September 2012 Meeting Notes

Compiled by Dave Jaffe

Contributions from Kevin Appert and others

SVFIG on Google+ Hangout- long url - tinyurl

Videos - morning (1:28:19) - afternoon1 (36:01) - afternoon2 (25:17)

09:45

Coffee and a Chat

10:00

Bach Cantatas - CH Ting
"Currently I am making videos of my most favorite cantatas. I have completed the entire BWV51 'Shout to God, all the earth' and two most popular chorals: 'Jesu, Joy of man's desiring' and 'Sheep may safely graze'."

10:30

DCW (Digital Chart of the World) Update - CH Ting
"I've re-worked the Digital Chart of the World code so that it does not crash, and it runs faster. Since I have 4 GB of RAM on my PC, I thought I could load the entire 1.8 GB map data file into RAM and then I would not have to read from the data file anymore. It turned out that Windows 7 only allocates 1.5 GB to my F# system. If I ignore Antarctica, 1.5 GB is enough for the rest of the world. The software is now working smoothly. The initial reading of the data file takes 15 seconds. Subsequently, it takes about a second to produce and display a new map."

11:45

Lunch
We ate at the Treehouse.

13:00

Introductions, announcements, rumours, and gossip - All assembled
What can SVFIG do to promote Forth?

13:15

Sneak Preview: Quantum Computing - Jack Woehr
Jack has volunteered to do our first remote "Hangout" presentation in October. He’ll give us a short preview of what he will be talking about. Please be patient as we have never done this before and it may take a little iteration to get the technology to work.

Here are some of Jack's writings:

QM/QC : The Hdirt Factor: A chat with John Martinis

Camera Excursion to the NIST Ion Trap Quantum Computing Experiment

Quantum Memory: A Chat with Ian Walmsley

13:45

The First Application for the Kestrel-2 - Samuel A. Falvo II
"I had no idea what I wanted to present to SVFIG, but I knew I wanted to use the Kestrel-2 to make the presentation. That meant I needed a slide projector program for the Kestrel-2, which I had to write from scratch. So, I'm writing one, thus giving me something to talk about this SVFIG meeting."

Repository of Kestrel-related Source Code and Documents

Source code and datasheet documentation for the cores, MGIA, KIA, and CPU

The complete computer to date

14:45

Break

15:05

Random Access - All assembled
We'll ask for volunteers to provide short presentations. We may discuss Forth Day and suggestions for promoting Forth in general. Other topics might include the Arduino, the LaunchPad, new products, comp.lang.forth and whatever else occurs to us.

15:55

Clean Up

16:00

Adjourn

Other items:

Forth

4tH now works on Raspberry Pi - 4tH Compiler

Computers

Software

Download YouTibe videos - youtube-dl

Utilities

Five free portable recovery tools

Hardware

Pololu Products

MinIMU-9 v2 Gyro, Accelerometer, and Compass

Zumo Chassis Kit

Dual VNH5019 Motor Driver Shield for Arduino

MC33926 Motor Driver Shield for Arduino

DRV8833 Dual Motor Driver Carrier

DRV8835 Dual Motor Driver Carrier

Generic Linear Actuators

Pololu latest products

Forth Programming Books

Articles

25 Microchips That Shook the World - Computer Cowboys Sh-Boom Processor (1988)

Ampex vintage video machine in Stanford's Green Library

Stores

Robots

Games

Companies

Forth Jobs - submitted by Dennis Ruffer

Computer Scientist Level 1 - SPARTA, Inc. - Columbia, MD

Systems Engineer Level 1 -SPARTA, Inc. - Columbia, MD

Lectures

People

GreenArrays

Surplus Houses

Meetings

Videos

Books

Courses

Podcasts

Other

Code Retreat - 12/08/2012