#program 232

[jrvis2levyy]

What is a rs-232, RS232 to rs422 converter, rs232 to ethernet, serial communications connecting devices

ICL3221 Series 250 kbps 15 kV RS232 5.5V Transmitter/Receiver - TSSOP-16

[stevebattle]

ITSABOX (1979) by Lee Hart, Rochester, NY. ITSABOX is built around the COSMAC 1802-based BASYS/1 card, also designed by Lee Hart, in 1978. It can be programmed in 8TH, a dialect of FORTH. "My first 1802 robot was Itsabox (It's A Box turtle robot; get it?) It was a BASYS board driving two stepper motors for the left and right wheels, two toe switches to sense the edges of the table, and two finger switches to sense when it touched an object. There was also an RS-232 port, and a speaker to make noises. It was programmed in 8TH, and worked like the Logo turtle robots. … This photo is of the first Itsabox, built around 1979 when I lived in Rochester NY. It went to the West Coast Computer Faire the year we had the booth across from Heathkit and their Hero robot." – Lee Hart, in "Lee Hart's BASYS card and ITSABOT" (sic), by Herb Johnson.

[techav]

As I've mentioned before, the ultimate goal for my 68030 homebrew systems is to run a proper multi-user operating system. Some flavor of System V or BSD or Linux. I am not there yet. There is still so much I need to learn about programming in general and the intricacies of bringing up one of those systems, plus my hardware does not yet have the ability to support multiple users.

I've toyed with several ideas as to how to get the hardware to support multiple users, but ultimately decided to leverage what I have already. I have a fully-functional modular card-based system. I can easily build new cards to add the functionally I need. And to make development and debugging easier, I can make each card simple, dedicated to a single function.

The catch is I've already run into some stability issues putting everything on the main CPU bus. So what I really need is some kind of buffered peripheral bus I can use for developing the new I/O cards I'll need.

So that's where I started — a new 8-bit I/O bus card that properly buffers the data and address signals, breaks out some handy I/O select signals, and generates the appropriate bus cycle acknowledge signal with selectable wait states.

It wasn't without its problems of course. I made a few mistakes with the wait state generator and had to bodge a few signals.

With my new expansion bus apparently working I could set out on what I had really come here for — a quad serial port card.

I have it in my head that I would really like to run up to eight user terminals on this system. Two of these cards would get me to that point, but four is a good place to start.

I forgot to include the necessary UART clock in the schematic before laying out the board, so I had to deadbug one. I'm on a roll already with this project, I can tell.

So I get it all wired up, I fire up BASIC, attach a terminal to the first serial port, and get to testing.

Nothing comes across.

Step-by-step with the oscilloscope and logic analyzer, I verify my I/O select from the expansion bus card is working, the I/O block select on the UART card is working, the individual UART selects are working. I can even see the transmitted serial data coming out of the UART chip and through the RS-232 level shifter.

But nothing is showing up in the terminal.

I've got the terminal set for 9600bps, I've got my UART configured for 9600bps, but nothing comes across.

I did note something strange on the oscilloscope though. I could fairly easily lock onto the signal coming out of my new serial card, but the received data from the terminal wasn't showing up right. The received data just seemed so much faster than it should be.

Or maybe my card was slower than it should be.

Looking at the time division markings on the oscilloscope, it looked like each bit transmitted was around ... 1.25ms. Huh. 9600bps should be more like 0.1ms. This looks something more like 800bps.

I set the terminal for 800bps and got something, but it wasn't anything coherent, it was just garbage. I wrote a quick BASIC program to sweep through the UART baud rate generator's clock divider setting and output a string of number 5 for each setting until I got a string of 5s displaying on the terminal.

So then I tried sending "HELLORLD".

I got back "IEMMOSME".

No matter what I changed, I couldn't get anything more coherent than that. It was at least the right number of characters, and some of them were even right. It's just that some of them were ... off ... by one.

A quick review of the ASCII chart confirmed the problem.

'H' is hex 0x48, but 'I' is 0x49. 'E' is 0x45, but was coming across correctly.

... I have a stuck bit.

The lowest-order bit on my expansion bus is stuck high. That's why I wasn't seeing any coherent data on the terminal, and it also explains why I had to go hunting for a non-standard baud rate. The baud rate generator uses a 16-bit divisor to divide the input clock to the baud rate. When I tried to set the divisor to 0x0018 for 9600bps, it was getting set to 0x0118 — a difference of 256.

Another quick BASIC program to output the ASCII chart confirmed this was indeed the problem.

Each printed character was doubled, and every other one was missing.

That sounds like it could be a solder bridge. The UART chip has its D0 pin right beside a power input pin. A quick probe with the multimeter ruled that out.

Perhaps the oscilloscope would provide some insight.

The oscilloscope just raised more questions.

Not just D0, but actually several data bus pins would immediately shoot up to +5V as soon as the expansion bus card was selected. As far as the scope was concerned, it was an immediate transition from low to high (it looked no different even at the smallest timescale my scope can handle). If the UART was latching its input data within the first third of that waveform then it certainly could have seen a logic 1, but it doesn't make sense why only the one data pin would be reading high.

I thought maybe it could just be a bad bus transceiver. The 74HCT245 I had installed was old and a little slow for the job anyway, so I swapped it out for a newer & much faster 74ACT245.

And nothing changed.

It's possible the problem could be related to the expansion bus being left floating between accesses. I tacked on a resistor network to pull the bus down to ground when not active.

And nothing changed.

Well ... almost nothing.

This was right about the time that I noticed that while I was still getting the odd waveform on the scope, the output from the terminal was correct. It was no longer acting like I had a stuck bit and I was getting every letter.

Until I removed the scope probe.

Too much stray capacitance, maybe? That waveform does certainly look like a capacitor discharge curve.

I had used a ribbon cable I had laying around to for my expansion bus. It was long enough to support a few cards, but certainly not excessively so (not for these speeds at least). It was worth trying though. I swapped out the ribbon cable for one that was just barely long enough to connect the two cars.

And finally it worked.

Not only was I able to print the entire ASCII set, I could program the baud rate generator to any value I wanted and it worked as expected.

That was a weird one, and I'm still not sure what exactly happened. But I'm glad to have it working now. With my hardware confirmed working I can focus on software for it.

I've started writing a crude multi-user operating system of sorts. It's just enough to support cooperative multitasking for multiple terminals running BASIC simultaneously. It may not be System V or BSD or Linux, but I still think it would be pretty darn cool to have a line of terminals all wired up to this one machine, each running their own instance of BASIC.

[auliasalsabilamp]

Merancang Masa Depan

Sekarang usiaku 23 tahun, usia yang sudah tidak muda lagi. Pencapaian-pencapaian yang sudah aku lakukan sekarang menurutku belum terlalu banyak. Masih banyak sekali list goals tahunan yang belum bisa aku capai.

Di usia 23 tahun aku memilih untuk menyibukan diri dengan melanjutkan kuliah ke jenjang S2. Aku mengambil program Fast Track, keunggulan program ini aku bisa mendapatkan dua gelar hanya dengan berkuliah 5 tahun saja.

Aku juga menyibukkan diri mengikuti program belajar islam dari dasar, sekarang alhamdulillah karena pertolongan dari Allah aku sedang berusaha untuk mengikuti program TSL Islamic Academy yang memiliki periode pembelajaran selama 2 Tahun. Aku juga mengikuti kegiatan Halaqah Silsilah Ilmiyyah (HSI) angkatan ke-232, angkatan yang masuk di tahun 2023 dan mendaftar saat pembukaan di gelombang ke-2. Selain itu, aku juga menyibukan diri mengikuti kajian sunnah yang dilakukan secara offline di Kota Bandung.

Fokusku di usia 23 tahun ini, aku ingin menyibukan diri untuk tholabul ilmi. Aku ingin sekali waktu mudaku aku manfaatkan sebaik mungkin untuk belajar banyak ilmu pengetahuan, bukan hanya ilmu pengetahuan umum saja, namun aku juga berfokus untuk belajar ilmu agama islam.

Aku memiliki visi jika nanti sudah berumah tangga menjadi seorang istri dan ketika nanti sudah bekerja, aku ingin tetap berdakwah, aku ingin tetap mensyiarkan dakwah islam, aku ingin tetap berkontribusi di dunia dakwah, walaupun porsinya tidak semaksimal dulu saat masih di bangku perkuliahan. Namun aku ingin berusaha semaksimal mungkin untuk tetap bisa mengikhtiarkan hal tersebut agar bisa terwujud.

Di usia 23 tahun, hal-hal yang belum maksimal aku capai yaitu perihal career yang nantinya akan aku jalani. Jujur, sampai saat ini aku masih bingung, aku bingung setelah lulus S2 nanti aku akan menjadi apa. Perasaan takut, ragu, dan khawatir selalu menghantui kepalaku. Ditambah lagi banyak teman-temanku yang sudah sukses di usia 23 tahun. Mereka sudah mapan secara financial, secara ilmu dan ibadah. Aku jadi semakin FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) yang disebabkan karena melihat teman-temanku yang sudah banyak pencapaiannya di usia 23 tahun.

Sebetulnya untuk jenjang career nantinya aku sudah memiliki planning ingin berkarir menjadi apa. Aku ingin berkarir menjadi tenaga pendidik atau dosen. Aku juga memiliki keinginan untuk bekerja di perusahaan BUMN. Aku ingin sekali bekerja di perusahaan Telkom Indonesia, dibagian Marketing. Namun aku merasa keinginanku yang besar tersebut tidak aku imbangi secara maksimal dengan ikhtiar yang harusnya aku lakukan. Sehingga muncul keragu-raguan dalam diriku, apa aku bisa menjadi seorang dosen, apa aku bisa nantinya bekerja di perusahaan Telkom Indonesia.

Tenaga pendidik adalah profesi yang aku rancang untuk masa depanku nanti. Aku ingin sekali memberikan kebermanfaatan untuk generasi setelahku. Aku ingin berdakwah dengan cara mengajar. Bukan hanya ilmu dunia yang ingin aku ajarkan namun aku juga ingin mensyiarkan ilmu agama, khususnya ilmu nafi.

Dibalik keragu-raguan dan rasa cemas yang sering melandaku aku meyakini pasti Allah akan memberikan kemudahan dan kelancaran rezeki untukku. Aku selalu berdoa kepada Allah agar Allah mudahkan semua planning untuk career masa depanku dan aku yakin insya Allah aku akan sukses di profesi yang aku rencanakan.

Bandung, 25 September 2023.

[outshinethestars]

Dar’adat’ika (Star Wars fic)

“You are not a person, and you have no name,” Prime tells them.

“Yes, sir,” the clones say.  And they try their best to sound like they aren’t people, and they bury their names deep, because they all want desperately to give Prime what he wants, to be what Prime wants, and they are all better at hiding what they want from their face than he is, so it’s obvious to them how desperately Prime wants what he says to be true.   They pretend because they want Prime to be pleased with them, and because they need Prime to be pleased with them, but they also pretend because those words almost always come with a “but” afterwards.

“But,” Prime says, “If you can learn this, it will make you a better soldier.”

“But,” Prime says, “If you know this the Jetiise will be more pleased with you.”

“But,” Prime says, “This will keep you alive.”

“Do you think Prime’s right?” CC-6454 asks.

“Prime is usually right, unfortunately,”  Cody says.

“I mean about us, that we’re not people,” CC-6454 says.

“Of course not,” Cody says, “We would know if we weren’t people.”

“That sounds like something someone cleverly programmed to think they’re a person would say,” Fox says, mostly to be contrary.

“That’s not how being a person works!” Cody says, “It doesn’t matter if we’re people because we’re exact copies of Prime, or if we’re people because the longnecks reengineered our brains to think like people.  We think like people and we feel like people and we act like people, so we are people.”

“But what about souls?” Bly asks.

“Oh please,” Fox says, “ No sentients have souls.”

“Ures runi sa balyc ures Manda,” Cody says, “Ures Manda sa balyc ures Mando’ade.  Mando’ade runi be Manda an, Manda be Mando’ade an.”*

“The gods are dead,” Fox says, “And we have enough problems without chasing shadows.”**

This is what Tyranus told Jango Fett:

He told him that they would make a trap for the Jedi.

He told him that it would be a clever trap, a perfect trap.

He told him that he, Jango Fett, would be the foundation of that trap, the template.

He told him that he would commission an army of clones, not exact copies, not quite, not underneath the surface.

They would look like people, and they would act like people, but they would not be people.

They would be so perfect that even the Jedi would be fooled into thinking they were people.

But when the time came they would show their true nature.

They would do as they were programmed to do, with no free will, no souls, a perfect weapon.

They would kill the Jedi.

This was the contract that Jango agreed to, this was the job that Jango signed up for.

At first it was easy to believe.

Boba was given to him, an ordinary baby, crying and then learning to laugh.  The clones when they were decanted were nothing like him, already silent and obedient, already walking in straight rows of lines, already programmed with the basic knowledge that real children had to stumble towards in preschool.

But over time it got harder.

The clones did not always do as they were told.

The clones did not always act like droids.

Sometimes they were competitive.

Sometimes they were curious.

Sometimes they were afraid.

Jango told himself that of course they were learning to look and act as though they were sentient, they were made to fool even the Jedi.

Jango believed what Tyranus told him, he had to believe what Tyranus told him.

Because if he did not, then the clones were his children and he was dar’manda.

Because if he did not, then the clones were slaves and he was depur.

Jango is in Nala Se’s office when a clone enters uninvited.

The clone’s hair is blond like Arla’s was.

Nala Se stares down at the clone disapprovingly, but she does not immediately order its decommissioning.  The Kaminiise like to gather data.

The clone holds a data pad and stands at perfect attention.

“Sir,” the clone says, “I’d like to make a report in regards to Trainer Wyvern in charge of classes 232, 281, and 332.”

Wyvern isn’t Mando’ad, wasn’t one of the trainers Jango had handpicked himself. Jango wonders what he could possibly have done that the clone thinks it’s necessary to report him.  The clone must know this is against regulation, despite its rigid posture and unmoving expression, it is trembling.

“Given the tight surveillance used in this facility, I am sure that you are aware of the activities Trainer Wyvern has engaged in during training.  My understanding is that you have judged that his actions cause no significant or lasting physical damage and are therefore not harmful to the product,” The clone takes a long breath, his face still impassive, but his eyes wide with terror, “However, it has occurred to me that as Kaminoans do not engage in sexual activity for reproduction or pleasure, you may be unaware of their true significance.”

It takes half a beat for Jango to realize what the clone is saying.

His blood feels as though it is burning.

The clone is so small.

He is so small.

When Jango was that age his first buire still lived.

“Sexual activity in underage humanoids can cause long term psychological damage, and even impact physical growth and development.” The clone continues, “I’ve collected all my research on this data pad, sir.”

The clone hands Nala Se the data pad, salutes, and marches out of the office.

Nala Se skims through the data pad.

“This is remarkably well put together,” she says, “The clone will have to be culled, of course.”  She sounds almost sorry about it.

“Why?” Jango finds himself saying.

Nala Se looks down on him judgmentally.

“His actions are aberrant and not in line with his orders.”

“He showed good initiative,” Jango says, “That’s important in a soldier.”

“For commanders, maybe,” Nala Se says, sounding skeptical of even that much, “But not in a common trooper.”

“Not necessarily, there’s also elite troops, special ops.  Good armies are made up of soldiers who know how to do as their told, but great armies are made up of soldiers who know how to think for themselves when the situation requires it.”

It’s, Jango’s making his words up as he says them.  This isn’t the Haat’ad, the clones aren’t meant to be a great army, just good enough to get the job done.  But Jango can’t, he won’t let the clone die for this.

CT-7567 feels disconnected from his body.  He knows he’s not properly alive right now, existing within borrowed time.  It was disrespectful, maybe, to walk out on Nala Se, but it’s not as though that matters at this point.  He’s standing in the hall outside her door.  He couldn’t bear to stand in her office a moment longer than he had to.  He can’t bear to go back to his barracks and be called back.

He can’t believe he did that.

He’s so glad he did that.

The door opens, but it’s Prime who exits.

Prime stares at him, like he’s a puzzle he can make sense of.  CT-7567 stares back like he doesn’t exist in his body.

CT-7567 is very good at making himself look as though he doesn’t exist.

“You are not a person.  You don’t have a name,” Prime says.

“Yes, sir,” CT-7567 says, rote, automatic.  He’s right on both counts, as far as CT-7567 can tell.

“But,” Prime says, and if he were ‘64 CT-7567 would say he looks nervous, and if he were ‘75 CT-7567 would say he looks trapped, but it’s Prime so he can’t be either, “If you were a person… regardless of if you’re a person or not, that was the bravest damn thing I’ve ever seen.  And you might not be a person, but I am, so.”

Prime takes out a flimsy of all things, and draws on it.

“These are jaig eyes,” Prime says, as if CT-7567 doesn’t know , as if all the clones, even twice defective CTs, don’t grasp onto Mandalorian culture with all they’re worth, as something that is not quite but almost theirs .

“You’ve a right to them.”  Prime says,  “Paint them on your armor when you’re deployed.”

“Sir,” CT-7567 says, like his voice is coming from someone else, eyes still fixed on the flimsy, “Nala Se’s going to have me decommissioned.  I’m not making it to deployment.”

“I talked to her,” Prime says, “You’re not getting decommissioned.”

CT-7567 feels… buoyant, hysterical.

Why didn’t you lead with that? He doesn’t say, but only barely.

“Thank you, sir,” he says.  And he managed to keep his composure when he walked into Nala Se’s office without permission, and he kept his composure when he talked about what Trainer Wyvern did to them, and he didn’t even fall apart afterwards, but now, now his voice trembles, wobbles all over the place.

Prime just nods, deeply, undeniably awkward.

And then CT-7567 is alone, breathing deep and uneven in the too white, too bright hallway.

He’s going to live.

CT-7567 is going to live.

He’ll make it all the way to deployment, and someday he’s going to paint jaig eyes on his armor where anyone can see them.

[kybercrystals94]

Where Fears Are Born

By KyberCrystals94

Read here on Ao3!

(posting this on tumblr in preparation for my sequel that I’m about to post on here! 😄)

Bad Things Happen Bingo | Prompt: And I Must Scream

Rating: G

Words: 232

Summary: The reason the Batch develops a fear of spiders (a prequel to @just-here-with-my-thoughts’ Phobia)

TW: Arachnophobia

“Tech, shut it off!”

“I can’t!”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to touch the screen!”

“Ugh, for kark's sake,” Crosshair said, snatching the offending data pad out of Tech’s lap. He deftly exited out of the program and dropped it back into its place.

Tech shoved it away as though it were one of the arachnids that had swarmed the woman in the film. Crowded together, shoulder to shoulder, the four cadets stared at the dark data pad now innocently nestled in the rumpled sheets of Tech’s bunk.

“That was definitely not a documentary,” Hunter said, shooting his bespectacled brother a disdainful look.

“The description was deceptively vague,” Tech protested, “How should I have known it was of the horror genre?”

“I’m never watching anything you download again,” Wrecker whimpered, pressing closer to Crosshair. “Are you sure there’s none of those spider things on Kamino?”

“None are native to this planet,” Tech said.

Crosshair smiled wickedly. “Doesn’t mean troopers don’t accidentally bring some back with them when they’ve been off planet. I’m sure there’s all sorts of spiders in the city not native to Kamino.”

“Stop it, Crosshair,” Hunter scolded, but the way his voice shook a little made Crosshair chuckle darkly.

“I bet they crawl under the doors of the barracks and hide in our beds,” Crosshair continued, wriggling his fingers.

“You have no way of knowing that is true.” Despite his own statement, Tech hugged his arms around himself and glanced around his bunk.

“And you,” Crosshair returned, “have no way of knowing it’s not .”

“Stop it!” Hunter said again, more firmly. “If it will help Tech and Wrecker sleep better, we can check all the beds.”

“Me sleep better?” cried Tech indignantly. “I’m not scared.”

“I’m not either,” Wrecker declared.

Crosshair carefully reached around and brushed one fingertip across the back of Hunter’s exposed neck, just at his hairline. The undignified shriek that emitted as a result sent Wrecker and Tech into a panic alongside, and before Crosshair even had a chance to inhale in order to laugh at them, all three of his brothers were all the way across the room.

“That wasn’t funny!” Hunter squawked, even as he pawed frantically at his neck, searching for the nonexistent, 8 legged creature.

“You’re right,” Crosshair gasped between fits of laughter, “It was hilarious!”

Tech pointed at him. “You are a fiend.”

“Was there actually a spider?” Wrecker asked, taking a step away from Hunter.

“No,” Hunter growled, scrunching his shoulders to resist the urge to continue his search, “It was just Crosshair.”

“This time,” Crosshair admitted. “Next time...it will be the real thing. Crawling in your blankets, in your hair, in your ears...”

“That’s it,” Hunter said decisively, “We are stripping all the bunks and checking for spiders.”

No one argued and set to work.

Crosshair didn’t help.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

“What are you doing?”

Crosshair looked up from where he was carefully releasing a spider in Hunter’s bunk, trying to coax the little thing to climb the wall. “Shh,” Crosshair hissed, “Hunter’ll hear you.”

“Why are you doing that?” Echo reiterated, crossing his arms.

“Because it’s funny, di’kut. Now, shut your mouth.”

Echo frowned, but quietly watched as Crosshair finished his task. When the sniper stood upright, he grabbed Echo by the arm and pulled him off the ship and a good thirty feet away from the door.

“Are you going to tell me why you’re putting a spider in Hunter’s rack?” Echo asked, keeping his voice low.

Crosshair put on an air of faux patience. “It’s a little something some of us call a prank .”

Echo rolled his eyes. “I know what a prank is. But why a spider? Is Hunter scared of spiders?”

“Terrified,” Crosshair said with a rare smile. “They all are. Hunter, Wrecker, and Tech. We accidentally watched a stupid horror holo as cadets about spiders. Tech thought it was a documentary when he downloaded it.”

“So, what, you’ve terrorized them ever since?”

Crosshair shrugged. “It’s a good way to pass the time.”

Suddenly, chaos erupted from the Marauder, raised voices tangling over each other. Three full-grown men, some of the greatest commandos in the GAR, thundered down the ramp of the ship. Crosshair and Echo approached the trembling trio.

“What’s happened? What’s wrong” Crosshair sounded convincingly concerned, the edge of his usual sneer present but tamed.

Hunter bellowed, “Get it out!”

“Get what out?” Crosshair asked, eyes narrowed with uncomprehending innocence.

Echo had to bite the inside of his cheek avoid smiling.

“There’s a kriffing spider in my rack!” Hunter said, pointing emphatically back at the door.

Crosshair rolled his eyes. “It probably came in on your armor.”

The color drained from Hunter’s face, but he managed to bluster on in his best sergeant's tone. “I don’t care how it got there. Get. It. Out.”

Crosshair held up his hands placably. “Alright, alright.” He started to amble up the steps. “Hope it’s not poisonous. Are you sure you didn’t get bit, Hunter?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Hunter snapped, but the doubt in his voice was palpable.

Crosshair disappeared into the ship.

Echo waited with Hunter, Wrecker, and Tech – all three of them carefully avoiding eye contact. He’d only been with Clone Force 99 for a few weeks, and it was their first time planet side with any downtime. He wondered if this happened often.

“Creepy little things,” Echo observed casually. “Spiders.”

Tech looked annoyed. “Depending on the species, arachnids can be deadly,” he intoned.

“What species was this one?” Echo asked.

Tech shifted, his eyes finding something interesting to look at past Echo’s shoulder. “I didn’t get a good look at it, so it would be impossible to say.”

“Ah,” Echo said, nodding. “Hope Crosshair doesn’t get bit then. Just in case.”

“He knows how to properly dispose of them,” Tech said.

“That’s good,” Echo said.

Tangible, awkward silence followed. Echo enjoyed every second of it.

Crosshair came out of the Marauder with an unreadable look on his face. “I couldn’t find that spider anywhere. Pulled your whole bunk apart,” he said to Hunter. “Are you sure it was there?”

“Yes! We all saw it!” Wrecker sounded absolutely distraught.

Crosshair frowned. “I don’t know what you want me to do then. I can’t find the thing anywhere.” Echo noticed Crosshair’s loosely balled fist.

Reluctantly, grudgingly, depressingly, the three traumatized soldiers exchanged glances before trudging up the ramp to resume their tasks. Crosshair shook out his hand, and a little spider fell out, skittering away on frantic legs.

“You are a monster,” Echo said with a smile and a shake of his head.

Crosshair chuckled. “You’ll keep my secret?”

“Not my secret to tell,” Echo said. “But don’t expect me to participate.”

“You already did by not telling them what you saw,” Crosshair said with a devilish grin. “You’re in this now too. And if I go down, you’re going down with me.”

END

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[dahliaduvide]

I've been digging into the life of Jeremy Wade Delle, beyond just the day of his death that is immortalized in the Pearl Jam song we all know so well.

One thing Jeremy Delle and I have in common is that we both spent time in a psych hospital in our teenage years. We both ended up in adolescent wards of large chain hospitals. My experience wasn't completely negative, but I don't think it helped anyone but my mother.

Jeremy Delle was hospitalized in April of 1990 after what is believed to have been his first suicide attempt.

His parents put him in Timberlawn Psychiatric Hospital where he started seeing a doctor that continued to treat him until his death by suicide on January 8, 1991. He actually had completed a session with his doctor the afternoon before he died.

The redacted police report gives only a small amount of information about the doctor that Jeremy Delle was seeing. His name is given as Dr. Bob H####, and as Dr. Robert H#### on a card that the police found in Mr. Delle's wallet. This card lists two phone numbers for the doctor. The first if the general number for the Timberlawn facility, but the other number is likely a direct line to the doctor's office.

The information given in the July 1990 list of hospitals printed in D Magazine, a local Dallas publication, about Timberlawn is "4600 Samuell Blvd, Dallas. 381-7181. Psychiatric hospital; 232 beds; offers chemical dependency treatment, occupational therapy, and psychiatric unit". That's the same as the first phone number listed on the card on Jeremy Delle's wallet card. The second is 381-6327.

Without a last name, I couldn't search for any other mentions of the doctor in public records (and I didn't find anything relevant using the phone number), but there were certainly a few articles about Timberlawn. More than a few, I had to winnow them down to the ones that seemed most relevant to what Jeremy Delle might have experienced during his stay there.

This article from June 1990 explains the sudden growth in the industry in Texas. The financial motivations behind it have very distinct consequences that the article outlines: patients rarely stay longer than their insurance foots the bill.

When the money runs out everyone- adult, teenager, addict, seems to be miraculously cured.

There are several claims of misconduct by care providers throughout the time surrounding Jeremy Delle's stay at Timberlawn.

May 1988: A Dallas woman is admitted to the substance abuse program at Timberlawn. In February 1996, when she is in her early 30s, she alleges misconduct by her doctor during her stay at Timberlawn.

May 1991: In March 1993, a patient alleges he was pursued by his doctor after seeking treatment at Timberlawn for depression after the end of his marriage. He also alleges that she initiated an inappropriate romantic and sexual relationship which lasted from November 1991 to February 1992.

Obviously, Mr. Delle would have been, or at least should have been, housed in separate adolescent areas from any adult patients, but he might have seen the same doctors. Particularly because he was treated for substance abuse. I have some doubts about whether he was actually using any drugs or not, but I'll put that together in another post with some supporting documents.

I also found these court documents from 2009 relating to a patient that was hospitalized in the Timberlawn facility as a minor. She claims to have been raped by an older male patient due to inadequate supervision of the patients by staff and a lack of private space available to patients. No dates or ages are given, however, so it's impossible to know if this happened within the early 90s. However, if Jeremy Delle had survived until 2009 he would have been in his mid-20s, which is when childhood traumas begin to be understood by a maturing mind.

I'm not a lawyer and couldn't even pretend to be one on the internet, so I won't claim to understand anything about what is happening, but I can read through it and capture other facts about who, where, when, etc. If anybody with a better understanding of USA or Texas state law wants to shed some light on this that would be helpful.

I wasn't able to find any further information about the progress or outcomes of these cases, so I've chosen not to include the names of the staff accused, but they are included in the media coverage if anyone would like to search through news databases that aren't freely available online. I can only research the documents I can find, and unfortunately I don't have access to any academic databases at the moment, either.

My personal opinion is that whatever started Jeremy Delle down a troubled path started before he got to Timberlawn and the care of Dr. H.

I do think this line of research is important for understanding whether or not Mr. Delle received effective or adequate care as his mental illness spiraled out of control.

It strikes me that these stories about Timberlawn confirm and debunk some of the conceptions we have about this particular young man's life from the song written about him in 1991 by Eddie Vedder and Jason Ament. Jeremy Wade Delle was failed by everyone in his life with the power to help him as he started to sink under the waves of his illness. But his parents didn't ignore it completely, they tried to get him help. Maybe not when his illness first manifested, but as soon as his first 'cry for help' came in the form of a suicide attempt, they put him in a hospital that was known to be the best in their area. One with a developing, supposedly cutting edge, program for adolescents and those suffering from substance abuse. They most likely brought him home when the hospital said he was better. Sadly that might have had more to do with how long the hospital knew that insurance would foot the bill and not Mr. Delle's actual mental health.

The story is no less tragic than the story Pearl Jam spins in their song, but it's far more nuanced.

And it's still a great song.

[mariacallous]

After decades of strategic drift and costly acquisition failures, the U.S. Navy is sailing straight into a storm it can’t avoid. Despite the Defense Department’s lip service about China being the “pacing challenge,” decades of deindustrialization and policymakers’ failure to prioritize among services and threats have left the Navy ill-equipped to endure a sustained high-intensity conflict in the Pacific. The United States is unable to keep pace with Chinese shipbuilding and will fall even further behind in the coming years. Where does that leave the U.S. Navy and the most critical U.S. foreign-policy imperative: deterring a war in the Pacific?

As evidenced by the Biden administration’s latest budget request, fiscal constraints are forcing the Navy to cut procurement requests, delay modernization programs, and retire ships early. The Navy’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year calls for decommissioning 19 ships—including three nuclear-powered attack submarines and four guided-missile cruisers—while procuring only six new vessels. The full scope of what military analysts have long warned would be the “Terrible ’20s” is now evident: The expensive upgrading of the U.S. nuclear triad, simultaneous modernization efforts across the services, and the constraint of rising government debt are compelling the Pentagon to make tough choices about what it can and cannot pay for.

Workforce shortages and supply chain issues are also limiting shipbuilding capacity. The defense industrial base is still struggling to recover from post-Cold War budget cuts that dramatically shrank U.S. defense manufacturing. The Navy needs more shipyard capacity, but finding enough qualified workers for the yards remains the biggest barrier to expanding production. The shipbuilding industry is struggling to attract talent, losing out to fast food restaurants that offer better pay and benefits for entry-level employees. At bottom, it is a lack of welders, not widgets, that must be overcome if the U.S. Navy is to grow its fleet.

Instead, the shipbuilding outlook is progressively worsening. An internal review ordered by Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro in January found that major programs, including submarines and aircraft carriers, face lengthy delays. Even the Constellation-class frigates, touted as a quick adaptation of a proven European design, are delayed by three years.

As defense analyst David Alman outlined in a prize-winning essay for the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings, the United States simply can’t win a warship race with China. The United States effectively gave up on commercial shipbuilding during the Reagan administration in the name of free trade. In the decades that followed, generous state subsidies helped China dominate commercial shipbuilding, and Beijing’s requirement that the sector be dual-use resulted in an industry that can shift to production and ship repair for the military during a conflict, much as U.S. shipyards did during World War II. The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence estimates that China now has 232 times the shipbuilding capacity of the United States. China built almost half the world’s new ships in 2022, whereas U.S. shipyards produced just 0.13 percent.

Rebuilding the arsenal of democracy that anchored the U.S. victory at sea 80 years ago won’t happen overnight or cheaply—it is a generational project. The 20-year Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program aimed at upgrading dry docks, facilities, and equipment will end up costing well over the projected $21 billion. But the plan is only intended to maximize existing U.S. industrial capacity and won’t do much to close the enormous shipbuilding gap with China. That would require a reconstitution program on par with the series of maritime laws passed after World War I, which supported the expansion of an industrial base eventually capable of turning out thousands of carriers, destroyers, submarines, frigates, and cargo ships for the Atlantic and Pacific fleets.

Realizing that U.S. shipyards are stretched thin, policymakers have begun looking abroad. Del Toro encouraged South Korean companies to invest in U.S. naval shipping during a visit this year. Japan will likely begin performing repair and maintenance work on U.S. warships soon; India agreed to do so last year. These initiatives will alleviate the increasing maintenance backlog at U.S. facilities, but it would take a large share of the combined Japanese and South Korean shipyard capacity to fundamentally alter the growing disparity between the U.S. and Chinese fleet size in the Western Pacific.

Ships are not all comparable, of course. U.S. warships are heavier and more capable than China’s, although a dearth of logistics vessels and sealift capability are major concerns. Still, the current era of missile warfare has magnified the importance of fleet size.

Without enough ships to match the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, what can the United States do to maintain conventional deterrence in the Pacific and prevent war? At least two big things: buy missiles and cut back on missions.

First, to manage risk in the short term, the Navy and the other services need to rapidly procure more munitions—focusing on weapons and capabilities, not the platforms that carry them.

The Russia-Ukraine war has military planners thinking less about short, quick conflicts and more about long wars and their vast need for materiel. What holds for depleted stocks of land-based artillery also holds for many of the weapons needed for a war at sea. A much-publicized 2023 wargame conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that the United States would run out of its entire inventory of the key Long Range Anti-Ship Missile within the first few days of a war over Taiwan. Ramping up the procurement and production of these munitions, as well as Joint Strike Missiles, Standoff Land Attack Missiles, and Harpoon missiles will enable U.S. airpower to help even the odds in the Pacific.

Anti-ship systems operated by the Army and Marines could also complement the other services’ firepower. However, the deployment of ground-based missiles will require allies’ consent. To date, no Asian allies of the United States have volunteered to permanently host U.S. missile batteries, due to political sensitivities and the fact that these countries already have such weapons of their own.

Innovation and creativity could further augment U.S. naval power. Retired U.S. Marine Col. T.X. Hammes, a fellow at the National Defense University, has urged the Navy to convert commercial container ships into warships capable of launching missiles, which would add a tremendous volume of firepower at a bargain price. These “missile merchants” would also require significantly less manpower than traditional warships do, a major consideration given the Navy’s struggle to fill existing billets.

Policymakers also need to make hard choices and limit naval deployments. Though the Navy is shrinking, its missions aren’t. A high operational tempo, manpower shortfalls, and an aging fleet are fueling a readiness crisis that is burning out sailors and ships.

Addressing the readiness crisis requires taking a hard look at which missions are essential for U.S. security and which aren’t. As former Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work has written, since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Navy has spent 30 years prioritizing global presence over warfighting readiness. The deadly Pacific ship accidents in 2017 involving the USS Fitzgerald and USS John McCain were directly attributable to this unsustainable mania for global presence, according to a Navy review.

The preeminence of presence missions also has more subtle consequences. After 20 years of largely uncontested deployments to the Middle East, the U.S. Navy now has an opponent who shoots back: Yemen’s Houthis. But increased experience in missile and drone defense is outweighed by a deleterious drain on precision munitions. In the conflict with the Houthis, the Navy burned through more Tomahawk land attack missiles in one day than it purchased in all of 2023. Meanwhile, the Houthis can replace all equipment destroyed by U.S. attacks with just two shiploads from Iran, according to Gen. Michael Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command.

The costs of maintaining global presence are magnified by the state of Navy recruiting and retention. The service’s recruiting woes are undeniable. The Navy missed all of its recruiting goals in 2023, some by as much as 35 percent. The service projects a shortfall of 6,700 recruits this year, according to its chief personnel officer.

Like the rest of the all-volunteer force, unprecedented recruiting headwinds mean manpower shortages will remain a persistent challenge for the Navy. Absent any change in operational tempo, sailors will work harder, deploy more frequently, and leave the service in greater numbers—ensuring a downward spiral for both manning and readiness.

The United States can’t match the size of China’s fleet in the near or medium term. Deindustrialization, poor procurement choices, and a myopic fixation on the U.S. presence in the Middle East have seen to that. All that said, the U.S. Navy still retains several significant advantages in a potential conflict with China: submarine dominance, overall tonnage, blue-water experience, and support from capable allies. A major increase in joint munitions purchases and an end to the readiness drain of presence deployments to secondary theaters will enhance the Navy’s edge during the potential peak window for a Chinese move on Taiwan over the next decade. The alternative is grim. If conventional deterrence fails, it risks military defeat for the United States or something even more dangerous: nuclear confrontation between the world’s two superpowers.

[in-a-cave-with]

What are you’re top ten favorite Iron Man stories? (comics and other media alike)

off the top of my head and in no particular order:

execute program + director stark (iron man vol 4 #7-32)

o'neil's run (iron man vol 1 #158-200)

busiek's run (iron man vol 3 #1-25)

tiberius stone (iron man vol 3 #37-40)

grell's run + the rest of manhunt (iron man vol 3 #50-69)

doomquest (iron man vol 1 #150, #250)

armor wars (iron man vol 1 #225-232)

ultimate armor wars

iron age (2011)

emperor stark (avengers: earth's mightiest heroes s02e19)

[small-basic-programming]

60 Years Of Basic - PC Perspective ...

Post #232: PC Perspektive, 60 Years Of BASIC by The Register, 2024.

[beardedmrbean]

The Justice Department unsealed new charges against a leader of the notorious Japanese Yakuza gang who they accuse of attempting to traffic weapons-grade nuclear materials from Burma to other countries, according to a newly announced superseding indictment.

Prosecutors in Manhattan say that beginning in early 2020, Takeshi Ebisawa conspired to transport material containing uranium and weapons-grade plutonium believing it could be used by countries like Iran in the development of their nuclear-weapons program.

"It is chilling to imagine the consequences had these efforts succeeded," Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen said in a statement announcing the charges.

The 60-year-old Japanese national and another co-defendant had already been charged in April 2022 with narcotics trafficking offenses. Ebisawa and his co-defendant were arrested in Manhattan on those charges with a U.S. judge in New York ordering both men detained. Both men pleaded not guilty.

According to their superseding indictment, Ebisawa told two undercover agents in early 2020 he had access to a "large quantity" of nuclear materials he wished to sell, and sent a series of photos of rocky substances next to Geiger counters that measured radiation levels.

One of the undercover agents told Ebisawa they had an interested buyer who they claimed was an Iranian general.

"They don't need it for energy, Iranian government need it for nuclear weapons," the undercover agent told Ebisawa, according to the indictment.

"I think so and I hope so," Ebisawa allegedly responded.

Ebisawa further engaged with the undercover agent as he expressed an interest in buying other military-grade weapons such as surface-to-air missiles that he said could be used by an insurgent group inside Burma.

The arrangement resulted in a swap of sorts, with unnamed co-conspirators allegedly supporting Ebisawa telling the undercover they "had available more than 2,000 kilograms of Thorium-232 and more than 100 kilograms of uranium" – which the co-conspirators said "could produce as much as five tons of nuclear materials in Burma."

In a meeting arranged by Ebisawa with the undercover agents in Southeast Asia, one of Ebisawa's co-conspirators brought the undercover into a hotel room and allegedly showed him two plastic containers with samples of the nuclear materials. Thai authorities then assisted in the seizure of the materials which were handed over to U.S. law enforcement, which subsequently tested the samples and confirmed they contained uranium, thorium and plutonium.

"As alleged, the defendants in this case trafficked in drugs, weapons, and nuclear material – going so far as to offer uranium and weapons-grade plutonium fully expecting that Iran would use it for nuclear weapons," Anne Milgram, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration said. "This is an extraordinary example of the depravity of drug traffickers who operate with total disregard for human life."

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon caused emission of 90 million metric tons of CO2 in 2013–21, reports study

Deforestation in Indigenous Territories (ITs) in the Brazilian Amazon caused the emission of 96 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) between 2013 and 2021, modifying the forest's role as a carbon sink in these areas. Emissions in the last three years of the period (2019–21) accounted for 59%, reflecting intensification of the destruction.

The data comes from a research project led by Brazilians and published in an article in Scientific Reports. The authors show that deforestation in ITs totaled 1,708 square kilometers (km²), or 2.38% of total deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in the period. In an analysis of 232 ITs, they found that annual deforestation averaged 35 km², increasing 129% between 2013 and 2021. The increase was 195% in the last three years of the period.

Alarmingly, the article also shows that the distance of deforested areas from the borders of the ITs concerned increased significantly in the period, rising 30% from 6.80 km to 8.87 km on average.

"In absolute numbers, the areas deforested in these ITs may not seem so large, but ITs are supposed to be environmentally protected, so the impact is all the greater. In addition to the destruction of nature, deforestation brings other problems in its wake, such as diseases and threats to the survival of isolated Indigenous communities. A recent case involved the Yanomami, many of whom died owing to encroachment by wildcat miners [garimpeiros]," Celso H. L. Silva-Junior, first author of the article, told Agência FAPESP. He is a professor in the Program of Graduate Studies in Biodiversity and Conservation at the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA).

Continue reading.

[stevebattle]

Robodroid (1984), The Robot Factory Inc., Cascade, CO. "Robodroid is a self-contained robot for the experimentalist, hobbyist, and educator. Robodroid's sensory inputs include three sonar transducers on a rotating head, a head position sensor, and two wheel odometers with several options available. Its controlled outputs include two drive motors, a head motor, a sound/music synthesiser and a speech synthesiser with several options planned for the future. Its microprocessor is a MOS Technology 6502. Its memory consists of 64 Kbytes programmable memory and 28 Kbytes read only memory. Its I/O system includes a full upper/lower case keyboard with function keys and eight I/O ports. The interface is an RS/232 with several options. The standard software is Robot Extended BASIC, English text-to-speech conversion and a joystick control program." – THE ROBOT FACTORY.

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

I'm in a people mood, but can't people.

We're in the middle of a massive covid wave few people are protecting against, and my husband ended up bringing it home. We wear masks, but it's only half the protection if those around us aren't wearing one. Then there's the issue of folks not getting the latest vaccine. If you haven't received a covid19 vaccination after September 2023, you need to correct that now. Unless there's a medical reason you cannot get vaccinated, you have zero excuse. Yes, that includes religious. If your god(s) tell you not to protect yourself from dangerous diseases, they're not worthy of your time. Get vaccinated. You will save not only your own life, but the lives of others, lives your god(s) clearly don't give a single flying fuck about.

Remember, the covid19 vaccines don't make you 100% immune. This disease is very different as are the vaccines and boosters. These make you more likely to survive, have fewer complications, a shorter infection, and your chances of developing long covid are vastly reduced. Covid19 is not a bad case of the flu. The flu kills around 30k/year and it's a respiratory/sinus disease. Covid19 impacts every system of the body, and does more damage than HIV. You can look that up for yourself, I ain't doing the work for you.

Currently, it's day three negative for us after we started meds five days ago. He's gone back to work, both of us are feeling significantly improved. You need to start the meds within the first five days of symptoms. I had to stop taking a couple of my meds so I can take this one, so be prepared to hear you may need to do the same. I had covid19 in 2022, but the medication was out-of-stock, and I was sick from the last week of August to the middle of November. I had brain fog for nearly an entire year (had a fever of 103 F for two days, 101 F for a week while on Tylenol; my brain got cooked), I exhaust easily, my low heat tolerance is significantly worse, there's a very real chance I have POTS but couldn't do the week-long heart monitoring required for a diagnosis because I'm allergic to the adhesives on the sticky pads (yes, even the hypoallergenic), and I have chronic eustachan tube dysfunction (no known treatment). We have no idea what long-term fuckery awaits those who've had covid19; it could be something like the way chicken pox produces shingles later.

Here's a link to places that can test and treat you:

Here's a link with info on how to acquire the medication free of charge:

Excerpt from the article:

Look for pharmacies particpating in Test to Treat. An existing government program for COVID-19 called Test to Treat will continue to dispense Paxlovid and Lagevrio (a slightly less effective antiviral made by Merck) for free at participating pharmacies and community health centers if they have supplies on hand. If you need testing, a vaccine, or have a prescription for Paxlovid or Lagevrio, use this online locator or call 1-800-232-0233 to locate free appointments. 

[pocketfulofelviss]

“At twenty-three, Judy Tyler (real name Judith Hess) was a tough cookie and a show business veteran with a pedigree — her father, Julian Hess, was well known as a trumpeter for Benny Goodman and Paul Whiteman, and her mother, Loreleo Kendler, danced with the Ziegfield Follies. At sixteen, Judy had won a Miss Stardust beauty contest, which led to a job as a singer-chorine at the Copacabana night club. In 1951, when she auditioned for — and won — the part of Princess Summerfall Winterspring on The Howdy Doody Show children’s program, the irrepressibly sexy seventeen-year-old failed to mention that she was married, to twenty-six-year-old Colin Romoff, the Copa pianist and her vocal coach.” (Nash, 2010: 232-233) * #elvispresley #presley #theking #graceland #elvis #smile #love #idol #music #iconic #vintage #style #classy #vintagefashion #kingofmusic #rockandroll #sideburns #blessedsoul #rip #elvisthepelvis #memphis #tupelo #soldier #elvislegacy #epe https://www.instagram.com/p/CqAWkGwMqRd/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[anxious3cto]

Happy Friday the 13th, yall should really watch this one vid (a micheal and Jayson comedy sketch) idkw, but is so funny to me, I literally quote it all the time.

Now back to your regular scheduled program

Today's bop:

Stats and log below

Note for those who haven'tseen my last post on this: on my apps I log all my shit too (this is just to more publicly keep me responsible)

~~~☆~~~Tw Sats~~~☆~~~

Weight: morning W<138.8lbs > 《 after school W< for got again sry, probs 138.5 or smth>

Overall cals (including one's at school+before it too): 232

Cals burned according to fitbit:-1658 burned

Cal burned-total cal: -1426

~~☆~~Tw LOG TIME Kiddos~~☆~~remember to hydrate before you diedrate besties <3

10/13/23

Breakfast: 15 cals my espresso [six shots, zero cal sweetener, and some microwaved unsweetened vanilla almondmilk about 15 cals, ½ of a cup]

Lunch: 25 monster rehab peach tea(low cal monster; 5-25 cals)

Dinner: 110 for 1 Crab Cakes, Plant based, and a little kimchi a table spoon 12 cals

Snack: 70 cals pear blueberry spinach Aldi baby food.

Total cal: 272

~~~☆~~~Stay safe! <3~~~☆~~~