[XCSSA] XCSSA Meeting: High voltage, Hardware Hacking, and other fun stuff (Mon, June 15th, 7pm back in the NTC building, old room 140 (not the basement))

[X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio]

We ended up having a pretty cool little meeting the other night.. back in our 
old digs, room 140.

Fredrik wasn't able to make it out to show his high voltage fractal art.. but 
I ended up showing the AMD PIC in action.. and we reflashed one and booted a 
USB live CD distro from flash drive.. but then Bruce gave an Ad Hoc, but very 
detailed white board session on exactly how the new digital broadcast system 
works.. from the analog and digital spectrum/sideband diagrams and coding 
schemes.. to how the new digital boxes work.. what their feature sets are, 
and how new "rotorless" phase based electronically controlled high gain 
antennas work.  Very informative!  Thanks Bruce!

Tweeks
p.s. If anyone wants to buy my other PIC (with power supply + USB/Ethernet 
adaptor).. make me an offer. I only need one.. :)


On Monday 15 June 2009 11:27:11 am X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio 
wrote:
> Thanks for the heads up Fredrik..  Hope you don't have strep.. or that if
> you do.. you get better soon.  Drink lost of liquids and get some rest man.
>
> So I guess we'll just be doing my AMD PIC thing tonight.
>
> Is anyone else going to bring out any cool hardware?
>
> Tweeks
> p.s. if someone could bring a camera.. that would be great.  I wanted to
> get some pics of the PIC hardware, and my wife took my camera (and kids)
> out of state for the week. :)
>
> On Monday 15 June 2009, X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio wrote:
> > Howdy...
> >
> > I'm 99% sure that I got Strep Throat this Saturday, however I'm not
> > showing any symptoms yet... I know this is contagious so I'm not going
> > to the meeting tonight, don't want to get anyone else sick...
> > I'll save the Plasma Fractals show and tell until the next meeting...
> >
> > /Fredrik
> >
> > X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio wrote:
> > >                 Xotic Computer Systems of San Antonio *
> > >                  \_____\________\__________\___\______X
> > >                         \________\__________\___\_____C
> > >                                   \__________\___\____S
> > >                                               \___\___S
> > >                                                    \__A
> > >          (* this email is best viewed in fixed fonts)
> > > 	http://xcssa.org/archives/XCSSA_2009-06-15.html
> > >
> > > Hey all!
> > >
> > > NOTE: This meeting will be held in the NTC building, back in our "old
> > > old" room 140 on the 1st floor!
> > >
> > > No formal presentations as of yet... but some cool show-n-tells going
> > > on.
> > >
> > > :)
> > >
> > > First up...
> > >
> > > Plasma (High Voltage) Fractals: By Fredrik
> > > Besides propeller and microcontroller hacking, Fredrik also has a thing
> > > for things that make sparks.  Specifically, high voltage sparks.  A
> > > while back, Fredrik built a simple flyback high voltage kit that puts
> > > out 25,000 volts AC at around 25kHz.  About what you get from a CRT
> > > based television set HV flyback circuit.  In previous meetings he's lit
> > > up light bulbs, globes and what not (see links on web site) but now
> > > he's playing with the burn patterns that can be achieved by dampening
> > > composite wood boards with water and hitting them with HV plasma arcs.
> > > Some pretty cool fractal-like patterns can be created very easily
> > > (links on web site) and he's going to show the results, and with
> > > building approval, do some demonstrations of the process.
> > > http://xcssa.org/archives/XCSSA_2009-06-15.html#NEXT
> > >
> > > De-WinCE-ing the AMD "PIC Brick": By Tweeks
> > > A few years back, AMD released a sealed, rubberized PC about the size
> > > of a brick called the AMD PIC (link).  It only ran a specific version
> > > of WindowsCE (and not very well at that), and could not run anything
> > > else as it had a special "Trusted Hardware" BIOS in it that would not
> > > allow any other OS to be booted(link).  Well after some discussions on
> > > the XCSSA mail list... Tweeks has decided to go ahead an un-WinCE-brick
> > > the device at XCSSA and load a small Linux distro on it to show how
> > > easy it is... and what a nice little system the AMD PIC can actually
> > > be, if the right OS is employed. (links to the directions and flash ROM
> > > image related files are linked to from the web site)
> > > http://xcssa.org/archives/XCSSA_2009-06-15.html#NEXT
> > >
> > > There has been some other x-otic hardware chatter on the list.. so come
> > > out ans see what shows up.. We might have some other interesting
> > > hardware show up too.
> > >
> > > FREEBIES!: Tweeks finally GOT that handful of free (as in beer) Ubuntu
> > > Case Badges to brandish on your Linux lappy!  He'll bring them in to
> > > give out.
> > >
> > > ** See the web site for links to the above subjects. **
> > > http://xcssa.org/archives/XCSSA_2009-06-15.html#NEXT
> > >
> > >
> > > Should be a fun laid back meeting this month..
> > > Hope to see you there!
> > >
> > > Tweeks
> > > President of XCSSA.ORG
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> >
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