Well, to get you started, http://www.ricks-graphics.co.uk/area99/emulate.htm , which gives details on an emulator, and http://www.ticomputer.net/tisi.html which seems to be an emulator itself (haven't tried yet, and the english is either somewhat broken (or at least really oddly phrased) or I'm _way_ the heck too tired)
I can't find anyplace to download the ROM, and even if I grab my old TI, I'm not sure how to grab the ROM image, anyway.
FOr the curious:
PARSEC: PHM 3112 - Released 3Q/1982 - MSRP $39.95 -- A game cartridge programmed by James E. Dramis with help from TI Summer employee Paul Urbanus (Urbanus also authored or co-authored Jumpy, Jungle Hunt, Pole Position, Disko, PLATO Interpreter, Grand RAM and Line-by-Line Assembler for Mini Memory). Released in August 1982 at a retail price of $39.95. Featured a synthesized voice patterned after that of college student Aubree Anderson. Game consisted of a Space ship traveling through asteroid belts, attacks by Alien ships and other hazards. Perhaps the most popular game ever to come out of the Texas Instruments Consumer Products Division for the 99/4A. Fully bit mapped graphics, excellent joystick control, clear speech synthesis and very challenging.
User Comments: Fly into combat with the starship Parsec. Destroy rebel alien fighters and cruisers by out maneuvering them and laying down withering fire from you laser. Then try to survive the deadly asteroid belt. Parsec is made to work with or without the speech synthesizer. With it, it enhances the game by simulating an onboard computer in your starship. It warns you of oncoming alien craft and refueling tunnels, and it congratulates you for good performance. There are increasing levels of difficulty to challenge your strategy and skills as a starfighter. With great graphics, color, and action this is one of the best modules for the TI. Try it and you're hooked.
I believe you are misinterpreting that line. If I remember correctly, it means that it is the only form of currancy that people are legally required to take to pay off 'all debts public and private'. In other words, it might be legal to take those 'Ithaca Hours', but if someone wants to pay you in cash, you have to take it.
I can't find a referance, though, and I'm off to a meeting, so take with a grain of salt.
"How much harder would RANDOM passwords have been?"
Probably, a great deal. Those passwords have to be stored somewhere... Flash ROM is most likely. All those ROMs get burnt at the same time, and come in from the board vendor in lots. Now, each time you build one, you need to go in and adjust it for a new password. Most of the test stations won't be able to handle this, they're all single use (our test stations don't manage to do more than exactly what they're supposed to do... pressure test, for example). And then you need to print it out on a label and stick it into a manual. Which probably comes pre-heat-shrink-wrapped from the printer. Plus you need to keep a log of all of them incase someone calls and wonders what the password is, as they haven't seen the manual in years.
Never mind that most manufacturers would (quite rightly, in my opinion) assume that the individual security of each is the domain of the people who buy the thing. What if some company wants to set up every modem with the same password (Sprint uses the password 'Verizon', or something)? For 'ease of customer support'? Easier to make a batch file for '1234' than for a list of random characters.
It's probably a good idea, but the manufacturer isn't all that concerned. Setup isn't something they're liable to do.
Yeah, lead isn't ferrous... But I'd love to see a (say) destroyer generating some massive magnetic field to totally screw up enemy ships. Actually, this would work for radar, wouldn't it? Makes hitting the thing easier.
"How are we going to kill the shield frigate?"
"Just drop a few steel ball bearings out of the plane, that'll do it."
You know how current artillery shells are designed? There's actually a cavity in the back for pressurized gas. This gas is 'leaked' out of the shell to smooth out the turbulance of the shell's passing. This is what they mean when they say a shell has a 'base-bleed' unit. It drastically extends the range of the gun.
It was developed by the Canadian dude who ended up trying to help Saddam build a giant gun that Saddam _said_ was only going to be used to launch things into orbit. Believed killed by the Mossod, as I recall, but I can't vouch for the accuracy of that part.
Actually, the launch to sub-orbit is not ballistic. Until the guidance system kicks in, only the freefall from end of the boost phase is ballistic. Once guidance kicks in, you're non-ballistic again.
Ballistic means only affected by gravity (even air resistance technically makes a 'particle' non-ballistic). The rocket firing makes the ICBM non-ballistic.
I love this definition: relating to or characteristic of the motion of objects moving under their own momentum and the force of gravity; "ballistic missile"
Just because you can use it in a sentance doesn't mean it's correct... Even the dictionary has it wrong, with the definition sitting right in front of them...
Admittedly, I am a mechanical engineer, so I tend to take this kind of thing a little more personally than most.
Of course you didn't. However, you are not the consumer. After all, in the course of a lifetime, how many Michelin tires would you buy? Tops, a couple hundred? (2 cars*4 tires*25 years of various cars). How many does Ford buy (here 'Ford' is used because it's the shortest car manufacturer's name) (typing that negated any benefit, didn't it?)? Couple million a month?
You're not the real target market, Ford is.
That being said, I'm not positive what Ford is getting out of it...
Neither do most Americans. The US government, however, especially in this holier-than-thou incarnation, is perfectly happy to inform the world that they should really remember our halos before they criticize us.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't find anyplace to download the ROM, and even if I grab my old TI, I'm not sure how to grab the ROM image, anyway.
FOr the curious:
PARSEC: PHM 3112 - Released 3Q/1982 - MSRP $39.95 -- A game cartridge programmed by James E. Dramis with help from TI Summer employee Paul Urbanus (Urbanus also authored or co-authored Jumpy, Jungle Hunt, Pole Position, Disko, PLATO Interpreter, Grand RAM and Line-by-Line Assembler for Mini Memory). Released in August 1982 at a retail price of $39.95. Featured a synthesized voice patterned after that of college student Aubree Anderson. Game consisted of a Space ship traveling through asteroid belts, attacks by Alien ships and other hazards. Perhaps the most popular game ever to come out of the Texas Instruments Consumer Products Division for the 99/4A. Fully bit mapped graphics, excellent joystick control, clear speech synthesis and very challenging.
User Comments: Fly into combat with the starship Parsec. Destroy rebel alien fighters and cruisers by out maneuvering them and laying down withering fire from you laser. Then try to survive the deadly asteroid belt. Parsec is made to work with or without the speech synthesizer. With it, it enhances the game by simulating an onboard computer in your starship. It warns you of oncoming alien craft and refueling tunnels, and it congratulates you for good performance. There are increasing levels of difficulty to challenge your strategy and skills as a starfighter. With great graphics, color, and action this is one of the best modules for the TI. Try it and you're hooked.
(ref: http://timeline.99er.net/id22.htm)
I believe you are misinterpreting that line. If I remember correctly, it means that it is the only form of currancy that people are legally required to take to pay off 'all debts public and private'. In other words, it might be legal to take those 'Ithaca Hours', but if someone wants to pay you in cash, you have to take it.
I can't find a referance, though, and I'm off to a meeting, so take with a grain of salt.
Probably, a great deal. Those passwords have to be stored somewhere... Flash ROM is most likely. All those ROMs get burnt at the same time, and come in from the board vendor in lots. Now, each time you build one, you need to go in and adjust it for a new password. Most of the test stations won't be able to handle this, they're all single use (our test stations don't manage to do more than exactly what they're supposed to do... pressure test, for example). And then you need to print it out on a label and stick it into a manual. Which probably comes pre-heat-shrink-wrapped from the printer. Plus you need to keep a log of all of them incase someone calls and wonders what the password is, as they haven't seen the manual in years.
Never mind that most manufacturers would (quite rightly, in my opinion) assume that the individual security of each is the domain of the people who buy the thing. What if some company wants to set up every modem with the same password (Sprint uses the password 'Verizon', or something)? For 'ease of customer support'? Easier to make a batch file for '1234' than for a list of random characters.
It's probably a good idea, but the manufacturer isn't all that concerned. Setup isn't something they're liable to do.
Giant electromagnets!
Yeah, lead isn't ferrous... But I'd love to see a (say) destroyer generating some massive magnetic field to totally screw up enemy ships. Actually, this would work for radar, wouldn't it? Makes hitting the thing easier.
"How are we going to kill the shield frigate?"
"Just drop a few steel ball bearings out of the plane, that'll do it."
It was developed by the Canadian dude who ended up trying to help Saddam build a giant gun that Saddam _said_ was only going to be used to launch things into orbit. Believed killed by the Mossod, as I recall, but I can't vouch for the accuracy of that part.
Actually, the launch to sub-orbit is not ballistic. Until the guidance system kicks in, only the freefall from end of the boost phase is ballistic. Once guidance kicks in, you're non-ballistic again.
Ballistic means only affected by gravity (even air resistance technically makes a 'particle' non-ballistic). The rocket firing makes the ICBM non-ballistic.
I love this definition: relating to or characteristic of the motion of objects moving under their own momentum and the force of gravity; "ballistic missile"
Just because you can use it in a sentance doesn't mean it's correct... Even the dictionary has it wrong, with the definition sitting right in front of them...
Admittedly, I am a mechanical engineer, so I tend to take this kind of thing a little more personally than most.
You're not the real target market, Ford is.
That being said, I'm not positive what Ford is getting out of it...
Neither do most Americans. The US government, however, especially in this holier-than-thou incarnation, is perfectly happy to inform the world that they should really remember our halos before they criticize us.
For those interested, a more complete description can be found here: http://www.howstuffworks.com/anti-shoplifting-devi ce.htm