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My Business Card Runs Linux

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Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#351

Post by truth_be_told »

seabird wrote: post #220
nickreese wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No matter what you do, you NEED tools. I cannot stress this enough. If you can spend $250-$500 on a nice desktop scope, awesome. If you only have $80, you can get a serviceable Hantek USB scope that will at least give you an idea of what you're doing. If you can only spare $20, you can at least get an el cheapo JYETech scope. In addition, you'll want to pick up a multimeter and probably a logic analyzer. Again, no ne…

>Don't bother with Arduino

I wouldn't say that. Yes the Arduino "libraries" abstract away a lot of the complexities and hinder true understanding. However for a beginner it is a perfect platform simply because of the huge community i.e. tutorials, code and projects. Once they gain confidence from using this, they can move on to "traditional embedded development" by learning to program the underlying AVR directly i.e. use the toolchains installed by the IDE, delete bootloader and upload your program using the ISP interface (see the book; "Make: AVR Programming"). This gives you the best of both worlds using the same development platform. Another advantage is that many other MCU families also provide a "Arduino-like" interface (eg. Energia for MSP430) and thus all the skills learnt on one can be transferred to another.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#352

Post by nonamenoslogan »

cubano wrote: post #307
xenospn wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to brag but I got a 4.77MHz 8086 XT PC for my 8th birthday :) It had a whopping 256KB of RAM, a monochrome display (later upgraded to a 4 color CGA that blew my mind), and two (yes, TWO) Floppy drives.

My dad got one of those for us both to use...what was truly "whopping" about it was its price... If I remember right it was almost $3k...but that included that blazing fast 300bps Hayes modem for wide-area networking. And my mind was truly blown when we replaced the 2nd floppy with a more-memory-then-we-will-EVER-need 20MB hard drive...what could we do with all those bits??

Yeah the prices were crazy! My first was a 10Mhz AMD 286 clone with 1mb and a 40mb HDD. I recall it being $2600 with a 13” SVGA monitor.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#353

Post by caseymarquis »

amelius wrote: post #345
caseymarquis wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Industry wide, it's about sanitizing a highly toxic substance from the supply chain. I've met a child whose father worked with lead, and would hug him after coming home. The child ended up with permanent brain damage from ingesting traces of leaded dust on the father's clothing. In this case, it's more likely about keeping lead out of something likely to get crunched up in a parent's wallet and then shown to their ch…

Until what age? Is it safe for children to solder with leaded tin? (Many people here did so as a child, I suppose)

I have no idea. I'm not a doctor, I just read a lot.

I used lead based solder as a child, and I turned out okay. That said, people used to use pewter plates and got sick from lead poisoning after eating tomatoes (the acid leached the lead from the plate); Roman soldiers would keep their wine in a lead container to sweeten it; pretty sure I've heard something about people painting their houses with leaded paint as well. On the one hand, society survived all that. On the other hand, if I have the opportunity to not risk poisoning a child by spending a couple extra dollars buying solder, that seems like a pretty easy decision to make.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#354

Post by truth_be_told »

0x5345414e wrote: post #258
seabird wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No matter what you do, you NEED tools. I cannot stress this enough. If you can spend $250-$500 on a nice desktop scope, awesome. If you only have $80, you can get a serviceable Hantek USB scope that will at least give you an idea of what you're doing. If you can only spare $20, you can at least get an el cheapo JYETech scope. In addition, you'll want to pick up a multimeter and probably a logic analyzer. Again, no ne…

Another good book is https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4073235-msp430-microcont... , which I'm sure you can find online for free somewhere.

A great book particularly for learners/students is "Introduction to Embedded Systems: Using Microcontrollers and the MSP430" by Jimenez, Palomera et al. For every feature of Embedded Programming it gives a illustrated and platform independent explanation followed by how it is realized in the MSP430. This cements understanding like nothing else.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#355

Post by Accacin »

monocasa wrote: post #222
Accacin wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've heard about the hw bugs a little but couldn't find much information about them.

I'm mostly just using it for the course which was highly recommended in multiple places, so I hope I won't encounter many of these bugs.

To be honest, the whole picking a board thing was quite overwhelming, with many recommendations, boards, variations, etc. Hopefully once I've finished the course I'll have some more knowledge to help me pick the next board.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#357

Post by truth_be_told »

dredmorbius wrote: post #317
truth_be_told wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice! However your last two paras are a little too succinct; can you elaborate a little bit more?

There's almost certainly a book or two in there, to do it justice. Tackling the latter: I recall listening to a BBC interview of a banker, probably in the wake of the 2007-8 global financial crisis, though the example's really an evergreen. The presenter asked how the executive justified his (it was a he) income. He responded based on value creation. Oddly, that's not a basis for compensation in a competitive market…

You make some very interesting points. The Adam Smith quote points out the various axes to consider when looking at the "viability" of something in the market which is quite correct. But there is another wrinkle added by the "Modern" world. I presume you are aware of the works of Nassim Taleb. He makes a distinction between "Extremistan" and "Mediocristan" (and lambasts Economics and Economists :-) which i feel is very applicable to understanding "The Market". With the current "Information/Data" revolutions the frequency and impact of "Extremistan" events have increased dramatically and existing economic models are no longer sufficient to explain them. For example, what exactly is the "marginal cost" of software? How do we explain the rise of "The Internet" as a major economic driver? I lean towards the viewpoint that this dichotomy is applicable to the whole Software/IT industry. Thus "Embedded Systems Industry" has moved from "Extremistan" to "Mediocristan" (commoditization, cost reduction, large supply pool etc.) while "Web Development" is still in "Extremistan" and this gets reflected in their respective salaries.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#358

Post by paganel »

kragen wrote: post #321
paganel wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is somehow relevant to our current environmental catastrophe. And you think our "current environmental catastrophe" is caused by big giant anti-environmental alien monsters that do their anti-environment stuff against the wishes of all the good people in here? No, they're caused by you and me and this guy who thinks that a paper-only business card that can self-decompose if left in the elements in a matter of month…

No, it is caused by ignorance and foolishness.

So we can agree on something, at least, even though I still do believe that you treat as ignorant those people pointing out that more not needed stuff is worse than less not needed stuff. I do sincerely hope that people like you will have a “we are the baddies” moment, but as things are going I don’t see that happening pretty soon. Maybe the next dot-com-like crush will solve it, if and when it will come.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#359

Post by foldr »

jaclaz wrote: post #91
foldr wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Sure, the lead may cross one or two layers of cloth and migrate from the pocket to your skin and bite you. You get it on your hands and then ingest it when you eat. (People don't usually wash their hands after touching a business card.)

>You get it on your hands and then ingest it when you eat. (People don't usually wash their hands after touching a business card.) I was referring to the parent poster that talked of people putting them in their pockets. Anyway, ROHS (or lead-free) is a good thing, but it is not like you get lead poisoning (or saturnism) because of the once in your lifetime you touched sometthing contained lead and then - if you eat…

> I was referring to the parent poster that talked of people putting them in their pockets.

Right, but how are you going to put it in your pocket without touching it with your hands?!

>You would nead to actually lick hundreds or thousands of such cards to ingest any meaningful amount of lead.

Lead poisoning is cumulative, so you want to avoid ingesting even very small amounts. I doubt that good data is available regarding the amount of lead that would be ingested in this scenario or its potential effects. Best to be cautious. Lead free solder is not expensive.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#360

Post by techie128 »

nikanj wrote: post #312
serf wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, you kids! My XT had an 8088 @ ~4mhz in it, and we pushed it uphill to school both ways, in the snow! It was multi-functional though. The power supply was inefficient enough to heat the room, while simultaneously being heavy enough to bludgeon large creatures for sustenance. Something inside me misses the radiant heat, sitting here on a cold day with my chilly metallic laptop.

Start a few Electron apps and it'll warm right up

Few? You can only run 1! We have to yet invent the technology to run two, let alone a few!
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