tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-529559267453719762012-01-26T00:51:40.226ZA Blog about work, games and other thingsMike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.comBlogger1181100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-30175499619840186642012-01-26T00:22:00.007Z2012-01-26T00:51:40.233Z

I'm currently going mad trying to finish up my assignments for my 1st semester of the 2nd year of my Masters. I've had five to complete, I finally finished the first on Monday night. It was an assignment on the evolutionary product stages for Hybrid Cars and Hard Disks. My other assignments are a solution to the water distribution problem using innovating problem solving techniques. The other two

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-52641825780930052262011-11-25T12:39:00.003Z2011-11-25T13:05:19.480Z

I've been incredibly busy the last while. There's a small part of me thinking I might be stretching myself beyond what I can possibly handle. But I think I'm well able for all of it. Who says you can't start up a new business while working a full time job and doing a part time Masters at night in Electronic Design Engineering?My Masters has been proving very interesting so far. This semester I'm

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-17740400693108468192011-09-09T11:46:00.005+01:002011-09-09T13:54:06.780+01:00

Yesterday I requested my pension be put on hold indefinitely. Our account manager was none to happy about this and reminds me that I'll lose out on my company contribution and my tax relief. This a load of sales crap in my opinion. Now I don't claim to know a lot about how they work, but the company contribution at the moment is tiny, about €16 per month, I'm ok with losing that, no biggie. The

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-5137340830320543702011-07-21T10:20:00.004+01:002011-07-21T11:14:21.392+01:00

I just attended another one of Rich Dad's workshops last night. This time it was based on Stock Success. There's usually one of these a year and this one finished up yesterday. I attended one last year as well, it was based on property flipping and financial independence. Robert Kiyosaki is the author of a large number of books called Rich Dad Poor Dad, I've read the first 2, but there are so

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-40634705979682734142011-07-05T10:23:00.002+01:002011-07-05T10:29:22.455+01:00

A month later, I haven't done much else with my solar cells. I took three of the smaller ones and connected them together (correctly this time). I measured a small enough voltage of 0.75V, which is barely enough to overcome the threshold voltages on a transistor or diode. Not a great result, but I'll try more and more.The main reason I haven't done much is down to the tools and equipment I have.

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-12197111890377974572011-06-09T11:17:00.005+01:002011-06-09T12:07:09.591+01:00

Wow, it's been 5 months since I posted last. I really got to get back on the blogging thing again.Quick update, I've finished the first year of my Master's. I'm not doing particularly well or even as well as I'd hoped. I just finished a module in RF design and Digital Systems Design 2. I had 6 assignments for RF and 2 large assignments and a IEEE paper to write for Digital Systems Design 2. I may

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-27485319688916362932011-01-31T16:14:00.005Z2011-01-31T16:17:37.530Z

So I got Fallout: New Vegas for Christmas and with exams and assignments and all that crap, I only got a chance to play it for the first time properly over the weekend. I'm hooked.It carries on from the world of Fallout 3, except now you're travelling the Mojave desert after the nuclear apocalypse. You start off as a courier having been dug up from a fresh grave and revived by the local doctor.

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-83991642782837512842011-01-13T16:56:00.001Z2011-01-13T16:58:21.416Z

Found this online, Load-Reduced DIMM's. They're the next step after RDIMM's (Registered DIMM's) and FBDIMM's (Fully Buffered DIMM's), offering even more bandwidth and speed to your system.Read more here What is LR-DIMM?

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-362526007119147402011-01-12T17:36:00.003Z2011-01-12T17:42:51.713Z

For some strange reason, I'm finding it hard to purchase a copy of the Tron legacy Soundtrack for download. I don't want the CD and CD case cluttering up my already messy room. I've tried the official Tron Legacy sountrack website http://tronsoundtrack.com/. I can only download the soundtrack if I live in the US. For european sales it's CD only. I tried Amazon, there's geographical restrictions

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-53926690881405029712011-01-05T17:22:00.007Z2011-01-05T17:39:36.228Z

Apologies I haven't written here in ages. I thought it would be a good idea to do a Masters in Electronic Design Engineering. It has so far swallowed up all my free time. I've learned loads though. I've completed 2 Digital Designs, 1 for a simple sequence detect on a wire interface, the other on an auto-baud rate detector using Finite State Machines, Flow Charts, Timing diagrams and Design Flow

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-5128408583430853252010-10-14T11:48:00.000+01:002010-10-14T11:51:10.478+01:00

It was brilliant, last night I logged into my new apartment's UPC broadband connection. It was incredible, I'd forgotten how great it was to have a decent connection. I've been on the 3 USB dongle for over 2 years now and I was used to it's slow ways and 15GB a month limit. Now I'm on UPC's 15Mb/s with no limit! Incredible! I updated all my games last night, downloaded the latest episodes of

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-51123221578035136562010-10-14T10:15:00.006+01:002010-10-14T10:23:13.839+01:00

I was cleaning my room and I found the High Density DDR2 DIMM's that I bought a while ago. They're 2GB DIMM's they work grand. They just don't work with my PC. I know I've already discussed this before, but I found some new information online explaining why manufcturers make this high density DIMM's in the first place.Here's a very helpful explanation about High Density DIMM's.iceblade008 -> It

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-51224765858113457032010-09-14T16:02:00.001+01:002010-09-14T16:05:38.376+01:00

Here's a copy of an email I just sent round to my girlfriend's mates. I'm looking to organize a ski/snowboard holiday for a few beginners. Anyone who wants to come along is more than welcome.Ok guys and girls,Here's some information and a few basic figures to get the ball rolling and get people interested.Looking just at DirectSki.com (a great snow holiday company, have used them many times

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-7157929654188296342010-09-09T10:17:00.004+01:002010-09-09T14:21:55.935+01:00

Found these tools from manufacturer's websites regarding capacitor choice and getting their respective ESR, ESL and other necessary values.Check out Murata's Chip S-parameter & Impedance Libraryhttp://www.murata.com/products/capacitor/design_support/index.htmlCheck out Kemet's Spice softwarehttp://www.kemet.com/kemet/web/homepage/kechome.nsf/weben/kemsoftAVX have their own site as well, but the

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-57943340397634159882010-09-07T13:40:00.003+01:002010-09-07T13:44:03.810+01:00

Just found this article on Light Peak from Intel, looks pretty cool. Sounds like Intel are holding back on the whole upgrading to USB 3.0 as they claim when LightPeak comes along, it can operate over the same USB port, but operating over 10Gbps over fibre optic cables. Now that'll kick the copper cables outta here.http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/15/

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-11906256447090864492010-09-03T09:48:00.002+01:002010-09-03T09:52:43.387+01:00

I cycled for the second time into work today. I've got to admit this time wasn't half as hard as the first time. I think I still have a few more adjustments to the bike to make it easier and more comfortable.I bought a gel seat cover and it made some difference, my butt isn't as sore, but it still hurts a little. I'm slowly getting fitter. I figured I had to cycle today after my poor attempt at

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-59545566214665246212010-07-16T16:37:00.002+01:002010-07-16T16:42:16.629+01:00

Sorry I haven't been blogging in a while, I'm still alive and well and trying to blog more. Quick update on everything at the moment. Had a savage party last week in our place in Donabate, it was pissing rain and windy, but we still camped in the garden, had the bbq, had a few drinks and loads of people showed up, it was amazing. Thanks to everyone who came.I finally got in on the Cycle to Work

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-25331738149464585542010-05-19T15:45:00.002+01:002010-05-19T15:55:54.984+01:00

I'm now fully trained to work on Phoenix Technologies Embedded BIOS with StrongFrame Technology. I just finished the short two day course in which myself and two other colleagues learnt all about writing, creating and debugging our very own embedded BIOS program. It seemed very straightforward and in theory a simplistic and well laid out method for customising a BIOS for an embedded system. There

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-54725778322921533262010-05-14T17:46:00.002+01:002010-05-14T17:49:41.540+01:00

I've just finished preparing for my Embedded BIOS Training which starts on Monday. It's a two day advanced training course which will allow me to succesfully create, debug and modify BIOS code.I've done some work with embedded BIOS before but it was only very basic stuff, so I'm hoping to improve my skill set and learn more things here, which will make me more useful and less expendable to the

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-19418642771097369202010-05-06T13:32:00.002+01:002010-05-06T13:46:55.372+01:00

I'm sick of Command & Conquer 4, ever since the word go, I've been kicked in the shins, punched in the stomach and suffered crazy headaches (metaphorically of course, except for the headaches). After being ripped off by GameStop and customs, having to pay a whopping €80 in total for a game that is now being sold off the shelf in HMV for €22.99!! less than 7 weeks after release! I'm seriously not

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-69388513902035710632010-04-12T09:33:00.002+01:002010-04-12T09:40:51.106+01:00

As I'm planning on getting a new car this summer, I've decided I'm going to give my Micra a bit of a checkup and some repair and maintenance.Over the last few weeks I've been fixing up the car and making necessary repairs. So far I've replaced the windscreen wipers, the front right fog lamp, strengthened the front bumper after I wrecked it last year. I had to pop rivet a few aluminium bars behind

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-88199557967563988722010-04-08T10:40:00.002+01:002010-04-08T10:44:38.023+01:00

Got an email today from TechOnline, included a great link for fundamentals of Embedded test with respect to hardware debug. hopefully I can squeeze it in during the day and mark it down as training. Looks and sounds very interesting.Fundamentals of Embedded Test: Hardware DebugTo any of you out there reading this, I seriously recommend joining TechOnline's website and checking out the online

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-47254579164941892392010-04-07T10:17:00.002+01:002010-04-07T10:23:09.312+01:00

So I won the lotto! Now in fairness I only won 5euro but that's more than I've ever won. After paying 4euro on a ticket, getting 5euro back is nice enough for me. All in all a net gain of 1 euro. Whatever shall I do with it, the list is endless. It's the little things like this that make me smile.We also gave in our notice (my girlfriend and myself) yesterday to our landlord and said we're moving

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-48926790304735481342010-04-02T15:01:00.002+01:002010-04-22T18:06:30.113+01:00

I had a great day yesterday. I pranked a load of people, I even got pranked myself. I fell for it hook line and sinker. It was great. It's been a while since someone actually got me proper.

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-18372003815833162512010-03-31T15:35:00.001+01:002010-03-31T15:37:18.526+01:00

Just signed up for twitterfeed, more on this later.

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-43463395320563525862010-03-30T15:47:00.002+01:002010-03-30T15:49:52.074+01:00

Was in Duff Cycles there in Omni over the weekend and I think I'm going to get myself another bike. I used to cycle a lot when I was younger and I miss it loads. Unfortunately I spent some money on two really good bikes and both of them got stolen, locks snapped and left as a reminder.Anyways, they mentioned the cycle to work scheme, where your employer purchases the bike and you buy it

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-80911876455229960442010-03-05T17:44:00.002Z2010-04-22T18:08:54.445+01:00

Just found this online, sounds mental! (literally :P)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Amplification_by_Stimulated_Emission_of_Radiation

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-37996049838592024132010-03-04T15:10:00.001Z2010-03-04T15:10:56.177Z

I've changed the layout again, any comments?

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-59361866432253297032010-03-01T09:39:00.002Z2010-03-01T09:49:08.813Z

I decided to sign up for a few different newsletters like Embedded Systems Design from TechInsights. I got an email from them about a week ago and they'd linked a site from TechOnline with a load of free online courses. These are incredible. I recommend anyone who's into hardware engineering in anyway to check it out.Here's the link: TechOnline Free Online CoursesThe courses are presented by

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-15132315970093344942010-02-22T15:13:00.002Z2010-02-22T15:19:19.337Z

So it's Lent now. Since I enjoyed Pancake Tuesday so thoroughly with the expense of not going to the member's information evening for Engineer's Ireland. I forgot that Lent starts the next day on Ash Wednesday. Needless to say I didn't get my forehead smudged with ash, not that I would have made any effort to have got it done anyway. I figured I may as well do something christian and productive

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-59668410541643019922010-02-22T14:39:00.001Z2010-02-22T14:41:29.521Z

Just got a phishing email from the following:http://itpec.org/itpeccx7direct2h%60alifax.ie/Login.aspx.htm?login.online.halifax.ie/Login.aspxDoes this mean that the ITPEC organisation in Asia is responsible?I dunno, but whatever you do, DO NOT enter your details into this FAKE login page!!

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-5575739651767062382010-02-17T12:16:00.004Z2010-02-17T12:21:50.442Z

Right, well I was supposed to go to the Engineer's Ireland member's information meeting yesterday. Needless to say I didn't go. I had a chat with a colleague here in work, he informed me that Engineer's Ireland is geared more towards civil and constructional engineering rather than Electronic Engineering. I don't think I want to pay for membership to receive periodicals on how to mix cement and

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-37698518528629320842010-02-16T12:21:00.002Z2010-02-16T12:25:49.100Z

Yay Pancakes!I hope I get a chance to eat some pancakes today. Busy day today.Heading to the Engineer's Ireland Information meeting tonight. I'm looking to find out what are the advantages of being a member. When: 16/02/2010From 6.00 PM until 8.00 PM Where: Engineers Ireland22 Clyde RoadBallsbridgeDublin 4Ireland For more information regarding this event please visit:http://

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-38631905009890074872010-02-08T17:44:00.002Z2010-02-08T17:51:37.111Z

I've removed AdSense after reading in an article about blogging. Apparently the whole adverts on your blog make it look tacky, unappealing and cheap. Never thought of it like that, on a second look though, my page looked like all those without the ads in the first place. So I figured, remove it, give the page a chance.I'm currently writing up some draft information for writing for my companies

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-74076721528979266902010-02-04T13:20:00.002Z2010-02-04T13:23:14.968Z

Been having a look into Channel and Rank Interleaving. Check out the explanations below for further explanations of what they are. (Explanation copied from http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3519&p=5)Channel Interleave: Higher values divide memory blocks and spread contiguous portions of data across interleaved channels, thereby increasing potential read bandwidth as requests for data can

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-53229819541819200092010-02-04T09:14:00.013Z2010-02-04T09:32:02.485Z

Had a late night here in work last night and tried to get to grips with SPD Data. When I say SPD data, specifically I'm talking about the SPD data for DDR3 DIMM's. What's SPD data you say? It's a table of the timings and settings saved in an EEPROM on the DIMM (Dual Inline Memory Module) module itself. SPD (Serial Presence Detect) is usually a small EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-48023268723501104882010-02-03T16:03:00.002Z2010-02-05T13:23:57.176Z

Found an interesting tool for reading SPD data from your DIMM's on your PC. Was looking for a tool that could do this for a system we're working on, however it doesn't support DDR3 or ICH10 access at the moment, so until then I'll have to find another way to access this information.SPD TOOL 0.63If anyone has a tool or knows of a tool for reading or writing SPD data for DDR3 DIMM modules,

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-6875706138891569802010-02-03T15:41:00.002Z2010-02-03T15:53:34.415Z

On a current project we're working on, we had a serial port output which came from the BMC, but there was no RS232 to level shift the TTL levels. In this design, the RS232 transceiver is on the adjoining system which connects to this serial port.So for testing purposes, to test this serial port we needed to either invest in a special cable with it all built in or make one ourselves from locally

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-44917032109837500672010-01-29T15:00:00.003Z2010-01-29T15:03:50.834Z

I'm currently trying to read the IPMI specification so that I can re-program a Serial EEPROM over I2C. I think I'm using an IPMB command to do so. I connect over the UART and login to the BMC using hyperterminal. Now our BMC code hasn't been finalised yet so it may or may not work. I'm hoping that I can figure out the commands as it would really save time and work if I could program the devices

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-2315502343531716682010-01-29T14:08:00.004Z2010-02-05T14:59:23.063Z

In work terms, this has been a great week. I'm on top of my game on nearly everything I've done. I found a solution to one of our Infiniband issues we've been having trouble with all week. I've successfully reworked a number of boards back into good working health and I'm unofficially referred to as the Mellanox expert. I'm on a roll. Now if I could only fix this one last board before the weekend

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-59424778531078349512010-01-22T11:29:00.004Z2010-08-09T15:23:16.417+01:00

All the best to Vladimir Zaytsev, one of our BIOS engineers who is top of his game. He's moving to California to join a startup company and live with his girlfriend in Los Angeles. He is a great engineer and he will be missed here in the company.

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-66471519902074209362010-01-21T17:55:00.002Z2010-01-21T17:58:03.195Z

Awesome, I just got private access to Intel's Embedded Design Center. It truly is incredible. Am currently watching a TechTalk video for an introduction to signal integrity. Basically it explains the important factors on using an Intel reference board design and what considerations to note down when deviating from the current tested design.I'd highly recommend gaining access to this site as it

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-27126396910778639662010-01-14T11:33:00.003Z2010-01-14T11:38:30.716Z

Intel came into us yesterday for an overview and roadmap presentation. We work a lot with Intel and I found this extremely useful. It is interesting to see what upcoming products they have and the support they have in place for helping with current products. Two very helpful websites are ark.intel.com and edc.intel.com. The Ark site is helpful for translating codes on their devices into specific

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-65118191414837690162010-01-06T10:36:00.003Z2010-01-06T10:41:11.050Z

This is a nifty little tool I found while performing IPL's (Initial Product Launch) on the systems we have here. Basically it scans your PC and records the Device ID's, stores these in a database. If you're connected to the web, then it will show you which drivers to download, thus sorting out those horrible exclamation marks in Device Manager. If you're not connected to the web or you're trying

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-25960182800536474182010-01-05T16:04:00.005Z2010-01-05T16:49:45.262Z

While at work, I'd use a number of different websites to help me find out what I need or how I can find it out. Enough can't be said for just googling what you're looking for. Wikipedia is full of useful information as well, for example RS232 pinouts, acronym descriptions and details.If you're having specific trouble with finding information on a component, check the manufacturer's website, more

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-52032849275614276532009-12-17T11:31:00.008Z2009-12-17T11:52:35.297Z

I've just realized that I've never given any information about the company I'm working for. To copy straight from the Ircona websiteThe IRCONA team is responsible for delivering a range of complex products to market both on time and to plan.These products have generated in excess of $400M in revenues over the past eight years. We have worked with customers throughout the world, including Europe,

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-78147314327361057742009-11-23T13:04:00.003Z2009-11-23T13:15:37.568Z

Ok, so I've been driven demented since I bought this game. It was pain enough that it took me 4 CD's to install the game, but when I installed it, the game ran once before it decided not to work again. The error I kept getting was that it needed some NVidia Detonator drivers 45.23 before it would work. Now I searched the web and tried to find these drivers for Vista 64bit. I eventually found it,

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-62580191060064273462009-11-23T09:48:00.004Z2009-11-23T10:02:37.489Z

On Saturday night, my lovely girlfriend brought me to see Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra. Now I've been dying to see Bill Bailey for some time, I've seen a load of his DVD's: Cosmic Jam, Part Troll, Tinselworm and many more. He's a very well spoken, talented, musical genius. He always tries to intertwine music and comedy and he does so in a magnificent fashion. In this Remarkable

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-83369492706207289742009-11-22T16:57:00.003Z2009-11-22T17:14:03.738Z

Yesterday I got the best email ever in the world. EA finally sent me an invitation to take part in their Beta program for Command & Conquer 4. It's the final in the Command & Conquer series. As far as I know, EA are only handing out these invitations to contest winners. The contest was to come up with the name for the final game in the series. Now I know my entry was Tiberium Twilight and the

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-4088248134677329502009-11-20T12:12:00.007Z2009-11-20T12:44:04.230Z

Alright, so I haven't posted in a while. I've been up to my tonsils with my current projects in work and busy with things at home. Things have gone quiet momentarily which I like for the moment. I've changed the look of the Blog Page, I really didn't like the old look, it was too dark and had a bit of a 90's webpage look about it. I still don't like this one too much, I'll eventually have to make

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-15380564043994541662009-08-07T10:58:00.001+01:002009-11-20T12:12:47.726Z

So I've been on holidays for the last two weeks, well actually I got back last Thursday and I haven't blogged up here yet. I'm kinda getting bored of all this blogging at the moment. No one's reading and it's all uninteresting anyways.News:Went on holiday to Spain for two weeks, spent two nights in Barcelona, had tapas and paella, then got drunk. Then hit Salou for 11 nights, 7 nights in the

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-75655067141752495782009-07-16T11:45:00.000+01:002009-07-16T11:46:41.984+01:00

The Cake is a lie!A very tasty lie, but a lie nonetheless.Even though it was a lie, I thoroughly enjoyed it and you will too.

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-60425353113171003922009-07-09T10:48:00.000+01:002009-07-09T11:22:08.802+01:00

I've been looking into getting myself some more RAM for my PC. So I looked online and watched eBay for a good price. So I made sure to look out for the exact same as what I have DDR2, PC2-6400, latency timings of 4-4-4-12, speed 800MHz, no ECC and unbuffered. I found an awesome deal with MicroXComputers on eBay, an american company selling 2GB DIMM's for $14 with free postage and packaging. I was

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-43260880611636341542009-07-06T18:01:00.001+01:002009-07-07T09:16:35.208+01:00

Tales of Monkey IslandMonkey Island has returned yet again for the fifth installment of the series. This time sees Guybrush Threepwood battling against the notorious Ghost Pirate Lechuck yet again as he tries to use the secret powers of the monkeys to make himself a god.This game is split up into five chapters to be downloaded one a month. It's an interesting concept. I wouldn't mind trying the

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-64069765515115125712009-07-06T16:35:00.000+01:002009-07-10T11:48:50.501+01:00

Just back from a crazy weekend up in Belfast. It was a crazy booze fueled weekend of night clubs, pubs, watching the Lions beat South Africa 29-9, dancing, hostels and that's just the mild stuff. Other parts of the night included talkin to unionists, nationalists, police. We stayed in a hostel with red, blue and white kerbs across the road from the Royal. There was security threats on the train

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-10721659333658692882009-06-30T10:14:00.001+01:002009-07-07T09:32:42.033+01:00

So after a hard day's slog, we finally finished with Ciara's Ford Fiesta. We replaced the wishbone, the steering strut and another part of the steering connected to the wheel. I'm not great with the names of the parts but it wasn't that hard a job.Unfortunately, we had a problem with the passenger side door being jammed shut. When the car hit the kerb, the wing on the front left chassis must have

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-36283480959141104672009-06-26T14:41:00.000+01:002009-06-26T14:45:08.689+01:00

So the King of Pop died yesterday afternoon of a heart attack. May he rest in piece. He was a legend in the pop world and there has never been anyone like him and there probably won't be anyone like him again.On a dark and sinister note, I've noticed strewn across the web more jokes about his death than anything else. Seriously it was like people were just waiting for him to croak to let off

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-37858222693131523622009-06-22T16:09:00.000+01:002009-06-22T16:17:46.854+01:00

I got denied from yet another loan application. I'm not sure where I'm going wrong with these applications but it's really beginning to piss me off. Here's a chance for the banks that I've been banking with to give me a loan to consolidate my debts and earn interest off it and they say no.I'm in full time employment, have paid off loans before and my credit rating over the last 6 months has been

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-73945749562606686032009-06-18T11:53:00.000+01:002009-06-26T14:49:23.855+01:00

So here's a project I will be workin on next weekend, the 27th, 28th of June.My girlfriend had a problem with her nice little Ford Fiesta that she bought in Kelly's of Kilcock. The wheel seized up and she hit a kerb. It sounds like there was a problem with the car before she hit, either way the wishbone in the front left wheel was snapped. There may also be damage to the drive shaft as well,

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-32277208376652336952009-06-09T16:16:00.001+01:002009-06-09T16:31:33.059+01:00

So I've got another idea for a little program I want to get cracking on. One thing that bugs me is that I've no clue about what tax I'm currently paying and how much money I'm possible owed or am liable to claim back on.So my idea is, is to write a small program in Visual Basic which would ask you a few important questions and then give you a run down of all the tax you are liable to pay and what

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-17999013101167400122009-06-05T16:56:00.000+01:002009-06-08T17:19:09.871+01:00

Finally a release date for Assassin's Creed 2. Here's another game I can't wait to get my hands on. The long awaited sequel will have you sneaking and killing in fancy and very cool ways across the city of Venice during what looks like the Renaissance era. You still play as an assassin living a past life in memory retrieval machine from the first game. The full story hasn't been divulged yet, but

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-7655042368330463942009-06-04T09:40:00.000+01:002009-06-05T16:45:13.718+01:00

Finally a release date for the long awaited sequel of the game that brought us thousand's of leagues under the sea to the awesome city of Rapture. Bioshock is expected stateside on November 3rd and for those of us this side of the atlantic, we get it a few days earlier on 30th October. The game is looking to be a roaring success as you play as one of the original Big Daddy's trying to escape the

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-84851429033309390072009-06-04T09:31:00.001+01:002009-06-04T09:51:07.621+01:00

I'm slowly getting back into gaming again and what better way than playing Fallout 3. What an awesome game. You play as an escapee of Vault 101, one of the many vaults which helped to protect many humans from the nuclear wars that spread outside. In search of your father, you traverse the wasteland to find him and try and understand what happened to this world which had been hidden away from you

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-66900230183927633672009-06-02T16:24:00.000+01:002009-06-02T16:28:17.515+01:00

I think I've mentioned this in my twitter before, but here's an interesting site called People Per Hour.The basic idea behind it is, people ask a question or request a job to be done (mostly computer related) and others place bids on answering or doing the requested job. Once the bid is accepted, money is then transferred. Great idea. I think I'll keep watch and see if I'm able to do anything

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-52887188645669540962009-06-02T16:09:00.000+01:002009-06-02T16:23:49.698+01:00

A while ago I was looking at TCP offload engines (TOE) and I thought it was a very interesting idea. TCP Offload engines have been around for a while. Basically what they do is take processing load off of the CPU by taking the entire TCP/IP stack and processing it within the network controller. Why would you want this?The rule for any telecomms system at the moment is that to transmit one bit of

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-13735177611528789402009-06-02T15:47:00.000+01:002009-06-02T16:07:56.450+01:00

Here's another idea that I've been trying to play with lately.I've been looking into noise cancelling technology. However they only seem to work on headphones for the moment. I'd like to be able to attach these to the likes of fans where there's a low frequency hum. Noise cancelling only really works for low frequency waves as it is able to reproduce the opposing wave to cancel it.Just as a quick

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-25319139102167267292009-06-02T15:43:00.000+01:002009-06-02T16:08:08.666+01:00

Here's an idea.How about an in car text messaging system. You know when you're out on the road and you want to contact someone but you don't want to necessarily call them. However texting while driving is difficult, dangerous and illegal. Well how about a system built into your wireless/handsfree kit which uses speech recognition and converts it straight to text. Can't imagine this being a huge

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-28283771049548158982009-05-31T12:21:00.000+01:002009-06-02T16:08:43.501+01:00

Bodies ExhibitionI surprised my girlfriend with tickets to go see the Bodies exhibition in the Ambassador on O'Connell street. She'd been dying to go for ages. It's not something I would normally go to see on my own. We were quite hungover after a night out in the Sublounge. The dark lighting was a little easier on our aching heads. The exhibit was amazing. Everything is taken from real human

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-85706574726309883012009-05-31T12:15:00.000+01:002009-06-02T16:08:54.821+01:00

Just found the most awesome drink ever last night. Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum and Club Orange, it tastes exactly like a Super Split ice cream! Best drink ever!

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-4158719376999311922009-05-29T14:12:00.000+01:002009-06-02T16:09:13.459+01:00

I'm really enjoy iGoogle. It gives me daily updates from the Irish Times, New York Times, RTE News, RTE Business, BreakingNews.ie, BBC News and People.com with the latest in news and gossip. I find it a great way to start or finish the day by keeping up to speed with the world around me.I also have get a photo of the day from National Geographic (Today's Atlatntic Walrus, Canada). They are all

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-24001949801920966852009-05-28T18:29:00.000+01:002009-05-28T18:53:41.774+01:00

A friend of mine recommended me and invited me to Aardvark. He mentioned a little bit about what it was to me so I figured I may as well check it out. You can add it in different ways into a few messaging services. I decided to add it to my gmail. It adds itself as a contact and you talk to it as you would anyone else in gtalk. The basic idea is that you ask this contact Aardvark a question and

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-3922696710192564032009-05-28T16:17:00.000+01:002009-06-02T16:09:23.696+01:00

So I finally logged back into Steam last night for the first time in a long time and I think I'm gonna try get back into gaming like I used to. I really do miss the all nighters. I think since I quit World of Warcraft I haven't been able to play like I used to. Plus having a girlfriend and having travelled around the world also changes things a little. No longer will I be a lonely gamer longing

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-86289640330752131342009-05-28T15:45:00.000+01:002009-05-28T16:08:46.099+01:00

Ok, so I know this blog has not been the most inspiring or interesting in anyway whatsoever. So taking a little inspiration from Robin Blandford of ByteSurgery, Why This Blog?, I've agreed with my old college buddy Robin who I studied Telecommunications with, and I think I will stop hiding my ideas and thoughts that I've been trying to store in hidden places all the time to never be looked at

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-21660964800344704252009-05-15T16:38:00.001+01:002009-05-15T16:40:08.217+01:00

Let's see if Google will actually pay me for each click on their advertisements on my page. I can't tell you to do this as it is against the rules of AdSense, but do feel free to do so ;)They got some very stringent rules that they adhere to and since Google practically own the internet, it's probably best not to mess with them.

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-13334470418337806782009-05-15T16:33:00.000+01:002009-05-29T14:22:49.669+01:00

Looks like I'll now be working for Face2Face, spot me in the streets trying to get out to sign up to great charitable causes. Show your good side, sign up with me and I'll buy ya a pint, oh yeah!More to come on this one, hopefully I'll have a photo of me in uniform next week.

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-35668791585195704652009-05-14T17:00:00.001+01:002009-05-14T17:01:26.823+01:00

I've got an interview for a part time job tomorrow. Hopefully I get it, I need the money. Funds have been crap lately and I can't seem to pay off any of these debts.

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-32185658977694996352009-05-13T18:43:00.000+01:002009-05-13T18:46:01.015+01:00

Yikes' I've been crazy busy the last two weeks now, haven't had a chance to play with my new gadgets yet. I think this weekend I'll finally get to do something with them. Unfortunately my good friend has an important dissertation to attend to before he can jump back on board of this tasty project. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to do anything with it. So until the weekend, I've nothing

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-90481918229756294172009-04-29T13:11:00.001+01:002009-04-29T13:13:48.778+01:00

Ok, so I've received my very first components for our project.Still awaiting quotes back for the transparent acryllic.In the pic, you can see the IR LED's, they're purple, the green components are the resistors, they're big yokes and the dark coloured one is the PhotoDiode for later testing.

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-51906963196572865242009-04-28T17:27:00.000+01:002009-04-28T17:33:42.377+01:00

Ok, I've finally ordered the first batch of items from Farnell. Unfortunately, they only allow orders over 35euro so I had to add a few more items as well. I figured it'd be a good idea to buy a set of noise cancelling headphones as well for my other project.Anyways, I ordered the following40x IR LED's, 880nm, SFH485P (16.80 euro)10x WireWound 51ohm, 5% tolerance, 3W tolerance resistors (3.70

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-15554927496818889292009-04-20T17:50:00.000+01:002009-04-20T18:18:20.128+01:00

So I'm beginning a new project which should be fairly cool. It was my good friend Stephen who introduced me to the idea and got the ball rolling on the whole thing. The idea is based on FTIR, Frustrated Total Internal Reflection. What we're going to be doing with this technology is using it to make our very own multi-touch screen device. Using NUI's (swedish college, not Maynoot) walkthrough on

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-1139322098608153372009-04-15T12:19:00.001+01:002009-04-15T12:33:48.062+01:00

I've mentioned nothing about the recession and my thoughts about it and how it affects me in this blog yet.I suppose I should. I just filled out another survey asking me about how my spending has changed since the recession. To be honest, it hasn't really. I went to Australia last year on a whim to chase after my current girlfriend and I racked up a load of debts or about 15,000 euro. That's some

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-52184790557211056242009-04-14T17:58:00.001+01:002009-04-14T18:01:04.813+01:00

I've noticed some odd comments on some of my blogs below and I'm thinking maybe I need to update this page more and get photos into it.Unfortunately I can't take photos of things I'm actually working on, but I suppose I could take photos of the tools and use photos from other places online.I also think I need to restrict exactly how much information I give out about what I'm working on as it can

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-45585931609635349672009-04-02T16:28:00.001+01:002009-04-02T16:28:58.518+01:00

So I'm noticing my blog looks very boring and uninteresting. I think I'm going to have to start uploading photos. This weekend is the ideal time to start that.Might try and fit more into it as well.

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-2473124003792879562009-04-02T16:24:00.001+01:002009-04-02T16:27:54.001+01:00

So the company I'm working for have finally admitted that we ain't doing as well as we'd hoped. They've gone and announced a 10% cut across the board, no one is free from it. It's very fair but at the same time, why does it have to be me?Anyways, I suppose this means I'm going to have to up the anti and start looking for an alternate income or maybe even a replacement job.Also on another note, I

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-3388883954002698842009-03-31T17:50:00.000+01:002009-03-31T17:58:58.464+01:00

Since I finished college I've been constantly coming up with ideas for ways to make things easier and for me to make money off.A lot of the ideas get thrown in the bin, but there's still a load of them that are fairly viable. After reading part of Google's founders (Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page) thesis, I'm really beginning to feel that it is part of my destiny to come up with at least one great

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-50610175898495134862009-03-16T14:17:00.000Z2009-03-16T14:21:03.495Z

So I've just ordered a decent soldering iron from eBay for about 10euro. After spending 40euro in Maplin the other day, hardly buying enough components to fill my pockets, I decided I need to start buying my stuff online.Anyways, with regards the soldering iron, I've now got enough tools to get me going on my way to creating and designing my own gadgets. I've a few little ideas that I'd like to

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-50079399829040601822009-03-16T14:10:00.001Z2009-03-16T14:12:23.860Z

Been doing a load of rework lately, it's great, I'm a little scared though. These boards are worth more than ten grand each and here I am with a soldering iron taking lumps out of them. It's all good though so far, I've nearly finished the first set of rework to be done. One day we'll have a fully functional board. Why don't all the components work first time like they say they do in the

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-49891332298092641832009-03-04T17:34:00.001Z2009-06-02T16:31:08.149+01:00

So I've finally stopped looking through that awful code I've been given to modify. It's a pure mess and to be honest, I don't know enough about either C or C++ to go and try and figure it out. So I've taken a day or two out of messing with the code and got myself a copy of Sam's Visual C++ in 21 days. I'm going to try and do it all in about 3 days, it's fairly simple stuff and I've been through

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-12957138290098288152009-03-04T17:17:00.000Z2009-03-04T17:33:03.840Z

Ok, I've joined twitter, Still don't see the point. I'll give it a few days.Find me under the name Pyrolith. I'd link, but where's the fun in that?I've been a member for about 5 minutes and I've got 3 followers already. That's just plain weird, I've nothing to say and even less time to be saying it.

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-55453016406440012822009-03-04T17:07:00.000Z2009-03-04T17:11:15.358Z

Twitter this, twitter that. To be honest, I don't think I'm mad about the whole idea. It's been referred to as a 10 second phone call, except instead of one person, it goes out into the twittersphere (not sure if its a word, but sure why not?). Either way it goes out to many many people.Anyway, I'm not sure if I get the point of throwing a message out into the void for the sake of joining in with

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-66541236889781736412009-02-24T17:40:00.000Z2009-06-02T16:33:44.663+01:00

So we received our big beautiful board back from manufacturing and it's cool. This is the first project I've worked heavily on, with regards to design, researching components, sourcing components and verifying correct connections. It's a very dense board, there's barely any room for any other additions and everything is packed tight.Anyways, when a new board like this comes in, the last thing we

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-58695578364487880652009-02-24T17:21:00.000Z2009-02-24T17:39:40.695Z

Since moving into my new apartment, I've been mad to get broadband in the house. None of the others were interested so I figured now I could get a line all to myself. However, there's no phone connection in my room and setting up a land line broadband connection would cause more hassle and annoyance that I don't want to create. So I searched around for wireless broadband. I've heard of a few

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-6378659772780736882009-02-19T16:04:00.000Z2009-02-19T16:12:52.677Z

Ok, I've finally finished those tests for power consumption for the board that has the RF antenna on it. Only difference is, the low-side sensing wouldn't work for me. I forgot I had a serial port connection, which obviously has a ground shield on it, so not all the current was returning through the negative terminal. Leaving me with crappy results in the region of 50mV when it should have been a

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-55457699859713817142009-02-19T13:09:00.000Z2009-02-19T13:21:31.910Z

I've been working another project in parallel with my C++ programming stuff and it's been interesting to say the least. I think I may have mentioned a DVT on a small little board a few weeks back. Anyway, I've been given the task of doing tests on the power consumption of this board. Simple enough you may think. It was, but now it's slightly more complicated.First off, I just attached a digital

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-51863555145570711252009-02-19T12:00:00.000Z2009-02-19T12:07:24.629Z

For the last week, I've been trying to learn C++ using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. It's a great tool and a very useful language to know, as well as a great addition to my CV. However, I've been currently trying to decode someone else's program in order to re-write one section of the code and it's driving me mad. I wish I could just get some program that reads the code, tries to make sense of

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-62115602715272702712009-02-13T10:35:00.000Z2009-06-02T16:32:24.074+01:00

DOS 6.22Windows 3.1Windows 95Windows 98/MEWindows NT 4Windows 2000Windows Server 2003Windows XPWindows Vista (32/64 bit)MAC OS 9MAC OS XUbuntu 8.10Red Hat's Fedora 10Suse 9.0openSuse 10.2openSuse 11.1Suse Entreprise 10.2FreeBSD 7.1uCOSRTOS's

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-56789777514467234872009-02-13T10:33:00.001Z2009-06-02T16:32:54.476+01:00

PERLCC++Visual BasicGW Basic (back in the old days)HTML (and a few other related ones, dhtml, xml, etc)PHP (very basic)Assembly (ASM, 8086 and embedded)UMLThis list is not finished yet

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-44784532227479722482009-02-13T10:15:00.000Z2009-02-13T10:33:07.262Z

So yesterday I was given a new project to get cracking on a program that was originally written to display and update micro codes into a BIOS ROM file. The program is written in C++. I've got a little background in the language, but not enough. So I've got my work cut out for me as some people would say.So microcodes, what are they? Microcodes are made by the CPU engineer up building of a

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-302286102948739182009-02-13T09:47:00.000Z2009-02-13T10:15:19.473Z

SO, over the last week, I've been up to fairly boring monotonous stuff. But given that, I've now got exposure to Fedora 10, Suse 10.2, Windows Server 2003, FreeBSD 7.1 and FreeDOS 1.0. Also got to use a number of AMD BIOS utilities through NDA, Linux Firmware Development Kits and other PCI testing programs.Basically, I was given a system to run a DVT (Design Validation Test) on. The DVT document

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52955926745371976.post-15214410618812260092009-02-06T14:32:00.000Z2009-02-06T14:40:26.211Z

Ok, I know I said I'd have more information up about this PXE server, but it's been incredibly awkward and difficult. I think I've found a solution though, instead of using Altiris' Deployment software, I've found some very useful software with the GNU GPL, which means I may be able to pull this off. It needs a little tweaking and it seems more complicated than it actually is.So here it is, I've

Mike P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04782248115306250681noreply@blogger.com0