Geek Project: Microprocessor Trainer

Here's a hobby electronics/computers education kit that I bought a couple years ago at a yard sale for $1.

It's a Science Fair kit that you wire up according to the instructions. It teaches how to understand and use commands for a little microprocessor that has some pre-programmed ROM in it. It has a small amount of RAM memory for coding in your own shtuff.

Allegedly, this microprocessor is a close relative of the ones that powered Speak-N-Spell children's toys.

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It's a list of the commands that the microprocessor 'knows' you could say. It's quite complicated even to do simple things like adding numbers together.

Here are a couple pages from the text.

Daunting.

So far I understand how to take some data and add it to a register, and also how to display the contents.

This is a video of the program for a countdown timer. On the left you can see how many minutes are left in the countdown with the 3 left-most LEDs, in binary numbers, and then the next 4 show the tens column for the remaining seconds, in binary, and the digit on the right shows the ones column for remaining seconds.

Now give yourself 1,000 Geek Points if you can read binary coded numbers!

It's A Killing Joke!

Here's a tribute to one of my favorite bands - Killing Joke!




Personally, I would not pick a name like Killing Joke if I was in a band. First, all the cops in town would be looking for me because they think I'm a murderer (not that any cop isn't trained to kill people) and second, you don't usually want 'joke' in your name.

However, this band kicks so much ass that I have a sore toe. Kinda like Turrell Owens, only with music.

This band reminds me of the band Simple Minds. They can have totally great music, then they have a crap album after that, but then they have another great album. Oh well, that's music for ya.

The Joke Rocks!!!! That's no joke! Rock on people!!!

Mark Martin And The NASCAR Chase

Mark Martin is on a roll! He is in first place in the NASCAR Chase For The Cup. WOO-HOOO!!!

Looks like a great year for Mark and his team, the Hendrick Motorsports team.

His teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon also made it to The Chase. Good luck to them, and if Jimmie wins The Cup again this year, he will have 4 chanpionships in a row!! He will then glow with a special light as he becomes God of NASCAR.

Lots of other great racers made The Chase though, so it will be tough for my guys to win, but then again, my guys show they can do it.

Danica Patrick Racing In NASCAR???

Here's an interesting news flash - "Stewart Says Danica Has Sights Set On NASCAR" - could it be truth or hype???


http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/headlines/cup/09/05/tstewart.dpatrick.future/index.html


Tony Stewart from NASCAR Racing said he thinks Danika Patrick will eventually race in NASCAR. Now that, THAT would be cool.

Interesting reading. I always thought Danica's dream was to be the first woman to win the Indy 500, which I think means she'd have to be a full-time IRL racer, but I could be wrong.

Here's a picture of Danica, along with teammate Tony Kanaan. I got this from the Indycar website. The caption says Tony is giving some pointers to Danica. HA!! Yeah, right. This year, it's probably Danica saying to him "DOOOOOD!! Stop hitting the wall!!" How's that for pointers?

Fill 'er Up! Git 'er Done!!

Here's a new toy - The Liquor gas pump - WOO HOO!!!
I want to thank my uncle for this, it is appreciated greatly.

It's a little replica of a gas pump, except, to keep with the 'green' 'feelings' people have these days, it serves up a delicious distilled beverage - Jack Daniels green label whiskey.

FILL'ER UP!

Plus, since it's gravity fed, there's no electricity required. Good to have on hand in case of any power outage. Then you can fuel up and be on your way.

Go Green!!!

Oh, and follow your dreams ! ! !

Oh, and don't drink N drive. As one of my favorite bass players of all-time, John Entwistle, once said - "I prefer to drink and not drive" - although that was mainly because he didn't have a driver's license, plus he was affluent enough to afford a driver with a limo. Hey, he was in the band The Who - what do you expect?

BBQ - This Is A Lang Smoker

Time for some Q! Here's an interesting video by a guy who has (a very excellent-looking) BBQ smoker from Lang Smokers. Now this, this,.... this is a cool lookin' BBQ smoker. Check it out. Unfortunately, I don't have a spare $2k lying around in my sofa cushions, otherwise I'd order one for myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1xypMXJndI&NR=1

You can check out Lang's stuff at:

http://www.pigroast.com

Plus YouTube has lots of people posting videos of Lang stuff.

Wooden Carvings

On a recent family visit I took some pictures of some neat wooden carvings my Uncle has. Here's a birdhouse hanging in a tree. The "front door" is the heart. I'll bet those are some spoiled-ass birds. Look at the wood trim on their house!!

Here's a wood carving of a very worried man, made from a bamboo root. His hair looks like the root fibers. Bamboo is a very renewable resource from what I've heard.

Here's a bird. This one you don't have to feed.