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<title>Guddler&#x27;s RSS Feed</title><link>http://www.guddler.co.uk/index.php</link><description>Gudd&#x27;s Hot News&#x21;</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><dc:creator>admin@guddler.co.uk</dc:creator><dc:rights>Copyright 2007 Martin White</dc:rights><dc:date>2008-05-27T01:48:17+01:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
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<lastBuildDate>Tue, 27 May 2008 01:50:35 +0100</lastBuildDate><item><title>Cab changes</title><dc:creator>admin@guddler.co.uk</dc:creator><category>Website</category><dc:date>2008-05-27T01:48:17+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/911035199250f4ee714dede12bf9e76d-32.php#unique-entry-id-32</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/911035199250f4ee714dede12bf9e76d-32.php#unique-entry-id-32</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[The Aero city is now sold so it moves to the "Past games" section, although it is strictly speaking still here awaiting collection.   Taking it's place is a nice Taito Egret 2 so I will probably add some pictures of that some time soon.   In fact, the machines are all a bit out of date.   Cosmic Alien has been missing from the current games section all along for some reason, plus there's also a Woody Woodpecker pachinko to add as well.   Maybe I'll get some time soon to bring things up to date.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Zaccaria Invaders Freeplay</title><dc:creator>admin@guddler.co.uk</dc:creator><category>Website</category><dc:date>2008-05-11T02:19:50+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/7728a724ebfcf97d8154af0867225855-31.php#unique-entry-id-31</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/7728a724ebfcf97d8154af0867225855-31.php#unique-entry-id-31</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[A new page has been added with a software modification to add a freeplay mode to the Zaccaria version of Space Invaders (called "The Invaders").   This machine was prolific throughout the UK and Europe around 1980 and well beyond.   The page has been added to the "Misc Stuff" section of the site.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>9100 Adapter update</title><dc:creator>admin@guddler.co.uk</dc:creator><category>Website</category><dc:date>2008-03-09T23:22:21+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/a72569c3dce0f4e68374b88b96fadf1c-30.php#unique-entry-id-30</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/a72569c3dce0f4e68374b88b96fadf1c-30.php#unique-entry-id-30</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Okay, as promised, v1.1 of the 9100 keyboard adapter is here.   Quite a lot has changed in this version so please read through the project page thoroughly.   New in this version is a new USA keyboard layout, circuit compatibility with in-circuit programming and debugging and, in order to facilitate this, the PIC has changed (although I have maintained circuit compatibility with the old one).


Available for download this time round is also the source code.   If you are happy with the new 16F627A MCU then it is not necessary to download the source as the hex files were compiled for that MCU however, if you wish to go with the old chip because you're not interested in programming or debugging the code then download the source and follow my instructions in the updated "circuit" section of the project.   The source contains project files for MPLAB IDE incidentally which can be freely downloaded from Microchip's website.


The code is actually still embarrassingly hacky so don't scrutinise it too much.   I have done some code relocating though to help with memory organisation (all these hacks take up space you know!!)   and so I'm starting to get to grips with this properly rather than just keep hacking it to get extra keys put in all the time.   Hopefully before very long I'll have something together that's actually half decent! ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>9100 Keyboard adapter progress</title><dc:creator>admin@guddler.co.uk</dc:creator><category>Website</category><dc:date>2008-03-05T01:00:39+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/fe0c211a363f728624aef42ef1737434-29.php#unique-entry-id-29</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/fe0c211a363f728624aef42ef1737434-29.php#unique-entry-id-29</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[v1.1 is on the way...


Just for anyone that's keeping an eye out for this, the source code has been recovered / rebuilt and I now have a US key map as well.   I've also modified the circuit so the reset line from the 9100 is no longer directly connected to the /MCLR line of the 16F84A.   For day to day use this was not a problem but if anyone were to be a bit more ambitious and rig up an in-circuit programmer or debugger then the consequences could have been severe as anything up to 13v would have gone down the 9100's reset line!


All I need now is the time to update the projects section accordingly.


v1.1 contains a bug on the US key map that causes the adapter to reset.   It's on a key that is rarely used so in practical terms, it's not a show stopper.   That will hopefully be fixed in v1.2, but there will be a delay delivering v1.2 as I have an ICD2 in-circuit debugger on order (hence fixing the reset line above) and I need to wait for that to turn up before I can get much further with this.   In all likelihood, I will then release the source, and that will be the last update until v2 comes along. v2 will likely be a complete re-write from the ground up, likely using a C compiler and also likely using a different PIC model that supports in-circuit debugging since I will be having to jump through a few hoops to get v1.1 debugged on the current PIC.


Oh, and while all this is going on, we've finally moved house and I'm starting to get all my project stuff set back up again. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Fluke 9100 Keyboard Adapter</title><dc:creator>admin@guddler.co.uk</dc:creator><category>Website</category><dc:date>2008-02-28T10:49:12+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/7cd4a514dd931a7d5428ee46c4e1547d-28.php#unique-entry-id-28</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/7cd4a514dd931a7d5428ee46c4e1547d-28.php#unique-entry-id-28</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[After months of inactivity I'm back with an interesting little project for anyone that owns a Fluke 9100 digital test system.   I was recently able to get one of these from the US but as with so many of them, although it came with the video card (many don't) there was no sign of it's long lost programmers keyboard.   Not to be put off, I set about making an adapter to allow me to use a standard PC keyboard with a 9100 to PS2 interface.   Check out all the details in the projects section.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Photo section</title><dc:creator>admin@guddler.co.uk</dc:creator><category>Personal</category><dc:date>2007-11-08T00:39:43+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/ef20064229deade746511c75bf2ecb5e-26.php#unique-entry-id-26</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/ef20064229deade746511c75bf2ecb5e-26.php#unique-entry-id-26</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[A couple of weeks back I went to take a snapshot of something and picked up our camera, a Fujifilm Finepix F402 only to find that it no longer worked.   After the initial disappointment at the fact that we'd only had it 3 years so how could it have died already, we went to the shop we bought it from and was told that the CCD had died and while unusual, it wasn't unheard of (great help!).   Fuji wanted more than we paid for the camera to fix it so we were a bit pissed off to put it mildly.


A couple days later I decided to check out Fuji's website and to our surprise I found that we could send the camera back and get a &pound;55 trade in against a new camera. ...  I had no intention of buying a new camera, and in fact it hadn't even entered my mind until the old one broke, however looking at what was being offered we like the look of one and the very next day we were the proud owners of a nice new Fujifilm Fineix S5700.   Bearing in mind that Fuji didn't even waiting to receive the old one before shipping out the new unit, that's what I call customer service. ...  Let's put it this way, we may not have been intending to even look at cameras with everything else that was going on but I figured that getting &pound;55 for the old one was better than the landfill getting it for free :)


So, it's been years since I've heard of things like aperture and ISO and all that m'larky but this camera does all of that, albeit in a digital way so we've been out and about a little taking a few (hundred) snaps to try and get to grips with the new unit.   Someone else that I knew was also looking so I decided to put a couple of the nicer ones on the website for people to look at.


...If you fancy taking a quick look then there's also a version done with iWeb as well but that's just me playing about with iWeb so it doesn't link properly back into the main site or anything.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Computers&#x2c; games&#x2c; apples&#x2c; and big cats...</title><dc:creator>admin@guddler.co.uk</dc:creator><category>Personal</category><dc:date>2007-11-08T00:13:28+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/1d6001765b0f7bc5db897f4c85908a2e-25.php#unique-entry-id-25</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/1d6001765b0f7bc5db897f4c85908a2e-25.php#unique-entry-id-25</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Well, this has been going on for a few months now and to start off with I found myself actually watching the TV, something I don't normally do too much of. ...  One afternoon we stumbled across a catch up weekend of Heroes entirely by accident out of boredom and that quickly got added to the list, but there's only so much TV that someone who doesn't normally watch much of it can take!


As some will know I've used Apple Mac computers for a few years now and being a developer I have an ADC select membership.   So, I've been previewing Leopard on most of the seeds but had never dedicated the entire machine to it since the family shares one machine and I knew it would be getting reinstalled a lot in it's early days. ...  I was able to reformat our machine as one big happy partition again, install Leopard, then I dedicated 30GB to a Windows XP install and we've been pretty busy ever since!


...Sure there are some things that irritate, and some bugs have been well publicised but to be honest, it's a pretty good achievement. ...  Blogging's a little broken and because of this I managed to loose a couple of entries from the main page of the site but there was nothing desperately wonderful being said in them so they can remain history for now. 

...BUT, since I've got a native XP partition (that I can also use from within OSX using VMWare's Fusion) then I've installed steam and have been catching up on the Half Life series. 

...I have a couple of small Mac app's up my sleeve, well, technically a widget and an app but I don't know if they'll ever see the light of day, or the dark of night which would be more appropriate for me! 

...For the time being, we'll just keep playing games, watching TV and hope that by 2008 we can be all moved, settled and have all the arcade stuff back to some sense of normality :)
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Moving house sucks&#x21;</title><dc:creator>admin@guddler.co.uk</dc:creator><category>Personal</category><dc:date>2007-11-07T23:44:02+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/8395a9f6e95ba99c5c692416a9eff8a8-24.php#unique-entry-id-24</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/8395a9f6e95ba99c5c692416a9eff8a8-24.php#unique-entry-id-24</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[For various reasons that we won't go into here we decided we were going to move back to my home town where my family is, which also happens to be by the sea and is a generally nice place to be. ...  So we get our money in order, found out what we can afford and have a bit of a look around and being the good citizens that we are find somewhere we want but figure there's no point in going any further until we have someone to buy our place.


...You put your house up for sale while miraculously finding the place of your dreams, all parties agree on purchase and sale prices and things are handed to the conveyancors / solicitors / lawyers along with a couple of thousand pounds in fees and sit back and wait.   At the end of roughly a three month process involving many, many letters, phone calls and often heated debates (not to mention, often more fees) you "exchange contracts", then in theory a couple of weeks later you move in and live happily ever after (can you see where this is headed yet??!!)


Well, there's a flaw in this system and that is that no-one is legally bound to anything whatsoever until the stage where you exchange contracts with each other.   What this effectively means is that any party, anywhere along a chain of properties can simply change their minds for any reason whatsoever and just wake up one morning and decide "to hell with it, I don't want this house any more".


So anyway, our process goes well, our house flies off the shelf (it's a good price, lovely place and a very desirable location) and we get a buyer within about 2 weeks. ...  Bottom line, roughly six weeks and &pound;2,000 or so later we get a phone call from the estate agents and I'm thinking great, we've exchanged contracts (this was the day we were due to do this). 

...If it were any reasonable person they'd at least have been apologetic about the amount of money they'd cost everyone but no, I guess we just ended up with a dick head. 

...And with the spare room turned into a guest room in true show home style, my office has been relegated to the garage and I have to say, it's no fun sitting at a desk working in a cold garage all day long in November. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>A new look&#x21;</title><dc:creator>admin@guddler.co.uk</dc:creator><category>Website</category><dc:date>2007-08-28T02:00:55+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/b8e43438ebb6072ae2da12c841eefbe6-19.php#unique-entry-id-19</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/b8e43438ebb6072ae2da12c841eefbe6-19.php#unique-entry-id-19</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[This is a complete overhaul from the ground up so if you find anything that's not working as it looks like it should please use the contact form from the menu on the left to let me know.   If you do so then please don't forget to tell me what operating system and browser you are using so I can investigate the issue and try to fix it.


...The old site was great and I was actually pretty proud of it because although it didn't look like much, it was completely hand written by myself in PHP and MySQL. ...  Certainly two of the key things that I always wanted to improve were the home page and the repairs section which has been growing for some time now.


So, having been a Mac convert for the last three years now I figured I would go on the hunt for some nice software to help me in a nice drag and drop way instead of coding it all by hand (as seems to be the Mac way of things) and after trying a few different things I tried RapidWeaver.   The demo allows you to create up to three pages but by the time I got to my second I could see that it was great and it would meet my needs perfectly. 

...Whether I will use it for anything other than quick site updates will remain to be seen but at least the opportunity exists now for me to use it for more if I feel like it. 

...For a while now I've been using Circus Ponies Notebook to record my logs on my Mac and it comes with a handy "export to HTML" feature.   Up until now though I didn't really know how to embed this into my own code but now that I'm using RapidWeaver it's a doddle and i've been able to get all the repair logs down to a single link in the menu and in a format that I think you'll love.


That's about it for now, all the old content should be here and in theory I should be able to add to things a lot easier. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>A date with Ms Pacman</title><dc:creator>admin@guddler.co.uk</dc:creator><category>Repairs</category><dc:date>2007-06-25T23:44:09+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/c32bbc2625154003b7be88853d9ac8e2-0.php#unique-entry-id-0</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.guddler.co.uk/index_files/c32bbc2625154003b7be88853d9ac8e2-0.php#unique-entry-id-0</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Been doing a huge amount of board repairs lately and on the whole I've been too busy with it to be able to document them and put them up on the website.   This evening however I fixed a Ms PacMan board and figured I'd write it up while it was fresh on my mind!   It's "Pacman 3" on the left.]]></content:encoded></item></channel>
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