From the 37C3-talk's page:

The GB Interceptor

How do you capture a video from an 1989's Game Boy without modding the original hardware? With an adapter cartridge that spies on the memory bus!

Let's talk about how to reconstruct the Game Boy's memory state, emulate its graphics unit and then encode the image into an MJPEG stream for anyone to use as a USB video class device. In realtime. On an rp2040 microcontroller.

The original goal of the open source project "GB Interceptor" was to capture gameplay for one specific game: Tetris. In order to live stream a Tetris tournaments from the contestant's personal Game Boys, the idea was to create an adapter that goes between the Game Boy and the game module to analyze the communication on the memory bus and reconstruct the game state.

It turns out that it is actually possible to reconstruct the entire memory state of almost any game and in fact create an rp2040-based adapter that acts as a USB video class device offering the on-screen game footage in realtime. Players can simply put this adapter into their Game Boy and use it like a webcam without additional drivers or knowledge.

An essential aspect of this concept is that the Game Boy basically runs all of its code directly from the ROM module, which makes it possible to directly follow the program counter of its 8bit CPU regardless of how the code branches. An image can then be recreated by emulating the graphics unit (PPU).

However, there are many edge cases like interrupts, data from registers that are not visible on the bus, the link cable, DMA operations, synchronization of CPU and PPU, game bugs and even bugs in the Game Boy hardware itself.

In this talk I will show how all this is done just on an rp2040 with spare cycles to encode everything as a 60fps MJPEG stream. I will shine a light on the edge cases - those that were solved and those that might just be unsolvable with this approach. And I will take you on a sightseeing tour through the 8bit hell that drives our iconic handheld from 1989.

Video: 1080p | 576p - Dauer: 1 h

Open-Source Code & PCB: GB Interceptor @ Github

Am gestrigen Samstag fand wohl der siebte "internationale Repair Day" mit vielen Aktionen statt. Habe ich leider aber erst heute mitbekommen.

• GitHub: https://github.com/OvertureMaps/
• Data access: https://github.com/OvertureMaps/data

From their starting-page:

Powering current and next-generation map products by creating reliable, easy-to-use, and interoperable open map data

Overture is for developers who build map services or use geospatial data.

Some items from their FAQ:

What types of map data will Overture release?

Overture map data will evolve over time. Initially, we are focusing on layers for transportation, places, 3D buildings and administrative boundaries data. To support next-generation map products, Overture will steadily improve the coverage, resolution and accuracy of existing data. In addition, Overture will introduce new layers as the community prioritizes them.

What is the relationship between Overture and OpenStreetMap?

Overture is a data-centric map project, not a community of individual map editors. Therefore, Overture is intended to be complementary to OSM. We combine OSM with other sources to produce new open map data sets. Overture data will be available for use by the OpenStreetMap community under compatible open data licenses. Overture members are encouraged to contribute to OSM directly.

How will Overture data be licensed?

Generally, Overture data is licensed under the Community Database License Agreement – Permissive v2 (CDLA) unless derived from a source that requires publishing under a different license, such as data derived from OpenStreetMap, that constitutes a “Derivative Database” (as defined under ODbL v1.0), which will be licensed under ODbL v1.0.

When will Overture begin releasing datasets?

Overture will release its first datasets in the first half of 2023. We’re working through our plans and will share more details as soon as we’re ready.

Will Overture release open source code?

Overture will develop open source code to help developers process and effectively use Overture map data and the global entity reference system. Code will be available on GitHub.

cross-posted from: https://derp.foo/post/233472

There is a discussion on Hacker News, but feel free to comment here as well.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1928779

There is also a libregameswiki which is a seperate thing from this but in a similar vein

https://libregamewiki.org/Main_Page

Spoiler warning: If you do not know yet, but want to read the Terry Pratchett novel Going Postal, please stop reading here. Spoilers below and in the links!

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The page XClacksOverhead.org lists public-facing websites broadcasting the X-Clacks-Overhead header aka Known websites carrying the signal.

I learned about this tribute to Terry Pratchett from a recent Golem.de article [German]: GNU Terry Pratchett: Eine Hommage für Eingeweihte an den Scheibenwelt-Erfinder

Citing Wikipedia:

Users of the social news site Reddit organised a tribute by which an HTTP header, "X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett", was added to web sites' responses, a reference to the Discworld novel Going Postal, in which "the clacks" (a semaphore system, used as Discworld's equivalent to a telegraph) are programmed to repeat the name of its creator's deceased son; the sentiment in the novel is that no one is ever forgotten as long as their name is still spoken.

A June 2015 web server survey reported that approximately 84,000 websites had been configured with the header.

From the About-page:

What does BraceletBook provide to you?

1. A huge database with loads of friendship bracelet patterns (both alpha and normal).

2. Tutorials, so you can learn how to make friendship bracelets.

3. A lot of tools to make friendship bracelet patterns. You can create those patterns from images, font files, or even use your mouse to draw them on your own.

4. Photos of friendship bracelets. You can see how they'll look before you start tying one.

5. Videos on how to make friendship bracelets.

6. Your own profile, so you can share all of your patterns, photos, videos, and more...

7. To-do list to save the patterns you don't have time for yet.

And a lot more ...

From the Quick Start-page:

Gene Help: Integrated Access to Genes of Genomes in the Reference Sequence Collection

Gene supplies gene-specific connections in the nexus of map, sequence, expression, structure, function, citation, and homology data. Unique identifiers are assigned to genes with defining sequences, genes with known map positions, and genes inferred from phenotypic information. These gene identifiers are used throughout NCBI's databases and tracked through updates of annotation. Gene includes genomes represented by NCBI Reference Sequences (or RefSeqs) and is integrated for indexing and query and retrieval from NCBI's Entrez and E-Utilities systems. Gene comprises sequences from thousands of distinct taxonomic identifiers, ranging from viruses to bacteria to eukaryotes. It represents chromosomes, organelles, plasmids, viruses, transcripts, and millions of proteins.

F.A.Q.-page

There is also a (data) download section