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My Business Card Runs Linux

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Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#401

Post by peterburkimsher »

jaclaz wrote: post #10
nilsb wrote: post #3

While it's a fascinating project I'd have some security concerns about plugging someone's USB business card into my computer.

Well, it is appropriate as a business card for an embedded systems engineers, not so much for a system security one! More seriously, I never managed to understand the "obsession" with ROHS (this here is just an example): >I made sure to have a lead-free process—the boards, parts, and solder paste are all RoHS—so that I wouldn't feel bad about giving them to people. I mean, you are creating something that (besides bei…

I spent a month visiting a PCB factory in China. I met the people working with lead soldering.

Seriously, please choose lead-free.

Pregnant women weren't allowed to eat in the cafeteria due to the high number of miscarriages. The people inhaling the stuff all day... let's just say that had a reputation among the other factory workers for being a bit mentally challenged.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#402

Post by IshKebab »

ta999999171 wrote: post #171
IshKebab wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lead is restricted because of what happens to it when PCBs are landfilled, not because it is harmful to touch.

Lead is harmful to touch and absorb into your skin, so unless you're counting the PPMs coming off into your skin, you're wrong.

You misread. I didn't say it isn't harmful to touch. I said that isn't the reason it was restricted.

In any case it is safe to touch, despite the people downvoting me:

https://www.quora.com/How-dangerous-is-it-to-hold-a-block-of...

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#403

Post by brian_herman__ »

serf wrote: post #282
GordonS wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah, you had it great! My first PC was a 286, which IIRC either had no HDD, OR. 20MB HDD (might be mixing it with our next PC, which was a 386). I'm pushing 40, and still shake my head in wonder sometimes about just how much is possible at such small scale and cost. But this is now turning into "when I were a lad..." :)

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.

Run a threadripper with the window open!

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#404

Post by icedchai »

ce4 wrote: post #335
icedchai wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux in the 90's wasn't as bloated as it was now. It definitely took well under an hour to compile a kernel. My first Linux box was a 386SX-16. I later upgraded to a 486DX4-100.

That doesn't sound right, it's still not bloated. The majority is drivers then comes the cpu arch folder that takes a big cut. You can check yourself with cloc: http://cloc.sourceforge.net/

Linux 1.0 was 1 meg, gzipped and less than 200K lines of code, total.

Linux 4.x is over 150 megs, gzipped. Just the lines in the arch/x86 folder are more than the total lines in Linux 1.0.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#405

Post by teachrdan »

syncsynchalt wrote: post #217

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…

Gibson's Law: If a shatterable business card is introduced in Act I, it will be sat upon and shattered by Act III.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#406

Post by BenjiWiebe »

Sharlin wrote: post #366
YZF wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you kids. We calculated with charcoal on the cave's wall while the adults were out hunting for wooly mammoths... ZX81: Z80/1KB RAM... more recently though PIC12 (C501 IIRC) ...

I'm slightly surprised nobody has yet linked https://xkcd.com/505/

Or https://xkcd.com/378/

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#407

Post by dredmorbius »

truth_be_told wrote: post #357
dredmorbius wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ve…

Thanks for the extremistan/mediocristan reference. I've read some Taleb, but not much and not deeply, and that's a valid point.

Financialisation and capital accumulation allow tremendous inequalities in allocation. These have always been present to some degree, but recent history (say, 1800 - present) seems exceptional. Note that arguably the Gilded Age personal fortunes were probably even more extreme than those of today.

Unless I'm missing something, the marginal cost of software publishing is very near zero. Development is ... more expensive.

The Internet's role is a whole 'nother discussion, but pulling in a notion of an ontology of technological mechanisms (see: https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/klsjjjzzl9plqxz-ms8nww), it's a network, with network effects, as well as a system. These ... tend to define general parameters and considerations.

Where specific industries fall on the mediocristan / extremistan scale .... is an interesting question. Though I'd argue that systems/networks elements tend toward extremistan. Whether hardware is/isn't systems/network (as I'm using the terms) is another question.

For successful fundamental component manufacturers (e.g., Intel, AMD), hardware certainly resembles extremistan.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#408

Post by truth_be_told »

dredmorbius wrote: post #407
truth_be_told wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ve…

Thanks for the extremistan/mediocristan reference. I've read some Taleb, but not much and not deeply, and that's a valid point. Financialisation and capital accumulation allow tremendous inequalities in allocation. These have always been present to some degree, but recent history (say, 1800 - present) seems exceptional. Note that arguably the Gilded Age personal fortunes were probably even more extreme than those of…

Thanks for the ideas and the discussion.

Just FYI; You might want to look into the works of Jacques Ellul on Technology and Society if you have not done so already.

PS: Also a good starting point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_and_society

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#409

Post by ChickeNES »

s_kilk wrote: post #370
foota wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get serious Snow Crash vibes from this.

It's from Gibsons "Virtual Light", a vastly better book than Snow Crash. Highly recommended!

> a vastly better book than Snow Crash.

I've yet to read anything by Gibson that approaches anything by Stephenson

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#410

Post by mr_overalls »

ChickeNES wrote: post #409
s_kilk wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's from Gibsons "Virtual Light", a vastly better book than Snow Crash. Highly recommended!

> a vastly better book than Snow Crash. I've yet to read anything by Gibson that approaches anything by Stephenson

Other than the ending of every book Gibson has ever written, compared to the ending of any of Stephenson's works.
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