So I have this channel[0] where I exclusively focus on game development in JavaScript. I have published 4 tutorials so far.
subreddit monitor
automatic stable diffusion LoRA generator
horror game idea, multiplayer shoot-em-up game idea, looking to network them
tutoring two students
doing /r/slavelabour and /r/forhire oddjobs
too much to do and not enough motivation to make everything all work out
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
If that were as well as these threads could do, we'd have to call it off, but there should be more potential than that so I'd be willing to put some support into it. Here's one option: why don't you try the 3rd Saturday of each month?
It's kind of like Docker in the sense that it packages up an application in a reproducible, composable, and portable way...but instead of working at the level of one server, it works at the level of multi-server applications.
In the back of my head I'm very curious about making an application that just messages me on WhatsApp whenever its the birthday of one of my close friends because I never remember those
Being somewhat older than most in the computing world, I remember well the days of 8-bit computers and in particular the Atari XL/XE range, but it's getting harder to link up these ancient plodding beasts to modern hardware, which really wants an HDMI link over an RF modulator, for example... So...
- Design an interface board[1] to the bus that pokes out the back of the computer, this is a simple level-translator and 36-way cable to "the box" (see below).
- The cable is a Mini-SAS type[2], because they're much more appealing to look at than ribbon cable snaking everywhere. This board is intentionally simple so that by swapping out the simple board, the rest of the hardware can interoperate between different machines.
- Design "the box". This has an FPGA on it (Efinix by choice since they're low-cost) which has a bitstream that understands the bus protocol of whichever machine it's plugged into.
- The FPGA has local memory (PSRAM) which it can interface to the 8-bit - indeed, the 8-bit will have its RAM requests be serviced from the PSRAM on the FPGA entirely under most circumstances.
- The FPGA also links to an RP2040 which acts as a sort of system-controller (really I'm using this for the boot loader, to make it easy to upgrade in the field). However, there is also a "slots" interface which will define part and SPI interfaces that can have data transferred bi-directionally to the Pi, and also "dma" directly into the PSRAM that hosts the 8-bit memory.
- And finally the FPGA links to a raspberry Pi - still not sure which one (it depends more on graphics capability) over the SMI (Secondary Memory Interface) bus - which takes pretty much all the GPIO but gives me about 500-600 mbits/sec data throughput from FPGA to Pi, with DMA to userland code happening in about 50uS.
- The FPGA reproduces the bus traffic on the 8-bit into a marked-up set of data streams, and batches them over to the Pi over the SMI. The FPGA will specifically interpret things like video into something easy for the Pi to understand without billions of bit-shifts.
- On the Pi, there's a (currently QT, possibly SDL2/GPU, maybe a.n.other library) application which scales up the incoming video to an HDMI signal, and vends it out over the HDMI port.
- Given this is an Atari, and to provide a few more features, I plan to implement a GEM interface (akin to the ST, but maybe better looking :) to allow a desktop metaphor for binaries that can be "downloaded" into the 8-bit's (PSRAM) memory.
- If all this actually works, at some point it'd be nice to integrate the Cyclone[3] 68k emulator with that GEM VDI/AES and actually run Atari ST programs on a 1920x1080 HD truecolour display.
- I was planning on implementing the GEM service akin to an X-server, where there's a fullscreen window, and clients (including the desktop) connect to it over a pipe. That way multiple apps can run, and it should even be possible to have a design/development interface with the XL/XE running in a window, and code being compiled/downloaded on the same HDMI display. I can dream :)
Anyway, what makes this a lot more feasible is the low-latency high-bandwidth SMI interface on the Pi, that really ought to have had more attention on it, given it's on every Pi shipped, and it's perfect for an FPGA interface.
[1]: https://imgur.com/rB53IPC
[2]: https://www.amazon.com/OIKWAN-Internal-SFF8087-Controller-Sy...
It's basically an engine that runs on the same process that powers hurricanes, where hot air and water vapor carry entropy between the warmth of the earth's surface and the cold of the tropopause, making a heat engine. But in a much smaller package, using compression to act like an additional layer in the atmosphere. At least that's the idea. I'll see how it actually works.
I am looking for a co-founder mostly because I expect it to help emotionally, with positive effects on motivation, focus and vision.
Also there is lots of stuff to do…
I’m also slowly making baby steps towards replacing myself with an AI coach I’ve helped build. If I don’t, someone else will, and I think I’m well-placed to give it a crack!
I'm still working on improving the UX and the DSP. I made the DSP part open source.
There's a few tools similar, but not exactly how I imagine it to be. Has anyone found a tool for the use-cases mentioned above?