Raymond Russell

I am just this guy y'know.

Mostly retro games and programming.
Bad jokes, Politics and a bit of soldering occasionally

Download my free #ZXSpectrum Puzzle game "BlockZ"

BlockZ puzzle game free download: https://raymierussell.itch.io/blockz

Public Key

npub1p23wd3pc2yg6q3u2hftp400v75awafzycesa6suzj6w3w963e8cq20ecej

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsq4ghxcsu9zydqg79t54s6hhk02whw53zvvcwagwpfd8ghzagunuqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dszdpfjm

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1p23wd3pc2yg6q3u2hftp400v75awafzycesa6suzj6w3w963e8cq20ecej

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-05-22 21:15:17 UTC

- reply

Lol, I did this with a puzzle game (BlockZ) I wrote for the 8 bit Micro - ZX Spectrum during the covid lockdown.
I held the score as an unsigned 16 bit value so it could only range from 0 to 65535, so a ghost zero at the end made the scores seem bigger.
It is surprisingly convoluted to efficiently convert an integer value held in 16 bits (or variation thereof) to a string of text to display to the screen.

2026-04-10 06:27:49 UTC

- reply

The classic paradox, workers so vital you consider removing their ability to strike but not vital enough that you can pay them what they are worth.

2026-03-30 21:28:17 UTC

- reply

Yes, it almost like an optical illusion (sic) of the mind.

2026-03-30 21:23:32 UTC

I am really sick of hearing about "The Mandela Effect".
I am absolutely convinced that anyone "remembering" that Mandela died in Jail in the 80's is remembering the film "Cry Freedom" which was the biopic of Steve Biko.
Steve Biko was Anti-Apartheid activist who died (likely murdered by the state) in jail in 1977.
His story was not widely known in popular culture until the Oscar nominated film was released in 1987.
The 1st time I heard of the Mandela Effect my immediate thought was Steve Biko.

2026-03-22 20:43:32 UTC

Maybe I am misunderstanding something but it seems to me that laws in various places which require age declarations for OS's are going to make all vintage machines with ROM based fixed OS's illegal in those locales.
I cannot tell my ZX Spectrum my age so that it will only load age appropriate software when I use it.

2026-03-17 14:11:50 UTC

I lost a small sliver of tooth about 2 weeks before I was due for my regular checkup. It wasn't bothering me other than a roughness on my tongue when I touched it.
So today was the big day.
Turns out it was small piece of filling that I lost and I had forgotten was a filled tooth.
It was fixed in 5 mins, no numbing needed. In a way I am glad it was an old filling rather than a bit of actual tooth that had gone bad.
The rest of my mouth was fine.

2026-03-11 19:09:27 UTC

- reply

Thats fine if you are in the position to do so.
I am a cyclist and cant drive but I appreciated that a vehicle can be a necessity in many circumstances both personal and business use.
One could suggest EV's but that is not without cost implications.
If a business is profiteering the easiest counter is for the state to not allow it.

2026-03-05 18:41:33 UTC

- reply

The player routine has a pointer that lets it know where the module (tune) is located in RAM so you could locate several tunes in RAM and change the pointer. I went a slightly lazier route and kept the default pointer location and just copied the mods from there own memory location to the default location as required. I have plenty of RAM so it wasn't an issue.

2026-03-05 18:20:44 UTC

- reply

I would assume that there some trackers available for the C64.
I lucked out and got some great AY tunes created by a fella online when I was making my speccy game BlockZ.
To integrate the music into my own program is simple.
The player routine and music module (tune) are loaded in.
The player has 3 entry points start, stop and play next note.
Call the start routine then within a interrupt routine call the next note routine for continuous music
The C64 may have similar software,

2026-02-25 23:39:05 UTC

- reply

So a law that has been declared as illegal, is no longer being used to arrest folk at the moment but remains on the books and if it reinstated fully at some future date on appeal and if there is evidence that the law was broken between it being declared illegal and that being reversed on appeal THEN you could be arrested if you were deemed to have broken the declared illegal law (but not really) during the interregnum period.
Confused? You soon will be.

2026-02-19 06:23:17 UTC

- reply

Speaking as a Brit there is literally the phrase "Dot Dot Dot" to add a verbal ellipsis to what you are saying so I don't see where the 4 dots is British thing came from.

2026-02-15 23:21:03 UTC

- reply

Yeah, all those TV cash-for-gold adverts are gonna get dislodged by cash-for-RAM and cash-for-hdd's/sdd's

2026-02-05 19:00:42 UTC

Its time the working Parliament was moved away from London.
We can slowly repair the old building as a tourist attraction and move to a custom campus in the middle of the country.
Include some very nice "dormitories" for MP's so they can live comfortably while working there.
We would soon see the centre of gravity of power move from London to the new place.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgp2pzqr84o

2026-01-21 11:23:16 UTC

Shock Horror!!!
Nigel Farage wears his ignorance as a badge of honour.
I know its not the worst thing he has ever done, but one his excuses for not registering his financial interests as an MP is
"I don't do computers...I am not computer literate, which makes me more of an oddball.."
Farage also said the system for registering interests was "not designed for anybody in business".
Sorry, but sorry. The ability
to semi-competently use a computer is a genuinely valuable real world skill

2026-01-19 16:23:12 UTC

- reply

There is also a STAC code which works in the same way but does not take your old number. So you can switch and use the new number from your new supplier.

2026-01-19 16:19:26 UTC

- reply

One thing in the UK that comms regulator brought in that has made a positive impact is the ability to switch your mobile phone supplier and take your number by use of a PAC (code). You can get this number by text no matter which network you are on. You then give this code to your new supplier and they switch you and your number within 24 hours. This also cancels the contract with the previous supplier (exit fees still apply if you leave early).

2026-01-03 16:10:45 UTC

- reply

Squared paper truly was the graphics killer app in the early 8 bit era.

2025-12-24 20:52:26 UTC

- reply

You'll be getting a Spectrum, next 😂😆

2025-11-21 11:51:58 UTC

That time you spent $1Trillion on Tulips and put Tulips in all your products even though it didn't make any sense and people were becoming weary of products that had fully integrated Tulips, even when given away for free.
Your massive warehouses where store all your Tulips were costing more in water and plant food to maintain than Tulips sales. So you borrow money using your Tulips as assets despite their finite life.
Now customers don't want Tulips because THEY are ignorant fools.

2025-11-17 23:08:02 UTC

- reply

The #buses in #Glasgow often display the Start of #Unix Epoch when their on board displays are going a bit wonky.

2025-11-03 18:10:35 UTC

- reply

"get the North Sea Operating"
If the ignore the destruction of the planet aspect of that statement, the only way it would truly "benefit Britain" would be if oil was Nationalised and a sovereign wealth fund created from the profits - This will never happen but should have 40 years ago.

2025-10-19 22:18:08 UTC

Events, Dear Boy, Events.
Mr Starmer and Ms Badenoch are starting to look rather foolish to go against police advice et al about a certain upcoming football match.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cgr4n07509wo

2025-10-13 14:53:36 UTC

- reply

It really makes you wonder whats the point of being in power if you pander to folk that are never gonna be on your side rather than doing something meaningful to help the vast majority of the country.

2025-10-13 14:18:02 UTC

- reply

The most annoying thing is the lack of ambition and vision.
We came out of WW2 almost bankrupt yet within a couple of decades the welfare state, with council housing and the NHS making life better for vast swathes of the population.

2025-10-08 21:09:54 UTC

- reply

That is an observation that is difficult to disagree with.
We need to make it so that public housing is of such a quality that doing anything else would be silly. Not as a choice you make when you have no other choice.

2025-10-08 20:57:48 UTC

- reply

Slightly more radical than my twin ideas of massive public house building and no person/entity/corp can own a house that isn't their primary residence.
We can build dormitories for MP's instead of the nonsense that goes on at the moment.

2025-10-08 14:20:24 UTC

I fucking hate that nearly every policy the main parties do basically inflate house prices even more they are already.
What will the Tories latest wheeze of getting rid of stamp duty on your main home do?
It will bump up house prices cos that money that was previously spent of stamp duty will be added to bids on homes.
Where are these homes that you will no longer have to pay stamp duty on coming from?
We need a massive public housing build project.

2025-10-01 11:23:46 UTC

- reply

The feels like a reheat of the national ID card system that Tony Blairs gov't wanted to introduce and a lot of the old pro/con arguments still stand.
For me the Digital aspect adds a whole layer of Noooo! but you don't even need to go that far.
Its the mission creep that kills it for me.
The classic mission creep around Ant-terrorism legislation should be a lesson to us all.
Just ask Walter Wolfgang
My original mission creep toot can be seen here
https://mastodon.scot/@raymierussell/115265924118305758

2025-09-30 22:10:24 UTC

I know it has fallen out of the news but the UK Govt's proposed Digital ID has not gone away.
The petition to stop it is stubbornly sitting around 2.6 million signatures.
If you feel inclined and have not already done so it is still open for signatures.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/730194

2025-09-25 16:40:22 UTC

- reply

One phrase "Mission Creep"
Stage 1: You must have one
Stage 2 :You must present it to get access to certain public services.
Stage 3: You must carry it at all times and present on request by increasing list of public servants.
Stage 4: Private companies will start to use it in the same way as the state.

2025-09-20 15:26:34 UTC

- reply

small HDMI is called mini HDMI 🤔 😂

2025-09-08 17:09:41 UTC

- reply

My sister has cashed cheques by taking photographs of them for her banking app.
I have deposited a couple into my bank account via the Post Office.
The UK PO provides some banking facilities for the bigger banks. The PO has different envelopes belonging to the various banks. They give you appropriate envelope, you fill out some information on it and put the cheque inside and return it to the PO clerk. It is deposited into your account within a couple of days.

2025-09-08 16:29:57 UTC

- reply

My old dad had to write a cheque last month but his hands aren't so good since his stroke so I wrote it out for him and he dated and signed it. Got cashed by the recipient without issue.

2025-08-29 09:55:47 UTC

- reply

Its amazing how just about every gov't policy on housing since the right to buy in the 80's had simply accelerated property values, even this one will have a double whammy effect. Private landlords will increase rents to cover the extra cost and the market will increase house prices as it sees higher rental value can be extracted.
A massive public house building scheme is needed but too many people rely on gouging renters/home buyers for that to happen.

2025-08-25 22:41:07 UTC

- reply

I worked for UPS when 911 happened and there was disruption for a relatively short period.
This looks as if it could last longer.
I have no inside knowledge as I have long since left the UPS and the courier industry.

2025-08-25 22:37:17 UTC

- reply

The UK Royal mail and DHL have also suspended USA deliveries.

2025-08-11 19:45:38 UTC

- reply

A polish railway company had their trains hobbled because they had the audacity to try to use their regular 3rd party train maintenance company to do work in their trains rather than pay a fortune to the manufacture in maintenance contracts.

2025-06-23 09:05:01 UTC

- reply

Whats the first headline I see about assisted dying not related to its passing through Parliament?
"No budget for assisted dying service, Streeting says"
2nd Paragraph
"Streeting, who was one of the most senior opponents of the legislation, posted a lengthy message on his Facebook page explaining why he voted against the legislation."

2025-05-18 19:14:51 UTC

- reply

Lol, my 82 y/o dad dropped his remote the other day and pressed some buttons that deleted some channels from his TV Guide.
Yesterday, I spent about 10 minutes finding the correct menu to retune and add the channels back.
I am computer geek from the DOS days and I am struggling with alleged "smart TV's"

2024-12-15 21:50:17 UTC

Michael Moore has made his 2007 Oscar nominated documentary "Sicko" available for free to watch on You Tube.
It is a critique of the US Health system which has arguably gotten much worse since the Doc was made 15 years ago.
As is to be expected some of this is a tough watch but Moore does sprinkle his usual humour throughout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbEQ7acb0IE

2024-12-13 19:26:06 UTC

- reply

The Milkshakes were done to Nigel Farage the Reform 'Party' guy.
I use the word Party in a loose sense as it not like an ordinary political party where you can be a member and have say in its running. Its literally a Public Limited Company that parades as political party.
He is not technically the CEO but Co-Director along with the guy who bankrolls it. So close enough.

2024-12-12 23:06:34 UTC

Fuck, last week we were being told that sandwich fillings are going woke, this week we are told they are "not real food". I wish the culture warriors would make up their minds about stuff - oh that's right, they simply make up stuff.

2024-12-12 20:00:55 UTC

I tried to get a photo of this but I was outsmarted.
Our local Morrisons supermarket has an autonomous floor cleaner, a sort of industrial size Roomba.
And today I noticed that some wag (must be a staff member) has cellotaped a handwritten sign onto the front of it which reads "HAL 9000".
I did try to take a photo but every time I got in front to take a photo it veered off to the side to avoid hitting me.

2024-12-12 19:17:09 UTC

***Top tech tip***
If turning it off, then on again fails to get the desired effect then try reversing the polarity of the neutron flow.

2024-11-30 18:13:08 UTC

For @npub1j9l…jvxt Christmas may have come early this year.
https://youtu.be/qSFNufruSKw?si=nRN1BN9hTsgEoTuY

2024-11-18 14:10:47 UTC

- reply

Nothing is foolproof - never underestimate the ingenuity of your average fool.

2024-11-08 22:45:07 UTC

- reply

When "how many feet are in a hand?" is a bone fide enquiry in your measurement system you really need to think again 😜

2024-11-08 21:22:04 UTC

- reply

Maybe I am overstating but I think the tech stuff that still remains purely as fiction in TNG probably are not actually gonna be possible ever. Transporters, warp speed, subspace comms, anti-grav devices.

2024-11-08 21:07:42 UTC

- reply

Absolutely. The pads are just such a familiar form factor to us nowadays.
Its strange to think when TNG was being made 'Computers' were mostly desktop PC's running DOS for doing business spreadsheets or micro's for the home.

2024-11-08 21:01:13 UTC

- reply

I am a bit concerned that according to TNG at some point in the future we are gonna mostly favour 4:3 ratio screens again, with the main viewscreen in the bridge being the exception. Hope its well after I am dead, don't think I could face another screen ratio change in my lifetime.

2024-11-08 20:44:34 UTC

- reply

The C64 ROM loader is notorious for being slow. Think it does a load and verify cycle every time.
The 48K ZX Spectrum had a speedy ROM loader. You could basically (sic) LOAD/SAVE the full available RAM in less than 5 mins without doing anything fancy. Later with 128k software some companies created software fastloads to get them to load in a more timely manner.

2024-11-08 20:40:09 UTC

Floppy disk?
T'luxury.
In my day it was cassettes on the front of magazine covers.

2024-11-04 10:46:59 UTC

- reply

The universe disappears and is replaced by something more bizarre and inexplicable.

2024-10-24 23:26:42 UTC

- reply

I know can be but of an acquired taste but Taskmaster is very watchable once you 'get it'.

2024-10-24 21:46:05 UTC

I suppose the most annoying thing about the imperial measurement system is the arbitrary nature of what units make up other units.
There are 14 rinky dinks in a mackle sploog and 7 mackle sploog's in a blinky blonk.
The rinky dink metric equivalent is 2.4 centi randoms.

2024-10-19 22:14:12 UTC

Lock up yer Wankpuffins and get ready for some football violence...yes it has to be another #ZXSpectrum random #Retrogaming stream from @npub1zdu…8wqy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT2ysp3uuNY

2024-10-18 22:46:52 UTC

Need a #ZXSpectrum #BASIC program to convert an unsigned 16 integer to binary.
Look no further.
Type in this program.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/113/330/849/861/691/970/original/761307cf9ecd551d.png

2024-10-03 22:02:32 UTC

- reply

On the ZX Spectrum I think the Frequency Analysis of a string of text may be the easiest bit.
I cheated a bit and POKED memory addresses (still all BASIC) rather than get messy and chuck arrays of strings around.
#ZXSpectum #BASIC #Huffman #FrequencyAnalysis
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/113/245/725/732/809/858/original/2151e08fbe4969b9.png
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/113/245/735/498/457/792/original/30c1286d897aa264.png

2024-10-03 20:29:49 UTC

- reply

Famous last words, but I am gonna try and find a Huffman for dummies post and see if I can understand it.
If I can do a BASIC version I may then try a Z80.
But I will probs reads some stuff and my brain will explode.

2024-10-03 20:18:03 UTC

- reply

I wonder if it would be possible to take a string of text in BASIC and do a bit of Huffman on it. Just as proof of concept.

2024-10-03 20:05:59 UTC

Any other UK punters getting annoyed with former recent PM's telling us how they would have been brilliant and won the last election if they just hadn't been kicked out for being a shit PM and/or lying to Parliament.

2024-10-03 19:43:16 UTC

- reply

Morse code sounds a bit Huffman-esque.

2024-09-28 12:40:56 UTC

- reply

I was bitten by a radioactive Casio calculator, that could do Binary, Hex and Octal, in the late 80's, it turned me into a tech nerd.

2024-09-28 10:44:32 UTC

We were all lied to ;-)
The 1st gen 4G phones mostly were not fully 4G
These older phones (pre 2020-ish) have 4g data (internet) connection but relied on 3G for calls.
Once 3g is switched off these older phones lose the ability to make/receive phone calls.
Modern 4g phones use #VoLTE (4G voice) calling.
This has happened to a couple of family members with 5/6 year old '4g' phones who now have to buy a new phone.

2024-09-23 06:13:36 UTC

- reply

Add to that direct subsidies that some corps brazenly attempt to get by threatening to close, for example, a steel plant. The wider corp is massively profitable but wants a half billion quid to keep it's plant open.
https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2024/january/tata-s-pleas-of-poverty-exposed-as-a-sham-by-unite

2024-09-19 20:17:50 UTC

Had a rather scary thought
I have worked in both factory production line, warehouse and courier environments in my time and it is well known that stuff has a habit of 'going missing'.
If the Israeli gov't have modified devices to include explosives in them you can almost guarantee that some have 'gone missing' in the distribution chain and are out in the wild, with unsuspecting owners having potential bombs.

2024-09-16 13:47:37 UTC

- reply

Lol, the 1986 Comedy Drama "A Very Peculiar Practice" has one episode where Dr Bob Buzzard carries out a less than ethical drugs trial for the price of a Free Suit from the pharma and promise of private consultancy and travel if the trials return the correct results.

2024-09-15 14:47:09 UTC

Donald Trump claims he overwhelmingly beat Harris in the debate and subsequently made the following 2 demands
1) Broadcaster ABC lose its license
2) The moderators were so bad they should be criminally charged
Makes one wonder what he would have demanded if he thought he had lost.

2024-09-14 15:30:09 UTC

Every one on the bus has their phone on their hands and are tapping and pressing away. (Including me now). We really are living in the episode of ST:TNG called "The Game"
#StarTrek #TNG

2024-08-27 15:23:39 UTC

- reply

I did not know that they have switched ends.
I also find the names quirky as most Americans should be in favour of Democracy and the Republic so a typical US citizen are in favour of the Democratic Republic.

2024-08-27 15:09:30 UTC

*Actual true fact*
The colo(u)rs associated with the two main political parties in the UK and USA are opposite from each other.
UK
Labour - Red
Conservative - Blue
USA
Democrat - Blue
Republican - Red
When ever I hear about blue states and red states et al I have to do the flip in my brain.
It almost as though our two countries try their best to be different from each other.

2024-08-18 09:18:15 UTC

- reply

Gravity train storage is such a near concept.
I wonder what ever happened to the cryo-storage experiments that were getting done where gases were frozen and then defrosted to release storage energy when needed. That seems like a neat but slightly more complicated way of doing things.
What we ultimately need is a grid storage mix in the same way generation is mixed.

2024-08-13 22:02:50 UTC

- reply

Oh, the irony, when Trump got fired by the American people he tried to stay in the Job by encouraging an insurrection and claiming he was not fired.

2024-08-13 17:39:28 UTC

So let me get this straight.
The UK central gov't had a de facto ban on new onshore windfarms and messed up an offshore auction that led to no bids.
Meanwhile, The Scottish gov't encouraged wind generation. Now a multi billion transmission line is gonna be built to transport energy generated by wind from Scotland to England.

2024-08-03 21:23:51 UTC

- reply

Curious as to how much you pay. Heard that North American (especially US) mobile plans are stupid expensive compared to lots of the rest of the world.
I currently have 2 SIM only plans on the same account an unlimited (including tethering) data,call and text @ £18 gbp per month. I have that in a 4g router as my home internet. My other SIM is in my phone 8gb Data, Unlimited calls and text @ £6.30 gbp per month. Both prices include a 10% discount because the account has more than 1 SIM.

2024-05-08 19:37:55 UTC

- reply

This purely mutual grandstanding by her AND the Labour Party.
She wanted to leave in a big public huff and the Labour Party were happy to have her as another weapon to beat Sunak.
As I understand it she is not standing in the GE, so the prospective candidate for Dover will be unaffected.
Nothing really changes