Archive for September 2nd, 2011

Why, yes, I AM a geek.

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Hewlett Packard is bringing back the HP15C. I was heard to go “Squeeee!” when I read that. At least one of my coworkers will testify to that.

(Bringing back the 16C would be even more cool, though I think everything the 16C did is built into the 50g.)

(Hattip: His Grubes.)

Edited to add: Well, that took me down a rabbit hole. Following the museum link to the HP41C (my first HP) reminded me of the good old days of synthetic programming and the legendary PPC ROM. Googling that turned up this profile of Richard J. Nelson, the man behind the PPC ROM. I was unfamiliar with his modulator/demodulator project, which made me sit up and go “Wow.” (The 41 series of calculators had an optical wand which could be used to read bar coded programs into the calculator. Mr. Nelson came up with a box on one end that the wand plugged into, which converted the bar codes into audio tones that could be recorded to tape or sent over a phone line. On the other end was another box that took the tones as input and controlled an LED, which the wand could read like a bar code. I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal to you kids today, but I find it pretty stunning for late 70s/early 80s technology. Also, get off my lawn.)

Posted in Geek, Retrocomputing | 3 Comments »

The way my mind works.

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Part 1:

I was getting dressed yesterday, and looked at my “Professional Russian” shirt in the closet. I decided to save that for this week’s SDC, but I found myself struggling to make some sort of “In Soviet Russia, egg rolls you!” joke.

Which got me to thinking: is Yakov Smirnoff still around? And the Japanese fiddle player? Last I heard, Smirnoff had his own place in Branson, but that was years ago.

Answer: Yes, he’s still doing the Branson thing. And so is Shoji Tabuchi.

Not that I’m planning a trip to Branson any time in the near future, but you’ve got to love these guys for being able to keep the roof over their heads.

Part 2:

I’ve had a song intermittently stuck in my head for many, many years now: probably since middle school, though I don’t remember watching the movie there. Something (actually, a whole bunch of things) prompted me to do a Google search yesterday, and, well…I give you one of the great insurrectionist songs of our time.

This, in turn, prompted me to check the Project Appleseed schedule. And it turns out they’re doing shoots in Smithville (only about an hour’s drive from my home) every month through December. I think I can make this work; worst case, school should be wrapped by December.

Posted in Guns, Music | Comments Closed