Initial commit (a clone of the jsmachines project as of v1.15.3)

blog/2014/06/14/README.md

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+Halt and Catch Liar
+---
+I had high hopes for the new AMC series "[Halt and Catch Fire](http://www.amctv.com/shows/halt-and-catch-fire),"
+but it has proven to be an utter disappointment.  I think I can suspend my disbelief as well as anyone, but this
+show requires you to completely turn your brain off in order to be believed.  I'm also baffled by the show's
+high [IMDb score](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543312/), which is currently 8.4 (out of 10).  Either AMC has figured
+out how to game the system, or viewers are easily turned on by clichés, like the know-it-all Hot Programmer,
+the self-assured Sales Guy, and the non-plot-advancing sex that they almost instantly engage in.
+
+The premise: ex-IBM Sales Guy waltzes into a fictional computer company, smooth-talks his way into a top
+marketing position without so much as a resumé, and then immediately risks all, including a huge potential lawsuit
+with IBM, because he has dreams of building IBM clones that are "2x fast" at "1/2 price" -- with *handles*!
+
+And the first thing they must do to achieve this dream is clone the IBM PC ROM BIOS, which the show pretends
+was so secret that you couldn't even tell which chips on the IBM PC motherboard contained the ROM.  Never mind
+that IBM published the entire ROM BIOS listing in their Technical Reference Manual, which also included system
+diagrams identifying every chip in the machine.  I think if you're going to weave facts into your fiction,
+the least you can do is get your facts right.
+
+And centerpiece of this whole conceit -- the cloning of the IBM PC ROM BIOS.  What a farce!  Check out this
+scene from Episode 2, where Brilliant Engineer looks at Hot Programmer's whiteboard in awe.  Apparently, he
+is easily awed, because he did the same thing when Sales Guy wrote "2x fast, 1/2 price" on an earlier whiteboard.
+
+!["Halt and Catch Fire" Scene from Episode 2](Halt_and_Catch_Liar-thumbnail.jpg "link:Halt_and_Catch_Liar.jpg")
+
+So if you deconstruct the code on this whiteboard, you quickly notice that while it IS assembly language, it is
+NOT the sort of assembly language you would find in a ROM BIOS, let alone ANYTHING that would leave you in awe.
+
+Here are some excerpts:
+
+	Initialization
+		MOV  AX,CX      ; set up DS
+		MOV  DS,AX
+		MOV  SS,AX      ; and SS
+		LEA  AX,BEGINSTACK
+		MOV  SP,AX
+		MOV  AL,OUTINT
+		...
+	TSTART
+		LEA  AX,BEGTRACE
+		MOV  POINT,AX
+		MOV  AL,YES     ; TURN TRACE ON
+		MOV  TFLAG,AL
+		MOV  AL,NO      ; NOT WRAPPED
+		MOV  WRAP,AL
+		MOV  AX,CS      ; CONVERT ADDRESS FOR OUTPUT
+		LEA  SI,LOADCS
+		CALL HEXPRT
+		MOV  AX,100H
+		LEA  SI,LOADIP
+		CALL HEXPRT
+		LEA  DX,SIGNIN
+		MOV  AH,9
+		INT  DOSINT
+		LEA  DX,OUTPUT
+		MOV  AL,OUTPUT (?)
+		MOV  AH,25H     ; Set Interrupt Vector
+		INT  DOSINT     ; Have DOS place the interrupt...
+		...
+
+This is clearly **NOT** code for a PC ROM BIOS, because no PC BIOS would ever issue a DOS interrupt.
+A BIOS is designed to be called *by* DOS, not the other way around.
+
+This turns out to be code largely copied from a file I found online: [PCTRACE.ASM](http://ftpmirror.your.org/pub/misc/dos/RbbsInABoxVol1No2_640/files/007P/PCTRACE.ZIP-contents/PCTRACE.ASM)
+
+Another curiosity is that searching for this resulted in a "[Googlewhack](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlewhack)"
+of sorts:
+
+![Googlewhack](googlewhack.jpg)
+
+Technically, a Googlewhack (a two-word search that yields exactly one result) must use two words found in an actual
+dictionary.  But dictionaries are so passé.
+
+*[@jeffpar](http://twitter.com/jeffpar)*  
+*June 14, 2014*

blog/2014/06/26/README.md

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+More Under-The-Hood Changes
+---
+v1.13.7 of PCjs contains a few minor improvements, mostly in terms of rendering video modes a little more
+efficiently.  The rest of the changes to the website involved beefing up support for both "software manifests"
+and "document manifests."
+
+To that end, there's a new [/pubs/]() directory for old documents, and [/disks/pc/]() contains more disk images,
+with more on the way.  I have a TON of old diskette images, and it has taken more time to organize them and create
+manifests than I would like.  I have managed to streamline the process somewhat, however, as discussed in
+[/disks/pc/personal/]().
+
+*[@jeffpar](http://twitter.com/jeffpar)*  
+*June 26, 2014*