IRC Log - 2025-10-13 - ##forth

Channel: ##forth
Total messages: 36
Time range: 02:21:03 - 20:28:12
Most active: KipIngram (23), tpnix (8), lmt (3)
02:21:03 ##forth <KipIngram> tpnix: What'd you think?
02:36:24 ##forth <tpnix> KipIngram, excellent, I was so looking forward to the main battle
02:45:26 ##forth <KipIngram> I know. :-(
02:46:09 ##forth <KipIngram> Neat to get to see Garth as he was instead of as a psycho villain.
02:55:46 ##forth <KipIngram> I wondered if maybe the "twist" of the movie would be that the Federation introduced the Constitution class heavy cruiser just in the nick of time to counter the D9.
02:56:01 ##forth <KipIngram> Since the Constitution class is near and dear to all of our hearts.
02:56:12 ##forth <tpnix> KipIngram, sadly, we will probably never know
02:56:44 ##forth <KipIngram> Maybe even the Enterprise herself. :-)
02:57:17 ##forth <tpnix> that would make a great film but hollywood is mostly dead now
02:58:23 ##forth <tpnix> few people want any more reruns of films and the same old series, originality died in hollywood decades ago, apart from the odd film
02:59:01 ##forth <KipIngram> I watch mostly old stuff anyway. Movies and TV. The new stuff really just doesn't measure up.
02:59:09 ##forth <KipIngram> Or maybe I'm just getting old.
02:59:46 ##forth <tpnix> no, the new stuff doesnt measure up
03:00:29 ##forth <tpnix> it's all formulaic, they wont take any risks any more
03:01:12 ##forth <tpnix> and it was films that took big risks that were wildly successful, ie 'pulp fiction'
03:02:13 ##forth <tpnix> I rewatched 'forbidden planet' recently and enjoyed it, that film is beyond acient
03:31:33 ##forth <KipIngram> I like that one too.
10:36:52 ##forth <veltas> Can use eval to create indexed variables in POSIX bourne shell
18:58:22 ##forth <lmt> how do people here feel about SwissMicros calculators?
19:11:14 ##forth <KipIngram> I own a pair of them. The HP-41C emulation unit (for nostalgia - I used the HP in college) and for "go to use" a DM42. Great calculator.
19:12:00 ##forth <lmt> i was surprised to learn they and the hp calcs they are based on have a stack of only 4 values
19:12:01 ##forth <KipIngram> I wouldn't recommend the emulated HP-41, unless you just have a soft spot in your heart for it like I do. But the DM42 is up to any job you want to throw at it.
19:12:32 ##forth <KipIngram> That's historically what the HP units had - you can do a surprisingly large amount of stuff with it if you think your problem through carefully.
19:12:48 ##forth <KipIngram> That college calculator was the first thing I ever programmed, and I programmed the phooey out of it.
19:13:10 ##forth <KipIngram> But the DM42 will let you mode switch that - you can have an "infinitely" deep stack if you prefer.
19:13:52 ##forth <KipIngram> A really nice thing about the DM42 is that it uses 128-bit floating point throughout; you get 34 digits of precision on everything.
19:14:26 ##forth <KipIngram> The HP-41 emulator has much less precision - it just matches what the original HP had.
19:16:34 ##forth <KipIngram> I was initially drawn to Forth in the first place because it was RPN "like my calculator." Later on I found many other things to love about it (even more, actually), but that was the first attraction.
19:37:21 ##forth <KipIngram> By the way - there is a new model now. DM42n I think. Faster.
19:48:25 ##forth <lmt> faster only while connected to usb power
20:22:24 ##forth <KipIngram> The DM42 older version is like that too - runs slower on batteries.
20:22:36 ##forth <KipIngram> Battery lasts a really long time, though.
20:24:58 ##forth <KipIngram> I'm in the process of calibrating the realtime clock in mine now. I set it as precisely as I could back on October 1. Currently it's about fie seconds fast. I'm going to wait longer, at least a month and maybe two or three, check the delta, and adjust the correction factor the thing supports.
20:25:43 ##forth <X-Scale> How do you adjust it?
20:26:18 ##forth <KipIngram> When you connect it to a PC you can have it present as a storage device. You just put a properly named file with the correction factor in the root of that storage device. Just a text file.
20:28:12 ##forth <KipIngram> One of the little things on my project list is a suite of astronomy programs for it. One of the early books I learned on, back in the day, was a book by a guy named Ball - Algorithms for RPN Calculators, and a bunch of them were astronomy related.