lighting

Backlighting is not good.



Hope their SW is better than their lighting tech.

leadership

This is why I came to Apple.

"New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind."

Steve Jobs
April, 2010

SystemVerilog - inline is not the same as non-blocking

Of course we know that inline is not the same as non-blocking.

Since SystemVerilog can't x<=y (non-blocking assign) for x and y of class types I decided to try a giant always block and code my pipelines reverse order. Coping data using just = (blocking assign).

This would've been fine if each pipeline did not look at the data in the other pipelines. And as such get confused because the inline code changes some pipelines before the next gets a chance to look at the data.

After hours of research I found 2 things:

1. a struct can be in x<=y; statement
2. if you use the keyword automatic in your task/function declaration you can pass a struct/class by reference and avoid this cryptic error: "reference argument is illegal inside static task-function declaration".

That last would have been found faster if I'd remembered the keyword - but is very hard to find the opposite of static. Esp. since I didn't realize there was one.

Worse, there are hundreds of examples of SystemVerilog code that won't compile (at least with Cadence):

task xyz ( ref mytype_t a);

should be

task automatic xyz (ref mytype_t a);

So now I've changed my data class into a struct, moved all the methods out to (automatic) tasks, and passed the struct in by reference. Now all my assignments are <= so I get pipelining for free - the way Verilog is supposed to be.

And it still doesn't work because.....

"Although it is not explicitly stated in the LRM, the Cadence implementation does not support the passing of a member of an array, or a member of a packed structure, by reference to a task or function."

What is the point of having this c++ like OOP language if you can't pass pointers to array elements, or  whole arrays, etc to a task/function? I'm at a loss.

Time to recode a bunch of stuff.

Again.

hey android - how about fixing the volume issues

My phone does it, many other phones do it. So the problem is in android itself.

Connect your bluetooth device. Use it. Then disconnect.

Guess where your volume is set? Somewhere so loud that it sounds like you're on speaker phone - through the normal ear speaker!

People say that if you turn the volume all the way up and then down again it is fixed. Or reboot.

I say Google should fix this crap. Remember, details matter.

hey android - turn of the f*(#ing screen

The phone is an HTC Incredible. I have a blue tooth headset, a nice one.

Phone is in my pocket, I answer with headset. Phone screen unlocks and turns on. If I go to retrieve it I push something.

Hangups happen. Frustrating.

inglourious basterds - a movie

Very violent, occasionally funny, at times sad.

Incredible movie, really cool ending.

Good love story in places.

new york, i love you - a movie

Great cast - good writing. Nice music.

The old couple at the end made the whole thing worth it.

Enjoyed it.

fried balls

Who allowed this menu item?

Falafel Wrap : Fried balls made of a blend of garbanzo beans mixed with parsley, onions and spices, wrapped in tortilla bread, with tomatoes, lettuce, pickles and tahini sauce

Fried balls? Really? There has to be a better way to describe this.

Call me silly, but I think I'll pass.

stranger than fiction - a movie

Hilarious. Poignant. Surprising.

Amazing cinematography, some of the shots really blew me away.

Worth watching on many levels.

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some things never change

I emailed Daring Fireball's John Gruber for the first time (about some vids I found). I wondered what he'd find if he searched for me using my gmail account name: mjbiren. I came across this from 3 phones ago:

Back to the battery: I don't like having to worry about the batter life day to day. I think if I charge it over night I should be able to just use the phone for the whole next day. By "just use it" I don't mean all day 100s of minutes of in-call use. I just mean use it however I want all day - a few calls, some messages, some music, maybe look at the weather or get a stock quote a couple times. With the original battery this was barely possible. When I got BT headphones and an SD card it was impossible. The phone would die by 1 or 2pm. I bought the 1200 Mah extended battery. Now the phone looks like crap, but lasts two days worry free, even if I listen to music over BT headphones 2-3 hours each day.

Same with my Incredible. It looks like crap but the battery lasts all day. Some things never change.

plantronics voyager pro+

Not many pictures show this headset in use. It feels much smaller than it looks. It is more comfortable than my tiny H710.

Great audio in both directions, really nice voice tells you how much battery is left etc, and bonus feature: you can listen to your phone's podcasts (and other audio) through it.

Best headset I've had. Better than the last Jawbone I had.

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plastic is evil

In case you didn't know plastic is evil. It lasts in the environment for a long long time. Not that we can do much about it - like everyone is going to stop using plastic.

How much of a problem? Look at this video from VBS TV.





Easy to ignore when it is so many miles away. Besides, what can it harm? Do we need that part of the ocean to be cleaner? I don't know, but my gut tells me this can't be a good thing.

google search failing lately?

If you care about search you'll find this fascinating.

I've heard a lot of chatter here and there that "social" (Facebook, twitter etc) will replace Google. Until know I've not understood how that might happen.

Google Reader for android: I already read that

When I click "mark all as read" I expect stuff to stay that way. Reader for Android instead remarks the items as new. Only happens on the Engadget feed....

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map of metal - pandora port

The map of metal is of course awesome. But when a map runs out of songs what then?

I took a "walk" around the map, picking up my favorite lands and dropping the artists as seeds to a pandora station. The result is streaming metal music that takes a long long time to repeat.

feeling lucky?

Sometimes you get away with one.

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sex and breakfast - a movie

Sex and Breakfast (2007) - IMDb staring Macaulay Culkin, not as bad as the reviews have it.

Very uncomfortable sex scene when they finally get to it.

Pretty realistic, and good ending.

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working it from my phone

No time like the present, let's see how Mplayit: Blogger-droid works.

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