@mhoye Not to take away from the amusement but LINQ wasn't "sold" nor was it a product, it was a technology included in .NET.
Microsoft really do have a naming problem though. I used to work at Xbox and I couldn't tell you how all the Xbox console names relate to each other. Unlike PlayStation where any Joe can understand that.
@juanfr Translation coding from C64? So presumably also need to be a 6502 assembly programmer.
Sounds harder than writing the game from scratch.
@patrick_h_lauke Spoiler alert.
Watching Star Trek: The Next Generation again.
It's an ideal world where dreams can be realised and hunger and suffering have been abolished.
Along with blue LEDs.
We can dream.
@vga256 I'm all for playing in the right aspect ratio but I think screenshots need to be pixel-accurate renditions rather than somebody's idea of interpolation.
So many ruined upscaled/rescaled screenshots online.
@Screwtapello Once it's in a BDF I can feed it into my FontLab scripts to produce a crisp TTF.
@vga256 Perhaps @hisdeedsaredust has a graphical dump of the 132 column mode font?
Or even some information on the compression or source used to extract the 80 column we could repurpose?
@vga256 @Screwtapello The 80 column mode font I think is using the half-pixel trick which is why most of the "stems" are 3 bits wide in that dump.
That doesn't look to be the case in the 132 column font although given how the glyphs are packed in to the ROM it's pretty hard to see in binxelview.
@vga256 @Screwtapello While it does that on the Archimedes, BBC Micro, Amiga and Atari ST the VT320 does seem to contain a different ROM for 132 column mode.
It's actually quite close to the BBC Micro font (not the Mode 7 Teletext/Mullard SAA font).
Here's a starting point based on me squinting at the ROM image:
https://fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/2607771/bbc-micro-7-3
@vga256 Hmm, weird how that page skips over any mention of the 132-character font and how it's stored.
A quick peek into the VT320 ROM with binxelview got me this as a starting point:
@AYMusicBot Author: Chris Scudds
@augieray There seems to be at least two different types of companies using H1-B.
1. Companies looking to hire skilled, experienced individuals to work directly on specific products in their own business even though it costs more and takes longer.
2. Vendors looking to bring in as many tech people as possible with the sole goal of subcontracting them out to other companies.
@augieray In the entire time I've worked at these companies there's always been open headcount on our teams and divisions. It's always difficult to find people and most of the time we didn't consider non-US because of that lead time and additional cost.
@augieray That's definitely not been my experience at any of the tech companies I've worked at.
The position I took at Microsoft had been open for 9 months. I later found out my comp ratio was above my US-born peers.
My timing was great so it ONLY took 9 months to get there.
There may be some abuse of the system but it's definitely not universal.
@servelan That's one persons indirect experience.
Here's an alternative direct one.
I was offered a job at MSFT in Feb 2008. They had to pay to fly me out for interviews, then file a lot of paperwork for a H1-B visa in March. I found out in October I got the visa to start in Redmond in December.
10 months. They had to pay legal fees, filing fees and relocation costs.
I later found out my comp ratio was abnormally high for my level and that the position had been open for 9 months.
@augieray It really isn't cheaper.
You have to pay the same wages as US workers plus thousands of dollars in fees for the application, thousands in preparing the docs, relocation packages and up to a 12 month wait time that can end in not getting somebody.
There just aren't enough techs in the USA.
The Z88 was Clive Sinclair's first all-new computer since the Sinclair QL but having sold the Sinclair brand to Alan Sugar it was forced to used the Cambridge name.
The Sinclair brand would get two more non-Spectrum outings with the ill-fated Sinclair PC200 and the "PC500" (a sticker kit for the Amstrad PC1512).
Amstrad would later produce a Z88-like machine of their own called the Amstrad NC100 which would also feature office-like apps and BBC Basic but, as always, with a superior keyboard.
8x8 Font Advent Calendar 2024 Day 25
Z88
The Z80-powered Cambridge Z88 was an A4 lightweight portable that has built-in office-style apps and BBC Basic powered by 4xAA batteries for about 20 hours usage.
This pack includes the regular and bold versions of the Z88 font as well as the small font & lesser-used wide/bold font which I extended with lower-case.
8x8 Font Advent Calendar 2024 Day 24
Comical
Actual comic book typefaces are rather beautiful and Comic Sans - despite the name - doesn't really embrace the style instead opting for an unusual bendy lower case rather than the small caps angled lettering that accompanies gorgeous comic book art.
Here's an attempt of mine to embrace that real style keeping that small-caps tradition squeezed, as always, into an 8x8 pixel grid.
8x8 Font Advent Calendar 2024 Day 23
Revolution
Revolution Software published some of my favourite point'n click adventures - Beneath a Steel Sky, Lure of the Temptress and of course the excellent Broken Sword series (which we deserve a movie or animated show of).
Included here is the fonts to those but alas the Broken Sword font didn't fit so I took the GBA version which is just a render of OCR-B I think (so not pictured).
https://download.damieng.com/fonts/conversions/Revolution.zip
