Alexander G.M. Smith

@lovvrEth My pet peeve is that HTTPS has planned obsolescence as a side effect. The security standards keep on changing so an old unsupported computer can’t access new sites. Would be nice if web sites also supported good old HTTP as a fallback.

Cryptography will eventually fade into the background as "just how the secure internet works," the same way the "s" in HTTPS is now taken for granted rather than celebrated.

@lovvrEth Or does it mean someone who lives in Hamburg, Germany?

Why are "ham"burgers made from beef?

I've added tutorial levels to #NthPongWars. Easy, except that I needed walls to separate the new players, and that meant perfecting the physics simulation so players couldn't get through the walls. Longer story with video tours of the new levels at #2026.01.16" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">web.ncf.ca/au829/WeekendR…

@lovvrEth Not quite Blade Runner hologram advertising, but getting close!

I tried to introduce this led film here in my city. last spring. The shops just looked at me funny. I need to get a working demo. seeing is believing.

Building on the idea of Space based data centers (desirable for cheap solar power and real estate), you could also use them to reduce the global warming of planet Earth. Surprisingly nobody has noticed this point; just put them near the L1 Lagrange Point between Earth and Sun to cast a shadow on Earth. With enough area, this can make a difference to Earth's temperature. So I can see a business case for building them there for both profit and environmental benefits. Maybe @DJSnM can figure out how much energy can be intercepted by area built, and how many watts that would reduce the heating of Earth. Feed that into a few climate models and we can get some temperature forecasts. Save the Earth while making money! Though I wonder if this would prematurely result in a dead solar system, where these data centers turn into a Matrioshka brain, which evolves until an economic collapse "leaving an anarchy ruled by sentient, viral corporations and scavengers". See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceleran… That would be stagnation, which doesn't make the story of the universe more interesting. Still, it could also work out better than that, encouraging space exploration and a bigger future with more stories, so I think it's worthwhile doing.

@Steff81 @SciGuySpace Nobody, just like they do in some data centres. Cheaper to just remotely turn it off. Stays there until the whole data center gets replaced at the next tech upgrade.

@SciGuySpace If a HDD fails or RAM who will go up and change it? 🤦🏻‍♂️

This seems like a pretty big deal. arstechnica.com/space/2025/10/…

@DJSnM A more prominent radiation symbol would let people know that these otherwise plain metal balls are dangerous.

Working on some video thumbnails - what one makes you interested in the video?

I finally got my #BeOS virtual machine working on my new AMD Zen 5 system. AMD is missing some Intel secret sauce, so using a hardware VM doesn't work (Guru Meditation errors in VirtualBox, abrupt reboots in KVM). But QEMU's software emulation does! After more fuss trying to make a network bridge in Fedora Linux, I got it all working, though reduced to classic computer speeds. Blog with pictures at: web.ncf.ca/au829/WeekendR…

@ErikHaliewicz Or like making a few changes to remove printf calls, and suddenly your Z80 game runs without an OS. 10K more free memory! Though I should relocate it since the ROM network loader put it at $140D, and we can bank switch out the ROM for more RAM.

There's nothing like banging out a fast prototype of something neat. Compared to programming at work, where you write thousands of lines of code and tests just to have a few buttons send events between servers minecraft style voxel prototype on 3ds (brown bricks only)

Had fun adding the first power-ups to #NthPongWars, a game for the Z80 #NabuPC. Of course, got many more ideas. The challenge is fitting them in 64K of memory, and making overall game-play coherent. Details, discussion and video script in the longer blog post at #2025.09.03" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">web.ncf.ca/au829/WeekendR…

@timdemeijer Heh, nice double meaning there! (Fluid holding tank, and tough sided military vehicle)

Well, even though we did not get a technical, I did learn one thing. Starship is, like booster, built like a freaking TANK!

More #NthPongWars progress - now with AI players. One is trying to draw "N" while the others bounce around the sides, until they spot a Human player. Blog post about it at #2025.08.19" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">web.ncf.ca/au829/WeekendR…

Finally we got some rain and it’s cool enough to go out for a morning walk. Here’s Westboro beach’s new look - place was being renovated for the last few years by the @NCC_CCN

It's back to game basics - collisions for #NthPongWars! This is the good version, after problems with players getting stuck together, that seem obvious in retrospect, were solved. More at the blog, #2025.07.24" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">agmsmith.ca/WeekendReports… including discovering the Z80 "ldir" multi-byte data copying opcode is actually slower than doing "ldi" single byte copying multiple times! The collision bug secret is the other player bouncing off the tiles you just laid down makes them bounce back into you.

@ErikHaliewicz My C64 favourite was PROMAL. Though a bit slow since it compiled for a virtual machine.

@AGMS00 Not quite from scratch from a monitor. I'm leaning towards forth-like but not sure yet.

Tempted to start a video series bootstrapping a programming language from a c64 hex monitor

@mchkzn French pavillon, 58 years ago. Still looks like a modern building!

But the good news is, I’m here.

@mchkzn That exit from LabO was a factor in getting out fast. Studio 1201 also has a nearby door, great for getting to Cafe Alternatif. Did I schedule shows for a quick exit? Just the LabO one. The run to Sexy Pigeon just fell into place by luck.

@AGMS00 I would’ve thought LabO would be easy to get to. No stairs or elevators and just off a main entrance

I've updated the #FFVSO database with the final show run times for #OttFringe and my total time has shrunk down to 47:00! Still saw 54 shows. Thanks to @mchkzn for a few extra times.

Yes, I really crammed it in. The problems were only with shows that ran over their advertised time. But I managed to survive (lost a little bit of weight due to lack of dinner times), and there weren’t any cancellations (unlike during the pandemic) or sell-outs before I could get a ticket. So I was able to see the planned 54 shows, yay!

@AGMS00 @mchkzn That’s some impressive time management!