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My Business Card Runs Linux

thirtythreeforty.net

371–380 of 415 posts

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#371

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What an absurd tragedy. Everyone was just fine with usb-A and ethernet ports and hdmi but no, now these laptops need dongles for literally everything.

USB-A is not 'just fine'. It's uni-directional. Which is an insane design for something being constantly plugged in and out. It's also low-bandwidth and low-power. Most devices these days have bluetooth, so it isn't really needed except for power and monitors. USB-C is a step-up in everything and I'm happy with only USB-C.

The asymmetry of the USB-A connector is at worst a minor inconvenience. Definitely not in itself a good reason to break compatibility. And most USB devices are not frequently plugged in and out (indeed, for those that are, Bluetooth is a better choice!)

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#373

Loved the article, but loved even more to learn about MicroPython. As an amateur programmer that has never actually physically handled hobby micro-controller type boards, but has read a lot about them, it was amazing to be able to try out the emulator at https://micropython.org/unicorn/ Make the leds blink, see how servo control works etc, all in the browser without having to actually buy any hardware! I had never se…

Hardware is so cheap and accessible these days, just get an Arduino board. There are lots of kits available with sensors and actuators, and it's all so easy to use it's like building with Legos.

If you've never tried Python including a REPL for whatever project you'd use Arduino for it's definitely worth giving a shot. Different kind of game than C.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#374
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post #12

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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...

Also rocket scientist are paid less. Its a supply and demand market. There are simply more ppl wanting to build rockets and iot gadgets then there are ppl willing do do a crud website for an adtech company.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#375
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post #305

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I just flipped a bank of 16 switches by hand with vacuum tube gates and core memory...punch cards are for sissies!

oh kids! i used to crank the wheel by hand on my analytical engine that my hacker friends and me built after there was a leak of babbage's plans! he never knew! you kids and you petabytes of ram! back in my day.... /s (i'm looking forward for these comments to be commented on a certain website i'm not supposed to name)

There's a website where people make fun of HN comments? Is it Twitter?

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#376

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You were living large! My first Linux computer was a 20Mhz 80386SX with a 40MB hard drive partitioned half for Windows 3.0 and half for Linux (SLS) and swap. It had a whopping 4MB of RAM and I also compiled my own kernel making sure to trim down features as much as possible. It was magic seeing X11 come up for the first time just like the big-bucks Sun boxes!

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.

> 8086 XT PC for my 8th birthday

Wow, I admire the far-sightedness of your parents, to give a child a computer at such a young age (and in those early days of PCs).

I was of a similar age when my dad brought home an NEC PC 9801 - with an 8086 CPU (8MHz), 640KB RAM, kanji (~3000 characters) font ROM, even a Japanese word processor. I think it ran MS-DOS 2~3.

"In 1987, NEC announced one million PC-98s were shipped."

That was a big wave, and I'm so glad my parents let me play with a computer as a "toy" - it was a huge influence on my mental development.

Kinda like the monolith moment in 2001: A Space Odyssey. :)

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#377
post #87

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Start with a simple, known-good design, then figure out why each part is there. After you get some experience reverse engineering existing designs, start trying to build something simple. Thinking blinking lights without a processor. Warning: Embedded tools are not user friendly. Because most people who use them, use them all the time. Eagle has a free tier. I think it's the EDA tool we used in my CS/CSE courses. The…

These days KiCad does a good job, especially if you're just starting out. Some CERN developers started working on it a few years ago and it's been much improved since then.

You might have inspired me to give it a retry! I remembered the name, but wasn't sure enough to recommend it to someone new.

Apparently there are browser-based options too.

https://www.circuitlab.com/

https://www.falstad.com/circuit/

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#378
Great and a cool project.

It looks promising for someone to share their personal profile and their Resume.

For business, The best part will be to have cards received into the System and transfer them to their CRM or contacts or some other application they use.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#379

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I would assume you paid a good $150 for one, given that the others either don’t supply enough power or can’t do 4K@60.

More. I paid 250 euros for a CalDigit TS3 Plus. Thing is amazing. When I first got my MacBook Pro, I just got USB-C cables for my external monitor and my (USB-A) hub. That was very cheap, but I love the convenience of Thunderbolt and shelled out the cash.

I am struggling to find good info - does usb-c support more than one display on one cable at 4k@60?

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#380
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post #287

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I wish raspberrypi could release something similar. Their product are still too powerful for my taste.

Raspberry Pi's goal is computer science and coding education. They aren't going to make anything that isn't beginner friendly, and can't at least run a Linux GUI, have basic networking, support standard peripherals etc.

I don't understand how that's relevant. You can still release something smaller and less powerful, and still be accessible to beginners.

Why are you arguing about having standard peripherals? It doesn't let people learn about I/O.

I was in highschool and we were given given embedded hardware and were able to program it using assembly and uploading a program into it.

If you give students some very minimal embedded hardware with wifi and some terminal, they should be able to learn using that. Let them install things, maybe setup a 2D interface...

The RPi educational value is only enabled by I/O pins. I'm not sure that's really worthwhile.

The RPi is interesting because it's a powerful but cheap computer. I just wish there was much cheaper hardware to show people you can also do things with smaller stuff.

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