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Maybe I'm twisted but my first thought if that if I were a pen tester I would want business cards exactly like this. And yes, they would run Linux... and some other things. :-)
I had the same thought back then !
Very cool project! It would be neat to incorporate WiFi into the next version instead of USB. Then you could publish a mobile app to communicate with it. It would be fun to play with at parties. https://www.gridconnect.com/products/esp8266ex-tiny-wireless... .
> instead of USB And how would you power the card?
To me it's truly mind-bogging that a tiny $1.42 chip contains almost everything needed to boot Linux: a 500mhz cpu, 32MB SDRAM, 2D GPU, SD/MMC support, and USB controller, all packaged inside a 10mm x 10mm chip? It makes me really want to get into embedded development.
This is cool as it showcases his embedded engineering prowess. Years of startup meets[1] have left a bad taste in mouth for the business cards. I've seen people exchange business cards ceremoniously, only to give a missed call to each other immediately. Business cards are a waste of money, paper and I don't want to get started on the plastics. I honestly thought that proliferation of NFC in smartphones would help to…
Also, sharing WhatsApp contacts makes me uncomfortable. There's various fields that people can store in their private contacts system which is inappropriate to share without permission - birthdays and home addresses at least. When you share a contact, you have to remember to sanitize the contact before you send it. A business card only consists of details which are pre-approved to share with strangers, so business cards don't have this problem.
I wonder what world would we be living in if people like this fellow were actually focusing on automation and not on making business cards that run Linux. Maybe we wouldn't be living in such a lowly automated reality, using concepts from the previous centuries. Robotics might even make sense...
While it's a fascinating project I'd have some security concerns about plugging someone's USB business card into my computer.
OTOH, a security conscious engineer could exploit this to have the business card call home and automatically block communications from the company so one does not waste time with them ;)
My eyebrows went up when I saw the processor was so cheap, but then I went and found a datasheet for it and... $1.42 buys - ARM926EJS core at 900MHz consuming 54mA when on and idle - 32MB DDR RAM - 720p H264 @ 30fps hardware decode - Audio DAC capable of 192kHz over I2S - USB OTG (not full host) - LCD RGB (FPC) interface at either 1024x600 or 1280x720 @ 60fps - Touchpanel I/O Sources: https://www.cnx-software.com/201…
But can it run doom?
I wonder what world would we be living in if people like this fellow were actually focusing on automation and not on making business cards that run Linux. Maybe we wouldn't be living in such a lowly automated reality, using concepts from the previous centuries. Robotics might even make sense...