[svfig-announce] THIRD Saturday !!! Meeting June 19,2010

Tue Jun 15 17:49:24 BST 2010

NOTE THIS MEETING WILL BE ON THE THIRD SATURDAY, NOT THE FOURTH!!!

--- SVFIG Meeting, THIRD Saturday, June 19, 2010 ---
_______________________________________________

*** MEETING PLACE SAME AS APRIL,  DIFFERENT FROM FEBRUARY ***
The meeting will be held on the second floor of Building 550 (aka
Peterson Building)in room 200.   Directions and map links are below.

Enter the building from Panama Mall. The door is labeled "Building 550
- Mechanical Engineering Design Group". Walk up the stairs just inside
the doorway. Room 200 is on the left at the top of the stairs. (In the
event that the building door is locked, there will either be someone
on duty to let you in or a cellphone number to call.
*** DO NOT ASK STANFORD STUDENTS TO LET YOU IN
AND DO NOT ENTER THE BUILDING BEHIND STUDENTS ***

The Official SVFIG Announcement Editor's Parking Lot Recommendation is
the lot near the intersection of Teresa St and Morris Way.  There are
other, closer lots but this one is easiest to navigate to.

***WIFI AVAILABLE***
There is no public Wifi.  If you had a one-day password last month it 
will be
the same this month.  For a new one-day guest account (if you didn't get
one last month) email Dave Jaffe at: <dljaffe at stanford.edu>
_______________________________________________

AGENDA
For late-breaking updates, check the web site:
<<<http://www.forth.org/svfig/next.html>>>

09:50 --- Coffee and a Chat

10:00 --- OSCILLATOR IN FORTH  - Bob Nash
Bob will describe the direct digital synthesizer (DDS) signal generator 
(with display) he built using Charley Shattuck's MyForth. An interesting 
challenge was doing quad multiplication on an 8-bit machine using a 
modified Russian Peasant algorithm. This was needed to calculate the 
number for the frequency display (no hardware was needed to measure the 
frequency).

10:50  VARIATIONS IN THE KEY OF MYFORTH   --- Charley Shattuck
"I'll try to have something ready to add to Bob's presentation 
concerning difference between MyForth for 8051 and Forduino (MyForth for 
AVR).  I'm currently having trouble talking to my Arduino board so it 
may be mostly theoretical."

11:10  --- PRISMFORTH  --- Brad Nelson
Brad will present his progress toward yet another web-based Forth, 
drawing on lessons learned from RainbowForth (web/native) and IconForth 
(web). Both previous systems suffered from over-coupling of Forth and 
non-Forth code. This time, a minimum of non-Forth code will be used to 
bootstrap the system: python for a shared block store, javascript to 
implement a Forth friendly virtual machine and small boot loader. From 
the point of view of Forth code, web based execution will resemble 
running on a simple idealize Forth-y CPU. Just to mix things up, this 
time, conventional Forth syntax will be used.

11:45 --- LUNCH
      We will walk to The Treehouse by Tressider Union.
Here is a review:
      <<< http://collegerestaurant.net/default.aspx>>>
Here is the menu:
<<http://library.stanford.edu/depts/physics/related/treehousemenu.html>>

12:40 --- HP200A OSCILLATOR
After lunch, we'll walk over to the Packard Building to check out the
HP200A Oscillator on display, along with other artifacts as time
permits.  A similar oscillator was featured on "Antiques Roadshow" and
it can be seen starting near 30:00 into the program:
 > http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/video/1416.html

13:00 --- INTRODUCTIONS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, DISCUSSION --- All Assembled
      What did we see at the Embedded Systems Conference?
      Some FIG-UK material, available for download:
http://www.dougneale.co.uk/Forth.html

13:30 --- VIEW OF A FAIRE --- Dave Jaffe
Dave will share his photos from the Maker Faire.

14:00 ---  DIGITAL CHART OF THE WORLD --- CH Ting
"I got this Digital Chart of the World on the USGS website, code name 
GTOPO30. It is a huge data set (1.7 Gb) covering the entire earth with 
30 arc-second resolution. I am trying to plot maps from this data set. I 
like to display the globe, rotate the globe to any angle, and expand an 
area to the limit of the data set, similar to the way I played with the 
Mandelbrot set."

15:00 --- HOW THE WEB IS CHANGING PROGRAMMING --- John Slater
"The special demands and competitive landscape of web programming has 
created a shift in the way people program. I will cover these changes 
and invite audience input as to how Forth can respond to this."

16:00 --- ADJOURN
A motion to adjourn is always in order, it takes precedence and it is 
not debated.  (Robert's Rules)
_______________________________________________
Please note that the times listed above are precise but not
accurate.  We might go a little long or short on any agenda
item or shuffle things on the fly with abandon.  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.
_______________________________________________

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!
_______________________________________________

Public Wireless Internet access is NOT anticipated this month at
Stanford.  Email Dave Jaffe <dljaffe at stanford.edu> to request a one day
guest account if you don't have one from last month.
_______________________________________________

Coming to SVFIG:
* FORTH DAY in November 2010!

* Bring speaker suggestions TO EVERY MEETING!

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

* Blast from the past - a discussion of John James' CRC from his Xmodem
implementation as enunciated in "Forth Dimensions".

* 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/
Is it a hollow threat or emergency backup filler material?

_______________________________________________

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.
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_______________________________________________

NAVIGATIONAL ADVICE

Enter the building from Panama Mall. Walk up the stairs just inside the
doorway. Room 200 is on the left at the top of the stairs. (In the event
that the building door is locked, there will either be someone on duty
to let you in or a cellphone number to call.)***DO NOT UNDER ANY
CIRCUMSTANCES TRY TO PIGGYBACK IN THE DOOR BEHIND STUDENTS OR ASK
STUDENTS TO LET YOU IN***

Google Maps does NOT work very well on the Stanford campus, use this
map:  http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/map/

Or the 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.