An anonymous reader writes: Programmer Michael Fogleman recently built his own emulator for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. He’s now put up a post sharing many technical insights he learned along the way. For example: “The NES used the MOS 6502 (at 1.79 MHz) as its CPU. The 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed in 1975. … The 6502 had no multiply or divide instructions. And, of course, no floating point. There was a BCD (Binary Coded Decimal) mode but this was disabled in the NES version of the chip—possibly due to patent concerns. The 6502 had a 256-byte stack with no overflow detection. The 6502 had 151 opcodes (of a possible 256). The remaining 105 values are illegal / undocumented opcodes. Many of them crash the processor. But some of them perform possibly useful results by coincidence. As such, many of these have been given names based on what they do.” It’s an interesting look at how software and hardware interacted back then, and what it takes to emulate that in modern times. Fogleman released the source code on GitHub. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Building an NES Emulator
An anonymous reader writes: This week the Steam Linux client has crossed the threshold of having more than 1, 000 native Linux games available while Steam in total has just under 5, 000 games. This news comes while the reported Steam Linux market-share is just about 1.0%, but Valve continues brewing big plans for Linux gaming. Is 2015 the year of the Linux gaming system? Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Today, New York Councilman Daniel Dromm will reportedly introduce legislation that will force the NYPD to stop using typewriters. That’s right, the NYPD still has typewriters in all 77 precincts. Read more… 
You would need a microscope to be able to see all of the miniature components etched onto the single tiny microchip powering the clock in a digital watch. But you can see them all with the naked eye on artist Gislain Benoit’s The Clock , which is made from 1, 916 hand-soldered components that end up weighing a hefty 14 pounds. Read more… 
Your smartphone may be as powerful as a computer, but it’s also hobbled. You can only install apps on it from the walled garden of the official app store. Your options are limited to the small, vetted collection of “approved” apps as opposed to the unlimited options available for PCs. That’s where jailbreaking comes in. Read more… 
schwit1 writes “Three Austrians have replaced injured hands with bionic ones that they can control using nerves and muscles transplanted into their arms from their legs. The three men are the first to undergo what doctors refer to as “bionic reconstruction, ” which includes a voluntary amputation, the transplantation of nerves and muscles and learning to use faint signals from them to command the hand. Previously, people with bionic hands have primarily controlled them with manual settings.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
