDEO+$200,x
	sta $0600,x
	lda VIDEO+$2e8,x
	sta $06e8,x
	; Transfers color data
	lda COLOR,x
	sta $d800,x
	lda COLOR+$100,x
	sta $d900,x
	lda COLOR+$200,x
	sta $da00,x
	lda COLOR+$2e8,x
	sta $dae8,x
	inx
	bne .LOOP

	; Bitmap Mode On
	lda #$3b
	sta $d011

	; MultiColor On
	lda #$d8
	sta $d016
	; When bitmap adress is $2000 ; Screen at $0400 ; Value of $d018 is $18
	lda #$18
	sta $d018
	cli
	.MYLOOP
	jmp .MYLOOP

irq
	lda #$01
	sta $d019 ; ACK any raster IRQs
	jsr $1003 ;Play the music
	jmp $ea31
   
; Data parts with headers cut
	* = $1000
	!binary "bottom1000.sid" ,, $7c+2


	* = PICTURE
	!binary "bottom.kla",,2

Writing a mini intro with picture and sid tune (C64) part 1

Started with a example from https://codebase64.org/

But that didn´t work (see movie clip)

looking at the sid info:

Title Bottom
Author Richard Bayliss
Released 2011 The New Dimension
Load Address $8000
Init Address $8000
Play Address $8003
Number of tunes 1
Default tune 1
Speed $00000000
SID Model 8580
Clock PAL
File Format PSID
Format Version 2
BASIC false
PlaySID Specific false

I saw that I have to move the load/init/play address.

Luckily there is sidreloc !

wget https://hd0.linusakesson.net/files/sidreloc-1.0.tgz
tar xzvf sidreloc*
cd sidreloc
make

Using:

~/Downloads/sidreloc-1.0/sidreloc  -p 10 ~/projects/sidplaybottomdemo/bottom.sid ~/projects/sidplaybottomdemo/bottom1000.sid

I could successfully move the sid to $1000

Final code (for now, next time i’ll add a picture).
(Using ACME as compiler, and X64 (vice as emulator))

;https://codebase64.org/doku.php?id=base:simple_irq_music_player
             !to "bottom.prg",cbm

        * = $0801
			
sysline:	
        !byte $0b,$08,$01,$00,$9e,$32,$30,$36,$31,$00,$00,$00 ;= SYS 2061

        * = $080d 

             sei
             lda #<irq
             ldx #>irq
             sta $314
             stx $315
             lda #$1b
             ldx #$00
             ldy #$7f 
             sta $d011
             stx $d012
             sty $dc0d
             lda #$01
             sta $d01a
             sta $d019 ; ACK any raster IRQs
             lda #$00
             jsr $1000 
             cli
hold         jmp hold 
                      ; we could also RTS here, when also changing $ea81 to $ea31
irq
             lda #$01
             sta $d019 ; ACK any raster IRQs
             jsr $1003 ;Play the music
             jmp $ea31
            
            * = $1000
             !binary "bottom1000.sid" ,, $7c+2

New Roms (eeprom)

Got some new roms in.
These are for my 8088/8086 the 6502 computer and C64 cartridges.

While I seldom had any problem writing to these, now I could not write one!
Erasing didn´t give me an error?!?

henri@zspot:~/projects/wozmon8088/mon8086$ minipro -w mon8086.rom -p AT28C64
Found TL866II+ 04.2.129 (0x281)
Warning: Firmware is newer than expected.
  Expected  04.2.128 (0x280)
  Found     04.2.129 (0x281)
Erasing... 0.02Sec OK
Writing Code...  9.57Sec  OK
Reading Code...  0.12Sec  OK
Verification failed at address 0x0001: File=0xAA, Device=0xFF

Whenever you get this, check the markings of the chip!

Mine are AT28C64b !!!!!!!!!!!

Change your command accordingly.
Another thing to watchout for is write protect, look at the commands

minipro -l | grep 28C64 
Found TL866II+ 04.2.129 (0x281)
Warning: Firmware is newer than expected.
  Expected  04.2.128 (0x280)
  Found     04.2.129 (0x281)
AM28C64A@DIP28
AM28C64A@PLCC32
AM28C64A@SOIC28
AM28C64AE@DIP28
AM28C64AE@PLCC32
AM28C64AE@SOIC28
AM28C64B@DIP28
AM28C64B@PLCC32
AM28C64B@SOIC28
AM28C64BE@DIP28
AM28C64BE@PLCC32
AM28C64BE@SOIC28
AT28C64
AT28C64@PLCC32
AT28C64@SOIC28
AT28C64B
AT28C64B@PLCC32
AT28C64B@SOIC28
AT28C64E
AT28C64E@PLCC32
AT28C64E@SOIC28
AT28C64F
AT28C64F@PLCC32
AT28C64F@SOIC28
CAT28C64A
CAT28C64A@PLCC32
CAT28C64A@SOIC28
CAT28C64B
CAT28C64B@PLCC32
CAT28C64B@SOIC28
XLE28C64A
XLE28C64A@PLCC32
XLE28C64B
XLE28C64B@PLCC32
XLE28C64B@SOIC28
XLS28C64A
XLS28C64A@PLCC32
XLS28C64B
XLS28C64B@PLCC32
XLS28C64B@SOIC28
28C64A
28C64A@PLCC32
28C64A@SOIC28
28C64AF
28C64AF@PLCC32
28C64AF@SOIC28
28C64B
28C64B@PLCC32
28C64B@SOIC28
UPD28C64
UPD28C64@SOIC28
KM28C64A
KM28C64A@PLCC32
M28C64
M28C64@PLCC32
M28C64@SOIC28
M28C64A
M28C64A@PLCC32
M28C64A@SOIC28
M28C64-xxW
M28C64-xxW@PLCC32
M28C64-xxW@SOIC28
M28C64
M28C64@PLCC32
M28C64@SOIC28
M28C64A
M28C64A@PLCC32
M28C64A@SOIC28
M28C64-xxW
M28C64-xxW@PLCC32
M28C64-xxW@SOIC28
X28C64

Laser XT/3 Bios

As posted before

I really like GlaBios for my 8088, so today I got my Laser XT/3 8086 machine from the attic.

Mmm TWO ROM’s thats interesting

Looking futher in the schematics I found this. Apparantly there is a 8K ROM configured in a D0-D7 + D8-D15 setup. (16 bits)

Found a technical manual, this is a excerpt.

In Turbo XT, there are two 28-pin sockets for ROM, one of them is
occupied by a 2764 which stored the BIOS (Basic Input Output System).
The other empty socket is used to house a 32K ROM, such as the BASIC
ROM

And about the XT/3 version which I have.

In Turbo XT /2 and Turbo XT /3, there are two 28-pin sockets for ROM,
both of them are occupied by 2764 which stored the BIOS. The contents
of the two 2764 are identical. One of them contribute the ODD Byte to the system and the other EVEN Byte. Together they support 16 Bit BIOS
access.

This could be an interesting chat with Greg ..

Meanwhile i’m going to look how to split a rom into odd/even.
Maybe i have to write a little python program for this.

Well, thats enough for today.

Lets fix my Cat S60 Flir phone, so i can track the hedgehog in our garden. (Battery replacement and powerbutton fix)

I fixed several phones before, (broken screen. touch not working). But I hate how some manufacturers build them.

Pipes played

  • Lying down
  • In a trucks cabin
  • Elevator
  • Phonebox
  • Cruise ship to England
  • While riding a bicycle without holding the handlebars
  • Motor tricicle
  • Parking garage .. amazing echo
  • Churches
  • Toilets
  • Trainstation hal at night
  • Standing in a back of a bus ( drones through the sunroof )
  • In the back of a car
  • Upside down

Some funny pictures I found