[sdiy] Taking a Step towards - - --((FUTURE-PREDICTIONS))-- - -

[Scott Gravenhorst]

"john mahoney" <jmahoney at gate.net> wrote:
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "TIm Daugard" <daugard at sprintmail.com>
>>
>> Analog is much easier to DIY. Digital takes far more work and a wider
>range of
>> knowledge to get anything out. Analog is also generally easier to reverse
>> engineer to understand "how did they do that?"
>
>You are correct, regarding hardware. But, in the Paul Maddox school of SDIY,
>the "S" sometimes stands for "Software" or "Softsynth." :-) Using Open
>Source software running on off-the-shelf hardware (the Chameleon) is an easy
>way to get into this type of SDIY, if you have programming skills. And I
>suspect that I'm not the only one here who's better at programming computers
>than building them.
>
>If I may have some fun with Tim's post, here's my spun version:
>    Software is much easier to DIY. Hardware takes far more work and a wider
>range of tools to get anything out. Software is also generally easier to
>experiment with, as you don't have to worry about blowing up your precious,
>rare components.
>
>
>> ... having built a computer using an 1802 processor...
>
>Wow, the RCA 1802. Set the Wayback Machine, Sherman! Supposedly considered
>one of the first RISC chips, it's from the mid 1970s. Never caught on like
>the 6502 and Z-80, though.
>--
>john


Hmm.  Well, I must agree that wanking in the software world is quite easy. 
And I confess to being entirely ignorant about the "Chameleon".  Having just
done a Google on the word, I see lots about animals able to change color but
not much on a programmable synthesizer platform.  If someone would be so kind
as to point me to some information about the device, I'd be quite grateful.


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-- Scott Gravenhorst | LegoManiac / Lego Trains / RIS 1.5
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