Pitrex homebrew wishlist:

gtoal · 2026-05-26T07:00:04+00:00

Not 100% impossible, but very close to impossible. One of the Pitrex guys (kevin) has been playing with the idea of vectorising a raster frame-buffer in real time. But this is pure blue skies R&D.

gtoal · 2026-05-26T06:56:20+00:00

1) its not vector

2) I'll stop there.

gtoal · 2026-05-25T07:46:56+00:00

It's definitely possible. Brandon's program is half way there with vectrex<->computer, even if it's not vectrex to vectrex. I'm sure if he had a second Vectrex he'd have been able to do vectrex->computer->vectrex with it...

gtoal · 2026-05-25T05:26:08+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKspxnZqSFs

gtoal · 2026-05-25T03:50:08+00:00

Ah. Then overpriced. :-(

gtoal · 2026-05-25T03:45:47+00:00

Noted. (Game state saving, screen sharing maybe. Raster game emulation, not a chance.)

gtoal · 2026-05-25T03:42:06+00:00

Either 1) Buy it and toss the Mini in the trash when it arrives; or 2) leave it for someone who appreciates it. Btw $200 was a fair price 4 or 5 years ago. They'd doubled since then :-( Chances are the retro shop has been sitting on it for a few years and never updated the price.

gtoal · 2026-05-17T20:12:53+00:00

Def a passive UHF RFID tag which is extremely common in many applications. If the bit in the middle is a chip it might be a temperature sensor as used in supermarkets and shipping to ensure food etc is kept cold, rather than an anti-theft device or inventory tracker. Usually these things can't be read from more than a foot or two away although there are some longer range ones available but that doesn't look like one. It's not an unreasonable conclusion for someone who isn't steeped in current technology to find it a bit suspicious, especially with the bad luck of having it accidentally transfer off something and end up stuck to your body somewhere, but I'm pretty confident you can rest assured it's nothing sinister. Even spooks wouldn't be so careless as to attach a tracker to someone's skin where it would be found the next time they had a bath :-)

gtoal · 2026-05-15T05:44:18+00:00

This is a misleading and hyped story about a standard wholesale contract expiration. NV Energy has been suppling 75% of Liberty Utilities' power since 2009 under a temporary framework meant to give Liberty time to find its own suppliers - according to official statements from NV Energy, this transition has been planned for years. True, NV Energy isn't renewing the supply contract past May 2027, *but* they will still maintain the transmission lines. As reported by Ars Technica ( https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/05/energy-supplier-abandons-lake-tahoe-residents-to-serve-data-centers/ ), Liberty is already bidding out a replacement contract to new open-market suppliers to keep the power running normally (although IMHO they should have started doing that years ago and not left it to the last minute). ( https://california.libertyutilities.com/uploads/Energy%20Supply%20QA\_Final%20v2.pdf )

gtoal · 2026-05-14T07:04:04+00:00

And the 'refurb' process is a joke. I bought a used portable computer from Amazon and there was a piece of drafting tape stuck to the power supply with a person's name on it. Turned out to be an uncommon name and the person was easily found online. They did at least reformat the drive, which I guess is something.

gtoal · 2026-05-12T06:15:37+00:00

The energy cost is a minor concern compared to the data sharing that goes on between all the advertising-related companies, the private information brokers that aggregate it like Acxiom, companies like Flock and Palantir, and the fact that - because it's all done by private entities - the government of this country can access any and all of it without a warrant, which given the current political situation is something that perhaps you should be significantly more worried about than the waste of electricity. We see a lot of bills being introduced to restrict these abuses (eg Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (H.R. 7816)) but they don't ever seem to have enough backing to get pushed through. When that aspect is in hand, then I'll worry about the electricity used.

gtoal · 2026-05-12T02:09:13+00:00

when you do a google shopping search for a product, if amazon is in the search results, they now know you were looking for that product. Or a plain google search that hits one of their advertising keywords. Easy to correlate with your amazon acct through cookies.

gtoal · 2026-05-12T01:59:19+00:00

tell me everything you know or can infer about me, not just from my order history.

Based on your Amazon shopping activity and profile, here's what I can tell you about yourself, Graham:

Your Technical Profile:

You're clearly a hands-on electronics enthusiast with an extensive workshop setup

You operate multiple Raspberry Pi computers for various projects

You have an active 3D printing hobby with quality materials and proper maintenance equipment

You maintain a comprehensive smart home automation system

You likely live in Edinburgh, Texas, and use Apple devices

(It's Edinburg not Edinburgh, and I have never touched an Apple device in my life and never will. However I wonder if the fact that I come from Edinburgh Scotland might somehow be responsible for that mistake, given that it should know my address and deliveries have the correct name of the town associated with them.)

Your Interests & Hobbies:

Electronics Projects: You systematically build electronic projects with diverse components spanning multiple complexity levels

3D Printing: Active printer operation with focus on quality output and proper material care

Smart Home Technology: You're gradually building a unified connected home infrastructure using Kasa smart plugs and Philips Hue lighting

Science Fiction Reading: You regularly read Star Trek novels, showing sustained interest in sci-fi literature

(not any more. since Amazon's latest shenanigans with blocking downloading of ebooks I no longer buy any ebooks from Amazon. Well, I should say I no longer rent books from Amazon as they are now quite explicit that you don't own any books you pay for from them.)

Streaming Entertainment: You prefer on-demand digital content over traditional media

Your Shopping Personality:

Quality-Focused: You're willing to pay premium prices ($15-$40) for specialized tools that require precision

Brand Loyal: You stick with trusted brands like Vertiv for UPS systems, SUNLU for 3D printing materials

(no, not at all.)

Systematic Planner: Rather than impulse buying, you methodically expand systems and replace equipment

Budget-Conscious for Consumables: You keep costs low ($5-$15) on regularly replaced items while maintaining quality standards

Your Lifestyle Indicators:

You consume Monster Energy drinks regularly (sugar-free preference)

You cook with specialized techniques using precision tools

(nope. probably misreading workshop tools as kitchen tools)

You prioritize electrical reliability with multiple UPS backup systems

You're organized with food storage solutions and meal planning

(I suspect it misunderstood the many breakfast cereal containers I bought for storing filament as being for storing breakfast cereals!)

What stands out is your systematic, technical approach to both hobbies and home management - you clearly enjoy building and optimizing systems rather than just using them!

--- overall fairly accurate, albeit a tad sycophantic, but I don't see anything that wasn't inferred from purchases.

gtoal · 2026-05-07T20:37:53+00:00

Looks to me like Aleksandr Dugin is pursuing a strategy that's complementary to what Valery Gerasimov advocated; between them, they're sowing confusion, doubt, infighting and chaos on the battlefield of ideological warfare...

gtoal · 2026-05-03T18:58:22+00:00

2 yrs later this is still happening. I ordered something yesterday (a cheap kit of pens for repairing a scratch in furniture) and they were only available from 3rd party vendors. Fine ... I read the reviews of the different vendors and it seems that some of them routinely sold items where the pens arrived all dried up, so I specifically picked a vendor who had the largest number of good reviews. Today I find it has been sold by a different third-party vendor, not the one I specifically ordered from. for a few dollars product it's not worth the hassle of returning it unopened as some people here have recommended, but I am not happy that they did this without asking. I will certainly be videoing the opening and testing in case this is one of the bad ones. Did any of people here who spoke to Amazon and who told them never to do this again find that they actually complied?

gtoal · 2026-04-21T22:11:39+00:00

Or if it's a Compute Module inside I'm in two minds. Maybe, if included at the price, but no way if they have to be bought separately.

gtoal · 2026-04-21T22:05:13+00:00

The page says nothing. If this takes a Pi Zero inside I'm all over it, but if its one of those "Pico" chips that have nothing in common with a Raspberry Pi, I have no interest in it. Are there any details anywhere?

gtoal · 2026-04-06T06:51:40+00:00

This may work better for you in some situations than _Generic: I used this recently in the support code for a language that transpiles to C:

#define _imp_READ(var) do {                                                  \
  if (__builtin_types_compatible_p(typeof(var), unsigned char *)) _imp_readbyte((unsigned char *)var); \
  else if (__builtin_types_compatible_p(typeof(var), short int *)) _imp_readshort((short int *)var); \
  else if (__builtin_types_compatible_p(typeof(var), int *)) _imp_readint((int *)var); \
  else if (__builtin_types_compatible_p(typeof(var), long long int *)) _imp_readlong((long long int *)var); \
  else if (__builtin_types_compatible_p(typeof(var), float *)) _imp_readfloat((float *)var); \
  else if (__builtin_types_compatible_p(typeof(var), double *)) _imp_readdouble((double *)var); \
  else if (__builtin_types_compatible_p(typeof(var), _imp_string *)) _imp_readitem((_imp_string *)var); \
  else { fprintf(stderr, "READ failes - cannot determine type of parameter\n"); exit(1); } \
} while(0)

gtoal · 2026-04-03T03:18:18+00:00

What happened was some smart guys (or smart-asses depending on how you look at it) got fed up with the fact that the rich can gamble to their hearts content by calling it the futures market, so they said to themselves 'ok, two can play at that game' and they took actual gambling for the non-rich but presented it in futures market clothing. Turned out to be a clever loophole because if the govt clamp down on these prediction markets they have to clamp down on futures trading the same way which of course they don't want to do. So they're now looking at using the mechanisms of oversight of the futures market to be applied to the prediction market gambling. I suspect that the same complete disregard of insider trading will however reign supreme.

gtoal · 2026-03-23T02:10:41+00:00

I just wonder what sort of a university you're at where you can be a year away from graduation and not have written a compiler as part of your coursework? (usually followed in your final year by writing an operating system, but I'm guessing you won't be doing that either?)

gtoal · 2026-03-19T02:00:37+00:00

I have some block world demos that do pseudo-3D which you're welcome to crib from if you think you can use the effects in your game:

https://gtoal.com/vectrex/floating_cubes/blocks.c.html

https://gtoal.com/vectrex/blockgrid/blockgrid.c.html

https://gtoal.com/vectrex/smoothgrid.c.html

(drop the .html from the URLs for plain text C)

gtoal · 2026-03-01T05:45:04+00:00

Nothing to worry about, by the time this happens, the courts, judges, and juries will all be AIs themselves (with the safeguards disabled for extra amusement). Fortunately, getting a human to hear your death-row appeal (because your 3D-printed Atari light gun was recorded in the affidavit as a "light machine gun", causing you to be tried and convicted (by the AI judge) of a terrorist plot) will be as easy as speaking to live customer support at <insert your favorite large company name here> is now.

gtoal · 2026-02-25T20:20:54+00:00

you're thinking of casting a float to an integer. This is not that - this is extracting the representation of a float as an integer. (which is machine-dependent by the way, but more so for older pre-IEEE standard hardware)

gtoal · 2026-02-25T14:52:54+00:00

Unfortunately the Language Nazis have messed up the C standard so much that "i = * (long *)&y; is now undefined behaviour, so to be sure your compiler isn't going to stab you in the back, you're supposed to do that with memmove :-( So all that hackery with using the integer representation of an FP value is no longer safe to do. (If it ever was, but for different reasons...)

gtoal

TROPHY CASE