Plimer and Silicon Chip

[keithr]

On 8/10/2009 11:48 AM, David L. Jones wrote:

Sure, I agree.
But you have to look at my critisim in context to "Peter K"s post at which
my comments are directed.
He criticised the magazines content, of which he claims to be quite capable
of contributing to. He even mentioned he would be happy to contribute, but
then chucked a hissy when he found out SC won't pay his consulting like fees
(LOL!). Anyone who just criticises something but is in a position to help
change for the better, deserves a serve in my book.

Dave.

My main critisism of SC is that, now so many projects are microprocessor
based, mostly they do not include the source code. In the "Old days" you
could build a project from a magazine either straight as published, or
modify is as you saw fit. Now, the hardware in many cases is simply the
framework that lets the firmware do the job. Without the source code,
there is no option but to build exactly as specified, and it is all just
a soldering exercise.

Probably a set of articles on programming some of the more popular
microprocessors would be an excellent thing for them to publish.

 

[Mr.T]

"Davo" <Dave@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:4acdb443_4@news.peopletelecom.com.au...

You must read different history books to mine,

Maybe he reads ones NOT written by the yanks!

if it wasn't for the
Americans entering WWII England would be speaking German and Australia
would be talking Japanese.

The Hawaiians would probably be speaking Japanese I guess.

MrT.

 

[Phil Allison]

"Mr.Turd "

It all reminds me of Jaycar who have been advertising for staff in SC
every
month for YEARS, simply because they won't pay the amount of money
necessary
for the sort of staff they would like to have! They keep hoping someone is
desperate I guess.

** You ever met up with either Gary Johnson or Bruce Routley ??

Like meeting the BOSSES from HELL !!!!

All Jaycar are *ever* preying after is disaffected staff from DSE who have
no where else to go.



..... Phil

 

[Phil Allison]

"keithr"

My main critisism of SC is that, now so many projects are microprocessor
based, mostly they do not include the source code. In the "Old days" you
could build a project from a magazine either straight as published, or
modify is as you saw fit. Now, the hardware in many cases is simply the
framework that lets the firmware do the job. Without the source code,
there is no option but to build exactly as specified, and it is all just a
soldering exercise.

** Bob Parker's most famous " ESR Meter " article did not include the
source code.

Cos no-one alive could make head nor tale of it if he did include it.

But Bob WAS able exercise some control over kit suppliers because of
that.

Cept for that *appalling* Rod Irving character.

RIP.

Probably a set of articles on programming some of the more popular
microprocessors would be an excellent thing for them to publish.

** Pathway straight into to hell and bankruptcy is that idea.



...... Phil

 

[terryc]

On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:43:30 +0800, Davo wrote:

Well, there are only two militaries involved with this theorectical
capacity. The Russians who have a decrepit and unreliable system and
The USA who so far have cocked up every war (including independence)
they entered unless someone else was wiping their arse and helping
them.


You must read different history books to mine, if it wasn't for the
Americans entering WWII England would be speaking German and Australia
would be talking Japanese.

Definitely a different "history" book to you. Yours must have entirely
forgotten that WWII was basically won by the Russian. The USA only joined
at the end to protect the loans they had made to the UK and Australia had
already beaten the Japanese to a stand still with the rump of their
forces.

 

[terryc]

On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:50:48 +1100, keithr wrote:

Probably a set of articles on programming some of the more popular
microprocessors would be an excellent thing for them to publish.

Must be a decade ago(?) that they did an intro to something (smaller than
PC micro).

 

[KR]

On Oct 8, 9:50 pm, keithr <kei...@nowhere.com.au> wrote:

On 8/10/2009 11:48 AM, David L. Jones wrote:

Sure, I agree.
But you have to look at my critisim in context to "Peter K"s post at which
my comments are directed.
He criticised the magazines content, of which he claims to be quite capable
of contributing to. He even mentioned he would be happy to contribute, but
then chucked a hissy when he found out SC won't pay his consulting like fees
(LOL!). Anyone who just criticises something but is in a position to help
change for the better, deserves a serve in my book.

Dave.

My main critisism of SC is that, now so many projects are microprocessor
based, mostly they do not include the source code. In the "Old days" you
could build a project from a magazine either straight as published, or
modify is as you saw fit. Now, the hardware in many cases is simply the
framework that lets the firmware do the job. Without the source code,
there is no option but to build exactly as specified, and it is all just
a soldering exercise.

A lot of their projects simply wouldn't be able to exist, or be too

expensive / complex/ time consuming to build / have fewer features /
draw more power without the use of a micro.
Projects now have to be more exciting and feature packed to get people
interested in building or even reading about them. People are too used
to that with consumer products and expect as much as possible in the
way of features etc.

Probably a set of articles on programming some of the more popular
microprocessors would be an excellent thing for them to publish.

They did do a beginners series on PIC programming a while back, though
not in assembly language.
showed how to interface LEDs Temperature/light sensors, I think even a
RS232 link between 2 PICS - all laid out on a breadboard with plenty
of diagrams, drawings and instructions so that even an inexperienced
person couldn't really get it wrong.

On some of the more basic microprocessor projects source code is
available from their website.

It might possibly even have had an I2 sqared bus on that IIRC and
details on the protocol for talking to the serial Flash Rams etc. (I
cant remember if that was a PIC or something else, it was on a small
PCB board that included a lithium coin cell. They also did a
detailed article on how the I2 squared bus works in detail, including
the protocols involved in all the data transfer modes.

These days it seems to be mostly PIC and AVR in common use by SC.
There are many websites out there with a wealth of info on these.


It would probably be way too big an article to put in SC, remembering
also that 99% of people would probably not have a clue exactly what
goes on in a microprocessor, and this may be hard to explain to a lot
of the target audience, let alone following up on teaching them how to
code something useful out of it without enormous frustration at the
bugs that will inevitibly occur.

Some of the projects in that mag would be major tasks to code for even
reasonably experienced people - especially if the micro involved isn't
one they have experience in already.

 

[Mark Harriss]

David L. Jones wrote:

Japan are sitting on a stock of something like 50tons of Plutonium, enough
to make thousands of weapons. And the capacity to make untold more, like
80tons projected in the next year or two (that's more Pu than the entire US
arsenal). They are the new Pu global powerhouse. Once they go nuclear (and
their aversion to nuke weapons is shinking to zero), the whole deck of
playing cards starts to fall.

Dave.

They're only a threat to themselves so long as they pull stunts like
trying to overload their enrichment plants by pouring extra material in
with buckets and wondering why it suddenly goes critical.

The Japanese have even designed apartment block "Basement Reactors"
that the building supervisor will "maintain" and refuel by emptying
balls of fuel into the reactor vessel. A similar prototype sucked a ball
into the cooling water pipe and blocked the cooling.

 

[Trevor Wilson]

"keithr" <keithr@nowhere.com.au> wrote in message
news:4acdc76a$1@dnews.tpgi.com.au...

On 8/10/2009 8:43 PM, Davo wrote:
terryc wrote:
On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:48:33 +1100, David L. Jones wrote:


How can being able to almost completely wipe out the human race within
a
matter of hours or days at the push of a button, NOT be the biggest
threat facing this planet?

Well, there are only two militaries involved with this theorectical
capacity. The Russians who have a decrepit and unreliable system and
The USA who so far have cocked up every war (including independence)
they entered unless someone else was wiping their arse and helping them.


You must read different history books to mine, if it wasn't for the
Americans entering WWII England would be speaking German and Australia
would be talking Japanese.

It was the Russians more than the Yanks that defeated the Germans. Whether
the Japanese could have invaded Australia is moot, they had pretty well
run out of steam before they got here. It was, of course the Yanks who
mainly defeated the Japanese, but they didn't do it on their own.

**Indeed. Russia and Pearl Habour were the big mistakes made by Germany and
Japan. Had Germany left Russia alone and Japan left the US alone, the
outcome would certainly have been very different. There was no will in the
US to become involved in another European conflict.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

 

[Jeßus]

In article <50c65d14-2aaf-4d6a-a37e-fa3395a295d8
@h14g2000pri.googlegroups.com>, kenreed1999@gmail.com said...
<snip>
:> SC now appears to be trying to consolidate a fading readership that includes
:> far-right ratbags. Would not be surprised to see it go the same way as EA.
:
:A hardcore left-wing propaganda machine like the current ABC is hardly

When are people like you two fools going to realise that simplistic
labelling of people as "far-right ratbags" and "hardcore left-wing" has
become meaningless and even worse, increasingly misleading? Makes you
feel better to have a boogyman to blame for <insert issue here>?

People like you are the real problem: so easy to exploit at the voting
booth.

 

[Trevor Wilson]

"Jeßus" <none@all.org> wrote in message
news:MPG.253925d738afeee4989ac1@news.x-privat.org...

In article <50c65d14-2aaf-4d6a-a37e-fa3395a295d8
@h14g2000pri.googlegroups.com>, kenreed1999@gmail.com said...
snip
:> SC now appears to be trying to consolidate a fading readership that
includes
:> far-right ratbags. Would not be surprised to see it go the same way as
EA.
:
:A hardcore left-wing propaganda machine like the current ABC is hardly

When are people like you two fools going to realise that simplistic
labelling of people as "far-right ratbags" and "hardcore left-wing" has
become meaningless and even worse, increasingly misleading? Makes you
feel better to have a boogyman to blame for <insert issue here>?

People like you are the real problem: so easy to exploit at the voting
booth.

**Indeed. As I recall, an investigation set up by the previous Liberal
government recently found that the ABC had a slight bias TOWARDS the Liberal
Party. Moreover, anyone who watched last week's Four Corners is left in no
doubt about the impartial attitude of the ABC towards (NSW State) Labor.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

keithr wrote:

On 8/10/2009 8:43 PM, Davo wrote:
terryc wrote:
On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:48:33 +1100, David L. Jones wrote:


How can being able to almost completely wipe out the human race within a
matter of hours or days at the push of a button, NOT be the biggest
threat facing this planet?

Well, there are only two militaries involved with this theorectical
capacity. The Russians who have a decrepit and unreliable system and
The USA who so far have cocked up every war (including independence)
they entered unless someone else was wiping their arse and helping them.


You must read different history books to mine, if it wasn't for the
Americans entering WWII England would be speaking German and Australia
would be talking Japanese.

It was the Russians more than the Yanks that defeated the Germans.
Whether the Japanese could have invaded Australia is moot, they had
pretty well run out of steam before they got here. It was, of course the
Yanks who mainly defeated the Japanese, but they didn't do it on their own.

The Russians, using American built planes and supplies. Read up on
the 'Lend - Lease' program where America supplied ammunition, weapons,
fuel, food and medicine to the Allies during WWII. England couldn't
get their Merlins off the ground without the special high octane
gasoline available from a Texas refinery. Then read about the amount of
Penicillin, Magnetrons, and other items that no one else could build in
the needed quantities. America supplied over half of the ammunition
used by the Allies during WWII

Finally, read the MIT 'RadLabs' series of books to see how much of
modern electronics was developed by the US during WWII. it is over 750
MB of scanned material.

<http://cer.ucsd.edu/~james/notes/MIT%20OpenCourseWare/MIT%20Radiation%20Lab/>


--
The movie 'Deliverance' isn't a documentary!

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Trevor Wilson wrote:

"keithr" <keithr@nowhere.com.au> wrote in message
news:4acdc76a$1@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
On 8/10/2009 8:43 PM, Davo wrote:
terryc wrote:
On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:48:33 +1100, David L. Jones wrote:


How can being able to almost completely wipe out the human race within
a
matter of hours or days at the push of a button, NOT be the biggest
threat facing this planet?

Well, there are only two militaries involved with this theorectical
capacity. The Russians who have a decrepit and unreliable system and
The USA who so far have cocked up every war (including independence)
they entered unless someone else was wiping their arse and helping them.


You must read different history books to mine, if it wasn't for the
Americans entering WWII England would be speaking German and Australia
would be talking Japanese.

It was the Russians more than the Yanks that defeated the Germans. Whether
the Japanese could have invaded Australia is moot, they had pretty well
run out of steam before they got here. It was, of course the Yanks who
mainly defeated the Japanese, but they didn't do it on their own.

**Indeed. Russia and Pearl Habour were the big mistakes made by Germany and
Japan. Had Germany left Russia alone and Japan left the US alone, the
outcome would certainly have been very different. There was no will in the
US to become involved in another European conflict.

The world bitched about the US involvement in WWI, which lead to a
short isolationist period. Then they bitched about that. You can't
please idiots. EVER.


--
The movie 'Deliverance' isn't a documentary!

 

[Phil Allison]

"Michael A. Terrell Retarded Looney "

The Russians, using American built planes and supplies.

** The Yanks supplied Russia with inferior fighter planes ( P39s) that no
American wanted to fly against the Japanese or Germans. Gave a few of them
to black US pilots to fly too.

England couldn't
get their Merlins off the ground without the special high octane
gasoline available from a Texas refinery.

** Utter bullshit.


...... Phil

 

[qmod]

Phil Allison wrote:

"Michael A. Terrell Retarded Looney "


The Russians, using American built planes and supplies.

** The Yanks supplied Russia with inferior fighter planes ( P39s) that no
American wanted to fly against the Japanese or Germans. Gave a few of them
to black US pilots to fly too.

And also the only country to use WMD's against another country (ie Atom
Bomb)

England couldn't
get their Merlins off the ground without the special high octane
gasoline available from a Texas refinery.

** Utter bullshit.


..... Phil

--
Laurie.
Registered Linux user # 468070

 

[Phil Allison]

"qmod"

** The Yanks supplied Russia with inferior fighter planes ( P39s) that no
American wanted to fly against the Japanese or Germans. Gave a few of
them to black US pilots to fly too.


And also the only country to use WMD's against another country (ie Atom
Bomb)

** Depends how you define a "WMD ".

The USAAF was a weapon of mass destruction.

In one raid on Tokyo, 335 B29s destroyed 16 square miles of the city in a
fire storm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo#B-29_raids

Killed more folk and destroyed more property than the Hiroshima bomb.

Then there was Dresden, of course:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II



...... Phil

 

[KR]

On Oct 9, 10:03 am, "Trevor Wilson" <tre...@SPAMBLOCKrageaudio.com.au>
wrote:

"Jeßus" <n...@all.org> wrote in message

news:MPG.253925d738afeee4989ac1@news.x-privat.org...



In article <50c65d14-2aaf-4d6a-a37e-fa3395a295d8
@h14g2000pri.googlegroups.com>, kenreed1...@gmail.com said...
snip
:> SC now appears to be trying to consolidate a fading readership that
includes
:> far-right ratbags. Would not be surprised to see it go the same way as
EA.
:
:A hardcore left-wing propaganda machine like the current ABC is hardly

When are people like you two fools going to realise that simplistic
labelling of people as "far-right ratbags" and "hardcore left-wing" has
become meaningless and even worse, increasingly misleading? Makes you
feel better to have a boogyman to blame for <insert issue here>?

People like you are the real problem: so easy to exploit at the voting
booth.

**Indeed. As I recall, an investigation set up by the previous Liberal
government recently found that the ABC had a slight bias TOWARDS the Liberal
Party. Moreover, anyone who watched last week's Four Corners is left in no
doubt about the impartial attitude of the ABC towards (NSW State) Labor.

--
Trevor Wilsonwww.rageaudio.com.au

I saw that, and it was quite a surprise, though if NSW Labor govt, its
anything like QLD Labor, - things have got so bad and corruption is so
blatant, obvious and deep-rooted that there. probably isn't anything
media can do but criticise. The lack of any coverage of any of the
the state opposition parties (QLD) by the media shows another media
bias.
Even the ordinary person can see the mess that is around them has
become so bad that being told lies by the media about it being "all
good and wonderful" simply won't work anymore, that its probably
become a case of "pick the least worst problem and report it".

IF you have to make a bad report on something, a story on poor
standards of public transport (people have griped about this for as
long as I can remember) is a lot better for the government than a much
needed re-run of the "moonlight state" report that they did on the
Bjelke-Petersen government 20 year back. If anything, these problems
have got 10 times worse, and reach out far beyond a few corrupt cops
accepting payouts from brothels, illegal gambling clubs and SP
bookies, right into the lives and futures of the everyday person.

Its also interesting how on a federal level the reporting is exactly
the opposite.
Mr. Rudd and Co. can do no wrong. There is no balanced reporting. A
few years back it was Little Johnny who could do no wrong.

With the newspapers becoming rapidly a thing of the past and
struggling to get sales, and probably similar situation with the TV,
losing audience to the net, quality and bias of reporting may all
become irrelevant anyway.

 

[Davo]

terryc wrote:

On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:35:02 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:


The world bitched about the US involvement in WWI, which lead to a
short isolationist period. Then they bitched about that.

Nope, we just point out they were part of the solution and not THE
solutions. Whereas USAians think we should be eternally kissing their
arse because they showed up.

It's only the deterrent effect of having America standing behind us that
Australia hasn't been invaded by other countries. Australia wouldn't
stand a chance on its own. It's cool to be anti-establishment but
totally unrealistic to think we don't depend on America for our
security. China would be here in a flash otherwise.

 

[terryc]

On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:33:30 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

The Russians, using American built planes and supplies. Read up on
the 'Lend - Lease' program where America supplied ammunition, weapons,
fuel, food and medicine to the Allies during WWII.

supplied = sold, not donated.

 

[Trevor Wilson]

"Davo" <Dave@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:4acec021$1_6@news.peopletelecom.com.au...

terryc wrote:
On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:35:02 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:


The world bitched about the US involvement in WWI, which lead to a
short isolationist period. Then they bitched about that.

Nope, we just point out they were part of the solution and not THE
solutions. Whereas USAians think we should be eternally kissing their
arse because they showed up.

It's only the deterrent effect of having America standing behind us that
Australia hasn't been invaded by other countries. Australia wouldn't stand
a chance on its own. It's cool to be anti-establishment but totally
unrealistic to think we don't depend on America for our security. China
would be here in a flash otherwise.

**Bollocks. Until recently, China lacked the firepower, though it does have
the personel. Indonesia doesn't have it. Like it or lump it, Australia has
the most firepower in the immediate region (China excepted). For now.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au