I needed to make my music-making more challenging, more fun, less routine. It won't necessarily be weekly, I'll work to constraints generated randomly.
The first 'lucky dip' gave me : 3/4 time, tempo Larghissimo - Larghetto ( less than 66 bpm), 5 instruments; electric guitar, hammered dulcimer, shanai, synth strings, featuring tenor sas. electronic, spoken word.
I chose to speak quotes from a lady of science, Maria Mitchell.
https://youtu.be/qxqZnMzp9IA

@rc2014 @RobeeShepherd
It was amazing to meet & speak to him. What a hero.

The latest purchase for my #RC2014 system is a TMSEMU3 graphics card, which provides good 1980s level graphics - forget serial ports, this thing has SPRITES! Hoping to try some apps on it soon.

https://www.tindie.com/products/shieladixon/tmsemu3-graphics-card-designed-for-rc2014/

@electron_greg @thebritishibm beautifully made all round. I love the picture with the colours being projected 😍 I worked with glass for many years - lead and copper foil. This is one of the last pieces I made before I gave up. It's mounted a couple of inches away from the wall. An LED strip is stuck behind the lead, facing the wall. That arrangement works really well.

@electron_greg @thebritishibm beautiful! I'd love to see more pictures of the glass, the case and the leds

@Wintermute_BBS @robertprice @rc2014
Yes, absolutely, I use that all the time. I've been trying out a few others today and it's SyncTERM that doesn't seem to have a delay. Or I haven't found it.

@robertprice @rc2014 It might be a waste of time. i like the way it looks, but I haven't been able to successfully paste which is important with the 32k machines. There is a way to paste but it's failing. I think it's going too fast and I can't find a way to introduce a character delay. That's a bit of a showstopper for me.

@robertprice @rc2014 I just discovered SyncTerm, took a while for me to learn how to set up the connection and screen resolution but having gone through that pain it displays the easter egg nicely. Another tool for the toolbox.

@robertprice @rc2014 eggsellent!! top marks for finding it.

@robertprice yeah. Minicom is my go-to terminal too but unfortunately I've never been able to persuade it to display more than the basic 7 colours. Those aren't enough really to represent all the colour options for the picasso We made the call to use the extended colours and it's unfortunate that minicom doesn't handle those codes gracefully.
I had better luck with 'screens' which I think is on the mac by default. I like the better colour support but it doesn't have the features of minicom.

I'm currently running Nemo on my slow movie player. It has never occurred to me before that there would have been some kind of investigation / enquiry over Mister Ray losing a student on a field trip. I guess they chose not to show that part or maybe saved it for a straight-to-dvd sequel.

I love this message on Pololu's boxes. Since this one has arrived pristine and bigger than the ones I usually have, I think I'm going to frame that piece.

@jskists The Mini / Picasso feels to me like something that should be used just as it is rather than expanding it. I have little love for Basic. I have coded (in front of an audience) using the SCM assembler, but life's a bit short. Forth seems the ideal ROM. And Camelforth especially, since the Picasso looks like the proverbial racehorse designed by committee!

@robertprice @juzza Don't get toooo excited though. It does frustrate me that it only supports the first 8 colours, not even 16 colours let alone the extended 256.

@shieladixon @juzza I never knew about the -c option in mincom until I saw your screenshot. A quick look at the man page, and sure enough it's there. Thank you!

@jaymoore I know! It's so bad it's beautiful!

@jaymoore I think that's kit-building 101. The harder part was deciding which way round was 'the same way round' for the other resistor staircase which is orientated differently. I decided that they're all facing the common point and that you read a resistor from butt to head.

@drj The big one is insidious. He'll sip with the others amiably but is discreetly assessing them before pouncing on the weakest one.

@juzza I'm very happy to have your Camelforth on the Picasso's ROM, thank you for providing that!

@m04 yep! I like that!