Hydration Break

Missiles are now working in two-player #BBCMicro Elite. This clip shows player 1 firing a missile at player 2 (in the bottom view) and then player 2 retaliating (in both views). This was really difficult to build! But it's important; see the thread for details. #retrocomputing #retrogaming (1/3)

Asking MS Copilot for help with something, and it returns a bunch of Confluence pages that I wrote. Good job.

Just... don't buy them? I genuinely don't know who the target market is here beyond perverts and criminals.

I've been spending some time analysing the code and systems of the epic 1988 BBC game Exile resulting in a (I hope) bit perfect recreation in TypeScript and a set of @markmoxon.bsky.social inspired deep dives into its working. bbcexile.com #retrocomputing #bbcmicro #gamehistory

The Luddites loved technology. They owned looms at home and would ‘mod’ them to count threads. Their battle was against worker exploitation. The degradation of their rights, safety and wages. They were against a handful of rich businessmen owning the means of production. Sound familiar?

Cyril Meal Deal

I haven't posted any demos for a long while, so here's a version of 2D Pipes in Mode 2 which works as quite a good screensaver for the BBC Micro. No music on this one as I waste 20kb just on the screen mode. No random teapots at the moment either. It might look better in Mode 1 with square pixels.

Jafar. Obviously evil to his core, but also charming and with a bone dry sense of humour. I would ask him to leave Iago at home, though.

DEFCON wearing summer holiday beach clothes to the office

A building full of wax models has had to close during a heatwave. We've all just had the same thought... AND I WANT PHOTOS!

One reason people don't trust AI is that it's being pushed on us by obviously evil people doing obviously evil things at their obviously evil companies

When something is so obviously a terrible idea, it is ok to just...say no thanks and ban it. We don't have to wait 15 years and then slowly ban if after a whole bunch of irreperable damage has been done to individuals and society.

Just had one of those 6502 breakthroughs... the carry flag powers the two's complement of 6502 ALU subtraction (which is really addition) but at the same time, multi-byte operations can use the carry flag to offset the need for the +1 step of two's complement when there's been a preceding borrow!

Disappointed with the new Pink Floyd album.

My first visit to @retrocollective.co.uk today, and it was superb! Absolute privilege to meet, chat to and have my Beeb signed by the legendary Hermann Hauser

This is so unspeakably grim.

The BBC could steal a march on that pompous-looking Christopher Nolan film by putting this up on the IPlayer.

It's time. It's finally time. After years, decades of waiting, even, ASCII art is *back* _____ .-' '-. / \ |, .-. .-. , | | )(__/ \__)( | |/ /\ \ | (_ ^^ _) \_|IIIIII|__/ | \IIIIII/ | \ / `-----`

In the end I powered through it, but for the longest time I was put off Rick & Morty because of the burping. I really don't like the sound of burping and the first episode just felt like one giant burpfest. I'm glad I persevered, though, as the series was worth it.

‘Blink twice if you think Zuckerburg’s an arseh*le’ Here’s what happened when, thanks to Meta’s lawyers, Facebook whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams had to sit in silence at @hayfestival.bsky.social with @superwuster.bsky.social & @carolecadwalla.bsky.social (watch to the end for Tim’s verdict) 🧵⤵️

Network (1976). It perfectly captures the paradoxes at the heart of American society, its mass media, its politics and the capitalist mindset that infects everything.

Whatever your thoughts on AI safeguards, I think we can all agree that the last "human" on earth who should be defining them is Sam Altman.

One aspect of database management that will never not be strange to me is the ability to both grant and revoke privileges... from yourself. Can you drop this table? No. Can you give yourself the power to drop this table? Yes. And then take it away again? Also yes.

Very sorry to learn that the magnificent David Potter died on Sunday evening. A pioneering mathematical physicist, he founded Psion, created the first hand-held organizer and oversaw Symbian, the standard mobile operating system. He was a wonderful philanthropist and supporter of @opendemocracy.net

Somewhat unsurprisingly, I got The Skeptic (patron saint: @edzitron.com) in this... bambamramfan.github.io/ai-compass/

"You can either fry or not give me a lot of money" is one hell of a pitch

New 6502 video has just gone up! You can watch it here: youtu.be/_LK6oUQkKQ8

New 6502 video has just gone up! You can watch it here: youtu.be/_LK6oUQkKQ8

New highlights reel just dropped

This article is absolute bunkum, and a classic of the "what AI might bring about" genre. It is littered with "coulds" and "mights", not to mention conflating classic ML-style algorithmic advances ("good" AI) with the generative slop. And the prescriptions are utterly hollow, four "suggestions" that

Every hometown's got the ominous megastructure, what's yours?

It’s funny that all the focus is on what happens if/when the AI bubble bursts and most commentary is missing the fact that the bubble continuing to grow is strangling the life out of consumer electronics in a way that is already having real tangible effects for everyday people and businesses

You've rammed your last stein.

You've nine inched your last nail.

Tell me the @economist.com is sponsored by Anthropic without telling me.

I was raised on these streets

I thought the Starlight transparent C64U was a stupid idea but it turns out it's so you can see the capacitors bulge and blow in real time. Amazing.

Love these news headlines describing the UK as "bracing itself" for heatwave. Because tying yourself to the spot is of course the best way to survive high temperatures.

Only Star Wars spinoff I want is the backstory where Yoda learns English but due to teaching cutbacks his lessons are incomplete and he transfers over some of his first language's syntax. Meanwhile, everyone in the galaxy (except subtitlers) learns Wookiee but then they refuse to speak it themselves

Pretty sure it's only Big Tech that thinks Big Tech is paying enough tax

Loving my new @compiler-explorer.com desk topper! Really nice quality and a huge improvement on my old IKEA one that had seen better days 😅 Thanks, @matt.godbolt.org and team!

Two-player #BBCMicro Elite now has a two-player dashboard Each player has their own set of indicators: speed, attitude control, fore and aft shields, laser temperature, energy, missiles and compass They share the scanner, which works well It’s starting to feel like a proper game! #retrocomputing

I've just pushed a new article live to my site on a lovely game and technical feat called EXILE. Slip into your space-boots and strap on your jetpack as we explore the depths of an alien world modelled with realistic physics, mass, gravity, and momentum. All squeezed into just 32 KB.

If this time travel experiment works, I should be able to go from here and now and reappea—

Birds of prey are the best birds. They're beautiful, intelligent and always look so very angry!

Today I learn Virgin Atlantic has a cabin class called "Economy Delight", which I can't help feeling is a contradiction in terms...