Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Nov 24, 2009, 6:43 pm
Free Run Mode on the MAG-85 Trainer Under Construction Above is the permanent version of the 8085 trainer I'm building up. I did a "free-run" test with it today, you can see it wired up for that i...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Nov 12, 2009, 1:40 am
I'm still working on my 8085-based SBC. I've finished the power supply for the permanent hard-wired one since completing the breadboard version. I've been slowed a bit by a couple of items...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Oct 13, 2009, 1:46 pm
I've finished the breadboard hardware prototype for my 8085 Trainer. Now I've started work on the permanent hardware. I've got what I think is a pretty good idea for the enclosure, which s...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Oct 13, 2009, 12:02 am
Some tips for users of the Sciphone G2: Fastest way to move all those files you just transferred from the "Received" directory to the place they belong is not to use the Move function in File Manager...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Oct 1, 2009, 2:06 pm
This year I've allowed the subscriptions to expire on about half the magazines I used to get. I just got yet another "last issue" begging me to re-subscribe for one of them. My reasons for droppin...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Sep 28, 2009, 4:41 pm
I've posted a web page on my 8085 micro trainer that I'm building. I've posted instructions on building the system up just as I'm building it, along with my notes. To date, I've p...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Sep 24, 2009, 12:57 am
The Mystery Computer that I blogged about yesterday has been identified. Thanks to the helpful folks at the Vintage Computer Forums. The identity is revealed on the Mystery System's Web Page. Me...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Sep 23, 2009, 4:02 am
I've got a couple of boards for a Z-80 SBC that I don't recognise. Take a look at the images at saundby.com and tell me what you think if you recognize them. Thanks.
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Sep 21, 2009, 4:36 am
I was in Fry's Electronics recently looking for some parts. I didn't find what I was looking for (non-volatile RAMs) but while I was looking I went through the catalog of parts they carry--the...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Sep 12, 2009, 3:27 am
The Time is Ripe Last Friday we stopped in at our nearby Blockbuster video to pick up a couple of used movies. While we were there I noticed that it looked like they were blowing out their PS2 games....
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Aug 30, 2009, 11:55 pm
My retrocomputing took a turn for the even more retro this past week. After bringing up an old Ampro Little Board and programming it with nothing more than a simple line editor and non-relocating, non...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Aug 18, 2009, 8:21 am
I recently put together an Ampro Little Board Plus computer system from the 1980s. This system was especially slick for its day because of its small size and the fact that it had a built-in hard disk ...
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Mark G. posted an article on A Beginning Programmer's Guide to Java - Aug 14, 2009, 3:17 am
There are several approaches to doing 3-D graphics with Java. Unfortunately, there is no "standard" way. The core of Java does not include 3D graphics in the current versions (Java SE 5 and 6). The up...
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Mark G. posted an article on Cat Yarns - Aug 12, 2009, 9:11 pm
Our first outdoor cat was one who adopted us on our rural property. He was likely abandoned by his prior owners. He arrived at our house in a terrible state, nearly starved to death. He was about six ...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Jul 24, 2009, 12:29 am
The thing with the screen on it is NOT the computer, it's the terminal. The computer is the little printed circuit board laying to the right of the terminal.Tonight I managed to bring up a really ...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Jul 7, 2009, 7:39 pm
I had a little trouble getting my new Bluetooth headset to charge up, but now it's charged and ready to go. Blue Light=GoodIt paired up with the Sciphone G2 just fine, the only hiccup was getting...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Jul 7, 2009, 9:29 am
I picked up a Samsung WEP 200 Bluetooth headset to use with my Sciphone G2. I got it online at a great price. There were other headsets, but I wanted something with usable buttons, not something minit...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Jul 2, 2009, 4:49 pm
There's one problem I haven't managed to solve with my SciPhone G2. When I'm on a call, I get noise on the included headset. When I'm listening to music through the headset, it works ...
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Mark G. posted an article on A Beginning Programmer's Guide to Java - Jul 1, 2009, 1:39 pm
There's a book on programming in Java with Greenfoot coming out soon. You can see a preview at the book's site, along with resources for students and teachers. This book isn't just for c...
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Mark G. posted an article on An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards - Jul 1, 2009, 1:31 pm

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Mark G. posted an article on A Beginning Programmer's Guide to Java - Oct 27, 2008, 5:05 pm
I've not been posting very regularly since the start of the school year. That will change once my class starts doing Java. Whenever I teach Java I get lots of material for this blog. One question ...
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Mark G. posted an article on A Beginning Programmer's Guide to Java - Sep 8, 2008, 3:09 pm
Methods have names. For example, System.out.println() is usually called "print line", though we'd probably say "system-out-print line" for it as I've written it here. Unfortunately, the word ...
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Mark G. posted an article on A Beginning Programmer's Guide to Java - Sep 5, 2008, 11:33 pm
I started discussing the place to look up Java's classes and methods in Java's Reference Manual and the place to look up the language's syntax and elements in The Java Language Manual. Her...
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Mark G. posted an article on A Beginning Programmer's Guide to Java - Aug 11, 2008, 3:10 pm
Building on the basic graphics we've done in Very Basic Java Graphics--3 Examples and A Most Basic Graphics App we'll be adding mouse interaction in this example. /* MousePanel.java This...
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Mark G. posted an article on Cat Yarns - Aug 9, 2008, 2:30 pm
For my wife the hardest part of every day was leaving for work. Her cat, Zyelena, would do everything she could to keep her from leaving. The cat would do everything she could to slow Toni down as she...
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Mark G. posted an article on A Beginning Programmer's Guide to Java - Aug 8, 2008, 4:23 pm
When we learned about primitive variables we learned that they are a way of storing a simple value, like a number or a true-false state. We give them a name, and whenever we want to get that value we ...
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Mark G. posted an article on A Beginning Programmer's Guide to Java - Aug 4, 2008, 3:29 pm
Of the books currently available, this one is my favorite for teaching non-programmers the basics of programming. This is in spite of the fact that it goes against a few strongly-held opinions of mine...
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Mark G. posted an article on A Beginning Programmer's Guide to Java - Aug 2, 2008, 1:22 pm
There are two steps to creating a variable; declaration and initialization. Declaration is creating a name and saying what type of variable it names: int count; String name; Scanner input; JFrame fra...
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Mark G. posted an article on A Beginning Programmer's Guide to Java - Aug 1, 2008, 12:22 am
A nice gift that came with Java 1.5 was the Scanner class. It's part of the java.util package. This class simplifies many common programming tasks. One is getting text from the keyboard. Prior to...
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Mark G. posted an article on Cat Yarns - Jul 25, 2008, 10:08 pm
King of the Hittites? I got a new kitten and now he needed a name. I like to give my cats royal names, as suits their demeanor. Most of my prior cats had classical names, like Alexander the Great. No...
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Mark G. posted an article on Cat Yarns - Jul 19, 2008, 2:45 pm
We decided we'd walk into town yesterday instead of driving. It's not too far, only about a mile and a half. There's a big uphill slope going in to town that means the decision takes a bit...
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Mark G. posted an article on Cat Yarns - Jul 18, 2008, 6:03 pm
Phillip and Zyelena, 1987 We had a new kitten. Well, cat. She was about six months old and she was a beautiful little girl, very slender, with a black coat, white tummy and chin, and white mittens. W...
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Mark G. posted an article on Cat Yarns - Jul 15, 2008, 6:03 pm
Amber dancing for a treat. We had our dog trained to perform tricks for her treats. We would have her sit up a lot, but for the best treats, she had to dance. We'd call her, then when she arrive...
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Mark G. posted an article on Cat Yarns - Jul 10, 2008, 10:39 pm
We had a fluffy little calico cat. She was named Rags because she looked like a little bundle of rags when she curled up into a ball. She was a lovable little cat, but prone to loneliness when every...
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Mark G. posted an article on Cat Yarns - Jul 9, 2008, 12:22 am
When my wife and I got married, it was just the two of us and her dog, Amber, in a little house that had formerly been base housing for a nearby Air Force base. It was a nice place, and we did well in...
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Mark G. posted an article on Cat Yarns - Jul 6, 2008, 12:54 pm
I have an image in my mind. In a factory somewhere, where they make the cutting boards that are used for sewing, there's a stage in the process that comes after the board itself has been printed, ...
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Mark G. posted an article on Cat Yarns - Jul 2, 2008, 9:25 pm
My wife is getting dressed for work in the morning. She takes a wool skirt, fresh from the dry cleaner, and lays it on the bed for a moment then turns to pull a blouse out of the closet. When she turn...
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