Welcome to the Cold Front.

The is a personal web page where I write about various projects and anything else that interests me. I registered this domain on a cold rainy day in the fall of 2006, mainly because I liked the name.

Some of the content here is a kind of old. Sometimes it's because I get to a good stopping point in whatever I happen to be working on. Sometimes it's because I move on to another project.


News:

06-13-09: Starting a new car-computer project, to replace the one that I built back in 2001.

02-11-09: Added a "weather radio" page to the site. About two weeks ago I bought another weather radio, plugged it into the computer's sound card, and began streaming the KGG95 broadcast to Weather Underground. On my weather radio page, there's an audio player that plays the Weather Underground stream, and table of recent S.A.M.E. messages. So after two years, thecoldfront.com finally has a weather-related page. Imagine that!

08-25-08: Fixed a minor bug in the VDIPTSR example program.

08-23-08: I finally found a way to get a USB gamepad working, in DOS. DOS doesn't come with a USB stack, but Vinculum's VDIP module does. I connected the VDIP module to a level converter, then connected the level converter to a serial port. From there, it's just a matter of sending and receiving data over the serial port. For more information, click on the "DOS USB Gamepad" link.

12-16-07: VCC 2.3 has been added to the download page. This version fixes a bug in the serial port initialization routine, fixes a problem with the track number display when used with MPXPlay 1.54 and later, and includes a better spectrum analyzer display routine.

12-31-06: Cut-over to the new domain and new webpages is planned for tomorrow.

10-31-06: I registered "thecoldfront.com" about a month ago. While it doesn't reflect the content of this site, I like the name, and it's easy to remember. Currently, I'm working on rewriting the web pages. When they're ready, "The Cold Front" will be born, and "Techworld" will be retired. Most of the old content will be transferred to the new site, along with a few updates here and there.

11-27-05: VCC 2.2 has been added to the download page. This version fixes a directory browsing bug and fixes some stability issues in the TSR.

10-08-05: Server died again. Restored from a backup, yet again. I think I've found the source of the data corruption. If it dies again, I'll transfer the site over to the old server.

10-05-05: The server was down for over two days, thanks to some massive data corruption. Restored the server using a recent backup image.

03-11-05: There will be some downtime this weekend, as I move everything over to a different server.

01-12-05: Fixed a couple of minor errors in the Win95b Boot CD documentation.

08-09-04: Added a link to Matthias's MpXT/MPXPlay installation guide.

08-01-04: Had some server issues over the weekend. Should be fixed now.

04-02-04: Posted VCC 2.12 and MpXT 1.49 Beta2 on the download page.

02-03-04: Expect a couple hours of downtime, this evening, when I replace server's hard drive.

01-28-04: Switched over to the new server. The discussion board has been turned back on. Everything *should* work.

01-24-04: Expect some downtime this weekend (minutes not hours) while I work on moving things to a different server.

01-15-04: The MpXT 1.49 Beta 1 is available on the download page.

01-03-04: Made some changes, in an effort to make this site a little more useful. Added a "Docs" section with a Windows 95b boot CD how-to, a link to the future MpXT software project, renamed the topic groups in the discussion forum, added screen shots for LcdEm, and even updated the "Links" page. VCC 2.11 and RealScan 0.96 are available on the download page. VCC 2.11 passes "-in 4" to MPXPlay. Newer releases of MPXPlay need the extra command parameter to tell it to give textfile-based track naming priority over ID3 tag track naming. RealScan 0.96 fixes a minor display glitch which occurs when using an LCD character display connected to COM2.

01-01-04: LcdEm beta 2 has been posted on the download page. In beta 2, the video performance has been improved considerably.


Last Update: 2-11-2009