Computer Log

I like to have a subject to research. Something to sink my teeth into. Especially when I’m board… which I am now. Usually it’s computer related. In this case it concerns eBikes. I’m not doing my heart a favor, by just sitting in front of a screen all day. I already ride a regular, non motorized bike a few times a day.

As in most cases in this life, computers/electronics play a part, eBikes have screens that report your MPH, distance traveled, average speed, etc. I’d like to reduce quick gas guzzling trips to the grocery store. The other day I wanted salsa sauce for my tortilla chips… that’s all! It seemed very wasteful to drive a ~2500 lb vehicle to the store just to get that. So I rode my bike. It was good exercise and the sensible thing to do.

Research

Anywho, I was already considering electric eBikes. I guess saying electric is redundant. It’s still more healthy than just driving, because you can pedal or more likely use pedal assist. And yet it would allow quick round trips to the store. This research can get out of hand. because there are so many models. The majority go under 30 MPH. But I was looking at a few that exceeded 40 MPH. However looking at local laws I think getting these faster bikes with fat tires would invite attention of the law. I don’t want to shell out $700 or more for something that I might end up not being able to ride without getting a ticket. So I think getting a more regular bike looking eBike, is probably the most sensible thing to do. I believe a bike that goes max 28 MPH is legal and called class 3. Also you can get something much cheaper, and since theft is a always concern… cheaper is probably better, at least for my first eBike.

More research

Riding back home from the grocery store, with a bag hanging on my handle bars, occasionally smacking the glass jar against the steel bike frame was concerning. I need a better way. So that caused a detour to looking for ways to transport things on a bike. Some options are bike bags for a back rack, that will probably carry most everything I need. As a matter of fact I could probably use one for my peddle bike. Of course there are baskets. I also learned about Panniers which hang over the rear bike rack and carry quite a lot. Ooooo, Panniers, isn’t that a fancy word? Didn’t they use to be called saddle bags? I also learned about the very cool Burley Travoy. It’s like a small vertical trailer that you can detach and bring into the store.

A Pannier bag may be the best choice, because things won’t bounce out if you hit a bump. However, what about weight distribution? If I just want a gallon of milk, that would be ~9 lbs, just on one side. So I’ll probably try a basket, first. Maybe with a cargo net on top.

More research

eBikes include electronic displays, with all kinds of info, and of course MPH. In watching these eBike reviews I notice almost all of them use a GPS speedometer phone app to compare against the bike. So that got me thinking how fast is one of my regular bike rides? So off to look for a phone GPS speedometer. And of course there are many of those to choose from. I found one near the top of the list that showed the first image…

It also showed a map of your trip. This is the default screen is what I was shown…

Having all this extra data, is nice. But it’s called GPS speedometer so the default should be large digits in the center of the screen, IMHO.

Anyway, below is just an average ride… not trying to set any records…

Shows a max speed of 13 MPH. So I can ride to/from the store in less than half the time.

Also a fully charged battery, depending on the bike/battery gives 40+ miles. So I probably could go a week or more before a new charge is needed.

Here are actual statistics from a recent bike round trip to my grocery store, which took less than 30 minutes. This is 95% of my usual driving. So travel by eBike will probably be even quicker.

A little more research

This quick experiment also shows me I need a bike phone holder, which I ordered today, I also ordered a basket for the back rack that folds down flat when not needed. I plan to do more grocery bike rides. Both of these can be moved to the eBike… if I get one.

A little out of place… just a note so I don’t forget… LiteLok, one of the best anti-theft bike lock!

I’m really talking myself into this. No gas, no insurance!

The main developer Don Higgins retired just over a year ago, and the project basically stagnated. For some reason I decided to see if anything was happening with this cool z390 mainframe assembler emulator. And surprise there was a note on their z390 Google Group, saying on April 5th “we’ve had a good meeting earlier this week. we’re resuming maintenance activities, and are planning to resume meetings roughly once a month.

I first talked about this app here. For some reason, the map on my Android Geo Tracker app wasn’t displaying… just a white screen. So I wanted to export the data to Linux and use my GPX Viewer, to see if it worked. And, as I suspected… it did!

A bike round trip to my local grocery store (path in green).

There is some discrepancy on the stats. But the visual route matches, and the distance matches… 3.8 km = 2.3 miles.

Here’s how to export…

Click the hamburger menu, top left. You’ll notice, on return to the app. the map is showing.

Next, click on less than looking symbol (to the left of the pencil)… then select GPX. It will give you a choice of where to send it to. In my case I use Signals “Note to Self”. I then download the file from desktop Linux Signal.

It’s not a new game… but new to me. It’s called American Truck Simulator. I haven’t bought a Steam game in years. And I like simulators. How do you go wrong for $4.99? Ironically the graphic card they recommend for Linux is the one I just bought.

I like simulators, however on the surface… the game sounds kinda boring. But it’s an open world, which I like, so you can drive any where. I’ll probably start playing arcade style. What happen if I just start running over people or crashing into vehicles? Will the cops chase me? A while ago I loved playing GTA Vice City, but the most fun I had was after I finished the game, running around causing havoc. It was fun jumping into tanks destroying police cars as they tried to stop me. It was equally fun jumping into the military helicopter, and destroying the police helicopters. I could play like this for hours.

Time to watch some American Truck Simulator YouTube videos, to see if I can get more psyched about it.

35°53’19.1″N 117°40’20.3″W
37°14’46.49″N, 115°49’24.63″W

Here’s his original pic with spacewar controllers. I cropped and scaled it up for comparison.

I’m looking at you… YouTube and Pinterest. At browser start, they attempt to put you in the same spot, you were last at. So if you were halfway down a page they try and put you halfway down a page, as if you’ve seen everything above this spot. However they’ve refreshed the page with new content, so they might as well have started at the top.

For years I always could come up with a new project to work on. But haven’t come up with anything meaningful for maybe over a year. For a while I really enjoyed emulating old computer hardware and OSs. Especially ones I worked on. Such as IBM 360/370 mainframes and DEC PDP-11 and RSTS/E. Mostly I just enjoyed bringing these old systems up and duplicating some of the old things I did… back in the day. I don’t really find myself wanting to do that much more. Been there… done that. Got paid for doing that. And what will it gain me now.

At one time I thought it might be fun to write some KICKS (like CICS) but it’s quite a bit of effort for something that will have no direct benefit to me. Again… did it COBOL and Assembler.

As far as practically goes, writing interactive screens in GnuCOBOL is probably more practical. It creates native standalone programs.

Learning GO was fun for a while. But without a project to work on it’s hard to advance much.

The printout is over 150 pages of Intel 8080 assembly language, here. In this article, Gates says that Altair BASIC was inspired by the January 1975 copy of “Popular Electronics” magazine. Which has been the cover photo for my log/blog since I began it. In this article, they says it feels like yesterday when he and Allen “hunched over the PDP-10 in Harvard’s computer lab, writing the code that would become the first product of our new company.”

I’m a long time DEC fan, mostly due to the PDP-11 computers, and only recently became aware of the PDP-10 due to Oscar Vermeulen’s PiDP-10.