CubeStormer!

Yet another use for the British-designed (by Acorn, originally) ARM chips is this machine for solving Rubik's cubes. It is not exactly slow!

Bridging the Network

The bedroom Acorn RiscPC computer I have here no longer communicates across my network here, ever since the old Telewest Cable modem failed and was replaced by a four-port "hub" (nothing to do with airports!) with wireless capability.

Now, four wired ports were never going to be sufficient for my needs as I had things then, so I have the two portables both operating over wireless networking and the wired connection from the one in "Mission Control" (as I call this room) has been removed.

The other one, located in the bedroom, I had already set to wireless networking, so no change was needed.

However, the other bedroom computer (ha ha! Take that, Modesty Blaise!) – a RiscPC – had previously communicated with my eight-port LinkSys router via a pair of Belkin wireless devices, one plugged into the RiscPC and the other into the router.

The router will not work with the Virgin hub (at least not with the limited tinkering I have done so far) so my new idea is to wire the bedroom RiscPC into the portable's network port and use that machine (in RISC OS emulation mode) as a "bridge" between the wired and wireless networks. It will be interesting to see (a) if this works at all and (b) if the bedroom RiscPC is visible only on the connected portable or is transmitted across the whole network. I suspect it might be the latter, but haven't yet reached the point where I can test it.

Why not?

It's because that RiscPC has only a 10Base2 (BNC connector) network interface. I have a gadget to convert the signal to 10BaseT (RJ-45/UTP) which I have wired up, but I can't find the mains power unit for it. There is relatively little still boxed up here, but I have spent a whole afternoon untangling various cables from one packing box and it wasn't among those.

Okay, so I shall carry on looking during the next couple of days, and no doubt report back what transpires. As I backup these "secondary" computers only monthly, on the first day of each month, it would be handy to have this working by some time tomorrow (1 April)!

UPDATE: I've found the power supply for the gadget, and the bedroom RiscPC and the hard-wired portable can now see each other; but that is all. Not a problem: I shall simply 'pipe' anything to or from the RiscPC via the bedroom portable, which is no trouble at all. Indeed, this gives that machine more work to do, which is no bad thing.

What's a GertBoard?

This demonstration should give you an idea...



Yes, it's a hardware interface add-on for the Raspberry Pi. It reminds me so much of the sort of thing my brother and I (mostly him) built ourselves, back in the early 'eighties at the family home in Morden. The row of LEDs and the momentary-contact pushbuttons are so reminiscent of a very basic computer (with 1 kiloByte of memory!) built into a silver-and-green casing that I had, with a Motorola 6800 CPU at its heart.

Ah, those were the days! The memories the GertBoard thus brought back to me were quite powerful, and reminded me of just how much I still had to learn in those times.

Anyway, we are now some thirty years on, and still the spirit of "breadboard innovation" and experimentation lives on. It really is important for the future, to help prevent stagnation in some of the fields in which the technology can continue to flourish and develop.

RIP Jocky!

"Here comes Jocky up to the Ochee, looking stocky and feeling cocky!" – Sid Waddell

Here's a tribute from a couple of years ago to John Thomas Wilson whom we all knew as "Jocky", and who left us today after a period of ill health. He was just 62, my own age as I write this...

Couch and Potatoes

I've had a couple of requests for photos of my lounge, because of the nesting tables I recently bought from nearby Argos, and actually quite enjoyed assembling. Here are some views of the finished products in situ...

The nesting tables in place, with coasters and TV etc handsets

The string holding this large picture up has snapped, so I'm looking for wire!

That large picture will be hung on the wall behind and above the sofa

 

The dining table is here set for one, but is easy to re-configure for 2 to 4