[svfig-announce] SVFIG Meeting - March 26

Kevin Appert forther at comcast.net
Tue Mar 22 09:57:24 PST 2005


****** This meeting will be back at Cogswell ******

 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We hope you will check the website at http://www.forth.org/svfig/ for last 
minute changes to the schedule.  The most up-to-date meeting
information is at http://www.forth.org/svfig/next.html

Preliminary agenda and discussion along with schedule updates may 
frequently be found on the SVFIG email list, send email to geoperry at gmail.com

Please let us know if this isn't your preferred email address for the 
SVFIG-Announce mailing list.  Thanks for your patience.

 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SVFIG  Meeting Agenda for Saturday, March 26, 2005
At Cogswell College, 1175 Bordeaux Drive,  Sunnyvale, CA

9:45  - "A Jolly Nice Cup of Coffee" (Lionel Hardcastle from 'As Time Goes By')

10:00 - C. H. Ting  --- THE PROJECT
       The further adventures of the Doctor Ting and the amazing 
Forth-based Low-cost digital oscilloscope.  The tingARM boards came back 
and  Ting is laying out the first DSO board now, and he hopes to show it in 
the meeting.
      Ting talked about PA7540 PLD chip from Anachip last time.  It burns 
too much current and is not suitable for a portable application.  I found 
that Atmel ATF750CL  is pin compatible with similar logic, but consumes 
much less power.  I will talk about this chip and show some simulation results.
      Ting is working on PSPICE, and trying to simulate the entire DSO 
circuitry, analog and digital parts.  Note there is a free student version 
of PSPICE Version 9.1 from OrCAD which was bought up by Cadence.  Links 
will be posted on the SVFIG website.

12:00  --- LUNCH & Dilbert Film Festival
      Togo's across the street or bring your own.
      Dilbert DVDs will be shown during lunch to test out the DVD 
player.  It'll be on for a couple of minutes to test, then continued IFF 
there is anyone watching and none object.

1:00  INTRODUCTIONS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, RUMORS, RANDOM ACCESS
Elections?
Changing to every other month?  Quarterly?  Annual?
Speaker Suggestions?
What's for lunch next time?  Maybe we order Armadillo Willy's via Waiters 
on Wheels?  Pizza?

1:30 --- Gary Feierbach --- CAUSALITY, THE ILLIAC AND ME

      Gary will regale us with tales of his career and the projects with 
and without Forth that have marked milestones on his life's journey.  From 
his early work with the Illiac IV (some show and tell and amusing  stories) 
(http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/vs-illiac-iv.html)...

      ...through his days at Inner Access (where everything went wrong at 
once), then Intergraph, Sun, Racer Graphics and finally Apple ...

      ...to his current endeavors (http://www.inneraccess.com)*  including 
a foray into the arts. (A video of a clock he constructed will be shown.)

      We'll want to hear Gary's take on where Forth went right and wrong 
and what could be better.

*Please note that the InnerAccess URL represents Gary's current endeavor 
and not the InnerAccess of the old days "where everything went wrong at once"

Have a look at this -->
http://csdl.computer.org/comp/proceedings/isqed/2003/1881/00/18810075abs.htm

And this -->
http://www.kaliferdeil.com/who.htm

The rest is left as an exercise for the student.

3:00 --- Panel Discussion --- The Embedded Systems Conference
     Where there any booths really mobbed?  Anything to make you say WOW?
     Good T shirts?
     Lots of I-Pods.
     Got Zigbee?    www.zigbee.org
      All this and an in-depth review of Scott Adams' keynote.

5:00   AND THEN THERE WAS BEER AND FOOD
Tied House?

 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you would like to present at a SVFIG meeting, email me, Kevin 
Appert  forther at com-you-know-the-rest.com  (see the return address)

 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At Future Meetings:
	Math Secrets of Mosaic:  An algorithm is better than a poke in the eye 
with a sharp matrix any day.
	Charley Shattuck  - maybe ColorForth?
	Forth Day 2005 in Anaheim?
	Al Mitchell,  Forth-Based Ethernet Gadgets  http://www.amresearch.com/
	Tour of Computer History Museum at new digs  http://www.computerhistory.org/
	Smart Dust
	A USB Device Enumerator in SwiftForth
	PID - Is it right for me?
	SVFIG meeting or meeting fragments as Webcast
	Kevin complaining that there are no speakers to be had
	George the Robot Seller from MondoTronics (this droid speaks 237 human 
languages but does no actual useful work)
	What happened with the Space Rated Forth Chip?  (not the Harris thing, the 
other one)
	Forth-based mass-market appliance computers  --- Cat and/or QX10





More information about the svfig-announce mailing list