Thursday 30 June 2016

Usborne 80s computer programming books

An explanation of a subroutine.

Usborne Publishing have released a series of computer programming books they published in the 1980s as free downloads!
These series of books got a lot of Gen X and Gen Y kids into programming in Basic, using computers like the ZX Spectrum, the BBC Micro and the Commodore 64.  Steve Grand himself cut his eyeteeth on a microcomputer like these.

While the programs themselves will no longer work on computers, these books are nostalgic primers on how programming used to be.  There are still some insights and analogies that might be interesting for a beginning programmer.
 

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Stuck pregnancy

In my hippy world, I have come across a strange stuck pregnancy.  The female norn you can see in the picture is 1 hour and 23 minutes old, is experiencing her first pregnancy, and still has a menstrual cycle, and does not have the month counter showing in her fertility kit.

If you look at her Female Hormones chart, it doesn't exactly represent the typical result:



Child Moniker:1ZFK

Biochemistry: Reactions - Mismatch, Child Has 96, Mother has 92, Father has 92
The half-life gene has mutated....  Still not sure how to read that one easily.  Does anyone have any suggestions?


Gene 01 01 11 has mutated:
       Mask:          **           
      Child: 01 02 01 4A 00 0D 04 02
    Parents: 01 02 01 42 00 0D 04 02

      Child: 11 Y F Mut/Dup/Del Creature : Reproductive : I am pregnant (egg & Sperm ready). NONE released from emitter. Threshold level=00 Sample Rate=0D Gain=04 Emitter type= Digital (o/p = Gain (If signal > threshold))
    Parents: 11 Y F Mut/Dup/Del Creature : Reproductive : I am pregnant (egg & Sperm ready). Progesterone released from emitter. Threshold level=00 Sample Rate=0D Gain=04 Emitter type= Digital (o/p = Gain (If signal > threshold))

Gene 01 02 1F has mutated:
       Mask:    **             **     
      Child: 01 43 02 3F 01 41 00 00 28
    Parents: 01 41 02 3F 01 41 01 00 28

      Child: 1F Y F Mut/Dup/Del 1 Glycotoxin + 2 Oestrogen -> 1 Gonadotrophin, Rate=40
    Parents: 1F Y F Mut/Dup/Del 1 Gonadotrophin + 2 Oestrogen -> 1 Gonadotrophin, Rate=40

Not sure why she's got Gonadotrophin, as she hasn't experienced glycotoxin poisoning.

I suspect that she could live out her entire life without laying her egg, as she does not secrete progesterone, and that triggers egg laying.

If anyone would like to investigate her genome further, it's available for download below:

Download her genome here!