jaybird3rd
-
Posts
10,797 -
Joined
-
Days Won
44
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Gallery
Events
Store
Status Updates posted by jaybird3rd
-
^ Ooh, something new!
-
"The developers will be instructed to give us video games that are bug free." — Mike Kennedy, September 20, 2015
- Show previous comments 4 more
-
-
-
@CPUWIZ I just saw an ad for Rocko's Modern Life for the SNES on an old tape I had!
-
"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more." — John Adams, 1776
-
“Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
On July 2, 1776 the resolution was approved by 12 of the 13 colonies, with New York delegates abstaining. Be it noted however, one week later the New York Provincial Congress offered its support for independence, effectively making it unanimous!
-
Here here! I'm all for not only celebrating the resolution, declaration, but also the signing of the document itself!
On the 4th we are actually celebrating not just independence but the Declaration of Independence.
Where my family lives we celebrate July 4 and then we celebrate 'Heritage Day', the day the Declaration was brought here and was signed. Would be so great to make the holiday a festival across a number of days!
-
-
"Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" was released in the US fifty years ago today, on June 30, 1971 (after premiering on 6/28).
-
There's nothing more frustrating than students who blatantly CHEAT, especially after the instructor (me) goes out of his way to be available to answer questions, in and out of class, even answering e-mails late at night.
- Show previous comments 13 more
-
-
^ That's pretty much the attitude. I hear it all the time, especially at the end of the semester: after getting an (already generous) grade of, say, 77% on an assignment, the student will write me back and say "You know, that's pretty close to a 'B.' If I get a 'C,' it might hurt my scholarship, so I'd really like to get a 'B' for this, please."
-
-
34 years ago today, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after liftoff. I saw it on TV on the day it happened. I was 9 years old.
- Show previous comments 27 more
-
-
@Kobra Kai the remains were at the bottom of the ocean, and the salvage operation took 12 weeks, 25 ships, 2000 servicemen, 10 million dollars. https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/20/us/all-shuttle-crew-remains-recovered-nasa-says.html
-
@Flojomojo Wow. I was always a NASA and astronomy buff, and somehow I never heard that story of the recovery of the remains. Obviously not going to be printed in the old science magazines I got as a kid. And of course, back then, no Internet, etc...
However I remember many months of coverage about fault, O-Rings and what not, and waiting until the next shuttle would launch again.
-
-
From the Intel MCS-51 manual (1981): "Program memory, like an elephant, is extremely large and never forgets information. [...] Data memory is like a mouse: it is smaller and therefore quicker than program memory, and it goes into a random state when electrical power is applied."
-
Getting ready for another tornado ...
- Show previous comments 4 more
-
-
@Bixler: neither had I until we moved here 5 years ago. I have no shame in admitting that this was a type of weather I had never lived with, and was about two steps away from wetting myself over it when we got our first alert. Thankfully, I got through it without any embarrassing damp trouser stains.
By the time we got to our second alert, I was bored 20 minutes into it. My wife and I plus our two cats were crammed into the tiny bathroom in the middle of the house, but having ridden one out previously I now understood how my wife (who grew up with tornadoes as a fact of life) got through it in a more or less blasé manner.
That's not to say that it's a fun thing, but it's going to be what it's going to be and you're just going to have to see how things shake out. Be prepared in advance for power, gas, and water failures, and have food, water, blankets, and medications to hand.
-
-
Glad to be posting status updates again! Another piece of the puzzle, back in its proper place.
-
Happy 40th Anniversary to "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," released in the US on December 7th, 1979.
- Show previous comments 8 more
-
-
I kid, I kid, though I fell asleep to that in the theater about age 11...Lately, my friend showed me a few scenes and without having to watch the whole thing, it sure seemed a lot better than I remember it. I thought 2001 was Awesome after seeing some scenes with him too, and then seeing it again much later in life.
-
-
Happy anniversary to me! Sixteen(!) years on AtariAge.
-
Happy Birthday, @Bryan! Thank you again for Castle Crisis, and for the UAV!
-
Happy Birthday, Albert!
- Show previous comments 3 more
-
-
Happy birthday, and here's a present from me: https://www.bandlab.com/fighting_zenith/gypsy-woman-demo-loop-42103d3a?revId=8736c54c-7424-eb11-9fb4-501ac5b31de6
Thought I would share something upbeat.
-
-
Happy Birthday, Albert!
-
Happy Thanksgiving! (And if you're not in the US, Happy Thanksgiving anyway, because you can be thankful any time.)
-
Have you ever found yourself referring to something that happened "a couple of years ago," only to discover later that it was actually 20+ years ago? Seems to be happening to me more frequently.
-
Here's a random question: do you think that Realm of Impossibility on the Atari 800 would have worked with a four-player (simultaneous) mode, or would that have been too hectic/crowded?
-
I finally got around to testing an old TV that has been hanging around at school for years: a Sony Trinitron KV-1201. There's no date code, but this particular model seems to be from the early 1970s. It hasn't been used in ~15 years and was badly out of adjustment, but with a few tweaks to its many dials, it worked just fine with my 2600! The picture looks really good, too, even through the crappy switchbox I had to use.
-
-
-
^ I'm very impressed at how well this TV still works, and I'd love to know what I need to do to keep it that way. I'm sure it could use fresh capacitors, but I hear that this can strain the other components, and the thought of working inside a CRT (especially one this old) with those high voltages is a bit intimidating.
-
-
I finally had the chance today to try RGB output from my Atari Jaguar with the Framemeister HDMI upscaler. I'm very pleased at how good it looks! I'm planning to make it part of a "retro gaming party" that I'm hosting at my university on Friday. I'm curious to see what today's college kids think of the Jaguar (and the other classic systems I'm bringing)!
-
However, I'm disappointed at how bad composite video looks through the native inputs of modern TVs. I've upgraded my older systems (like the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200) to composite output, and I'd like them to be seen in the best possible light, so I think I'll bring some CRTs for them. Even if I had enough HDMI upscalers, I'm not sure how much of an improvement it would be; composite output is about as good as it gets with these systems.
-
-
-
-
I hate to say it, but a sizable percentage of college students seem to be functionally illiterate. If you provide written instructions on how to do something, they often cannot follow them. However, if you explain it verbally to them, even using the exact same words as in your instructions, somehow that makes more sense to them.
- Show previous comments 13 more
-
@frankodragon: I once received a resume from someone who claimed to have experience with token ring. Note that this was in 2018, and in response to an entry-level IT support position.
After a quick phone interview, it was pretty clear that this person was a) born after Token Ring as a network protocol ceased to be widely-found in the wild, and b) probably overselling his capabilities eight ways from Sunday. Six or seven solid candidates were already lined up, so I decided to bring him in just to find out where and why he had decided to put 'token ring' on his resume.
As it turned out, what he was referring to was a two-factor authentication token his mom had been issued by her employer. It was RFID-based, and in the shape of a ring that could be worn on a finger. Hence, token ring.
Points to him for discovering the term 'Token Ring', but minus several thousand for bullshitting poorly.
-
-
My first thoughts (before I even read the above comments). Learning is different for different people. Verbal instructions are more immediate. Have ya ever been playing a video game and your friend tells you something about it, because you're doing it wrong? And you're thinking, Oh, That makes sense...Could swear I even read the manual on this one! (Not disagreeing with most above points, just a bit of Devil's Advocacy)...
And (Conversely perhaps), I'll bet if you Texted the instructions to them, then they could follow it! For some reason Millennials, etc. will always pay attention in short bursts, if their phone makes a noise.
-
I just got done hosting a retro game party for our university's new Computer Science Club! The systems (all from my collection) were: 2600 and 5200, Intellivision, Odyssey2, Jaguar, NES (a RetroUSB AVS, actually), SMS, and LOTS of original games and peripherals. I think everybody had fun, but it was exhausting hauling in all that stuff and packing it up afterward!
-
Once again, the biggest hit of the night was four-player Castle Crisis on the 5200. Many thanks to @Bryan for such an excellent game!
-
-
-
I just got some 5200 games from Venezuela. Not only did someone (presumably an inspector) completely trash the boxes while slashing them open, but they even opened one of the cartridges! (The screw is missing, the back is cracked, and the bottom and side are marred with pry marks.)
-
I'm currently doing layout on a new 5200 cartridge board, my first. The 5200 cartridge port pinout is ... interesting.
- Show previous comments 1 more
-
-
-
The new board is done and off for prototyping! See here.
There's nothing more frustrating than students who blatantly CHEAT, especially after the instructor (me) goes out of his way to be available to answer questions, in and out of class, even answering e-mails late at night. 
.thumb.gif.7ab6704b202d41049ab42b02997996aa.gif)
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord