[svfig-announce] Meeting Aug. 22, 2009

[Kevin Appert]

3 DAYS AWAY!

--- SVFIG Meeting Aug. 22, 2009  ---

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Please note that the times listed below are precise but not
accurate.  We might go a little long or short on any agenda
item.  If you're desperate to see something at a particular
time, please let us know!  Remember that there are bugs in
any non-trivial SVFIG meeting announcement.

We'll be on the fifth floor of Terman Engineering Center --- Room 556
Directions and map links are below.

There are two buildings named Terman on campus so be careful. The
Searchable Map has the one you want as "TERMAN (FREDERICK E) ENGRG
CENTER  (04-700)  380 PANAMA MALL"
The Official SVFIG Announcement Editor's Parking Lot recommendation is
the lot near the intersection of Teresa St and Morris Way.

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AGENDA
10:00 --- COFFEE AND A CHAT

10:14 --- Videos from July 2008 SVFIG Meeting Continued
That month Cogswell wasn't available, so a few members convened at
Ting's meeting house in San Mateo. Masa taped presentations and
some of the rest of the meeting and we'll all have a look.
Was Bill Ragsdale there?  Dave Jaffe WAS there so this will include:
Interesting Items - Volume 11 - Video from July 2008 - Dave Jaffe
Dave continued his survey of interesting newly-introduced 
microcontrollers, I/O peripherals, sensors, products, and gadgets that 
can provide useful and unique capabilities to Forth embedded systems.
We may stop the video and look up some of the items on the Internet, 
discuss them and explore a little.

11:40 --- LUNCH
On campus most likely, but open to discussion.
To avoid the "noon lemming effect" we'll go to lunch a little before noon.

13:00 --- Introductions, Announcements, Rumors, and Random Access

13:23 ---  Computing Logarithms and Exponentials - Eric Smith
The most common algorithms to compute approximations of transcendental 
functions (including exponentials and logarithms) use polynomial 
approximations. Such algorithms are well-suited to microprocessors with 
high-performance floating-point hardware, but are extremely slow 
otherwise. Since many embedded systems use processors without 
floating-point hardware, algorithms that do not require multiplication 
are useful.

14:28 --- Five Topics for Discussion - Jim Harrison
    1. Why floating point isn't "friendly" - it isn't associative - and 
how to make it so. Opinion: it isn't worth the trouble.
    2. While I'm waiting for GreenArrays (GA), hello XMOS. This will 
consist of bringing an XMOS board and chips for show and tell. I have a 
development board; hopefully the chips will arrive by Friday.
    3. Community building in Forth? An invitation for people to 
collaborate on porting a Colorforth to XMOS, including documenting the 
whole process so as to serve as a tutorial for Forth porting in general. 
Why collaborate? I haven't done it yet, and have never done anything 
like this before. Why XMOS? Simple instruction set, not very expensive, 
and chips are available.
    4. Quaternions in Forth. Using quaternion multiplication as topic 
for discussing and illustrating "good" (and bad?) Forth programming. The 
discussion will start with browsing a thread I started in the Colorforth 
list and continue with the Colorforth virtual machine versus other Forth 
VMs and how that impacts coding style.
<<<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternion>>>
    5.  Opening session of the Haypress Creek Fan Club. I'm sure other 
SVFIG members are reading Chuck's blog. I have questions, perhaps others 
do as well, and perhaps we can discuss them together.

16:00 --- Adjourn (maybe earlier if we run out of gas)

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The schedule above may be reformatted or line-justified but
please transmit verbatim or not at all.   Any font you like is
alright with me.

No Newsgroup posts or other media distribution this month please!

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Wireless Internet access is anticipated (though not guaranteed) at
Stanford, so bring your wifi-enabled laptop.

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Coming to SVFIG:
* Bring speaker suggestions TO EVERY MEETING!

* PLANNING FORTH DAY 2009 - EVERY MEETING

* Mitch Bradley's Forth in C (somebody needs to volunteer)

* I've sent an email to the implementer of the PACE FIG-Forth and he
responded.  I think he got the idea that my invitation to present was
'one-time' rather than 'any time'.  Hopefully when there is something
else PACE-related on the program he'll join us and present.

* Furthering the Cause of Forth - John Rible
IntellaSys has imploded, or something.  We'd be pleased to hear about
John's new outreach project when formulated.

* Engineering TV
http://engineeringtv.com/
Fifty engineering topic channels. Four new episodes per week.

* BOTBASH 2000 --- Video
A cheepie video of  a May 2000 robot rumble in Mesa Arizona from these
guys:   http://www.battlebots.com/

* Meet the Mac --- Kevin Appert
I'm having trouble emailing Ward McFarland, the Carbon MacForth guy.  If
anybody knows a good way to buy a copy, fill me in!  The email doesn't
bounce but it doesn't get answered.  The phone number is out of service
but the web site is still up.
I'm also getting error boxes when I try to start PowerMops under OS-9.1,
so if anybody wants to help out there I'd be grateful.

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Check the SVFIG web site at http://www.forth.org/svfig/
for last minute changes to this schedule.
The most up-to-date meeting information is at
http://www.forth.org/svfig/next.html

Many thanks to our wonderful Webmaster, Dave Jaffe.

Preliminary agenda along with schedule updates and
discussion may frequently be found on the SVFIG email list.
To subscribe 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.

Please suggest a speaker or present at a SVFIG meeting.

Please do not attempt to reply to svfig-announce at ...
send instead to forther_at_comcast.net
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NAVIGATIONAL ADVICE

Terman Engineering Center can be found on these maps - just search for
Terman: (going to maps.google.com gives an erroneous result)

http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/map/

Searchable Stanford Campus Map:  http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/map/

There is open parking on weekends. Park in any A or C or metered space,
no coins needed even if there's a meter there.The Official SVFIG
Announcement Editor's Parking Lot recommendation is the lot near the
intersection of Teresa St and Morris Way.

Go to the Stanford links, Google maps has no idea where Terman is!

The building's door may be locked, there will be a number to call posted 
after the meeting starts and we will come down and check once in a while.

Once you reach Terman, take the elevator to the 5th floor. Walk across
the foyer and up the ramp just to the left of the glassed-in office.
Room 556 is at the top of the ramp - entrance on the left.
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