Hawkuletz

This is the latest build of my DOS game jam game. It’s currently 208kb, single executable, and that’s with a bunch of standard C libraries still linked in. Plays well, too IMHO :D

Do not taunt Carnivorous Death Ball.

Screenshot reads, "A Carnivorous ‘Death Ball’ Has Emerged from the Deep This newly-discovered species is being called the “death-ball sponge” for its appendages, which end in orbs and are covered in micro-hooks meant to capture prey."

Not now, carnivorous death ball

A Zohran Mamdani campaign poster that reads "LETO II ATREIDES FOR GOD EMPEROR OF THE KNOWN UNIVERSE"

Ugh, FIIIIIINE

Serial output from the run in the movie (note that number of steps is in hex)

Generated

3 4
45 6 8193
21 8
6 3 7

4 8 359
685
73 42
5 8
Solved
0035 steps
689315427
457628193
213479568
896153274
375294816
142867359
968531742
731942685
524786931
Done

8/8

From the source code:
; repeat process until number of failures (failure = 2 solutions) exceed threshold (threshold is set at 16 decimal)
Once that's done, print (send to serial) the result.
I forgot to mention, in case anyone wonders: everything was written in PIC ASM 7/

taking out *random digits while checking that:
1. the removed digit doesn't result in 2 solutions.
2. the process doesn't take too long (i.e. after a while it will yield a puzzle, even if there are some digits that might still be removed)
(It also checks for user pressing of the C key) 6/

Of course the solver checks and reports both impossible puzzles and ones with more then one solution.
The Generator uses a XOR-shift PRNG fed from the timer when generate is requested.
It starts by generating an entire valid puzzle, and then starts taking out digits while checking that: 5/

change it. Of course this was done mainly as a fun project, but still.
The solver employs some tricks to speed-up the process (I think some I implemented while developing the generator); in particular it keeps a large array with "what digits can go where" to save time on trying them. 4/

The Solve and -especially- Generate functions do take a while, even at 32MHz, but the rest of the interface is quite fast. The device is "ready" as soon as power is applied (well, within some ms)
The Edit function is not really optimal, in particular one has to clear and retype an entire line to 3/

It's all implemented on a single PIC16F1939 uC (8bit, 32MHz, 1024 *bytes* of data memory)
It also - and this was the really difficult part - implements reasonably good sudoku *generator*
The same PIC does the display driving, keyboard scanning, the works.
It is reasonably fast. 2/

A while ago I started doing a thing. It's actually mostly done (fully operational, so to speak) except that I didn't get around to adding a printer for the full effect.
What is it?
Well, a while ago everyone was writing sudoku solvers in a variety of languages. This is a bit more of a challenge 1/

Chucky egg

ZX Spectrum

Made in Blender 3D

An animated loop basd on the games of the ZX Spectrum 8 bit micro from the 1980s

This was made in photoshop and Blender and just a fun little tribute to my all time favourite home computer

#zxspectrum #retrogaming #pixelart #8bitart

Good morning 😊

Yes, Sir Clive hated that the Spectrum was popular because of the games and a C5 could never go this fast, but I had a lot of fun making this tribute to Sir Clive Sinclair ZX Spectrum 👍

Animation made in Blender, sountrack made in Studio one

#zxspectrum #retrogaming #8bitgaming

The Sharp Rateca Puter. Up top, left to right: a collapsable TV/radio antenna, brightness and contrast dials, a giant speaker, a smaller speaker, and input for the tapedeck, with the play counters that were more common on the day. Face, left to right: A 4.5 inch CRT (behind a plastic guard), VHF/UHF and radio dials, channel and band selectors (TV/COMP, FM, Shortwave, and Middlewave), the "RATECA PUTER' logo on the battery gauge, AFC switch, mode selector, tape deck controls, audio controls for balance, bass, treble, and volume, and a mollyguard to prevent dials and switches from being mashed (the mollyguard being a signature of Sharp's boomboxes of the time). Face, low: the collapsable carrying handle that doubles as a stand; computer power button; slide-out chiclet keyboard based on Sharp calculators of the day, with number pad; an LED clock, clock controls, alarm controls. Right side: mic jacks, earphone jacks in two different sizes, beat cut switch, fan exhaust, DC and AC power plugs, and a printer port (!). Help I'm trapped in an alt text factory

Only 200 were made. But that hasn't stopped everyone who walks into Sharp's industrial design museum from wanting to walk out with one of these beauties.

got it, line 80 was wrong.

A picture of probably a laptop wall wart, part number WSU18-20891, model 1/880. It has Input 1-240V 50 plus or minus 60 Hz, and Output is Vmax volts and Imax amps.

for @foone.bsky.social

A Motorola MDT-9100-386. It's a single black unit with a clicky keyboard in beige and grey on the front, a small amber CRT on top, next to a grid of grey buttons, along with one red recessed button. It has a lovely glow lighting up both halves of the keyboard

The same unit, in darkness, highlighting how readable and typable this machine is at night. The bulbs are very yellowish-orange, giving everything a very warm feel, which contrasts with the black metal of this police tool.

oh here we go. I had to search the birdsite for my thread where I cleaned it up and fixed the left bulb.

A picture of a Nintendo Gamma Boy. It's kind of a geiger counter but looks just like a nintendo Game Boy. It has a Select, Start, and a knob to select options, and a Beta and Alpha button in that reddish pink. On screen is a little needle showing up to about 3.6 roentgen. to the left of the screen is a Battery and a Drop & Run indicator.

Nintendo Gamma Boy

Bold of them to assume (most) office workers have windows from which to see the sunset :)

dreams can become reality… #lasercutting #tractor_feed #trypophobia

Today's entry in "why your chatbot, particularly that one, should not be in general deployment"

"My car asked my kids a shocking and inappropriate question. That’s how I realized there are few safe spaces anymore" in the Toronto Star [gift link]

#ChemSky

I have been loudly, persistently anti-Trump since the beginning. And tonight's election results just make me more sure: *there are more of us than there are of them* A good hard look at Trumpism in action has made that impossible to ignore.

Let's take this country back, and let's make it better.

In rogue the bat has a secret defense that makes it undefeatable under digital OSF1

#retrogaming #rogue #gaming #ascii

The word "raspberry" has two 'a's. The first is in "ras" and the second is in "berry". The AI overview then hallucinates some more, unbidden. Sigh...

Every now and then I like to test AI to see how its letter counting is going. It's hilarious inaccuracies amuse me. The "common confusion" where it hallucinates an inaccuracy that I didn't even ask for is just perfect
But sure, evaluate resumes based on this crap

The hierarchy of controls in this article is excellent!

A digital poster in the style of a World War II propaganda piece. Isolaed on a yellow background, a normal, squarish, 20-something guy with glasses is sitting working on a laptop. A ghostly figure of Hitler has his arm around the guy and is grinning and shaking a fist triumphantly looking at the laptop screen. On the lid of the laptop where an apple might otherwise be is an openAI logo, bright green, and dripping green ooze down the lid. Text on the poster, in combinations of sans-serif type and brush script reads: Using Generative AI? You’re prompting with Hitler! GenAI is a Fascist Project! Try using your brain instead Don’t surrender your creativity to the tech billionaire’s control

New awareness campaign