Software engineering, games, and investing at https://xitter.gq/t.co/7zdNnG5iSG
Oregon
Joined April 2009
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David Raffauf retweeted
O que era apenas uma lenda urbana contada em fóruns obscuros de BBS e mesas de bar de engenheiros aposentados acaba de ser confirmado. O Retropolis teve acesso exclusivo a imagens e documentos técnicos do Gradiente Expert Turbo (Modelo G-90), o computador híbrido que prometia unificar a informática nacional com a revolução dos 16-bits da SEGA.
O Elo Perdido entre o MSX e o Mega Drive
Em meados de 1989, enquanto a Gradiente colhia os frutos do sucesso do Phantom System, um projeto secreto corria nos laboratórios da Zona Franca de Manaus. O objetivo era audacioso: criar um computador pessoal que, além de ser um MSX 2 pleno, possuísse um barramento de expansão capaz de ler nativamente os cartuchos do Sega Genesis (o nosso Mega Drive).
O protótipo encontrado, com o número de série 0001-XP, traz o gabinete clássico do Expert em um tom de cinza chumbo fosco, com um detalhe que faz qualquer colecionador tremer: um segundo slot superior, ligeiramente mais largo, com a inscrição “High Grade Multi-Link”.
Arquitetura Dual: O Coração da Máquina
Segundo o manual técnico recuperado, o Expert Turbo não utilizava emulação (tecnologia inexistente na época). A máquina era equipada com:
Processador Zilog Z80A (3.58 MHz): Para compatibilidade total com o padrão MSX.
Coprocessador Motorola 68000 (7.67 MHz): O “cérebro” do Mega Drive, que permanecia em estado de hibernação até que um cartucho de 16-bits fosse inserido.
Chip de Som Yamaha YM2149: Capaz de mixar o som polifônico do MSX com o sintetizador FM da Sega, criando trilhas sonoras inéditas.
“Nós tínhamos o protótipo funcional. O Sonic rodava perfeitamente enquanto o WordStar estava aberto em segundo plano,” afirma o Eng. Alberto Santo Antonio, que trabalhou no projeto.
Por que nunca chegou às lojas?
O motivo do cancelamento foi puramente comercial. A Tectoy, que já costurava o licenciamento exclusivo com a SEGA no Brasil, teria entrado com uma liminar impedindo a Gradiente de lançar qualquer hardware que utilizasse o chip 68000 com a marca japonesa. Sem o apoio da SEGA, a Gradiente decidiu “capar” o projeto, transformando o que seria o Expert Turbo no que conhecemos hoje como o Expert Plus e o DD Plus, removendo o suporte aos 16-bits.
Agradecemos aos nossos “informantes” UltraMan, UltraSeven e Godzilla por essas revelações. Parece que eles deram uma pausa em salvar o mundo para desenterrar os segredos da Gradiente e da Sega!
David Raffauf retweeted
Anyone know of examples of actual fractional arithmetic being used in software to reduce accumulated error? e.g. storing both numerator and denominator of something like 1/3 seperately, and doing algebraic multiplication rather than reducing to a single float.
Does Django/Python have any good query analyzer and optimizer tools, similar to the great active_record_doctor?
I always assumed ARD relied on EXPLAIN, but when I browsed the code, it was all Rails introspection.
David Raffauf retweeted
I've spent the last 2 weeks learning about Nginx and Assembly in order to make a very small HTTP server.
It's currently around 5.3 KiB.
• no dependencies/libc/bloat
• multiple processes managed via epoll
• single arena allocation
and it is very, very, very fast.
David Raffauf retweeted
DX12 is 10 years old now. It's not modern anymore. Most of the complexity of DX12 and Vulkan APIs is simply not needed anymore. We don't need to support 13 year old Intel iGPUs and 12 year old mobile chips anymore. Metal 3.0 binding model is much more clean. Just GPU pointers.
The longest living major version of DirectX before being superseded is ... DirectX 12? It feels like it's brand new, wtf?
DX1 1995 -> 1996 ~ 1 year
DX2 1996 -> 1996 ~ 1 year ?
DX3 1996 -> 1997 ~ 6 months
DX4 N/A
DX5 1997 -> 1998 ~ 1 year
DX6 1998 -> 1999 ~ 1 year
DX7 1999 -> 2000 ~ 1 year
DX8 2000 -> 2002 ~ 2 years
DX9 2002 -> 2010 ~ 8 years
DX10 we don't talk about DX10
DX11 2009 -> 2013 ~ 4 years
DX12 2015 -> today ~ 10 years
This doesn't correlate to actual usage, I FEEL like DX11 is still has the most longevity here, but in terms of updates, DX12 is hanging in there.
The JS ecosystem has 3-5 serious choices for every possible layer of the dev stack.
It's dizzying just starting a project.
I was tired of manually switching around inputs and daisy chaining displays and dongles, so I purchased a highly rated KVM switch. It was under $100, the extra cables were another $40, and it all works like a charm.
I should have done this a decade ago!
This also assumes that rising development costs and profit from increased market sizes have remained at a constant ratio, which seems very unlikely.
David Raffauf retweeted
When things go from 3D to 4D in the graphics pipeline:
ALT 3D to 4D projection
My Computer Science program actively derailed me from learning programming. We learned lambda calculus, OO, and RDMS poorly.
I would have been better served studying C and making games.
I studied web dev independently from 1995-2003 and that's what got me jobs.
My game (because first full attempt) written with C and SDL will be bad by custom game engine standards but great in comparison to giant engine games. At least that's where I hope to land.
