Overdue scrap notes, 2008.05.01-05.16

2008.04.30

• Reaktor diary: might be helpful as I learn to use Reaktor
• Despite that this program is not open source but proprietary, it offers more comprehensible insight into its workings than any of the open source synth software I have tried so far.
• Given, I’ve only used a couple premade instruments, but their internal structure is out-in-the-open in the form of modules, not as blocks of code that I would have a hard time finding and a harder time comprehending.

2008.05.06

• Chilling Effects Clearinghouse: “A joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and (about a dozen schools)…. Chilling Effects aims to help you understand the protections that the First Amendment and intellectual property laws give to your online activities.”
• Linux Softpedia – EDA: looks like a good collection of Electronic Design Automation software for Linux
• Signs (or here): “a tool for logic synthesis and gate level simulation… include synthesis of RTL-style VHDL circuit descriptions and a dynamic graphical netlist viewer…”
• KTechLab: “…an Open Source Intergated Design Environment (IDE) for electronic and PIC microcontroller circuit design and simulation.”
• Alliance CAD: “a complete set of free CAD tools and portable libraries for VLSI design… includes a VHDL compiler and simulator, logic synthesis tools, and automatic place and route tools.”
• Octeon Plus – some chip, 4 to 16 MIPS64 core, 600-1000 MHz, 15-40W power usage… looks pretty fast (Linuxdevices link)
• Helpful link about silkscreening/screenprinting from nomediakings.org

2008.05.09

• “This Film is Not Yet Rated” (IMDB) – some movie my friend Adam recommended; looks like the full version is online, for now, at Google Videos
• Univ. of Manchester, Advanced Processor Tech. Group – good link for some software projects and papers relevant to processors
• “In Defense of Lost Causes” – Slavoj Zizek (Amazon)… maybe an interesting book from a “Slovene sociologist, philosopher, and cultural critic.” who describes himself as a Marxist
• “Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe” – Arianna Huffington (Amazon) . . . just in case you needed more anti-conservative propaganda
• Past public lectures from Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics are available here (though videos look like mostly Windows Media Player or Flash).
• SIMH: software from the Computer History Simulation Project, able to simulate (not emulate?) a variety of rather old hardware, like the DEC PDP
  

2008.05.16

• Excerpts from Einstein’s letter to Eric Gutkind on 1954-01-03 – expresses some of his views on religion pretty well… apparently lining up a bit with the “Deus sive nature” views of Spinoza
• Reconfigurable computing… worth learning about.
• Microcode… also worth learning about, particularly with x86
• FpgaC: “FpgaC compiles a subset of the C language to net lists which can be imported into an FPGA vendors tool chains… excellent alternative to VHDL/Verilog for algorithmic expression of FPGA reconfigurable computing tasks.” . . . like an HLL rather than an HDL.
• Atmel FPSLIC: AVR microcontroller and SRAM-based FPGA combined on one die
• Achronix: FPGAs running up to around 2 GHz
• OpenCores: Designs and publishes core designs (for FPGAs, CPLDs, ASICs in general) under a license based on the LGPL
• OpenFPGA: Promote FPGAs in blahblahblah by trying to have open standards and information and practices
• Pragmatic Marketing: I dunno, but I’ve read a few useful links here

2008.05.16

• “Commonwealth – Economics for a Crowded Planet” – Jeff Sachs (link at marginalrevolution.com)