Tony is a Geek

Amstrad CPC PIO what? Well,  as posted previously: https://tonyisageek.blogspot.com/2023/04/amstrad-cpc-resurrections.html https://tonyisageek.blogspot.com/2023/04/cross-compiled-c-code-for-amstrad-cpc.html https://tonyisageek.blogspot.com/2023/05/amstrad-cpc-464-tape-deck-enhancement.html I have rekindled the old Amstrad CPC 464 (and 6128) memories from when I was a lot younger - and the CPC 464 was "the machine" that got me "into computers" way back in 1984/1985-ish. Having recently acquired a few and fixed up a few, I met a great electronics genius who helped to diagnose and fix one of the original CPC 464 mother boards, so it could live on again.  I learnt a lot and it rekindled my previous interest in the electronics side of things. Long story short, Rob, was also making standalone Z80 computer motherboards and basically making his own computers - which inspired me to obtain and put on the shelf ready for a rainy day or two to solder and make:  https://tonyisag...

well, that was acronym overload for you.. let me break it down: Airspy - https://airspy.com/ USB dongle to "listen to all the things" RPi = Raspberry Pi 4 - yes, they are back in stock & I just received a 4GB version.  Couldn't remember why I had it on back order, so I thought I would use it for this project anyway. RTL-SDR = Software Defined Radio - basically a USB stick that acts as a scanner of radio waves - but not just audio / digital too. https://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/ So what can you do with this? Well, you can run software that allows you to see what Plane transponders are broadcasting ADS-B around the 100+mile radius of where you are (if your antenna is good enough) - basically flightaware.com You can see what Ships are broadcasting AIS messages, albeit usually within a 25m radius - basically marinetraffic.com Basically, devices transmit encoded messages and we can pick them up from the SDR and decode them and work out the details that they contain an...

I short while ago, I teased that I was going to do some time-travelling back to the 1970/80s.... I did actually purchase a Z80 MBC3 device , getting around the Brexit problem of not being able to purchase items from The Netherlands because of the massive VAt charge for importing the goods into the UK - yeah, great, thanks populace dim-witted knuckle-scraping thug heads for that decision - anyway, way arond it was for the seller to pay a small fortune themselves in fee's / costs and also for me and to get the item via eBay too.... yep, of course there is a loop-hole.  don't expect it to stay open for too long though. More info at github  and a new WEBSITE to purchase the kits from I received the board and all the parts and was ready to do a soldering session and then a really odd thing happened in the UK - the sun came out...for more than 1 day.  This meant I had to switch from doing things "in the house" and go and do all those "other things" that involve ...

I have been asked by more than a few people about my views on A.I. ( which does NOT exist btw - there is no Artificial Intelligence, it does not exist yet, get over it ) and what I've been doing with it in relation to my work/work.  Well, I cannot tell you that, obviously. I have though in the past, populated articles on this site that reflect things that I have been doing / investigating for work/work and have made a record of them so that if/when I wish to repeat them I can return here and follow my instructions OR I have posted 'items of interest', things that I think might be interesting to follow up on at a near date/time in the future. I steer away from all the ChatGPT or Generative AI ( again, pi$$ poor name ) hype-b*ll*x that has been spewing out from very ignorant and naive people over the past 6-months.  Most of them should know better, as to the rest, well, they are the clueless one's, no change there, and they are just focused on the money $$$$ side of thin...