Tag Archives: friday

Mar 24

Friday Post: Politics

Posted on by

Politics (or how I bought trumpsucks.gop and you can too).

To those who may not have guessed, I am not a big Trump supporter.  I am a Bernie Sanders fan.  I am an independent progressive who thinks science and technology are the way forward.

This week the Republicans tried to bring their Trumpcare bill to the House which would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), and… they failed.  One thing I noticed in the GOPs marketing is that they kept touting this new site called readthebill.gop.  It’s a slick site, showing off their failed bill and how great it will be, but what really intrigued me was the top level domain: .gop.

I wanted to know more about this.  My google-fu led me to www.join.gop which incredibly enough allows you to search and register for domain names under the GOP brand.  WTF?!

OK, naturally I tried donaldtrump.gop and various others, but they were all unavailable.  But of course, the GOP must have disabled anything that says anything negative about themselves….right?

Well here we go.  And it’s only $20.16.  Surely they wont let it through.

Ok, so I bought it, but surely someone must confirm these orders manually right?

Yeah, someone’s looking at it and this will be bounced back.

WAT?

I actually own trumpsucks.gop now.  This can’t backfire at all.

-Shea

Feb 03

Friday Post: No broken foot and open source software is awesome!

Posted on by

Hey All,

Got some great news.  My wife didn’t actually break her foot.  We went to a orthopedist who specializes in feet injuries, and he says it’s only a MAJOR sprain.  She’s still in pain, but at least it is a lot less serious.  The brace only needs to be worn during the day, she can walk around again, and best of all she can drive and go to work.

Baby is also doing well.  We are in the third trimester and he is kicking up a storm!

Also, open source software is amazing, and I am so proud to be able to make software that is open.  My campaign donation software is now being used in a city council race!  This is not an endorsement, but Scott Casey is using it for his race: https://www.scottcaseycitycouncil.com/

Have a good weekend all!

Jan 20

Friday Post: Broken Foot

Posted on by

Hey All,

It’s so weird to realize it was my birthday, and it passed by this year with little fanfare from me.  Knowing I’m having a baby in less than 3 months kinda takes your mind off those things.  What is on my mind is my wife broke her foot this week and I am now taking care of my pregnant immobilized love.  Luckily the baby is perfectly fine.  I feel so bad for my wife.  I have broken both arms, and both legs (at separate times), and I can tell you this is no walk in the park.

Everything is still being worked on, just going slow and steady.

Have a good weekend everyone.  Stay safe out there.

-Shea

Mar 04

Friday Post: The Flu Sucks

Posted on by

Hey All,

Sorry for the lack of updates, I got the flu and it kicked my ass!  I’ve also been dealing with school, my grandma being sick, work, and just so much stuff on my plate.  But yay It’s spring break right now, so I’m back for a bit.

While I was gone the Raspberry Pi 3 was released!  How awesome is that!  A 64bit Quad Core ARM core running at 1.2ghz with 1GB of RAM AND built in WiFi and Bluetooth.  And it’s still only $35!

IMG_4090

I’ve also almost finished the Storm Trooper Helmet

12508738_10104843734668742_463041508399623894_n 12650865_10104843766814322_7455261063869867793_n (1)

2016-03-02

Have a good weekend all!

-Shea

Jan 22

Friday Post: AdvanceMAME 1.4 debs

Posted on by

Hey All,

Updates maybe sporadic for the next few weeks.

AdvanceMAME updated to 1.4 so I have recompiled the source and made .debs out of it.  This will work on the Pi and Pi2.

AdvanceMAME 1.4 Deb Download

To install goto a terminal and type:

sudo dpkg --force-install -i advancemame_1.4-1_armhf.db
advmame

You will now have a directory in ~/.advance and will need to edit your advmame.rc file.

nano ~/.advance/advmame.rc

Add to the first line:

device_video_clock 5 - 50 / 15.62 / 50 ; 5 - 50 / 15.73 / 60

Then press ctrl-x then y and hit enter to save.

You can now place your game files into the ~/.advance/roms directory and launch a game with the command:

advmame gamename
advmame sf2

Have a good weekend all!

-Shea

Feb 20

Friday Post: PiPlay 8 Beta 8!

Posted on by

It’s now available on SourceForge!

Hey All,

PiPlay 8 Beta 8 is here!  Mark has put a huge amount of time into the new frontend code.   We have moved form YAML files to a SQLite database.  Many items have been sped up.  The web frontend now has a database administration section.

This is a huge update.  Probably the best I think we put out… but because of the Pi2, we have had to do a lot of extra testing, and may have missed some stuff.  Please please please let us know if something isn’t working, or if something slipped through the cracks.  I want this to be the best release ever!

This new image will work on the Pi2 and B, B+, A, and A+.  I have spent the past week pulling out hair trying to get everything to work.  I have had to remove Stella, the Atari 2600 emulator for the moment.  When I can get it working properly on the new kernel, I will add it back in.

The image is currently being uploaded to SourceForge, so in a few hours it should be available.

Thanks for your patience, and thanks to all the testers.  If you find any bugs (I’m sure there are some) let us know in the PiPlay forums.

Oct 24

Friday Post: PiPlay 0.8 Beta 7

Posted on by

Hey All,

Sorry about the lack of posts last week, dealing with family stuff.

I am excited to formally announce the release of PiPlay 0.8 Beta 7!

  • 0.8.0 Beta 7
    • Added changelog popup
    • Themes now support background music (uncompressed preferred)
    • Fixed problems with semi-transparent labels
    • 2 player controller config support added
    • Controller Config list sorted
    • Now using gunicorn for web frontend.

Get it now by by downloading the image or updating your current version with the PiPlay updater.

Have a great weekend!

-Shea

May 23

Friday Post: BerryBoot Image

Posted on by

Hey all,

Not much to report this week.  Coding on the next release is coming along nicely.

I have made a BerryBoot compatible image of the current release available to download here:

http://pimame.org/releases/piplay-0.8-beta3-bb.img.7z

I was interviewed by Circuit Cellar Magazine, which was pretty cool.  The interview can be found here:

http://circuitcellar.com/community/interviews/raspberry-pi-innovation/

Have a great weekend!

-Shea

Apr 18

Friday Post: PiPlay 0.8 Beta 3

Posted on by

Update: PiPlay 0.8 Beta 3 is uploaded!

Lo all,

It’s been two weeks and my Kickstarter is at 242% funded!!  This is incredible.  I’m so excited and humbled at the community support.  Thank you!

PiPlay 0.8 Beta 3

I am uploading the latest SD Card image of PiPlay.  0.8 Beta 3 includes:

  • Recompiled kernel with Xin-Mo encoder support.
  • Better GBA support.
  • Better Neo Geo support.
  • Fixed issues with Genesis and Final Burn Alpha emulators not running.
  • Genesis emulator can now use Zip files.
  • Updated PiPlay to have a better updater system.
  • 2 player keyboard support in SNES emulator.

What I’m currently working on:

  • Snapshot/screenshot support in ROM list.
  • Documentation.
  • Looking for MSX, Atari, and TG16 emulators to add.

Look for this SD Card image to be available tonight or tomorrow.  My laptop is locking up / freezing randomly and I’m trying to generate a more recent backup, so I have to hurry up and wait while that happens.

I will update this post when it’s uploaded!

-Shea

Mar 28

Friday Post: Framebuffer Copy and new PiMAME 8 beta release

Posted on by

Hey All,

Another week another PiMAME release 🙂

This is beta 2 of the new PiMAME 0.8.  I’m loving the feedback.  I know there are bugs and issues, but I’m able to iterate so much faster now.  This latest release includes:

  • Added NES support again.
  • Added C64 support again.
  • Put back in restart, shutdown, and updater tools.
  • Menu will now notify you if there are updates available.
  • PiMAME bootsplash video
  • Tankstick support

High priority features I’m working on:

  • Adding back in screenshot support
  • More joystick configuration options

Framebuffer copy

I’ve started playing with Notro’s FBTFT module again.  This allows you to use little inexpensive LCD screens for things like the console and X Windows.  The problem is that most programs expect output on framebuffer 0.  These screens operate on framebuffer 1, or /dev/fb1.  Tasanakorn has created a program called fbcp.  This mirrors the screen from the hdmi / rca port and onto the SPI based screens you see above.

It doesn’t work 100% yet for me.  I don’t know if its my screen or the program.  I’m going to purchase some more and test them out.

Little Arcade Machine

Steve Smith has created this awesome little MAME cabinet.  Plans and more images are below at the imgur link.

http://imgur.com/a/Pr4rG

Have a great weekend everyone!

-Shea