[svfig-announce] THIRD Saturday !!! Meeting May 16, 2009

Thu May 14 00:09:34 BST 2009

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS THE THIRD SATURDAY, 3 DAYS AWAY!

--- SVFIG Meeting May 16, 2009  ---

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Also 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!

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 --- eForth in C --- CH Ting
"I will continue my discussion on implementing eForth in C. The 
interpreter is already done, using a C execution pointer table. I am 
rearranging the byte code to build a byte code compiler. I think a byte 
code compiler will be able to compile the high level Forth words in the 
C system, and also compile new words interactively."

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

13:30 --- FIG-Forth on the IMP-16 - Eric Smith
      Eric is attempting to port PACE FIG-Forth to the National 
Semiconductor IMP-16.  IMP-16 was National's earlier multi-chip 16-bit 
microprocessor, introduced in 1973. The PACE architecture was similar to 
the IMP-16, and the IMP-16 in turn was somewhat inspired by the Data 
General Nova.  (more about this on the web agenda)
      We'll see what Ting, progenitor of Nova Fig-Forth has to say.

13:50 --- Attack of the Killer Catalogs --- Kevin Appert
"I'm a dinosaur, I admit it.  I like paper catalogs.  Grainger, McMaster 
Carr and Rutland all publish BIG books of industrial stuff.  I will talk 
about them and drop them on the heads of anyone who dozes off."

14:23 --- BREAK

14:47 --- Polaroid's Ultrasonic Sensors --- Dave Jaffe
Dave will describe the operation of the Polaroid's ultrasonic sensors 
and how to interface to them in an embedded environment.

15:17 --- Upcoming Events of Interest --- All Assembled
Maker Faire, Towel Day, trade shows.

15:24 --- Randomly Rambling Ramble Randomly
Who knows what we'll talk about?
Things from the SVFIG List:
	MS-Debug removed from Windows
	Mitch Bradley C-Forth for the Arm - where and how to download it
The FIG/SVFIG website:
	Cobwebs
	Forth Day Videos - has anyone seen the beta?
	Who's Who?  Who's MIA?

16:00 --- Adjourn

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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

* Update on IntellaSys Chips - John Rible
IntellaSys has imploded, or something.
The chips John Rible will be selling to SVFIG were in test but may be in 
someone's closet now.  Perhaps he'll be at the meeting to give us an 
update.  Maybe John should find a different outreach to use his grant for.

* PowerMOPS Demo --- still looking for a volunteer, if nobody steps
forward I'll do it --- Kevin Appert

* Prototyping with QFP Parts - Kevin Appert
This has probably expired from lack of interest.
"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.

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

* 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>>>

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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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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.

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

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.