I started reviewing the channels to uncheck the ones I won't be watching (religious, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc.) and right away ran across new channel Heros & Icons on 2.3. They have shows from the 50s thru the 90s like The Rat Patrol, The Saint, The Wild Wild West, 21 Jumpstreet, NYPD Blue, etc.
Been a while since my last channel scan, when my channel count dropped from 119 to 116. I just learned about a new SciFi channel Comet that's being broadcast here in Houston. It's on a new subchannel, so time for another channel scan! Had an unexpected jump from 116 to 129 channels. They're not listed in the TV Guide yet, though you can get their December schedule from their site. At the moment their schedule is rather heavy on Outer Limits and Star Gate SG-1, which cover 8 hours per wee
As some of you may know, I'm a fan of The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey. SyFy commissioned a series based on it, which started airing last week. If you missed it, the first 4 episodes are available online at SyFy's site. Last month I noticed the companion VR app for iOS and Android, so decided to download it and check it out. You currently can select one of two ships to look at: Then select to view view it using Google Cardboard, or just your device. If you look at it on your de
Here's the source code for CollectMini.
CollectMini.zip
It's a little different from the source available on my site as I've made some minor changes to the comments.
The presentation was received well; though going over the code, even simple as it is, caused me to run short on time. So I'll need to come up with a new plan of action for next time.
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Back in January of 2013 I picked up home theater keyboard for use with the Mac mini that drives my HDTV. The keyboard worked OK, though typing on it was a bit tedious and I had minor communication issues with the USB dongle that necessitated the use of a USB extension cord to get it out from behind all the AV equipment. For the past few months I've been having issues with the mouse buttons - they wouldn't always respond to presses. Trying to double-click in particular was getting to be rather
The Houston Arcade Expo is less than a month away! I'll be giving my presentation Saturday November 14th, at 7pm and, as always, I like to revise the presentation with something new.
Last summer I started the series Collect with plans to use it in my presentation at the Classic Game Fest over in Austin. I eventually realized it was too much information for a 1 hour presentation; so instead, I expanded the game's concept and just added a few screenshots to the presentation with the su
Just a followup to this old blog entry on how to block applications from your Facebook stream. On the top-right of the Facebook page is a triangle shaped menu, click on it then click on Settings:
Select Blocking from the list of options on the left:
Scroll down to find the section titled Block apps:
Type in the name of something to block, a pop-up list will show up:
Click on the correct app in the pop-up and it'll be added to the end of your blocked app list:
At the start of the year I moved a bunch of MKV files off the Drobo onto the 3TB drive hooked up to my Mac Pro. Since then that 3TB drive has filled up, so I debated setting up a Drobo for my Mac Pro. I decided not to as the Thunderbolt Drobo's were last updated back in 2012. I'm holding off in hopes of a faster Drobo - the current Drobo's use the original Thunderbolt, while my Mac Pro has Thunderbolt 2 with twice the potential throughput. So I decided to move those MKV files back onto th
In this topic about the exciting new RGB mod for the 2600, collinp reported that the XRGB-mini had problems syncing with Warlords.
I took a quick look and noticed that VSYNC was set before the WSYNC, instead of after, which resulted in the sync signal starting late in the scanline.
I did a quick hack via Stella to swap the order. The hack resulted in the kings getting shifted to the right, but was enough for collinp to confirm that moving the VSYNC after the WSYNC did indeed fix the probl
I think the overscan jitter changes are finished. The prior build was done using an older version of Stella's source. I've updated to the latest version and migrated my changes over to it.
TIA.hxx
Change currentFrameBuffer
uInt8* currentFrameBuffer() const
{
return myCurrentFrameBuffer + myFramePointerOffset + myCurrentFrameJitter;
}
Add two new variables
// Derived from the difference between the scanline counts of the
// current and
One of the limitations of Stella is it doesn't emulate the jitter that occurs if overscan runs longer/shorter than normal. This is a quick attempt to address this.
TIA.hxx
Change currentFrameBuffer
uInt8* currentFrameBuffer() const
{
return myCurrentFrameBuffer + myFramePointerOffset + myVariableScanlineJitter*160;
}
Add myVariableScanlineJitter
// contains the difference between the scanline counts of the
// last two frames.
I built a special version of Space Rocks for a tournament to be held at the Classic Game Fest next weekend.
The menu is gone, it's been replaced with this:
And every round starts out with 12 large asteroids
Left Difficulty controls a game timer: A = ON, B = OFF
Right Difficulty controls how long, A = 2:00, B = 5:00
Status of the timer will show up in the scroller:
If on, the timer will display on the right side:
No new content for June so the savings was $156. At this point my cumulative savings of $3780 has more than paid for my investment of $3716 in the Mac mini DVR project, so I think I'll stop the monthly update; however, I'll still post the occasional entry when I check out things like Showtime's new streaming service. There's a number of ways to sign up for Showtime: via apps on the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Roku, or via the hulu or Playstation Vue (for PS3 & PS4) video streaming services
This past week I noticed an issue where a few recordings were cropped:
I didn't think much about it at first as the episodes I noticed it on had been recorded multiple times, so I just watched another recording.
I then ran into it when watching live TV. I did some experiments and realized it was always occurring on the 3rd tuner1, #2/0 (the tuners are identified in each window's titlebar text):
This explained why I didn't see it that often - it would only happen when 3 or 4 tu
Time for another channel scan as Fox added a new subchannel for the new network BUZZR. As you might have guessed from its name, it's a channel devoted to game shows.
Pat Sajak is one of the guest stars on the currently airing episode of Super Password. There was some banter between him and the host (Bert Convy) about this game show and Wheel of Fortune:
Since BUZZR is on a new subchannel I expected the count to increase to 119; however, it dropped to 116, so we've lost 3 channels si
I've been enjoying Game of Thrones on HBO Now so I've decided to go ahead and let the $15 charge for the next month go through so I can finish watching season 5, which wraps up in a couple weeks on June 14th. I had a small balance left on the iTunes gift cards I received for Xmas, so I'm only counting $10 towards the monthly expense for content.
That puts savings for May at $146, with a cumulative savings of $3624. Only $92 left to pay off the setup!
I'm still watching HBO Now via the
Coastal A's and Rods has a street rod event event, known as the Fun Run, down in Corpus Christi for Memorial Day Weekend.
My brother-in-law Eric entered the Big Hot Wheels Toy that they brought up for the Houston Art Car Parade. They won the Kids Choice award
Been over a year since I checked the firmware on my tuners, so I downloaded the update tool and ran it:
I have the older HDHR3-US model, current version is HDHR4-2US. Looking at the firmware changelog I see that not much changed for my model since the 20140121 firmware:
Release 20150406 - HDHR3-US/DT/EU models: Fix reboot when DNS returns multiple IP addresses.
Release 20141124 - HDHR3-US/DT/EU models: Channel map automatically applied to both tuners.
There's also a new HDTC
Cut Cable Today - they have a nice comparison of DVRs for use with an antenna.
My folks plan to cut the cord in the near future, they'll probably go with the Tablo, their top pick. The Tablo didn't exist when I start this project, else I might have gone with one.
It sits on your home network (does not directly connect to your TV)
Can record 2 or 4 shows at the same time (depending on model)
Can watch/pause/record live TV
Can watch on up to 6 devices at once
Use the Tablo App
No purchases for April, so $156 saved. Now at $3478 for the cumulative savings since January 2013. Only $238 left to pay off the setup.
As you may have heard, HBO Now is up and running. At the moment you can only sign up if you use an Apple device (iPhone, iPad or Apple TV) or if you have internet service via Optimum.
At first I wasn't interested because I didn't think I'd be able to watch it the big screen as my HDTV predates HDMI. I do have an HDMI port free on my HDMI to Compon
NOTE: This blog series is obsolete. Head on over to the Harmony/Melody Club where you'll find information on the new Linaro compiler and the new CDFJ coprocessor/bankswitch scheme that has many improvements over DPC+.
NOTE: This is an advanced Atari 2600 programming series. It will not cover basic things like triggering a Vertical Sync, what a Kernel is, why a timer is used in Vertical Blank, etc. If you need to learn that, check out with the following:
Collect - detailed de
NOTE: This blog series is obsolete. Head on over to the Harmony/Melody Club where you'll find information on the new Linaro compiler and the new CDFJ coprocessor/bankswitch scheme that has many improvements over DPC+.
NOTE: This is an advanced Atari 2600 programming series. It will not cover basic things like triggering a Vertical Sync, what a Kernel is, why a timer is used in Vertical Blank, etc. If you need to learn that, check out with the following:
Collect - detailed de
NOTE: This blog series is obsolete. Head on over to the Harmony/Melody Club where you'll find information on the new Linaro compiler and the new CDFJ coprocessor/bankswitch scheme that has many improvements over DPC+.
NOTE: This is an advanced Atari 2600 programming series. It will not cover basic things like triggering a Vertical Sync, what a Kernel is, why a timer is used in Vertical Blank, etc. If you need to learn that, check out with the following:
Collect - detailed de
Thursday
Mom came up from Lake Jackson to stay with me for an extended weekend. After work, mom & I headed up to Discovery Green for the Art Car Sneak Peek to check out some of this year's entrants. My favorites from the event:
T-Bone aka Tex Mex Rex Shopper Chopper Sentrasaurus Peep Jeep - Yeah Baby! Entry #255, it doesn't match car in the book so I doubt "Peculiar Thoughts" is the correct name Hungry Milton The Spooter (spider sco
NOTE: This blog series is obsolete. Head on over to the Harmony/Melody Club where you'll find information on the new Linaro compiler and the new CDFJ coprocessor/bankswitch scheme that has many improvements over DPC+.
NOTE: This is an advanced Atari 2600 programming series. It will not cover basic things like triggering a Vertical Sync, what a Kernel is, why a timer is used in Vertical Blank, etc. If you need to learn that, check out with the following:
Collect - detailed de
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