Interesting video on new human-computer interaction techniques

I would love to know is if the new Macbook models (2009) run any cooler than the original Macbook Pro models sporting the Core 2 Duo 1.X GHz processors? Also, since I don't have the money to drop on a new Macbook right now, I would love to hear more information about a store which allows trade-ins of used Mac hardware in Canada. Any ideas?

“CMOS Checksum error - Defaults loaded."

"CMOS Checksum error - Defaults loaded"

Usually this is caused by a dying battery. Rolling up my sleeves, I went and bought a replacement, cleared the CMOS, saved a new configuration using Award's snazzy 1997 BIOS interface and... presto! Nothing changed. I tried this a couple of times with no luck. Before I reset the CMOS, I noticed something odd. It seems the jumper was set in the clear position for a while. I'm not sure for how long exactly, but the last time I exumed the motherboard from the old chassis I seem to remember the jumper falling off. With my attention focused on something else, I guess I just slid the jumper back on without checking the configuration. I'm wondering if that eventually lead to a small corruption in the original copy of the BIOS. Will a simple reflashing solve the problem, or will it lead us down a different path? Stay tuned for another exciting episode!

Wouldn't it be nice to have crisp, clean, beautiful colours shown on your high-definition television? Of course it would, and there are options available to you. One option is to support the services which provide these games to you on your high-definition console. The Nintendo Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360 both provide on-line shops for you to buy these titles. However, when compared to the sheer number of classic games available, the companies simply do not have the money, desire, or the ability to offer anything more than the most popular titles for the most popular consoles. Sometimes I like to play games which will never be discussed in the forums, and I would bet one of my cats that these titles will never see the light of day through these services. It's not a case of simply choosing one over the other; I support these services whenever I see a title I would enjoy playing, but the release cycles are too few to satisfy my gaming needs.

The solution for me was the personal computer and hardware emulation. I had specific requirements for the physical size, number of available ports, and driver compatibility. Those were the three biggies. I could ramble on about the time I spent searching and testing different machines, but I won't bore you with that. No, you're reading this blog for results. The machine I chose to go with is the AcerPower 1000 computer. It's smaller than your average DvD player, performs well using under low power consumption, and runs very quietly. It also  has oodles of USB ports for lot's of expansion possibilities. I needed the machine to support at least two joysticks (along with the USB keyboard and mouse), and I wanted those ports easily accessible. The AcerPower has four high-speed ports right in the front of the machine which was perfect for my needs. It also has 3D support using an nVidia GeForce 6150 chipset and full environmental audio; I tested the graphics chipset with the Ion Storm's  Deus Ex and it ran very well at 1024x768. So long as the software can support one of your television's video modes, everything should work out alright.

I posted my problem to the XGS forum and received a few pointers from the designer, André LaMothe. As per his recommendation, I have reseated the oscillators to no avail. I'll have to keep the coffee pot hot tonight.

Update: I did not realize the SX-Key "Run" command simply assembles, uploads, and sets the clock. You must still switch the XGS into run mode and reset the system. This is different from the "Debug" command which does everything the run command does, but it uses its own clock instead of the clock found on the XGS which allows the program to run without switching the XGS into run mode.

Of real interest to me, however, is the ease in which third-party software can be written for the device. As an example, there are a myriad of hardware emulators available for the GP2X. I'm not going to list all of them here, because you can just as easily visit Wikipedia and read about them. There is probably at least a partially functional emulator for whatever platform you've got in mind, and theirin lies the problem. Due to the sheer number of amateur programmers who produce free, semi-functional software, finding a program that actually works well is time consuming. One site which helps alleviate this problem is the GP2X Archive. The site is essentially a repository for Gamepark software which includes available titles for the GP32 platform as well as the GP2X. The repository isn't what makes the site truly helpful, although having a central location for Gamepark related software does make things easier. It's the various comments left by users and authors for a large number of projects hosted on the site. Not all of them are useful, and many of the comments could use a pass or two from a spelling/grammer filter, but I'm not complaining.

Before you can begin playing your favourite game, you need to find out which platform the game you have in mind actually runs on. If you don't know that, then you need to do a bit of research first. I have spoken with people many times and most of them have similar reactions when I tell them about the GP2X: "Cool! Can you fire up Ms. Pac-Man?" The question I ask them in return is usually "Sure. Which one?" They usually look at me with a confused expression and ask "What do you mean?" The problem is they have an image in their mind, a game they had played from a long time ago. They haven't considered that I don't know what image they are seeing, since many games from the by-gone era of arcade games often ran on several different hardware platforms. Each of those games, although similar in title, usually played quite differently from one machine to the next. An excellent example of this is Pac-Man, which was a brilliant game on an arcade machine but wasn't very much fun on the Atari 2600.

Once you have the name of the hardware platform in hand, you should visit the GP2X Archive or use the Google search engine to find an emulator that meets your needs. Many of the emulators available are less than perfect, but there are a few diamonds in the rough. One such emulator is the GnGeo2x for the NeoGeo home entertainment console. It takes a fair amount of tweaking and configuration to get it working just right, and the right machine ROMS for your locale (I'm not talking about the games) are very difficult to find. Once you have it up and running, playing NeoGeo software on-the-go has never been easier.

The GP2X is a cool gadget for many reasons (not just the ones I listed above). It's a completely open platform, and that means possibilities for aspiring programmers who want to work their magic on a portable hardware platform. Sure, there are other portable devices, such as platforms which support Windows CE, and... umm... cell phones. The first choice is too expensive and the other is too boring. Who wants to write software for a cell phone as a hobby? There are far too many cell phones on the market to make that forray very interesting. Not to mention the fact that most cell phones were never designed to play games in the first place.

CTIA is an acronyn for Color Television Interface Adapter and was the successor to the TIA chip used in the Atari 2600. It was reponsible for translating the information produced by the ANTIC chip into signals the television could understand. In later machines, Atari replaced the CTIA chip with the GTIA chip which had much more functionality. In addition to the DAC (digital-to-analog converter), the GTIA controls sprites, collision detection, priority control and color-luminance (brightness) to all objects including display lists from the ANTIC processor. Along with all that extra functionality, some GTIA versions made for the European market were buggy due to a PAL processing error.

The ANTIC processor was reponsible for interpreting display lists, which were instructions on how each scan line was to be displayed, line locations, interrupts, scrolling, and indicating where to find resources such as graphics or character sets.

POKEY was responsible for reading the keyboard, generating sound and serial communications. It also provided timers, a random number generator (for sound noise as well as random numbers), and maskable interrupts. POKEY has four semi-independent audio channels, each with its own noise, frequency and volume control. Each 8-bit channel had its own audio control register which selected the noise content and volume. For higher sound resolution, two of the audio channels can be combined for more accurate sound.

The XL versions contained simplified circuitry to help cut down costs and space requirements. The XL versions were also engineered to comply with the new FCC regulations at the time. One particularly interesting feature, called the PBI (Parallel Bus Interface), allowed for unprecedented access to the computer hardware by an outside peripheral. The PBI is a 50-pin port which provides an unbuffered, direct connection to the system bus lines (address, data, control) running at the same speed as the 6502 CPU. Only the 600XL and 800XL computers had such an interface. The XE systems of the day (65 XE, 130 XE, 800 XE, XEGS) came with the Enhanced Cartridge Interface (ECI), instead.

If you don't have the space or simply do not want the original hardware in your home, there are a few good Atari emulators out there. Atari800Win is an excellent hardware emulator for Microsoft Windows, and is my preferred choice for this platform. Another great emualtor is the open-source project called atari800. Due to the nature of this opensource initiative, it will probably become the leader in Atari 8-bit emulation unless something goes wrong, which is not uncommon for such projects. Obviously the more people who fiddle with the timings and compatibility, the more a project will progress toward the overall goal of 100% compatibility. Whichever version you choose, both have the source code available in case neither supports your favourite platform. One such platform could be the Gamepark handheld device. atari800 was ported to the device some time ago in 2003-2004, but the author has since dropped the project.

If software development is more to your liking, then you may appreciate programs such as CC65. CC65 is a cross-compiler/assembler suite for a variety of destination platforms such as Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64. This cross-compiler will create binary files that are compatible with the desired microprocessor. Compilers are usually complex tools at the best of times, but don't let that stop you! If you don't want to program in assembly language, then CC65 will let you write your software using the "C" programming language. "C" is considered a higher level language by many people, but these people obviously haven't dealt with nested pre-processor macros before. For the more hardcore amoung you, there is always the option of using a native Atari assembler to write your software. You may even be able to use BASIC - don't underestimate its power! I've written several programs using BASIC and the results never fail to impress... myself.