Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!csn!boulder!spot.Colorado.EDU!frechett
From: frechett@spot.Colorado.EDU (-=Runaway Daemon=-)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: A couple things.
Keywords: hp48 Tetris Minehunt Voting Batteries and der(x!)
Message-ID: <1991Apr30.054632.10264@colorado.edu>
Date: 30 Apr 91 05:46:32 GMT
Sender: news@colorado.edu (The Daily Planet)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 64
Nntp-Posting-Host: spot.colorado.edu

I sort of save up a few short things to say and I figure why waste 
three or four posts when I can do it in one.

First, I have been playing the ML tetris which is very slick.  After figuring
out the nonsense with the two different rotation keys it wasn't long before 
I was cruising right along.  Today I made it to 49 lines and I only had a 
few bits of crap in the bottom two rows.  At 50 lines teh speed increases so
fast that the peices appear to come down at the same rate that they would if
you just held the drop key down.  This seems to be a bit more than just
a challenge. The word "Impossible" springs to mind.  Is anyone hacking on this
currently?  Just curious.


Secondly, someone posted last week and said that they would shortly be 
releasing a new improved version of Minehunt. (or a game that is similiar)
This sort of sparked my interest but I haven't heard anything yet.  
Waz up with that?

Thirdly, I have been carrying on a discussion over on comp.sys.hp48.d about
uneven battery usage and I keep wondering when we are going to the 
whole group split nonsense out of the way.  Apparently there is something wrong
with the names comp.sys.hpp48.d and comp.sys.hp48.  What?  I voted for the 
damn thing because I thought it might quiet the nonsense and I could see the
hp95 coming too.  So us hp48 people could pop over to comp.sys.hp48.d and 
talk  about the lhp48 while comp.sys.handhelds is deluged by hp95 messages. ;)
I will still read both but then at least I can get some indication of what is
where.  Let's get the show on the road.  

And while I am at it.. since only a few people are actually getting c.s.hp48
right now I will bring up my question here.  Has anyone figured out why 
the batteries die unevenly?  I don't know if everyone's does this but it 
is fairly common and I know that it did it on my calc.  I started to get the 
low battery indicator and so I checked with the Diagnostic battery checker and
found nothing.  I then checked the batteries and found that two of them read 
1.2 Volts even under load and the last reads between  .8 and .9 volts.
depending on load.  Anyone know why it does this.  On c.s.hp48 someone 
mentioned that his hp28 did this many times so he has taken to just replacing
the one low battery and getting very good life out of all of his batteries.

Less see.. anything else.. Ah yes.. I called Educalc today about my 
SPARCOM EE application card which has been on order for... forever and 
was supposed to definately be in last week.. ha ha ha  But they did 
say that they were sent to them on Thursday of last week and that they 
should be getting the first shipment tommorow.  So for all you people 
waiting, either you will have it in a week (fingers crossed) or in another few
weeks.  Of course school is getting out for many people so it is really helpful
right now isn't it.. *note sarcasm*

Ah yes.. While playing around I found a fun little puzzle.  If I try to 
evaluate d/dx(X!) I get 'der^[(X,dX(X))' Where ^[ shows up as a little
black square.  Why am I getting a result with ESCAPE in it?  I can accept that
the hp doesn't know what to do with the derivative of X!.  I don't know what to
do with it myself.  But I get the impression that the hp is really not happy
about it and it gives up somewhere in the middle leaving this garbage on the
stack.  Any Ideas?  

Ah well, I am out of things to say.. It might be wise to change the topic if
anyone actually replies to this and if you include the whole article, I am sure
that I won't be the only one to cut your fingers off and feed them to your hp.
;)

	ian

-=Runaway Daemon=-