--- SVFIG Meeting, Fourth Saturday, July 24, 2010 --- _______________________________________________ *** MEETING PLACE SAME AS LAST MONTH, CHANGED SINCE FEBRUARY *** The meeting will be held on the FIRST OR second floor of Building 550 (aka Peterson Building. Directions and map links are below. *** DO NOT ASK STANFORD STUDENTS TO LET YOU IN AND DO NOT ENTER THE BUILDING BEHIND STUDENTS *** Enter the building from the Panama Mall side. The door is labeled "Building 550 - Mechanical Engineering Design Group". If there isn't someone from SVFIG at the door to let you in, call the cell phone number on the sign. The Official SVFIG Announcement Editor's Parking Lot Recommendation is the lot near the intersection of Santa Teresa St and Morris Way. There are other, closer lots but this one is easiest to navigate to. ***WIFI AVAILABLE*** There is no public Wifi. If you had a one-day password last month it will be the same this month. For a new one-day guest account (if you didn't get one last month) email Dave Jaffe at: _______________________________________________ AGENDA For late-breaking updates, check the web site: <<>> At each lull in the action, between talks or before breaks we will be inviting folks to give short 5-10 minute 'quickies'. If you'd like to tell us about something, let Kevin know at the meeting and we'll reserve the time for you or take your chances that nobody else will grab the slot. 09:50 --- Coffee and a Chat 10:00 --- STM8S-Discovery Board --- C.H. Ting "Many of you might have gotten STMicroelectronics' STM8S-Discovery evaluation board free at this year's Embedded Systems Conference. It has an 8-bit microprocessor, the STM8S105C6T6, and a USB link. I looked into it and found the microprocessor is similar to the 68HC11. So I dug up my 68HC11 eForth implementations and am trying to port it over. I will report my progress. I hope to have a working eForth on it for demonstration at the meeting. STM is selling this board at $10. At this price, I can tolerate all the shortcomings in this chip." 11:35 --- Quickie 11:45 --- Twenty-FORTH of July Barbecue Ting will grill, we will enjoy! If you're a vegetarian, email Kevin at forther_at_comcast_dot_net We're planning to have a box or two of Boca Burgers or something similar but other suggestions are welcome. 13:00 --- INTRODUCTIONS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, DISCUSSION --- All Assembled This month we'll go around the room and each introduce ourselves and tell the coolest new product, lifehack or tool we've seen lately. Like this exciting new way to round off slotted screws: http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?c=&cat=1,43411,43417,32215&p=32215 13:30 --- EXPERT SYSTEM FOR ENGINE ANALYSIS --- Dennis Ruffer Most of us recognize that HAL-9000 was 1) Hostile and 2) not written in Forth. Dennis will describe a non-hostile expert system he wrote many years ago in Forth to diagnose automobile engines in instruments built by Allen Group - Test Products Division. Here is an example of the sort of target system: https://www.lemonsauctioneers.com/lotimages/cyfair11-06-07/DSCF0111.JPG This is Dennis's patent: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4373186.html 14:30 --- Quickie 14:35 --- Break 14:45 --- Quickie 14:50 --- Learning to Play With the FPGA --- Kevin Appert "I'm trying to get started, probably with VHDL, probably with Spartan 3 or 3E. I'd be grateful for advice." *VHDL vs Verilog *pros and cons of various development boards *best books to buy/borrow *other member's spare books or boards to beg, borrow or buy *is anyone interested in forming a study group? *who can I email for help? *group project to explore and/or update John Rible's CPU class 15:05 --- Topic Grab Bag --- Everybody We'll talk about something, here are some thoughts: (Post topic suggestions to the email list or bring them to the meeting!) *** Where are We Going With This? We'll talk about things we could do to promote Forth and form groups to accomplish tasks or designate individuals. ***More Skype speakers? Leon? Charles Curley? Mitch Bradley? The program committee could use a little help! *** Why Forth? There's a discussion thread on the email list dealing with this very question. Join in there or at the meeting and tell us good reasons to use Forth, things you tell others about the language, your sales pitch to the boss or customer. ***Old Forth Programmer-again This guy posted to the list about his oscilloscope project. Anyone know how to talk to the Mac serial port? ***Remember 1988? In 1988 FIG teamed up with others to present the first and only "Real Time Programming Convention". It was interesting in several ways: * It wasn't called "Forth Day" and some of the content was * It was in Anaheim, at the Grand Hotel * The really cool "World's Fastest Programmer" contest * Jef Raskin was the banquet speaker. * There was substantial vendor participation, advertisements in the program and an exhibitor area with 20 companies listed. The program has been scanned, now with scanny textey searchy OCR! Have a look! Dave posted it at http://www.forth.org/conferences.html ***New on the SVFIG Email List There have been a couple of interesting discussions on the list. Leftovers --- Humor on the Web If there's time at the end of the meeting and nobody wants to step forward and talk about anything technical, we'll look on the web for humor. We'll review a few webtoons, watch a few snarky YouTube videos and we may even watch the entire 1957 classic "What's Opera Doc" <<>> Bring your favorite humorous items from the web! Hilarity will ensue. 16:00 --- ADJOURN _______________________________________________ Please note that the times listed above are precise but not accurate. We might go a little long or short on any agenda item or shuffle things on the fly with abandon. If you're desperate to see something at a particular time, please let us know! Remember that there are bugs in any non-trivial SVFIG meeting announcement. _______________________________________________ The schedule above may be reformatted or line-justified but please transmit verbatim or not at all. Any font you like is alright with me. No Newsgroup posts or other media distribution this month please! _______________________________________________ There is NO Public Wireless Internet access at Stanford. Email Dave Jaffe to request a one day guest account if you don't have one from last month. _______________________________________________ Coming to SVFIG: * FORTH DAY in November 2010! * Bring speaker suggestions TO EVERY MEETING! * Mitch Bradley's Forth in C (somebody needs to volunteer) * Blast from the past - a discussion of John James' CRC from his Xmodem implementation as enunciated in "Forth Dimensions". * Engineering TV http://engineeringtv.com/ Fifty engineering topic channels. Four new episodes per week. * BOTBASH 2000 --- Video A cheepie video of a May 2000 robot rumble in Mesa Arizona from these guys: http://www.battlebots.com/ Is it a hollow threat or emergency backup filler material? _______________________________________________ Check the SVFIG web site at http://www.forth.org/svfig/ for last minute changes to this schedule. The most up-to-date meeting information is at http://www.forth.org/svfig/next.html Many thanks to our wonderful Webmaster, Dave Jaffe. Preliminary agenda along with schedule updates and discussion may frequently be found on the SVFIG email list. To subscribe send email to geoperry_at_gmail.com Please let us know if this isn't your preferred email address for the SVFIG-Announce mailing list. Thanks for your patience. Please suggest a speaker or present at a SVFIG meeting. Please do not attempt to reply to svfig-announce@... send instead to forther_at_comcast.net _______________________________________________ NAVIGATIONAL ADVICE Enter the building from Panama Mall. (In the event that the building door is locked, there will either be someone on duty to let you in or a cellphone number to call.) ***DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TRY TO PIGGYBACK IN THE DOOR BEHIND STUDENTS OR ASK STUDENTS TO LET YOU IN*** Google Maps does NOT work very well on the Stanford campus, use this map: http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/map/ Or the Searchable Stanford Campus Map: http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/map/ There is open parking on weekends. Park in any A or C or metered space, no coins needed even if there's a meter there. The Official SVFIG Announcement Editor's Parking Lot recommendation is the lot near the intersection of Santa Teresa St and Morris Way. _______________________________________________