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My Business Card Runs Linux

thirtythreeforty.net

221–230 of 415 posts

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#221

My first thought is that literally billions of people already do something similar every day. They use a card that runs its own small, programmable computer, that is portable, energy efficient, and can be powered 'wirelessly.' It's called a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) -- or the chip used in credit cards / sim / ID cards. The OS these cards run is often referred to as the "Java Card Platform." The OS has…

JavaCard is hilariously weak though, as far as Java is concerned. Support for "int" datatypes is optional, and there's no such thing as java.lang.String.

To your point though, it's pretty amazing to see the sheer number of devices with it deployed, and the things that can be done with sim card applets (mobile banking, etc.).

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where does a web-dev turn to to get started in this as a hobby?

I'm a React Developer in my day job, but I'm disillusioned with the web as a whole and I've always had an interest in low-level stuff. At the moment, I'm doing a structured C book course (C: A Modern Approach), and I've also signed up for the edX course "Embedded Systems - Shape The World: Microcontroller Input/Output" It uses the TM4C123 board, which from a look around seemed to be a decent enough board for a beginn…

FWIW, those TI boards have tons of hardware bugs. Way more than you'd even typically expect from embedded hardware.

And if you don't use the arduino ecosystem, but use an RTOS on an Arduino, it's a perfectly valid dev board for learning real embedded systems development.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#223

Wellington Ma's business card was a rectangular slice of pink synthetic quartz, laser-engraved with his name, 'The Ma-Mariano Agency,' an address on Beverly Boulevard, and all kinds of numbers and e-mail addresses. It arrived by GlobEx in its own little gray suede envelope while Rydell was still in the hospital. "Looks like you could cut yourself on it," Rydell said. "You could, many no doubt have," said Karen Mendel…

-- William Gibson, Virtual Light

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#224

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.

Not to mention that a tiny chip in a micro-SD case can hold a library of a hundred movies.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#225
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> many other projects have had their compile times explode over many years Like, for example?

When I worked at Microsoft, Windows took far, far longer than an hour to build from scratch. I remember walking a few buildings over to the burn lab to pick up DVDs of the latest build. I don’t have any hard data, but running a full build on your dev box was very rarely done.

The dynamics of commercial projects can be very different from open-source. You're much more likely to tolerate sitting through long builds if you're being paid to do so.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s if you even have a USB A socket anymore!

I don't see why you were downvoted. I fully get why the blog writer didn't include USB-C with this awesome project. But there's now a growing group of people who simply can't use USB-A anymore with their laptops. Most will have an adapter, but not all.

A female to C male adapters exist, but C female to A male adapters are forbidden by the spec.

That means you need to create A peripherals if you want the largest audience.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#227
post #17
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After reading the post, i was under the impression that the author really did some shopping for major components and assembled everything into a fun shape. Obviously i know nothing about electronic board design, so could you explain which extraordinary skill this required ? EDIT : ok, i missed the part where he actually designed the whole board, obviously..

Embedded systems engineers are (usually) paid a lot less than full stack engineers. Edit: I seem to be getting (a lot!) of downvotes on this. I thought it was quite well known, but apparently not. Full Stack Engineer salary: $93,598 [1] Embedded Software Engineer salary: $74,758[2] [1] https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Full_Stack_Engineer... [2] https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Embedded_Engineer/S...

One of the big caveats is that embedded engineering is very location dependend.

Barcelona (where I live) has big demand for web/app software engineers, but embedded engineer jobs are way rarer.

For embedded engineers getting >40k€ is just not a thing around here. In the mean time my friends with backend experience (2y) get that kind of offers on a regular basis.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#228

Wellington Ma's business card was a rectangular slice of pink synthetic quartz, laser-engraved with his name, 'The Ma-Mariano Agency,' an address on Beverly Boulevard, and all kinds of numbers and e-mail addresses. It arrived by GlobEx in its own little gray suede envelope while Rydell was still in the hospital. "Looks like you could cut yourself on it," Rydell said. "You could, many no doubt have," said Karen Mendel…

Bravo

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#229
post #81

Interested why the author would fuzz out the phone number on their business card?

It's only fuzzed in the pictures. The actual card has the phone number. I just didn't want a ton of people from the internet hitting my phone directly! Email is fine, however, so that's un-blurred.

You do then link to the GitHub repo which has a PDF of your resume with all of your contact info.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where does a web-dev turn to to get started in this as a hobby?

I’d highly recommend Espruino — a microcontroller that runs JavaScript http://www.espruino.com/

For anyone interested in embedded JavaScript but wants broader hardware support and/or modern JavaScript support[1], the XS JavaScript engine is microcontroller-independent[2], and Moddable provides supported ports for ESP8266, ESP32 (the successor to ESP8266), and the Gecko series of processors. (They also sell some hardware kits for folks who want that: https://www.moddable.com/product.php)

[1] Espruino supports ES5, XS supports ECMAScript 2018 [2] https://www.moddable.com/faq.php#microcontrollers

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