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A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

bbenchoff.github.io

131–140 of 408 posts

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#131
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More powerful, but no keyboard and display.

Said the guy or gal typing on a keyboard and reading the response on a display. Solved problem?

A strange argument to make. I have a laptop that I got for free from my father in law. But that does not mean one can 'get a Linux machine for €0.00'.

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#132
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More powerful, but no keyboard and display.

Said the guy or gal typing on a keyboard and reading the response on a display. Solved problem?

The argument is they already have a keyboard and a display ? Guess what, they also have a computer.

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#133
post #7

This is nice. This is a simple, straightforward design, and a reasonably convenient form factor. Two biggest limitations are RAM and wireless interfaces, or rather lack thereof. This thing has less RAM than my router (admittedly a $70 box), and has neither WiFi nor BT. It does not seem to have many GPIO pins, too. With the amount of RAM installed, it's mostly a handheld terminal, and maybe a handheld console with emu…

> neither WiFi nor BT I understand having WiFi, it'd be great for a small device like this. But why would we need Bluetooth? It only has 32MB of RAM so I doubt you could get any music running on it.

I'm old so I'll just say that my Amiga 500 had 512KB of RAM, and it played really cool music!

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#134
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would be nice if he broke out the $10k. My guess is mostly the cost of an injection mold for the enclosure.

Mold for the silicon keyboard - the first five keyboards is going to be about $6k. After that, each keyboard is about a dollar a piece. Same with the plastic enclosure.

Enclosure at small scale can be 3D printed. Use FDM for mechanical fitment checks, then make in SLA resin printers for first couple clear case prototypes. I wish I could do keyboard as easy...

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think "screw with" means "block" in this case. But there is one moderately famous blog that does block HN: https://www.jwz.org/

yeah I asked jwz how to do that, but I can't figure out a way to make that work with Github pages.

He checks the Referer header[1]. In Firefox you can prevent that header from being sent by setting `network.http.sendRefererHeader` to 0 (in about:config).

[1]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Re...

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#136
post #117
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking about the fact that 40 years ago there was the Sinclair ZX80, a $100 computer that you could hook to your TV and there's not really a whole lot in that space/price point¹ now other than the hobbyist Raspberry Pi/arduino/other hobbyist machines. I'd have to think that it's possible to make a consumer-grade PC that you hook up to your own monitor for around $100, although I guess the cost of a Windows li…

> Surely someone could build a windows PC (or I guess Linux) that's inside a keyboard enclosure for around $100 that could be commercially successful now. Raspberry Pi actually did that. [0] The RPi 400 is right around that $100 mark, fully assembled, and is basically a keyboard with a bunch of ports for the people who end up with it. [0] https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-400/

and a mouse!

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#137

> I’m changing the title of this page just to screw with mods on the orange website Loving it! What orange website could they be talking about? I wonder what would be achievable, around the $15 mark WITHOUT needing a minimum order of 1000? (Presuming access to a 3d printer and a reasonably cheap PCB fab company)

What is the recent trend of website users not using the actual names of the websites they use? >the orange site >the bird site Are these pet names? Is this passive aggressive contempt? Or is this an inside joke that I don’t get?

It's passive aggressive contempt. They're pretty commonly used in leftist online circles to gently insult the original sites.

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#138
Like the idea. Reconsider the keyboard. If we presume the target users are other than first-world, the likelihood of only have one hand or missing fingers increases significantly.

The keyboard becomes very cumbersome.

(source: found out the hard way when brought toys that require two hands or all fingers to play with, in worn-torn countries.)

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#139
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah I asked jwz how to do that, but I can't figure out a way to make that work with Github pages.

HN helpfully uses the referrer, so you can easily do it with a tiny bit of JS: if(document.referrer == "https://news.ycombinator.com/") { // Mess with HN users here... }

View source on the linked website just now:

    
        if(document.referrer == "https://news.ycombinator.com/") {
             window.location = 'https://bbenchoff.github.io/images/Brogrammers.png'
        }
    
    -->

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#140
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely an ESP32 should be able to run Linux. Then you would get Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. After all Linux used to run on 486, BSD ran on 386.

> Surely an ESP32 should be able to run Linux. Then you would get Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Yes, but it wasn't easy, and only recently achieved. [0][1][2][3] Unfortunately, for both those examples, the WiFi module itself had to be disabled so that Linux had enough memory to function. Though, of course, they should be able to do something like my favourite tiny Linux board, which wired in extra RAM. The 8bit Atmega [4], th…

Interesting, so linux was ported to RISC-V architecture, and there's a RISC-V emulator that runs on ESP32. I guess this means all the virtual memory is emulated. I think the more interesting step is if the successors to ESP32 have virtual memory. In the meantime, I found playing with freertos on esp32 lots of fun.
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