From Facebook comes a typically low resolution, bad quality JPEG meme of a Klingon from Star Trek celebrating May the 4th, Star Wars Day.
Star Trek FTW!
May the 4th etc
Author Archives: Donncha
Writing C64 ASM in VS Code
Thanks to this Hackaday article, I found a video describing how to use Visual Studio Code to write 6502 assembler for the Commodore 64!
It’s been a long time since I’ve done any ASM on the C64, and compared to the programming environments available these days, I was working in the dark ages with my Action Replay monitor, typing code directly into memory.
Kick Assembler is used to assemble the code into a .prg file, using the KickAss (C64) extension for VS Code to launch the emulator with the code loaded into memory. I see Kick Assembler 8-Bit Retro Studio is mentioned in the comments, and it is indeed still being developed, so it might be the better choice, but either will make developing on the C64 much simpler.
It gives a nice overview of using Git to track changes too, something I would have also loved on the C64. So many files prefixed with numbers as I experimented with effects …
Faulty Towers – The Dining Experience
Yes, dear!
If you’re a fan of Fawlty Towers, the hit British comedy from the 70s, then you’ll love The Dining Experience. Apart from the entertaining “shows” the three actors put on, you’ll, of course, be eating a three-course meal.
In Cork, they performed in the Metropole Hotel, so the food was great. Portions were small but it’s the experience you’re paying for and I have no hestitation in recommending it if you’re at all familiar with the show!
Speculating on what to load next
The Speculative Loading plugin for WordPress is a plugin you should probably try out on your site, especially if you use WP Super Cache or Jetpack Boost to cache things. It uses the new speculation API that Chrome/Edge supports to load pages in the background if you even hover over a link.
It will dynamically prefetch or prerender pages before they’re requested by the visitor on your site, which means that the page will show instantly when the visitor actually clicks the link.
It doesn’t work in Firefox yet, but it won’t hurt either, as the browser will just ignore the extra bits and pieces added to the page.
The default “moderate” eagerness works fine for me. The “eager” setting appeared to load links if the cursor got anywhere near them, which was a little too aggressive.
You won’t notice your browser loading the page in the Network tab of the webdev tools, but if you tail your access_log, you’ll see the requests go through when you hover over the links.
Browse around this site, or take a look at my photoblog for a feel of what it does.
There’s more info in the make blog post about it, and this insightful comment about the wastefulness of loading pages that might not be used, especially for visitors on limited data plans, or low powered devices. That’s definitely something to think about before using this plugin. I may yet remove it later, and I’ll update this post if I do.
Enough of the Moon already?
With the solar eclipse in the United States, and Ireland and the UK getting a partial eclipse, you’re probably sick of Moon coverage, but I would just like to point you to a couple of podcasts you’ll enjoy if you want more.
- Tom Hanks talking about the Moon walkers on The Rest is History podcast. Who doesn’t love listening to Tom Hanks?
- The Moon itself from Radiolab is a fairly basic look at the Moon, but gets a lot more interesting later on.
Both shows are great, but if you’re only going to listen to one, listen to The Rest is History, sorry Radiolab. But you should listen to both!
If you have even more time to spare, you should listen to the Omega Tau podcast episodes on the Apollo missions I listed in this blog post about Apollo. Fascinating listening. So many technical details.
As expected, the sky outside was a grey blanket on the island of Ireland. I hope someone saw something.
I’m a little tired after walking home
It’s good to be back in Cork today, even with Storm Kathleen on the way. I forgot to end my tracked walk when I got to Gate 26 in Schiphol Airport, and Google Fit somehow managed to pick up GPS signals every now and again as we flew home. So, it looks like I walked from Amsterdam to Cork. 🙂
I’ve no idea how I walked 2km off the coast of Ireland, somewhere south of Waterford. There was some bad turbulence on the flight, but we weren’t quite bouncing up and down in our seats!
The Netnewswire Reader View rocks
Netnewswire is an RSS reader for macOS and iOS devices. You know podcasts? Like that, but for reading.
RSS readers have been around for a long time, long before social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. They allow you to follow updates on your favourites sites, which could also include the personal sites of people you know. Twitter used to have RSS feeds, Facebook never did (AFAIR), but Mastodon sites (and other Fediverse services) do.
This blog has an RSS feed. You can follow my interesting posts there. Chances are, if you’re reading this, you already know all this.
Anyway, Netnewswire has a “Reader View” that will load entire posts in the reader, which is very useful if a site only shares extracts of their articles. Sometimes it doesn’t load the entire article, so you’ll need to visit the site anyway. It’s a convenient way to read without leaving the app when it works.
Oher RSS readers include the WordPress.com Reader, Feedly and many more. Wired has an overview of some, as does Zapier.
RSS won’t replace social media, it’s just another way to read the news.
R.I.P. John Free
John Free was a very talented street photographer in Los Angelus, who I have admired for many years. I saw on Facebook that he passed away last night. If you’re at all interested in photography, have a look at his YouTube channel, where you will get a taste of his excitement, enthusiasm and energy for photography and people.
I forgot he posted a video from the Musée D’Orsay a few years ago, but I’m extra happy that I visited there last year, and as John suggested in the video, I was able to balance the subject with the art.
TIL there’s an underground roundabout in the Faroe Islands
11Km of tunnels were built between some of the islands of the Faroe Islands, and right in the middle of one of those tunnels, 70 metres underground, is a roundabout. It enables drivers to go to Runavik or Strendur. It cuts travel time from just over an hour to 16 minutes. Hugely impressive.
Keith Jarrett – The Cologne Concert
I’d heard of the troubles Keith Jarrett had when he played in Cologne but forgot to find out what his music sounded like until I came across the incident again this morning while listening to Cautionary Tales.
Jarrett was due to play in the opera house there and requested a particular type of piano. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find the one he wanted and provided him with a beaten up rehearsal model. It was out of tune, the pedals were sticky, and it was in a terrible condition.
He refused to play at first, but after the promoter, an 18yo woman named Vera Brandes pleaded with him to play. He had to avoid broken keys, and concentrated most of his playing in the middle of the keyboard.
To make things worse, he had driven over the mountains from Switzerland the previous night, his back was in a brace, and he was hungry, having had to miss his dinner earlier in the evening.
I haven’t listened to all of it, but it is remarkable what he coaxed out of such a broken piano! Sometimes, less is more.