Domain: dribin.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to dribin.org.
Comments · 13
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Re:Some OS X projects that deserve more attention
The reason may be as simple as, he's too busy now. You could always go to http://www.dribin.org/dave/contact/ and ask him.
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The limitations of USB keyboards for chording
This has nothing to do with USB vs PS/2.
This has to do with masking.http://www.dribin.org/dave/keyboard/one_html/
The bottom line is that keyboards don't have a dedicated circuit for each key - they use a bunch of small grids and detect key presses at the ends of rows/columns in the grid.
Actually, USB is a part of this, too.
Most USB keyboards and other HID devices are low-speed devices, in part because this makes for thinner (and cheaper!) cabling.
Each packet at low speed may contain no more than 8 bytes of payload.
There are different ways you can implement a USB keyboard within the HID protocol, the most common is for each packet to send the scancodes of all keys that are pressed down at any one time.
HID supports some nice bit-packing options in the report formats, but since keyboards commonly have over 100 keys, that means at best you could use no less than 7 bits per scancode.In other words, low-speed USB keyboards are limited by the protocol to sending no more than 8-9 scancodes to the host at any one time. "Full-speed" (i.e. top speed of USB 1.1) keyboards would be able to get around this limitation.
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Re:That's one heck of a "long goodbye"
This has nothing to do with USB vs PS/2.
This has to do with masking.http://www.dribin.org/dave/keyboard/one_html/
The bottom line is that keyboards don't have a dedicated circuit for each key - they use a bunch of small grids and detect key presses at the ends of rows/columns in the grid.
Multiple key presses within a grid can cause masking - where a keypress simply isn't recognized at a physical level. Ghosting can also happen, where a keypress is recognized when there isn't one.
How the grids are laid out plays a big role in whether or not a user will experience the problems.
If you have masking in a game, you can try rebinding your controls. A typical masking scenario involves trying to press something like:
W for forward
A for strafe left
CTRL for crouch
Shift for run/walkIf you remap one of the controls to another key you can often get around the masking. I would recommend moving control over to C or Alt if either are unused. Your options will depend on the game and the amount of claw hand you are willing to suffer. You could also always map a control to the mouse. Side buttons are great for shit like a crouch toggle, a grenade toss, etc. Middle click is the bees knees for scope zoom.
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Re:Why wasn't this tagged 'edison v. tesla'?
It's not voltage that kills you, it is amperage. That was like the first thing we were taught in Electronics 101.
http://www.rmcybernetics.com/science/cybernetics/electronics_volts_amps_watts.htm#ohmslaw
http://www.dribin.org/dave/blog/archives/2003/12/29/amps_vs_volts/So here's the deal. If my server uses 12v, 5v, and -5v and has a 500Watts PSU, but the AC line coming in is 220V from an 80KVA UPS, then while both can kill me, the 220V is more deadly because it has more potential amperage.
It's a mute point. A 9V battery can kill.
So why do I have over 100 PSU's in my computer room? Servers with 3 PSU's for redundancy?
Why can't I have a single server room PSU which provides the 12V, 5V, and -5V on some sort of standardized plug? Make each connection a separate fused bus. Provide two connections between the server and the computer room PSU?
That PSU could be situated ideally for cooling, leaving much of the heat out of my server.
I have a few PSU's doing the AC-DC conversion, not well over 100.
Phase two, my PSU is now my 80KVA APC UPS. It's already doing AC-DC then DC back to AC. Then my PSU's go AC back to DC again. Have my APC UPS go AC-DC and run it at 12V, not 48V. Of course you would also need the 5V and -5V step down's too.
Some of our Cisco and 3com networking equipment can run DC. Just not the servers.
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Version Control Blog: Choosing a DVCS
The Version Control Blog references an article, Choosing a Distributed Version Control System that is almost a year old, but has interesting comparisons. That article says the documentation of Bazaar is good. Is that because the others are even worse?
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This pretty much fixes Spaces
Leopard's Spaces had been criticized for making it hard to organize virtual desktops by task rather than by application (for example at http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/why_apple_spaces_is_broken and http://www.dribin.org/dave/blog/archives/2007/11/13/spaces/).
10.5.3 seems to address most of these criticisms with two small changes: Command-Tab now tries to find application windows in the current space before switching spaces, and there's a new preference to not switch spaces at all when switching applications.
This makes a big different in the usability of Spaces! -
Re:Ambience
I have Game Launcher play these mp3s as an attract, but it does stop when the emulator fires up: Arcade Ambience Project
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Hopefully it covers front-ends
Disclaimer: Haven't read the book, but I did put together a MAME cabinet now living in someone else's basement bar
... *cough*I do hope there are useful pointers to graphical front-ends. No offense to the creators of various emulators out there, but the usability mileage of my MAME cab suffered greatly until I found a sexy, useful and simple front-end Game Launcher. You could also try Lemon Launcher, although I had only partial success.
While a little time consuming to setup all the ROMs, the PC now auto-runs Game Launcher, plays various "attract" mp3s and successfully launches MAME32 upon a button press. Now friends, family and even the smallset can easily choose and play games just by walking through the menu using those fun arcade sticks.
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Re:Netinfo?
Here's a good description of how and where passwords are stored in OS X using netinfo
http://www.dribin.org/dave/blog/archives/2006/04/2 8/os_x_passwords_2/ ....seriously - this is an issue - but even if there was a terminal app right on the main screen of the darn phone - they still couldn't log in with it. ....THEY NEED TO GET INTO NETINFO! -
Re:Strip
Me too. Strip is great. I also use the strip-dump perl script on my desktop to access my passwords when I'm at my PC.
http://www.dribin.org/dave/software/perl-strip/ -
Or do it yourself
It is easy to create your own "game console" with the pc you already own. Just get a video card with tv-out and a "gui" suitable to the low resoloution of your tv such as game launcher instead of a window manager. You don't need the keyboard, you can control it with the joystick. Then you just install xmame and you have a mame console.
But why limit yourself to mame. It is easy to add snes suport with zsnes, divx movies using mplayer, dvd using ogle and you could add pretty much anything else as long as there is software to do it. -
Go with the Wells-Gardner U3100
The Wells-Gardner U3100 is the best of both worlds. It looks like an arcade monitor, but it takes an SVGA input. It can supposedly do up to 1024x768 (interlace), but I've only got 800x600 working. Note that the dot pitch is huge, so using a high resolution on this thing is like using a high resolution on a TV. But MAME looks awesome! I've never tried it under XFree, but I've got it working under DOS with my own Game Launcher menu using both Voodoo 3 and ATI-XPert@Play cards. Given this, you should have little trouble with X. I bought mine from Happ Controls.
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A story and some linksGather around, boys and girls, for a story how Dasunt was really dumb. This is a great story, btw, I want to kick myself in the arse every time I recall it.
About 5 years ago, one of my friends was at a police auction, and there were 10 upright arcade machines there, all in working order. They had been siezed, since they were modified to run illegal gambling. Since my friend has $10 on him at the time, he made the only bid, and got all the machines for the lowly price of $1/machine.
A year later he was moving out, and he offered to sell me the machines at $10/machine. I said no, since I didn't want to have a big hulking machine that only could play one game (I believe it was poker, blackjack, etc on the machines). The machines had great monitors and all the controls worked.
Then, about 2 years ago I got into console and arcade emulation heavily. I found out that a lowly K6-2 stuck in a machine with a special adapter/driver could run plenty of games and use the original monitor. *Sigh* I looked up prices on Ebay. Conservatively, since the machines did have a slot in the front to dispense money and thus weren't exactly mint, each machine could have been sold for $250.
D'oh, I am dumb.
My friend was happy, he bought them for the remote controlled relays in the machines that were used to "flip" the machine over to a non-gambling game whenever the cops came around. So, he got a ton of relays. I, in my naive state, got shafted. I believe he sold all his remaining machines (5) for $50.
Since I researched a bit on emulation and arcade cabinents in hopes of building a cocktail style machine, here's some useful links I found.- A list of links for arcade cabinents, especially about building your own.
- A M.A.M.E cocktale project, looks closely like the machine I want.
- Another build-your-own cabinet page (using consoles, not M.A.M.E)
- A great faq on how to build an arcade console, a must read for anyone thinking about it. Includes stuff like the problem of keyboard ghosting and encoders.
- Another build-a-cabinet page, with pics and diagrams
- Diagrams for a dual keyboard circuit and automatic joystick switch + other fun stuff. Another must read.
- Keyboard Matrix Help
- Happ Controls, the source of arcade quality joysticks, buttons, and other controls. They also sell keyboard encoders and other neat stuff. If you look around on the web page, you can find a place to order a free catalog, which can give you an idea of prices. (Please though, only ask for a catalog if you're interested, I hate to see the
/. effect decend on this nice company) - A source for emulators, and emulator news.
- An emulator front-end.
- English translations for NES & SNES. The reason why I became interested in emulation in the first place.