Can't help but mention it.

Apparently it's been on the news all over the place. It starts with a horrible name, and it just goes down-hill from there to make what can only be described as a horribly anti-human device. What was it again, the iMaxiPadTouch? Ho ho.

The name is bad, but then again, mums are buying wee's aren't they.

The hardware is pretty limited too. Ok so they have an interesting

multi-core (arm?)

-ish ARM processor, but the screen resolution isn't that high, the device isn't that light, and for the price the storage is pretty limited. But the real anti-customer feature is the lack of standard connectivity options. Sure you can get an ugly USB dongle, or an ugly SD-card dongle (but not at the same time). But why aren't they built in? What about HDMI? Could it be they don't want you to expand it on your own? Not even a camera? Props for the CPU and battery life, but the rest is a (big) fail mark. Even a PSP has more connectivity and expansion options built in!

And the software. It's a phone os. They might be ok on phones, but really, what sort of nonsense is it putting a phone os on what is really a general purpose computer? A locked down proprietary system that only allows you to get software from a closed network service. What year is this again, is this 1990 calling? The lack of multitasking is inexcusable - that's 1980 calling. Not having macromedia flash seems reasonable to understand (flash does suck) until you realise it's just another vector for controlling what media you can access, particularly, and specifically I suggest, locking out free media and those horrible free games (that people nonetheless love to play). This is the same reason Java is not supported. It's not about performance or security, it's about control.

Which brings me neatly to the media aspect. This is a device whose specific aims (if any can really be discerned) is to turn the free internet into a paid-for proprietary and locked-down service. It wants to turn everyone into a 'consumer' of corporate produced paid-for content channeled through their own toll-booth. I don't think a more anti-customer, anti-choice, anti-web '2.0', anti-progress and anti-freedom device has ever been created (a title that would make even Microsoft blush).

This is a very strange device. None of the benefits of a phone or media player (small size, camera) and none of the benefits of a laptop or even 'netbook' (open platform, expansion and connectivity options, real keyboard). It's too big to carry everywhere, and it's too useless to want to - it's really just a hand-held TV/set top box combo you can use to read the paper on the toilet (but isn't as useful if you run out of dunny paper), but there's no reason to take it further than your front gate. And apart from just being 'bad value' like most Apple Inc hardware, this device should be avoided like the plague if you have any respect for our cultural progress due to its draconian control of media content and software.

Compare this to something like the idea of the Touch Book (unfortunately the software in particular isn't quite there yet). Less memory, a bit slower - but lower price. 7(!) usb ports, 4 of which are internal to the machine, a machine you are expressly allowed to open. A replaceable SDHC card for OS and storage. Multiple operating system choices, far wider media support. A user replaceable battery. No digital restrictions management (DRM) telling you what you can do with your own data on your own machine. A half-decent keyboard, or simply use standard USB or blue-tooth keyboards. You can use it to write your own software. music, or create art, and learn about computers, not just consume paid-for content like some sort of slime-mould with no brain or creative spark of your own. The software side is still lacking, but that's only a matter of time before this or another device makes it.

Really the choice couldn't be more stark, and this is a perfect demonstration of why Free Software really matters. Do we want the future of our computers - and thus our society and culture which is now entirely dependent upon them - to be a shuttered, uncreative, paid for, controlled, and censored one, or an open, investigative and free one?

No amount of some balding, badly shaven, middle-aged poof in a black skivvy sitting on La-Z-Boy proclaiming how innovative the iTampon is makes it true. If he really believes that this is the most important product he's launched then you can add senile to that list too, or if he doesn't, then outright liar. The only innovation will be if they somehow convince a large number of people to buy such a nasty, anti-human device.

GNU/Linux out-competes another company ...

So Sun has cleared the final (?) hurdle to being bought by Oracle. Well good for them, a lot of smart cookies will keep their jobs to feed themselves for another day. I do feel a bit sad about it - like many, SunOS was my introduction to Unix 19 years ago, and Sun was always one of those 'cool' companies, they made nice looking hardware and weren't just about marketing hype; they had meat under those feathers too. Were they the last true technology company?

In less than 10 years, they've gone from basically running the .com bubble to running out of money, and here's one major reason: GNU/Linux.

Oh sure they could've done things a bit differently - such as free Solaris or Java a bit earlier, but I don't think it would've made much difference in the end. As microsoft are finding - it's pretty hard to compete with `everyone', particularly when it's free. And it's not just the price - free also to take mind-share which is the real killer for any technology company. That GNU/Linux was pretty much a 'Solaris clone' from the start surely didn't help either (I did much of my earliest GNOME code on Solaris - the code was easily ported to Linux).

I wonder which company will be next?

You'll be censored!

If I did it right, hopefully you got a (at least) slightly alarming popup box about the planned government censorship during this week. See more details at The Great Australian Internet Blackout site.

I guess 66% of my visitors are from overseas and the other one knows about it already, but I thought it was an interesting form of protest ...

Bumbling along like a ...

Well, A/C supposed to be fixed today. Finally a service tech was called and came yesterday, and a couple of minutes on the roof and he was ordering a new control unit. Dodgy caps not too uncommon apparently. But because of the increased demand they don't have any spares ... hopefully that's all it is, as it's just in the nick of time - weather starting to turn hot.

Kept bumbling along with my FORTH attempt. Would really help if I concentrated a bit better, but lack of sleep and so on. Not entirely switched on. Still, making some progress.

I decided to standardise some of the basic words, which meant a lot of breakage. But I more or less have that going, and implemented DOES>, which jonesforth didn't implement. These changes mean I wont be able to use much of the bootstrap for jonesforth either - but I guess that will just make it a better learning exercise, wont it.

I'm still sticking with assembly where possible, although considering just using c for call-outs to significant processing steps; that's basically how the assembly is written anyway. I'm finding reading the standard a bit tough going - understandably it's target audience is really people who have a lot of experience with FORTH implementations already.

It's a huge mess though, but perhaps now some of the basics are starting to work I can think about cleaning it up a bit. Then add a few bits and pieces and then start trying to use it. I want to add some hardware exception handling at least, so crashes aren't fatal. And I need to be able to input from memory to bootstrap the code. Well something to keep poking at I guess.

The saga continues ...

Well to answer the question posed two articles ago - nobody uses those old things anymore. Just had the sparkie around and he wired the a/c on a separate breaker (probably as it should have been in the first place) and moved the kitchen/laundry to a breaker too. He said they only come across those fuses when dismantling old fuse boxes.

So all that done, time for a hot coffee.

But the a/c didn't work either - panel did all the right things, pump too, just no air being pushed ... then it blew the breaker. So another visit from the installation guys basically just to confirm it's just broken and now a call's been lodged with the manufacturer for a 'service call'. Hopefully it's just a bung controller.

The insulation guy eventually rocked up yesterday too - and I had it installed by the end of the day. I suspect there's an awful lot of roofs in Adelaide that fall within the 100sqm limit of the 'average house' (hah, asif). Quite painless, although who knows how effective it is - they split some of the bats up to lay over the old stuff.

FORTH

Mucked about with the FORTH some more, with all the interruptions and comings and goings that didn't happen till the evening - and then about 9pm I noticed it was dark. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing (I definitely know that the 2 packets of chips and beer I had for lunchdinner[sic] was a bad thing though!). But as you'd expect given that it was a new processor to me, and that I was too tired and interrupted most of the time I was working on it - almost everything was wrong. Wrong registers in places, wrong order of registers, incorrect memory calculations and so on and so forth. But after many many iterations of fixing one function at a time I finally got something that compiled basic functions ok.: a 42 EMIT ;

a

*

Well, "yay".

The current INTERPRET loop processes every character as it receives it - with no line editing and so on, so I thought about improving that. Didn't feel like writing that in assembly, so I fell back to C (TBH the compiler does a very good job with ARM code for the most part - but the core FORTH works better in assembly). I wrote a simple little 'readline' function with basic editing for single line input (cursor keys, delete, backspace etc) using terminal escape codes. That should do the job to start with once I hook it in.

As an exercise I thought i'd port it to FORTH instead. I was quite surprised - it (well, on paper - I don't have enough bootstrapped to build it yet) came out smaller (well no surprise there) and easier to read than the C equivalent. There's a few ugly bits but they can be hidden (or written better - no expert here). That's really what makes FORTH an interesting language, because you actively extend the language or add trivial functions to hide details without any penalty (in runtime or source baggage) for doing so. And it is real language extension including syntax, not just the run-time library. In-fact, since a threaded-interpreted run-time is so small I imagine the original powerful concept was that you could even radically alter that if need-be, although I think standardisation efforts muted the use of that `feature' to some extent.

I do think it falls down a bit on the variable front - they all work as explicit pointers, although I noticed there are now 'newer' concepts like 'values' that abstract some of messiness (and inefficiencies) away. And generally this stuff can be hidden away from most of the code.

Anyway, I'm quite enjoying this, so I'll see where it takes me, i've already got some ideas for tweaking the implementation and so on. Tho I'd better get outside and fill the bin with rubbish today as well, or it'll never get moved.

Freshly Picked

Blah

I knew the day was going to go wrong when I forgot to put coffee in the espresso maker before putting it on the stove.

1. Aforementioned extra-light coffee. Well I guess it needed a bit of a clean anyway.
2. The government is running a silly middle-class welfare effort to upgrade or add insulation to homes. Someone rang about it yesterday and was supposed to rock up at 8 (this early rise is almost certainly the cause of the coffee incident). They did call just after 8 to say they'd be late - 10. It's now nigh on 12.
3. I called the A/C people about my dead A/C. Ok no problem, we'll have a look.
4. Did 'one last check' before I embarrassed myself, not expecting anything. Lo and behold - it worked.
5. Called to let them know, but still wanted to talk with a tech. He was busy so they'd call back.
6. Left it running. Went to make my coffee (coffee in espresso maker this time), I use a microwave to heat the milk. Ahh dead microwave. Threw me - rest of house is working. Ahh blown fuse.
7. So ... back on the blower. Ok they'll try to get someone out today.
8. Couldn't work out which fuse it was, so ended up rebooting the whole house one circuit at a time as I checked. No replacement fuses, and the thing doesn't use a wire either. 5km to the nearest hardware store. Might be time for a ride.

Between me and a hot coffee or a cold house. Who the hell still uses these old things anyway?

Now I'm Just Tired.

*yawn* wow i'm tired. Although I bet it's not a patch on friends whose family just grew by two today! Congrats to Jon and Kate on the twin girls.

Just sat around hacking all day - that wouldn't help. And eating too much pizza - trying to use up the sauce i defrosted! And I had a long day yesterday, ending with a 1st birthday party for another(!) set of twins in my circle of mates.

As it happened, whilst I was was writing the last post my brand spanking new A/C died! Feck! I thought the 'new pad' smell smelt a bit more 'blue smoke' than it had the day before, but didn't take much notice till a few hours later when nothing was working (I was in another room without vents). Ahh well, just as long as it's fixed promptly, at least it's cool for the next few days.

Well I thought i'd take a break from the interrupt stuff and had the notion of playing with FORTH for a change of pace. I never was much of a FORTH hacker but was always intrigued by it from when I was a kid with a Commodore 64 and somehow ended up with a copy. Even the local country-town library had 'Starting Forth', which is a rather novel programming book (and even if you don't like it, you'd never forget it). I think I even wrote a 'parallel cable' loader for the version I had! For my uni computer hardware class I wrote a type of FORTH as a shell on our hand wire-wrapped 68000 based computer so I could interactively write a program to blink the LED rather than having to re-write the EPROM every time I had a bug (yeah an EPROM! The ones you have to erase with strong UV light!). Although FORTH has been used repeatedly as a bootstrap/bios system for many years had no bearing on wanting to try it, it just seemed like a 'fun' thing to look at again.

Thought it'd be a good opportunity to learn a bit more about ARM assembly too. I found a simple forth implementation written in x86 ('jones forth') and so set about porting that (seemed easiest - it's been so long I couldn't remember much, and I know my implementation did a few things wrong). I was making really good progress until I hit some of the larger functions, but that was because I was trying to write reasonably decent code and learn some of the ins and outs of assembly language.

ARM assembly is more powerful than I thought it would be - in every case the code is cleaner and simpler than the x86 equivalent (excepting /mod - no divide instruction) - although x86 is particularly arcane (to be atypically polite of me - in reality, I think it's shithouse), so that is probably to be expected (and given that every instruction is always 32 bits long, it gives a lot of bits to play with). At first having a condition code check on almost every instruction, condition code updates optional, and a 'shift' operation seemed quite obtuse. But it has a sort of synergistic effect, practically giving you all sorts of extra base instructions let alone super-instructions that do two or three things in one. It's probably more compiler friendly than hacker friendly, but the assembler has some support to aid humans, like automatically choosing the best way to load a 32-bit constant (immediate constants are only shifted versions of 8 bits, so often you need a register/pc-relative load).

So far I have managed to get pretty much all of it typed in and assembling at this point, but then I was too tired to try booting it up and fixing all the bugs. It's only 1000 lines of assembly - most of which is 2-3 line functions, comments and meta-data, so it shouldn't too bad.