Vector64 Blog


Here you'll find some stuff that interests me that's generally unrelated to the Mozilla stuff. This is a low-budget blog in that it's just a plain HTML file and isn't interactive. There is a one-click blog program with this web server but I haven't had the time to look into turning it on yet. Maybe someday in the future.
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February 14, 2009

I'm down with a cold or flu right now - not surprising as it is all over the place. It's moderately mild but does slow me down.

Last week, someone brought a JPEG bug to my attention in the Intel SSE2 ISLOW code. I had a detailed look at the code and there were some adjustment factors there that could produce odd results. I ordered a later version of the textbook that the Intel code is based on but it will take me a while to bone up on the math to understand the algorithm used. Basically, what should be a simple gray background displays as a background with lines going through it. The lines are very subtle but they are there. So I did a port of the IJG code to SSE2 instead.

I also noticed that Makoto added support for Win64 and Linux 64 using an SSE2 Intrinsics port of the Intel ISLOW code. I had a look at the patch and it appears that my code went in. My code base is old so I guess that it is possible. I need to rebuild the Windows development environment on my MacBook Pro to pick up the new Mercurial environment and the latest version of the code. I also need to set up the 3.0 build system somewhere. Bug 477728 - JPEG image decoding bug (sse idct).

Agenda:

February 7, 2009

My schedule continues to be very tight with carting the kids to college and back and with a pretty heavy workload at work. Combine that with the additional effort that the weather has caused leaves me one tired engineer. I need to get back to working out, clean up my desk, pay the bills and start looking at my taxes. The one other pain is maintaining Windows. I try to run Ad-Aware and SpyBot scans on the weekends and that includes doing updates. Lavasoft has a new version of Ad-Aware and I have to upgrade them on my two systems. I should run full AntiVirus scans too. No wonder I'm spending more and more time on Mac OSX. At some point it might be that I only log into my Windows machines to do malware checks. If that happens, it will be time to chuck Windows.

I keep trying to cut repeating costs and need to work harder on this. I also need to work on income too as yields stink generally everywhere. Everyone is trying to increase their fees and income and it take continued effort to keep costs down. I haven't been spending on toys this year and my checking account reflects that - it's higher than it usually is at this time of the year. Of course I have tuition bills to pay so those will take a bite out of available cash.

The kids are doing fine at their respective schools. I'm glad that our daughter is putting in a decent amount of effort and I find it interesting that she finds it relatively easy. She isn't anywhere near as good as her brother is at math and science but she is quite capable. She's run into kids at her college that are several years older than she is while her skills and abilities are several levels above them. It really is an eye-opener for her on how varied educational quality is around the country.
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January 2009
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Updated August 30, 2009. For comments and questions, send email to Vector.x64@gmail.com. Contents of this blog are Copyright 2009. Fair use portions may be copied with a link back to this vector64.com.