Picade is a Raspberry Pi-powered mini arcade that you build yourself, with authentic arcade controls, a high resolution 4:3 display that’s ideal for retro gaming, and a punchy speaker to hear those 8-bit game soundtracks at their best.
Continue reading Upgrading your Picade 8” to 10”Tag: computer
Init7 TV7 and VLC under windows 10
You can watch channels using any software or device as long as it supports multicast. Such as VLC on a computer. A VLC playlist with all TV7 channels and the multicast addresses is provided for this under the following link:
You have the following options:
- You open the URL directly from within VLC (Open -> Network and then paste the URL from the above link), so you always have the latest updated channel list.
- Download the file to your computer and open it in VLC.
- Download the file to your computer and open it in a text editor to search for the respective multicast addresses of channels to use with another box or program that does not support XSPF playlists.
Note that the multicast addresses of individual channels and the channel line-up may change. so it is recommend to use option 1.
Unfortunately this was not working for me at all, I use VMWare and Virtual Box, and both software define custom network adapter…
somehow vm network adapter do not set properly the automatic metric. The fix is to change the IPv4 metric to 1 on the physical ethernet (or wireless if needed) and leave the other to automatic.
Useful links
Fidelity Electronics Chess Challenger 10
The best technology for playing chess from year 1979!
The one picture above has the serial number 173357 and was bought in Zürich Switzerland.
There is 3 models available
- A (07/1978) has 16 keys on the keyboard and for 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6, will respond 3. Cc3
- B (11/1978) has 16 keys on the keyboard and for 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6, will respond 3. Cf3
- C (05/1979) has only 12 keys and has an optimized software.
- Model: Chess Challenger 10
- Manufacturer: Fidelity International
- Year: 1979
- Estimated ELO rating: 1200
- Levels of play:10
- Processor: Z80A @4 MHz
- Programmer: Ron C Nelson
- Type: Keypad / Calculator with magnetic pieces
- Dimensions: 33.3 x 21.4 x 2.9 cm.
- Memory: 4 KB ROM, 0.5 KB RAM
- AC – adapter connected directly to computer – non-removable
- price: 450€
At the time, Fidelity was located in Chicago, IL, USA – 5244 W. Diversey Ave
The warranty was 90 days. After 90 days you had to ship the unit plus a $35 money order to them.
The manual indicated that the Chess Challenger could be upgraded after June 1, 1977 by sending the unit back to them and a money order for US$ 75.00
“…the game analyzes each position and, after considering all possible chess moves, makes a decision which is determined to be the best available move.
The sophisticated program used in this decision-making process is thoroughly tested, and each game manufactured acts like all other games. Thus, CHESS CHALLENGER cannot make a fundamental error.
Initially you may find that CHESS CHALLENGER may appear to be making an illegal move. However, this is highly unlikely.”
Fidelity Chess Challenger 10. Model CCX. The manual indicates that level 7 is for postal chess (by mail) and the average response time is 24 hours!
Here’s a complete list of the levels of play with the average response time for A or B model, C being provided for reference in bold:
- CL1 – Beginner – 5 Seconds (3 Seconds)
- CL2 – Intermediate – 15 Seconds (10 Seconds)
- CL3 – Experienced – 35 Seconds (50 Seconds)
- CL4 – Advanced – 1:20 minutes (1:20 minutes)
- CL5 – Superior – 2:20 minutes (3 minutes)
- CL6 – Mate in 2 – 60 minutes (6 minutes)
- CL7 – Postal chess – 24 hours (12 minutes)
- CL8 – Expert – 11 minutes (20 minutes)
- CL9 – Excellent – 6 minutes (70 minutes)
- CL10 – Tournament – 3 minute (15 minutes)
Key description
- RE reset
- switch sound off
- CL clear
- EN enter
- LV level
- DM double move
- PB Problem
- PV Verify
Here is the opening move of the model CC10 B
- 1. e4 e5 2. Sf3 Sc6 3. Lc4 Lc5 4. c3 Sf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Lb4+
- 1. e4 e5 2. Sf3 Sc6 3. Lb5 a6 4. La4 Sf6
- 1. e4 c5 2. Sf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Sxd4 Sf6 5. Sc3 g6 6. Le2 Lg7
- 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5
- 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Sc3 Sf6 4. Lg5 Le7 5. e5 Sfd7
- 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Sc3 Sf6 4. e5 Sfd7 5. any c5
- 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Sc3 Sf6 4. Lg5 Sbd7
- 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Sf3
Raspberry Pi model B
Some notes about my experience using the Raspberry Pi model B…and you get it running Linux Debian on it!
The #Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming.
[…]
We don’t think that the #Raspberry Pi is a fix to all of the world’s computing issues; we do believe that we can be a catalyst. We want to see cheap, accessible, programmable computers everywhere; we actively encourage other companies to clone what we’re doing. We want to break the paradigm where without spending hundreds of pounds on a PC, families can’t use the internet. We want owning a truly personal computer to be normal for children. We think that 2012 is going to be a very exciting year. [About Raspberry PI]
I pre-ordered my copy of Alien Anthology
iPad Keynote in less than 180 Seconds: Incredible, Beautiful, Amazing!
No comments..
Hosts file protection
The hosts file is a computer file used by an operating system to map hostnames to IP addresses. This method is one of several methods used by an operating system to locate network nodes on a computer network. Spybot Search and Destroy is using this technique when you click on immunize button behind the scene.
Found at http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/
Use this file to prevent your computer from connecting to selected internet hosts. This is an easy and effective way to
- protect you from many types of spyware,
- reduces bandwidth use,
- blocks certain pop-up traps,
- prevents user tracking by way of “web bugs” embedded in spam,
- provides partial protection to IE from certain web-based exploits
- blocks most advertising you would otherwise be subjected to on the internet.
There is a version of this file that uses 0.0.0.0 instead of 127.0.0.1 available at http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/zero/. On some machines this may run minutely faster, however the zero version may not be compatible with all systems.
This file must be saved as a text file with no extension. (This means it that the file name should be exactly as below, without a “.txt” appended.). Let me repeat, the file should be named “hosts” NOT “hosts.txt”.
History of the past
I will try to keep an history of all my previous machine on this page…yes it is just a nerd/geek behavior…
In 15 years…
- Cost in euro are in green, are similar in amount, you just get more size, disk, speed for your buck
- 1208 times more IPS and my PC is still sometimes hanging (In order Vista, XP, #Linux I look at you) 😦
- 81 times more disk space!
- Power consumption 360 watts today 😦
- PC are still slower than what I expect…
Instructions per second (IPS) is a measure of a computer’s processor speed. Many reported IPS
values have represented “peak” execution rates on artificial instruction sequences with few branches,
whereas realistic workloads consist of a mix of instructions and even applications, some of which take
longer to execute than others. The performance of the memory hierarchy also greatly affects processor
performance, an issue barely considered in MIPS calculations. Because of these problems, researchers
created standardized tests such as SPECint to (maybe) measure the real effective performance in
commonly used applications, and raw IPS has fallen into disuse. [WikiPedia]
| From | CPU | MHz / IPS | Socket | RAM | O.S | Main board | Video Card | Sound | Disks | Notes |
| 1993 | Intel i486DX | 50 / 41 IPS | 1 | 4MB 612€ | Win95 | ??? | ??? | ???? | 40MB | Total cost was 1700€ |
| 1997 | Dual Core Intel Celeron | 450×2 / 990 IPS x 2 | 128MB 150€ | BEOS WINNT4 | DFI dual processor | ATI Rage 128 | ??? | 540MB | ||
| 2000 | AMD Duron | 700 / 2076 IPS | A | 1024MB (PC133) | SuSE WIN2000 | ASUS AN8VX | NVIDIA TNT Ultra 2 NVIDIA Geforce GTS2 64MB | OnBoard NVIDIA | 80GB | |
| 2003 | AMD Athlon XP | 1800 / 5340 IPS | A | 1536MB (PC133) | SuSE WINXP | ASUS AN8VX | NVIDIA Geforce FX1200 256MB | OnBoard NVIDIA | 160GB | cheap upgrade from previous |
| 2005 | AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 94€ | 2000 / 7707 IPS | 939 | 1536MB (PC133) | OpenSuSE WINXP | ASUS A8N-VM CSM, mATX, NVIDIA 6150/430 66€ | OnBoard NVIDIA 6130 | Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum, 24/96 158€ | 3.2TB
4 x Maxtor 7L300R0 MaxLine III, 7200rpm, 16MB, 300GB | Promise SuperTrak EX8350, SATA2, 8 Channel. SATA RAID 0,1,5,6 339€ |
| 2008 2011 | Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2x6MB 220€ | 2660 / 49534 IPS | LG775 | 4 GB Mushkin XP2-8800 2x2GB (DDR2-1100) 104€ | OpenSuSE WINXP | ASUS P5Q-E, Intel P45,
118€ | ASUS EAH4850, HTDI/512M/A, PCI-E 2.0, 512MB GDDR3 152€ | same as before | 3.2TB | same as before |
| 2017 | 40TB |
OpenSUSE 11.1 ships December 18th, 2008 for both download and boxed editions!
My favorite #Linux distribution is ready to be delivered in no less than 2 days…
I will share it with bittorrent 2 weeks long and will provide some first feedback on how it react on my 2 computer.
Sneak Peeks at openSUSE 11.1: Improved Installation, Easier Administration
Vista/Mac OSX has raised the bar in the area of good looking desktop, but openSUSE is now also able to fight back, just look at the screen shots below for getting an insight in the new openSUSE 11.1:
- Screenshots of openSUSE 11.1
- Screenshots of openSUSE 11.1 RC1
- Screenshots of openSUSE 11.1 Beta 5
- Screenshots of openSUSE 11.1 Beta 4
Upon logging into your openSUSE desktop, you’ll be asked to send some hardware information to the Smolt Project. I like the idea of submitting real hardware profiles to developer so they can really concentrate on real hardware support requirement. In the same area, I would like to see a post mortem process crash agent like in XP/Vista so real statistics can be made and bugs corrected faster…
1.0.6 yesrterday and 1.0.7 today!
Joomla! 1.0.7 [ Sunburst ] is now available as of Sunday 15th January 2006 21:00 UTC for download here. 1.0.7 is essentially 1.0.6 repackaged to fix one major bug in 1.0.6 – therefore it should still be considered a Security Release. It contains nine (9) `Low Level` Security Fixes, and seventy (70) plus minor/non-critical bug fixes.
I’ve looked at the code, it contains small patches in all files, in 2 places I’ve found a code suppose to protect #Joomla against spoofing attack:
A spoofing attack, in computer security terms, refers to a situation in which one person or program is able to masquerade successfully as another. There is some tools (windows, linux) and EVEN a Firefox extension: Refspoof available at http://refspoof.mozdev.org/
Cédric Walter Blog 