Projects – Gioorgi

Smart Sync

March 22, 2021 March 15, 2021 / English Content, Gio's Software Projects / database, mssqlserver, oracle, sqlite / Leave a Comment

On 2002, I was forced to build a small java class to “sync” two databases (sorry for Italian): SmartSync used the Metadata offered by JDBC API to be able to copy data between two tables. In the last years I evolved it to be able to support a special use case called “dump to SQLite”. …

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HP 42s the BEST calculator and its FAST MODE

November 11, 2020 November 24, 2020 / English Content, Retro Computing / hp42s / Leave a Comment

The HP 42S accompanied me throughout my university career, secretly designed for me some function graphs and with its 7KB alphanumeric also managed to make me keep some secret notes. I bought it on December 5, 1992, paying it 229,000 lire, a year before I started university (about 200€ now considering inflation * ). I …

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Commodore 4194304 is here: Rasperry Pi 400

November 2, 2020 November 4, 2020 / Retro Computing / 8bit, c64, commodore, raspberrypi, vic20 / Leave a Comment

Rasperry Pi Trading announced the RasperryPi 400, a whoppy 1.8 Ghz x 4Gb RAM (about 4096Mb or 4.194.304 Kb) Rasperry in a plastic keyboard case. We just read a teardown, and only the lack of a good mechanical keyboard leave it a bit behind a Commodore 64 :) Please keep in mind Rasperry Pi SD …

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Tic80

September 29, 2020 September 29, 2020 / Retro Computing

TIC-80 is a fantasy computer for making, playing and sharing tiny games. https://github.com/nesbox/TIC-80 251 forks. 2,699 stars. 156 open issues. Recent commits: #978: new shortcuts for the Music Editor, Nesbox OBJCOPY -> OBJMOVE, Nesbox #1312: added THEME.CODE.FG to the config + some refactoring, Nesbox #1003: added "PLAY FROM NOW" button to the Music Editor, Nesbox …

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runif

May 28, 2020 March 15, 2021 / English Content, Gio's Software Projects, Knowledgebase, Projects, Python, Software / bash, python

Idempotent and minimal python 3 library for rapid scripting. Provide support for creating file, adding data to them, patching and so on. Why? (Ba)sh scripting is very easy to setup. So we end up using it all the time for simple procedural script. Sometimes is it useful to have idempotent script, like Ansible and Saltstack …

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Commodore Retro Magic Dream: Pyc64 supports I/O on real emulation

May 19, 2020 May 17, 2020 / English Content, Retro Computing / 6502, c64, python

I am happy to announce pyc64 now supports save and load programs on top of real emulation. Irmen point me to the right code to look, and I implemented the fix in the weekend; happy hacking! Commodore-64 simulator in pure Python https://github.com/irmen/pyc64 6 forks. 47 stars. 1 open issues. Recent commits: switch to my …

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Memory Madness 2020

May 8, 2020 May 6, 2020 / English Content, Retro Computing / k8s, minimalismo, ram

In 1985, all my work started with a VIC-20 with 5Kb of RAM, and only 3583 bytes free for the BASIC. With 3 more kilobytes, VIC-20 would be able to unveil its more versatile graphic capabilities, but we have no luck. In 1995 I got a 8 MegaBytes computer with 512MB hard disk as workstation …

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MacBookPro 2009 & macOS 10.8 save diary

February 24, 2020 February 23, 2020 / Italian Content, Retro Computing / macbook, macosx

Nove anni fa, e nove mesi prima della nascita di mio figlio comperai un MacBook Pro mid-2009, da 2.53Ghz con Intel Core 2 Duo (“Penryn” da 2.53 GHz codice P8700) Oltre a funzionare ancora adesso, ha subito un upgrade con disco SSD Smasung 840 PRO, con un kit molto ben fatto che rimpiazzava il masterizzartore …

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About 6502 emulator

December 16, 2019 April 9, 2020 / Knowledgebase, Retro Computing / 6502, 8bit, c64, retro computing

I’d like to point you to this blog article about “cycle stepped” 6502 emulator. It is well described and can be a neat read for xmas vacation. Also author’s main project is all about A toolbox of 8-bit chip-emulators, helper code and complete embeddable system emulators in dependency-free C headers (a subset of C99 that …

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Commander X16: retro magic dream

September 18, 2019 June 4, 2020 / English Content, IT Featured, Retro Computing / c64, retro computing, x16

Some time ago I mentioned the Pyc64 project, a “differently emulated” C/64. There’s a much more ambitious project that’s going under pressure, it’s called Commander X 16. Commander X 16 has been started by David Murray and three other guys. David’s desire was to create an 8-bit computer similar to the C/64 but a little …

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ESP8266 VGA OUTPUT

September 1, 2019 March 14, 2021 / Esp8266, Retro Computing / vga

This is a VGA library for ESP8266. To use this library you need only 1 resistor and one DSUB15 connector. VGA signal generation based on https://github.com/hchunhui/esp-vga (thanks for your awesome works). [….] The library implement a 512x480px framebuffer with 1bpp, where each pixel is stored as a single bit. The framebuffer is stored inside RAM and require …

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8 Bit computers: from 1977 to 1985

June 28, 2019 December 3, 2019 / Books, English Content, Retro Computing / 6502, book, c64, retro computing, vic20

The first draft of my book is here! Take a look to http://8bit.gioorgi.com/

Coming soon 8 Bit computers: from 1977 to 1985

May 21, 2019 June 24, 2019 / Books, English Content, Retro Computing / 6502, book, c64, retro computing, vic20 / 2 Comments

Hi all! I decided to write a book called “8-Bit Computers: Retro computer history in the ’80”. It is my first book on this topic, so I need you comments & advices! A small extract is right here for download. You will be able to buy the Kindle edition for little as € 0,99 by …

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esp8266 micropython uasyncio experimental build

May 19, 2019 November 19, 2019 / Esp8266 / async, embedded, esp8266, iot, uasyncio

Esp8266 is the super cheap chip which can run Micropython. You can buy it on Amazon for as little as €8 or less, and as little as $5 or less on Bangood/AliExpress. The ESP8266 (ESP-12E spec) has a 4MB Flash RAM and about 96KB of RAM. One nice thing is you can use an async …

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C64 Kernal and ROM Hacking

May 15, 2019 May 15, 2019 / Retro Computing / c64

Michael Steil just published a repository you can actually USE to hack C64 Kernal and ROM. A nice idea you can play with using VICE emulator… Commodore 64 BASIC and KERNAL Source https://github.com/mist64/c64rom 23 forks. 128 stars. 3 open issues. Recent commits: Makefile: fix checksum generation for basic.bin (#1)The Makefile executes some shell commands to …

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