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 …
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.
I know nothing!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Today saw the release of updates to two plugins I work on. The first, unsurprisingly, is WP Super Cache, and it’s a bug fix release. It fixed a PHP8.2 warning, adjusted some labels on the settings page, solved a problem with “late init” and POST requests, and some other changes, but the major news I want to share is not about that plugin at all.
I’m on the Jetpack Boost team in Automattic, and for the last month or so, we’ve been working on adding a full-page cache to the plugin!
Jetpack Boost is already a pretty remarkable plugin, with what it does to CSS, JavaScript and images, so a page cache was an obvious next step.
If you’re already using WP Super Cache, but you’re not using any of the advanced features, I think you should give Jetpack Boost a go. It works really well at serving cached pages fast. Jetpack Boost will be a drop-in replacement if you have these features enabled in WP Super Cache:
Simple caching
Caching Disabled for logged in visitors
Garbage collection set to one hour.
You’ll have to disable WP Super Cache first before trying Boost Cache, as they both rely on the same mechanism to load. Disable Jetpack Boost to go back to WP Super Cache. You can enable Boost again, without using the Cache module, and the two plugins will happily co-exist.
I’ve been using it here for the last two weeks, and it has worked flawlessly. I post images daily on my photoblog, and they get shared to Mastodon, where the expected deluge of requests from hundreds of servers happens each time. Between Jetpack Boost and WP Rest Cache, my server barely noticed. Just like with WP Super Cache.
“If it performs just like WP Super Cache, why should I use Boost?” I hear you asking. For some, you’ll need the extra features of WP Super Cache, but otherwise, Boost may be just what you need. Apart from the cache, it also has remarkable features that will squash your CSS and JavaScript in various ways that load super quick. Give it a go, and let WP Super Cache handle the cache if you need to.
If you’re still here, read on, and I’ll give you a whirlwind tour.
Boost supports an exception list like WP Super Cache does, and logging of activities in a similar, but easier to use way.
To simplify caching, only requests by logged out visitors are cached now, but that’s the recommended way of using WP Super Cache too.
Developers: like WP Super Cache, it also supports the “DONOTCACHEPAGE” constant. If you define that while a page is being created, then Jetpack Boost won’t cache it. If you can enable it before the page loads, then the plugin won’t serve a cached page either, but that will be difficult since the cache system loads so early.
To learn more, there’s a fine manual to read. It explains in detail how to enable the cache and how to use it. Yes, I’m biased, but I think you should give Jetpack Boost a go! Caching helps a lot, but the extra CSS and JavaScript features help render the page quickly once loaded.
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