Amiga Update: Houston, we have keys!
I’ve finally acquired a keyboard for my Amiga A2000! Still looking for a mouse and monitor though. 
Let me know if you have one or can point me in the right direction.
Android x86 on my laptop
So I’ve been reading about all of the possibilities inherit to using Linux as the basis for the Android OS for some time now but one has always eluded me. How to take this touchscreen-centric mobile OS and transfer it to a laptop for common everyday use. Well, the guys over at Android-x86 are doing it for me.
As of this writing they have released a R2 version of Android 1.6 as a bootable USB image and a Live CD, both of which have the option to install to the hard drive if you desire. Weighing in at a little less than 60MB, these are very lightweight downloads that boot in about 30 seconds on my aging Acer with it’s Celeron processor. For a Live CD I consider that pretty darn impressive.
My first concern was how to navigate without a touchscreen but the team had me covered with excellent mouse support. It even recognized my USB wireless mouse without a problem and my touchpad. Wireless and ethernet were both recognized at boot-up, though I had some trouble getting my wi-fi configuration to save (probably has to do with the live cd environment). Ethernet worked like a charm as soon as I plugged it in. Even the Android Market worked great and gave me the option to update some of the included apps.
Web browsing was just like the phone where pages are rendered fully and you scroll side to side as well as up and down to see the full content. Zooming out works much better though on a laptop screen compared to a phone screen.
I didn’t have a chance to delve too much deeper into the OS, but I assure you my first taste was very good. I’m right now plotting which system I will use for a full install. I do have a couple of old desktop units. I wonder what the minimum specs are…
Rolling a d6 with code
So when I am learning a new programming language one of the first things I try to do is write a small program to generate a random number simulating a dice roll. The d6 is typically the first that I work on so I figured it might be pretty cool to show you some code snippets for some of the projects I have worked on over the past few months/years. Enjoy!
Korn Shell Scripting
d6() {
# Using the RANDOM variable this generates a result from 1-6.
roll="$(($RANDOM%6 +1))"
return $roll
; }
C++
int rollD6()
{
srand((unsigned)time(0));
int random = (rand()%6) + 1;
return random;
}
Perl
sub d6
{
$random_d6 = int(rand(6)) + 1;
return $random_d6;
}
VBA
Sub d6()
Sheets("Sheet1").Select
Range("A1").Select
roll = Int((6 - 1 + 1) * Rnd + 1)
Selection.Value = roll
End Sub
Java
public class random
{
public static void main (String[] args)
{
Random gen = new Random();
int d6 = gen.nextInt(6) + 1;
System.out.println(d6);
}
}
PHP
<?php echo rand(1, 6); ?>
The Amiga Quest Continues
So I worked up the time and energy to head back to Little Rock the other day in search of the keyboard and mouse to go with my recently acquired Amiga. I hit up every Goodwill and even threw in some other thrift stores but all to no avail. And so the quest has been taken online to find a keyboard and mouse for my Amiga 2000. I’ve already contacted a member of the Amiga.org forums and have been researched prices on eBay as well as some other online specialty sites. If you have a keyboard and/or mouse or you know where I can get one feel free to post a comment here or email me at alfred@alfredbonnabel.com.
In the meantime I’ve been checking out the programming scene for the Amiga and let me say it is looking very nice. Assembly of course is an excellent place to start things off and as has been pointed out to me in this forum thread there are a number of excellent offerings:
I’ve also discovered the Total Amiga Magazine archives where you can find an excellent 4 part C Programming tutorial starting in issue 16. I’m already familiar with C++ and to a lesser extent C so this should be a fairly easy transfer to learn. At least that is what I am hoping. Obviously I have my pick of compilers for this as well:
An excellent resource for links and references is the Amiga Coding Wiki. Of course since it is a wiki you can always add new things you learn or find so that everyone else can benefit from it as well. I love wikis.
Missing Parts…
So I’ve discovered the great guys and resources over at the Amiga.org forums. After posting my introduction, with a bit of a story, I was floored by the overwhelming number of positive responses and great tips that began coming my way. This is a really great, tight-knit community of Amiga enthusiasts and I am really pumped to get more involved.
Unfortunately, the guys had some bad news for me. The keyboard adapter I was using to hook an IBM compatible keyboard to the system would not work. It seems the Amiga keyboards were wired differently so I have the choice of either getting an original Amiga keyboard or buying an expensive specialty adapter. I was also told the same holds true for the mouse. An Amiga mouse is not the same as a serial IBM compatible mouse. Drats.
I guess my first stop is going to be back at that Goodwill store to see if they’ve got the keyboard put out somewhere.
In regards to the monitor situation I’d still like to find an RGB compatible monitor or, if possible, an RGB to VGA adapter. I was told there is a setting in Workbench that will allow me to change the resolution to one that is a little easier to read on the TV screen so that may end up being my first step once I can find a keyboard and mouse.
On a seperate computer front, I’ve picked up a couple of flat panel monitors as well as a couple of Gateway all in one desktop systems, a Profile 5 and a Profile 6. Only problem is I need backlights for the two monitors and SATA hard drives for the two computers. Anyone know a good cheap source of backlights? SATA hard drives are not hard to find, but I want to keep my costs down to around $25 each because I will probably end up reselling these.
