DMCA Battle Featured in WSJ
Posted by Michael on 16 November 2009, 03:38 GMT

The Wall Street Journal, the most widely circulated newspaper in the US, has published a lengthy feature on the TI calculator community. The article explores the motivations behind calculator programming and documents the history of the ongoing legal battle, but most importantly, it continues to raise awareness of the issue. Mr. Foster still declines to comment, but the article does contain a reply from a TI representative, even if only one line.

Jet Blaster Mach II by Ben Cherry
Posted by Travis on 14 November 2009, 19:45 GMT

Previously overlooked in the archives is Jet Blaster Mach II, a space shooter for the TI-89 that Ben Cherry made as a sequel to his first version of Jet Blaster several years ago. The object is to blast through a series of randomly-generated fields of blocks and mines, trying to avoid crashing while collecting as much money as possible. At any point in the game you may enter a shop and choose among a variety of weapons, items, and jet modifications available for purchase with your saved money to make the job easier.

This game is a bit different from similar traditional games in that instead of having a set number of lives, it allows you to keep playing until you eventually gain enough cash to buy something from the shop. This way, players who are having a hard time are given a chance to get ahead sooner or later.

Having been last updated around 2004, the game as originally found in the archives did not run correctly on the TI-89 Titanium. With Ben's permission, I have recently updated the program after recompiling it to add Titanium support and making some minor changes to the code to correct a timing issue.

TI Connect Adds 64-Bit, Windows 7 Support
Posted by Duncan on 7 November 2009, 07:19 GMT

Texas Instruments quietly (very quietly) told the world that they have a new version of TI Connect available for download. It looks like you'll need to download both TI Connect 1.6 and the 1.6.1 patch to get full functionality.

The new version supports 64-bit Windows, as well as Windows Vista and Windows 7. The previous lack of support has caused headaches for many users of TI-Connect with 64-bit systems. There should now be nothing stopping you from upgrading to a modern OS!

TI DMCA Situation Update
Posted by Michael on 30 October 2009, 03:20 GMT

First, the good news: TI has completely ignored the EFF's letter and the October 26 deadline, so Brandon's post and Duncan's post are back online. This is great news, although arguably the better situation would have been for TI to sue and lose in the court system, where legal precedent would be established.

The bad news: Because it ignored the letter, TI has bizarrely continued to send improper DMCA takedown notices to websites, including a second notice to Duncan for his other webpage also listing the signing keys! The EFF has posted a news update calling out TI for its behavior. Duncan has filed a DMCA Section 512 counternotice in response to this DMCA abuse.

Update (November 4): For those who haven't yet seen, there is now a news story in the IEEE Spectrum magazine, profiling Brandon and the current situation.