The name comes from Standard Model in Particle Physics. Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek's talk is really interesting.
Talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djb0T9COjD4
Article by Wilczek on Anyons
Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch
311–320 of 338 posts
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch
#312How much of the laptop is open Source.
How about the embedded software? Probably not. This is OK as I understand this project is a huge achievemnt. Thank YOU
I've always thought it would be good for hard drive software ( embedded software on the actual drive or SSD ) to be open source. My thinking on such a situation is such a project could start with a storage device from maybe 5 years more more ago - as in my opinion the software would be a less technological challenge. (( I mean take an existing already manufactured working storage device ( ssd or hard drive ) and replace the embedded commercial software with open source software. This would remove the technological barrier of actually constructing the hard drive hard. ))
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch
#313super cool
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch
#314How much of the laptop is open Source. How about the embedded software? Probably not. This is OK as I understand this project is a huge achievemnt. Thank YOU I've always thought it would be good for hard drive software ( embedded software on the actual drive or SSD ) to be open source. My thinking on such a situation is such a project could start with a storage device from maybe 5 years more more ago - as in my opini…
Yup, all the software except the blobs for the SoC, display FW, and trackpad FW (since it's COTS) are open source! If I wanted to have those open-source, the entire machine would take a huge performance hit. I think of striking a balance.
The entire linux install is OSS, the keyboard is in ZMK, and the EC firmware is written in Arduino.
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch
#315I'm honestly rather envious. I guess my 'sour grape' is that the lack of funds and opportunity for me to do this is what lead me to go into software and then on into Machine Learning which I do think turned out for the best. Making electronics like this, while still difficult, is far easier than it used to be and I do enjoy it as a hobby in a way that I probably would not have as a career. It is no doubt an incredibl…
I am envious too. When I was young, even younger than Bryan's age, I had grown a strong interest in electronics. But I was limited by a lot of things:
1. Breadboards are the best thing I can use, to create a PCB, I can only rely on manually soldering connections on a general-purpose PCB (the kind of PCB with many holes). And I had never heard of EDA at that time (~2008-12ish)
2. Being raised in a family where my parents never went to college, they can't give me any help and advice in study, let alone the funding. It took me 2 years of begging to convince my parents to buy me a computer, which already costs them 2 months of wages.
3. In the small town in middle west China where I grown up, I searched every corner of the library, only to find 2 or 3 books that are related to electronics, and I spent all my time after school studying them. I can't find anyone who are also interested in the same things I was doing, I was all on my own.
What happened then?
1. I studied hard on the only books I found, and learned about C51 microcontrollers, and that introduced me to the world of programming
2. I took a selective examination and went to one of the most prestigious high school in the capital of the province (Changsha, Hunan), and because of my intests in programming, I took part in olymptics in informatics, which is competitive algorithmic contest, and got the entrance to one of the best universities of China
3. After graduation and 5 years of working as a professional programmer, I was finally able to give myself a good environment for what I loved as a kid, something people like Bryan would already have when they were born. I bought myself 3d printing machines, and learned EDA and found JLC, PCBWays are so helpful.
I really wish I could have all these when I was young, but I think I'll give myself all the things my parents can't, and make myself a kid again, to learn and to play.
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch
#316For those that missed it, this Engineer is in _high school_. Byran, I have been a professional engineer longer than you have been alive, I can tell you right now that I have met very, very few people that would have the motivation, skill and sticktoitivness to pull this off.
Not just any high school. https://exeter.edu/
Same high school as Zuck.
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch
#317This is amazing and I applaud your efforts. Perhaps the age of truly owning your peripherals, inside and out, is upon us.
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't underestimate the amount of knowledge you don't have to perfect things. I remember building scheduling software in PHP in high school, because I just fixed problem after problem, and I was not limited by any form of knowledge. If I'd have to do it again, I'd be perfecting the architecture, refactoring everything every other week...
There’s a real double-edged sword to this whole “becoming a ‘better’ software engineer” thing. I remember just hacking stuff together when I was younger with not a care for whether I was doing it right or not. I just wanted to make it work. I miss that feeling. It doesn’t come around as often now, but I still feel like I move fastest when I can shut off the part of my brain that’s been trained on years of online disc…
> I move fastest when I can shut off the part of my brain that’s been trained on
While at it: the fastest way to move is free fall. If you fall at will and from a reasonable height, it's called a jump, and indeed gets you there fast. Otherwise it's called a crash, and it usually results in your limping the rest of the way.
So the approach of just hacking things together works great for small things, and the worse, the larger the scale grows.
The laptop in question, for instance, was definitely not just hacked together without any planning, even though the project seems to have fortunately escaped analysis paralysis.
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you! For anyone else looking for the top line number, it's $4,673.81. Really nice work. I wish you much success in life.
I have yet to finish processing reimbursement. LOL. His parents pre-paid for this project.
Others: don’t downvote this, it seems legit. See their other comments.
Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the time. Don't underestimate the amount of free time people have when they're in high school (vs when you have a family / intense job). Having said that, even with unlimited time this is such an awesome achievement and really shows the dedication. Well done!
And money for parts and tools :-) Also many in high school (at least here i Denmark) have jobs after school.
Regarding both time and money, I suppose, the parents of the poster deserve kudos: it's a serious amount of patience and trust.