[svfig-announce] AT STANFORD! Meeting January 24, 2009

[Kevin Appert]

--- SVFIG Meeting January 24, 2009 ---

!!! NOT AT COGSWELL !!!
At this point it seems that Stanford will be our regular venue.

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

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

AGENDA
10:00 --- COFFEE AND A CHAT

10:15 --- eFORTH IN C - CH Ting
"Since I got the uVision 3 microcontroller development system which 
comes with a good C compiler for many many microcontrollers, I thought 
that it would be a good idea to write eForth in C, just for portability. 
I revisited thisForth and couldn't even understand it. There's got to be 
a simpler way to do it. I think I can get an interpreter to run this 
week. The compiler would be much more difficult. I will need help in 
building the Forth dictionary as a data structure."

11:40 --- LUNCH
To avoid the "noon leming effect" we'll go to lunch a little early.

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

13:22 --- INTERESTING ITEMS - VOLUME  12 - Dave Jaffe
Dave will continue 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. If 
anyone has come across anything that fits this category, pass them along 
to him for inclusion in his presentation.

14:00 --- SEMI-PARALLEL MULTIPLIER WITH LOG2 N STEPS --- John E. Harbold
"I figured out a 'semi-parallel' multiplier when I was in the Hilton 
Sports Book in Las Vegas that would be an adjunct design for Ting's 
massively parallel matrix multiplier."

15:00 --- SNEAK PREVIEW: MUSIC SYNTHESIZER (MusicBox24) on FORTHdrive 
--- Masa Kasahara
Now that the demo program (MusicBox24) is available from IntellaSys, you 
can experiment with it yourself. Masa has been waiting for it ever since 
Michael showed it off on Forth Day in 2007. It is not an easy program to 
understand, but he started working on it. Although he does not know what 
will be presented in the near future, he will demonstrate how to install 
VentureForth and run a couple of demo programs, just enough to start 
your own journey with this marvelous device.

15:30 --- ADJORN

15:31 --- INDOCTRINATE U  (DVD)
It's a little off-topic but important!  Note that this the version with 
explicit language.  There will be no Forth discussed afterwards so if 
you're not interested you're free to leave.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1137970/
http://indoctrinate-u.com/

"Speech codes. Censorship. Enforced political conformity. Hostility to 
diversity of opinion. Sensitivity training. We usually associate such 
things totalitarian regimes, not with the American universities that 
nurtured the free speech movement."

Run Time: 89 minutes


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

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!

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

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

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

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

* PLANNING FORTH DAY 2009 - EVERY MEETING

* Update on IntellaSys Chips - John Rible
The chips John Rible will be selling to SVFIG are in test now and 
perhaps he'll be at the meeting to give us an update.

* Prototyping with QFP Parts - Kevin Appert
"I saw an article in the September 2008 issue of Circuitous Cellar 
entitled "Prototyping with QFP Parts". If someone tells me "that sounds 
interesting" I'll break out the article into a few PowerPoint (or the 
Open Office Impress equivalent) charts and traipse through it. "

* Engineering TV
http://engineeringtv.com/
Fifty engineering topic channels. Four new episodes per week.
We have to try this out to see if Stanford's WIFI will keep up.

* Andy Korsak has been working on accessing sound cards from
Forth for amateur radio applications.  His preliminary
work is posted at the Win32Forth Yahoo group under
files/users/korsak.  Membership is required to see the files.
If you don't want to jump through the hoops, Dave has posted
a recent version of the files here:
   <<<http://www.forth.org/svfig/SoundCardIO.zip>>>


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

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 ...

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

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.

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.