Washing-machine controller..

From Delphi on Intel, I was reduced to C++ on an ARM, and now the boss is
muttering on about a project using an 'MSP430' which, I gather, is one step
up from an abacus, but with less memory.

Next year, I'll be executing instructions by pen & paper...

Rgds,
Martin :((((

--
borland.public.off-topic exists as a runoff for unwanted posts in the
technical groups. Enforcement of rules is deliberately minimal but
Borland reserves the right to cancel posts at any time, for any
reason, without notice.

Poor you....

.. at least you are not doing VB-Script to generate some HTML...

.. yet...

> Rgds,
> Martin :((((
>

I Cry With You
- Michael S

pen & paper is so archaic. Do it in Notepad, preferably on quad-core PC.

--
Igor

<tease>
with less hardware, guess you'll have to start paying attention
to what you are doing in code.
</tease>

The MSP430 is a neat machine and you can
have lots of fun programming it in assembler! <eg>

Otto

Don't you already get written instructions from your boss?

Perhaps your boss is a closet cyclist :)

--
Deborah Pate (TeamB)

TeamB don't see posts sent via Google or ISPs
Use the real Borland server: newsgroups.borland.com
http://www.borland.com/newsgroups/genl_faqs.html

Hey don't knock Notepad. When I click the Start button it's top of the pile
:-)

Followed by Paint. <g>

Simon.

Maybe it's time to take an occasional glance
through the want ads.

Craig.

Unlikely. Martin still works there :-)

You mean like openly as a hint to the boss. You're devious!
--
Jeff

"Remember, Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and
murders itself! There was never a Democracy that did not commit
suicide." Samuel Adams

Wouldn't 'edlin' be more to the point?
--
Jeff

Dissappear for long periods of time.

Have a friend call in for a reference.

etc.

:-)

Perhaps you can interest your boss in the
Parallax Propeller:
http://www.parallax.com/propeller/index.asp

8 32 bit CPUs on one chip, now that is fun!
And you program it using 'Spin' <g>

Otto

Look on the bright side. At least he hasn't mentioned a PIC yet. ;-)

--
Strong Bo

> Hey, PICs are fun!

Only if (a) you're a masochist or (b) you have a simple application.

Hey, PICs are fun!

Otto

After three decades of having made myself almost entirely dependent on
keyboards for my written communications & correspondence, my hand
writing has deteriorated to a point where even I can't read it (most of
the time).

How's yours? (Handwriting, that is ;-) )

--

Pierre
Worrigee, NSW,
,-._|\
/ Oz \
\_,--._/
v

Not unreadable yet but slow.
--

Francis
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

march verse zen mi tipin, thnaks.

--
Igor

It started off barely legible. In my final year of high school
(a long time ago) a teacher actually bought and gave me a
pad of those writing guides they use to teach 1st-graders
how to write clearly.

Didn't work.

Now that I've spent years writing with a PDA using the
script recognition shorthand, my writing is completely
illegible.

EdB

My handwriting was always my bane.
My father tried to beat a neat hand into me
(and that is not a metaphor), to no avail.
Keyboards and computers were a liberation.

Otto

I have inbuilt crypto in my handwriting.
Nobody can read my notes, the sad part is; niether can I....

- Michael S

Readable :)

--
liz

I'm old enough that I was given a fountain pen in Grade 4 and taught to
write a beautiful italic script with it. But it's all been downhill since
then - my writing is almost illegible these days, and my hand cramps up
after a couple of lines. If I think anyone else will need to read it, I
print block capitals instead.

I blame Clinton. He invented the biro!

You make it sound as if it was a kind of prize. ???
We *had* to use them from week 2 in school. Everyone had 2 at least.
--

--

</AOL>

--
Strong Bo

Oh, we have PICs, PEELs, PALs and GALs as well. If I have to do the glue
chips as well, I'm packing it all in :((

Rgds,
Martin

I don't think your handwriting is that illegible. But using
rollerballs rather than biros helps with the cramp, IME. :)

--
Deborah Pate (TeamB)

--

aside from signing things, i haven't bothered much with cursive since
8th grade. my non-cursive is mainly readable i think.

cursive was always overrated, imho. i've tried reading a lot of 19th
century examples lately, and would really like to have a *chat* with
many of the folks who produced them. it's not the shakey hands that i
have trouble with. it's the florid ones.

The same as yours. I had really neat, quick and legible handwriting until
WordStar, now I have trouble with a 'Phone Fred on 0xxxxxxxxx' PostIt note.

Unkind people have asked me what sort of encryption I use in my lab book <g>

Rgds,
Martin

You mean that I cannot routinely create 200 * 1600-byte buffer objects in
the initialization section?

Rgds,
Martin <g>

I get that too...

At a job interview last year, (failed), when asked to solve an example
problem:

"Err.. what do you mean, exactly, by 'write your answer in pencil on the
back of the question sheet?"

Rgds,
Martin

You're just following Leonardo's example.

For being old? I wasn't at the time AFAICR :-)

You are (a) too kind (b) experienced in decoding it, knowing
that words like 'Deborah' and 'birthday' are likely to appear
in the plaintext. Any cryptographer will tell you how helpful
that is :-)

<g>
No, "given a fountain pen in 4th grade" just sounds as if it
wasn't very common to have encountered and used such a thing by
that time.
--

--

I don't think it was, by 1974. Spooner schools were the last bastion of
that sort of thing.

We didn't use pens until the last year at primary school (age 10/11)
and then they were ballpoints. I didn't start using a fountain pen
until secondary school; hated them then, hate them now.

Nowadays I prefer a rollerball.

--
Strong Bo

I prefer anything which works - laying hands on something which
does when I need to jot something down is usually the problem :-)

My son had to write with one in grades 1-4. And he is only 14, now. <g>
--
Rudy Velthuis http://rvelthuis.de

"I was raised in the West. The west of Texas. It's pretty close
to California. In more ways than Washington, D.C., is close to
California." -- George W. Bush

I love them. Oh, there are a lot of crappy ones around, but a good
fountain pen has something very nice to it. Just like a good wristwatch.

"Pascal /n./ A programming language named after a man who would
turn over in his grave if he knew about it."
-- From the Jargon File

I'm baffled as to why anyone would want a watch in the age of mobile
phones.

They don't need charging, you don't have to keep them
switched on, they are smaller, you don't need a pocket, and
they don't make horrid noises and demand that you answer
them. :)

--
Deborah Pate (TeamB)

--

Don't you get regularly asked the time by people who can't be bothered to
get their mobiles out?

How am I supposed to know whether they have one? It's much more rare to
be asked than it used to be.

Also watches don't cause blood cancer if you wear them on your belt (if
about 90% of our blood is made in our hips bones.) Watches don't cause brain
cancer. (Most of our brains are next to our ears.) And, watches don't open
the blood-brain barrier to the entry of heavy metals and one stealth heavy
metal, aluminum.

Yea, yea. <yawn>
--
Jeff

"Remember, Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and
murders itself! There was never a Democracy that did not commit
suicide." Samuel Adams

> I'm baffled
>>

No, I didn't.

--
Deborah Pate (TeamB)

--

No, you caused it. There was no need for you to quote Michael
at all.

--
Deborah Pate (TeamB)

--

They're not waterproof, nor do they have timers and stop watches (at
least mine doesn't).

--
Strong Bo

Quite right, but I am loath to be a cause for Michael to feel redundant.
--
Jeff

>> I'm baffled

> No, I didn't.

No, you didn't baffle me? <g>
--
Jeff

No, it was your quoting pattern. It doesn't happen if I quote Deborah.

"They say such nice things about people at their funerals that it
makes me sad that I'm going to miss mine by just a few days."
-- Garrison Kielor.

Unless you snap your phone around your wrist, I think there is a big
difference. It is pretty tedious to take out, or even look for your
mobile phone if you just want to know what the time is (especialyl if
that phone has a screen saver, and you must first press some button to
see the time, etc.).

And the batteries of a wrist watch usually hold a lot longer. <g>

I am actually baffled that anyone thinks that a mobile phone can
replace a watch.

"The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding
bureaucracy." -- Unknown

She didn't write it, although your message said:

Deborah Pate wrote:

"A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree."
-- Spike Milligan.

Hehe.

I do a lot of presentations on whiteboards.

While some uses circles, boxes and arrows to visualise a system; I use eggs,
pylogons and strings. :)

- Michael S

I do, actually. I stopped wearing a watch the instant I got a cell
phone. I dislike wearing a watch, so it was perfect for me.

The "baffled" part is again exagerated; to each his own.

--
Mart

El Marto Photography @ www.elmarto.com
I'm soundtracking my life
To email me, remove clothes

You could have used a pocket watch before you got a cell phone,
couldn't you?

"We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor like
you like to be liked yourself." -- George W. Bush

They are the only writing utensile that gives you a chance to even get
a nice handwriting once in your life. And a good one is a pleasure to
write with.
--

--

> What did you use before? Pencils? Chalk?

Hammer and chisel?

--
Mart

--

What did you use before? Pencils? Chalk?
--

--

Yes, but now I have a cell phone :^)

--
Mart

--

IMO fine rollerballs do too. But I suppose this is really a
statement that I like my own handwriting (when I take care
over it), which may not be persuasive. :)

--
Deborah Pate (TeamB)

--

Fully agreed. A bad one is much worse than anything else, though. <g>

"Women should be obscene and not heard."
-- Groucho Marx

:)
I think rollerballs are OK when the handwiting is already stable.

--

--

FWIW I had a fountain pen at school, and tried many
different styles for years, and they were all hideous.
Around 17 everything fell into place, with a biro. But
maybe years of fountain pen practice had helped. :)

--
Deborah Pate (TeamB)

--

See :)
I think I had quite good ones. And all in all probably not more
than 7 or 8 during my whole time in school.
--

--

Yeah, but he'd look like an idiot talking into the pocket watch...

EdB

It did? Now I'm really, really baffled.
--
Jeff

> I don't know; I think Rudy is the easily-baffled type.

Not really. I am a dentist, after all.

"When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm
destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the
heavens, 'Why god? Why me?' and the thundering voice of God
answered, 'There's just something about you that pisses me
off.'" -- Stephen King.

And it was Michael who was actually baffled to start with. I merely
borrowed his formulation. <g>

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized." -- Sun Tzu

But...but...what if someone sent you a text message, and you
missed it?

Your handwriting is marvellous, like my mother's, so I
suppose it's a generational talent :-)

Mine has a digital clock as its screen saver. And having to take it out is
a good cure for neurotically checking the time every few minutes.

I bet you're one of those unfortunates who wears a huge, heavy, ugly watch
with essential nautical functions because the brochure said "A masterpiece
of Swiss engineering, for the discerning yachtsman" :-)

No one sends a text message to my watch.

"Be tolerant of the human race. Your whole family belongs to it
-- and some of your spouse's family too." -- Anonymous.

No, I usually wear a simple Esprit watch with only a few functions
(time and date, and simple timer).

I do have an Omega (a masterpiece of Swiss engineering), but that also
only displays the time and date. I hardly ever wear it though. In my
clinic, I often need the timer. I also own a few Swatches, which I
bought just for fun.

"If it weren't for electricity we'd all be watching television by
candlelight." -- George Gobel.

> Well, there you go.

Can't I just stay a little longer?

"Misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this
world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are
certainly much less frequent." -- Goethe, "Werther"

>On Thu, 9 Aug 2007 14:10:52 +0200, Rudy Velthuis wrote:
>
>> I love them. Oh, there are a lot of crappy ones around, but a good
>> fountain pen has something very nice to it. Just like a good wristwatch.
>
>I'm baffled as to why anyone would want a watch in the age of mobile
>phones.

My watch is on my wrist and can be looked at by merely having my hand
in the right position. I have to reach into my pocket to get my phone
out, though.

I must be fractionally older than you, because we had to use fountain
pens from the age of 7. My hand writing was so good, I got hauled
before the 11 year olds to show them how to right, proper like <g>

--
Carl

My last watch died in 1987 (or thereabouts). Trampled underfoot, dazed
and confused, during a gig by Sonic Youth at the Mean Fiddler, London
NW. I blame Tom.

--
Carl

rob :)

Goodness. I hesitate to ask about your cufflink collection.

Pity. That sort of event is one of the few places where a heavy lump of
metal on the end of your arm might be useful.

You can ask. I don't have any.

"The Bible was a consolation to a fellow alone in the old cell.
The lovely thin paper with a bit of matress stuffing in it, if
you could get a match, was as good a smoke as I ever tasted."
-- Brendan Behan.

We actually had to use dip pens, until the age of 10, 11. Only later, I
got a fountain pen.

"Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease.
It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge
to pass it on." -- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

Do you have any other collection fetishes?

I think you're younger, but must have been to less
progressive schools. :) AFAICR I never had to have a fountain
pen.

I do remember writing about Barkiss and Peggoty in
calligraphy lessons (Marion Richardson) in my last year at my
infant school, which put me off Dickens for life. :(

--
Deborah Pate (TeamB)

--

Oy. :)

My writing is like a cross between my parents' styles.
Doesn't yours show a family resemblance, at least?

--
Deborah Pate (TeamB)

--

> Oy. :)

:-)

No. I learned italic, which they never did AFAIK, and
nothing else.

The only style I remember being taught was Marion Richardson,
which I don't write. I think you must just have been less
pretentious than I was. :)

--
Deborah Pate (TeamB)

--

> > What did you use before? Pencils? Chalk?
>
> Hammer and chisel?

I'm not *that* old ! :-(

--
Strong Bo

> > We didn't use pens until the last year at primary school (age 10/11)

Pencils.

I don't have any collection fetishes at all. The last time I collected
something was when I was 12, or so (key chains).

Oh wait, I have a small model car collection (12 cars) on display in my
clinic. But I did not actively collect them. They were all presents,
from patients or my assistants, and my assistants made the display.

"Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them
the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers,
and nobody thinks of complaining." -- Jeff Raskin.

> You own multiple watches, most of which you bought for fun.

The one I usually wear, and the Omega were presents. The Swatches (2 of
them) I bought for fun.

> That's a collection fetish,

That's well over the top, IMO. I have several pairs of shoes and
several paris or socks, etc., too, but no one would accuse me of a shoe
or sock fetish. I wouldn't call 2 Swatches a collection, nor a fetish.

How many bikes do you have? <eg>

"The purpose of computing is not numbers but insight."
-- Richard Hamming