Crossposting the results from http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11914

You probably know it, TI-Planet recently organised a calculator programming contest. The aim was to find the n-th prime palindrome as fast as possible.
By the way, you can find informations about it in the  annoucement topic.



The deadline of the contest was a few days ago, and we have now completed our tests. It's now... results time!


TI-Nspire (BASIC) category
We received 14 entries, but we retained only 13. Indeed, one of the entries, PP08, outside competition and which dwarfed all others, will be presented in a separate news post.

Let's reveal the names hidden behind a few letters and numbers that were insuring impartiality during the grading
Bisam (PP01), Luc H. (PP02), Loulou54 (PP03), Benjamin K. (PP04), Michel B. (PP05), sammyMaX (PP06), Lepzulnag (PP07), Excale (PP08), Louis A. (PP09), Compu (PP10), Tangrs (PP11), Jim Bauwens (PP12), Jean-Yves L. (PP13), Handers (PP14)

Bisam (pp01) wins, with the faster program in average, even if his results are a bit "by steps" : indeed he uses a sieve that he fills up little by little, and the "jumps" are due to some big range without palindromic primes.

Then :

• sammyMaX [PP06], a bit slower than Bisam's in general, but whose execution time increases with the input value in a moderated and regular way. (probabilitic algorithm : Miller-Rabin)
  
• Louis A. [PP09] (who also uses Miller-Rabin, but in a less optimal way).

TI-z80 BASIC category
We received 5 entries.

Let’s reveal the (nick)names:
Nikitouzz (PZ01), Xeda (PZ02), Weregoose (PZ03), Linkakro (PZ04), Samer A. J. (PZ05)


Xeda [PZ02] wins, with the fastest program (which is also the smallest one!), using a palindromic number generator and primality testing (trial factoring).
Xeda earns a TI-84 Pocket.fr + 4 TI-Planet stickers! :bj:

The runner-ups are Weregoose [PZ03], with another very small program (props for size optimization), and Linkakro [PZ04], who earn respectively 1 TI calculator poster (model can be chosen as long as supplies permit it) + 3 TI-Planet stickers and 2 TI-Planet stickers! (Sorry for Nikitouzz who gets the 4th place because there weren't any explanations )


TI-z80 Native Code  category

We have received 3 entries : a single one in pure z80 ASM, the two others in Axe

Let's reveal the (nick)names:
Jacobly (PA01), Steven W. (PA02), Félix G. (PA03)


There hasn't been much of a competition, the two Axe programs being very limited: no handling of integers > 16 bit.. If Axe is still very good at what's it's been made for, the algorithm contest purpose here is clearly not its stronghold.
The winner is therefor unquestionably Jacobly [PA1], who earns a TI-84 Pocket.fr + 4 TI-Planet stickers ! :bj:
Notice that Jacobly's TI-z80 ASM program is actually faster than Bisam's TI-Nspire BASIC program, while the processor is almost 9x slower ! This can only make us regret once more that TI does not open to ASM its TI-Nspire platform...





Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11914

A fan who wishes to remain anonymous, took the initiative to send us a great gift for you tonight ...

The first HD Photo ever of the new HP-Prime graphing calculator taken at the NCTM conference, a calculator scheduled for back to school 2013!  

The photo is a little blurry unfortunately, but do not forget that HD picture for lovers of high resolutions:

We notice (thank you Adriweb) some important differences as the model name is different: instead of "HP-Prime Graphing Calculator", here we get a "HP Advanced Graphing Calculator " meaning it's probably a prototype.



Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=11894&lang=en

Casio has just released the emulator of its new touch-based, color calculator the ClassPad Ⅱ (fx-CP400)! 

Let's notice that unlike HP, this emulator is not be free and will stop working if you don't buy and activate a license within 90 days.

The home screen, is, like the TI-Nspire, made of a menu that lets you choose the application (which is highlithed by a color)

No less than 13 applications are available : calculations, eActivity, Statistics, Spreadsheet, graph&Table, Geometry, Conics, DiffEq-Graph, NumSolve, Sequence, Financial, Program, COmmunication, System and even a solution to acquire data from sensors like on the Nspire ! 



The "main" (calculations) app is worthy of its name and responds to what's expected in 2013 from a calculator, allowing simulataneously :

• natural input (mathprint) if you use the virtual keyboard' templates
• exact/symbolic (cas) results
• natural (mathprint) output

Discover now the version 1.00 of the new ClassPad Ⅱ calc ! 



Source & download :
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11824&lang=en

The site's status subdomain has been updated to use less bandwidth and to display a few graphs.
http://status.omnimaga.org/
The post statistics graph has been fixed as well, so feel free to take a peek to see what the larger picture statistics of the site are.
http://status.omnimaga.org/statsgraph.php

Server updates will be taking place at 9:00pm MDT so expect downtime of up to an hour.

Several people asked us on IRC and on the forums why they aren't allowed to search the forums, the simple answer is: We've disabled the search engine.

Why? Well, the search engine was taking up lots of resources on the server and was painfully slow each time someone would use it, so we just disabled it.

Okay then, but how I would search the forums now? Use your favorite search engine such as Google and prefix your query with "site:omnimaga.org", like on this picture:



Otherwise, some members set us up personalized Google Searches just here and here so you don't have to type the prefix out.

Now next time someone asks, you can link them this topic! And as always, thanks for flying Omnimaga.

Today at 00:37:21 EST, our beloved (retired) founder, DJ Omnimaga, just reached the previously impossible milestone of 50000 posts (not counting the spam and joke posts that doesn't count), becoming one of the few users of the TI community with KermMartian on Cemetech to reach such a milestone.

In addition, an unusual number of blue lobsters have been seen exploding in the region of Québec City. We believe a Wi-Fi-powered device under the bed of the St. Lawrence River has been set to fire a colony of lobsters when an user reaches a postcount of 50000 on Omnimaga. We're contacting ZAP Québec, a provider of free Wi-Fi hotspots in the region, to identify the culprit.

Anyway, I, on behalf of the past and present Omnimaga team and staff, would like to thank our founder DJ Omnimaga for all his valuable contributions since 2001 (since the foundation of Omnimaga, and 2005, when a forum was added to the site) and we hope he will continue to provide more valuable contributions to the TI, Casio and HP community in the years to come!

Be right back, I'll get the champagne!

In a previous news came out the new Ndless 3.1 r765 with USB support!

For the moment, USB support is not available from Ndless programs, but it allows the use of USB devices that are not officially supported in the Nspire OS.

Currently, only USB keyboards and mice are supported through Ndless.



The first problem you'll have is the connection of these devices. Because in order to work properly here, they will have to be connected to the TI-Nspire via a mini-USB A (male) plug you'll have a lot of trouble finding because it has been abandoned by the USB standard.

However, several solutions do exist.


Firstly the barbaric method: just take the mini-USB A (male) <-> mini-USB B (male) cable coming with any TI USB graphic calculator and sacrifice it in order to replace the mini-USB B (male) plug by a USB B (female) plug in order to be able to connect USB devices equipped with an USB A (male) plug.



You can also directly buy this type of cable. But as they do not conform to the USB standard, they will be available exclusively online at a few shops and therefore expensive.



Or if you're a little smarter, just use a method of my invention which will have all the benefits! :bj:

Simply buy a USB hub that connects to the host via a removable cable and a mini-USB B (female) plug.

You can then connect directly to the TI-Nspire with the mini-USB cable A (male) <-> mini-USB B (male) provided with the calculator!

No need to sacrifice your cable anymore!
And as a bonus you can connect USB keyboard and mouse simultaneously!


USB mouse and keyboard work very well together!

For the mice, it is sometimes difficult to activate the pointer when it is hidden - but if you think about it, this is the TI-Nspire OS fault - it is not uncommon to have to polish the TouchPad for long seconds touch before the pointer shows up. So in short nothing wrong, it just works as weel as the TouchPad.

For the keyboard, too little keys are supported in order to get rid of the TI-Nspire keyboard.
We've got:

• control keys
• Shift keys
• alphabetic keys
• numpad keys
• arrow keys
• entry key

Except those on the numpad, symbols aren't supported yet.






Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11634&lang=en

Link:
Topic with a different video testing USB mice and keyboard together too

Jens Kolbinger has just released Bomberman Rush for the TI-Nspire at ticalc.org.


Written in Lua for OS 3.x, the game features great graphics and gameplay true to Bomberman classics, but is mainly oriented towards Time Attack modes, with "Item Rush" and "Max Capability", so you can show your friends how much better you are than them at blowing up nethams... er... little monsters.

Download it here!

With TI leaving non-iPad users in the void when it comes to emulating the TI-Nspire on their tablets and smartphones, ExtendeD has stepped up to offer a third-party alternative to Android users: a port of Goplat's Nspire-emu!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69zQzPcefr8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69zQzPcefr8</a>

Of course it isn't available for download yet, but it is very promising and it should now allow a larger range of people to emulate their calculator on their mobile device!

And that isn't all: He also managed to get a wireless mouse to work on a real TI-Nspire Clickpad!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qYHCq4NYx4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qYHCq4NYx4</a>

ExtendeD will definitively never cease to amaze us!

Source: http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=138770#p138770