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A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

bbenchoff.github.io

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

#351

Post by repiret »

lazide wrote: post #321
moistly wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other big difference is that you generally can’t make mistakes in woodworking. Made a mistake in your code? No problem, you fix the bug. But not in woodworking. Cut a piece too short? You’re hooped. Drilled a hole in the wrong place? You’re hooped. Misalignment during glue-up? Hooped. Woodworking scratches many of the same itches as programming for me, with one key difference: it’s unforgiving of mistakes, so req…

Just wait until it’s machining! Wood working at least most of the time tolerances are +- 1/8”. Throwing away a thousand dollar part because you were .003” off is lame. At least if you have a grinder, welding can sometimes be more forgiving.

You can fudge 1/8” in some things, but lots of woodworking has to be way more precise. Just about any joinery, parts of cabinetry, parts of finish carpentry.

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

#352

Post by acomjean »

mhitza wrote: post #297
acomjean wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These little game things are $40. I have one. They use an old style removable cell phone battery and have a screen that isn't great (320x240 though similar to the one described in the article). It runs linux but Lamentably I don't think its easy to install your own version. https://powkiddy.com/products/powkiddy-v90-3-inch-ips-screen...

Is it possible to load Pico 8 on that thing?

I haven’t though I just started doing some pico8 development. It would seem almost ideal for those kind of games.

It seems like you can. Pico8 does have a raspberry pi (ARM cpu version) Through retro-arch? I’m not sure how it all goes together.

https://retrogamecorps.com/2021/02/01/review-powkiddy-v90/am...

This is an unofficial player.

https://github.com/jtothebell/fake-08

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

#353

Post by analog31 »

moistly wrote: post #273
adamddev1 wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So true. I recently helped a friend build a little bit of a backyard carpentry project and I was struck by the fact that I got the same creative satisfaction from building little pieces of software. With one big difference: that 2-day carpentry project cost around $1000 in materials. People wanting to create these kinds of things have to pay a big price. Whereas with code (and lots of free-tier cloud services etc) I…

The other big difference is that you generally can’t make mistakes in woodworking. Made a mistake in your code? No problem, you fix the bug. But not in woodworking. Cut a piece too short? You’re hooped. Drilled a hole in the wrong place? You’re hooped. Misalignment during glue-up? Hooped. Woodworking scratches many of the same itches as programming for me, with one key difference: it’s unforgiving of mistakes, so req…

For me, the intolerance for mistakes is a major part of what makes it interesting. I love writing code too, but it's a different kind of thrill.

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

#354

Post by KennyBlanken »

nine_k wrote: post #43
whoomp12342 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine at $30 it would have to compete with other devices already built

Which devices? Unlike an RPi, this thing has a screen, a keyboard, a sleek case, a battery compartment. What are other devices that have these all, and cost, say, under $40?

An old android phone with a bluetooth or USB keyboard?

The display on this thing is the biggest limitation. 320x240? Is he fucking joking?

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

#355

Post by watersb »

webmaven wrote: post #329
bee_rider wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm fairly decent with clay, always wondered if I could make something like a raspberry pi case with sculpey. But not curious enough to ruin my toaster...

> I'm fairly decent with clay, always wondered if I could make something like a raspberry pi case with sculpey. The short answer is yes you can, but it's a PITA. Among other problems you have to deal with shrinkage and drooping. I'd only use that approach for a quick and dirty prototype that just needed to hold parts together and survive rough handling. A better option is to build a case from parts you cut out of a s…

> A better option is to build a case from parts you cut out of a sheet of plastic (anywhere from 1mm on up) that you then glue together.

Not a bad way to go, but I found that for hand assembly, I had a really hard time with the glue out of control; I probably needed a better applicator than the default tube of epoxy.

Instead, I would go with VHB (Very High Bond) tape. Also weird to use, if you are using the thin 1mm width, but I can position the tape more carefully before I press it into place.

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

#356

Post by mastazi »

mike_hock wrote: post #314
mastazi wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the software world something that works roughly similarly (i.e. where a prototype is differentiated from production) is devops. If you are deploying a toy-project once, maybe you are not setting up a CI/CD pipeline, Terraform templates, Github team permissions, Github/Jira integration, etc etc. - you do all of these things only for "real" products. But yeah, going from prototype to production with hardware is much…

And the macro architecture of the project. As a one man project, the only thing it makes sense to build is a monolith.

Yeah as a solo freelance dev I couldn't see how stuff like microservices would remotely be helpful to me in any way. But a few years later I worked in a large-ish team where at some point we hit a wall due to the project being a monolith[1], then I realised what that stuff was about.

[1] the project changed scope and we had to do a large refactoring of the codebase as a result, if it had been based on microservices the refactoring would have been an order of magnitude simpler. Luckily the monolith was relatively well architected with separated service providers so it wasn't super bad.

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

#357

Post by andi999 »

Closi wrote: post #284
andi999 wrote: post #23

The Bom for 1000 pieces is per piece 15$ (and 2.00$ for a 64gbyte sdcard looks optimistic, but difficult to tell typing on my phone). Placing, soldering and assembly is not factored in, wouldnt be surprised if this is another 15$, so production price is 30$, sales price then would be more like 60$. Edit: is the sd card connector missing in the bom? Cool project though.

The SD card is on the BOM (it’s on the bottom) but agree that the price for it looks optimistic. Looking on AliExpress there are lots of unrealistically priced SD cards (1tb for $7!) so I wonder how many of these are just scams where they are formatted to appear bigger than they are, and also if that’s a realistic price that they are using.

Yes, the card is on the bom, but I meant the card connector, the thing that is soldered on the pcb, where you put the card in.

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

#358

Post by bfuller »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #327
anthk wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, wait a moment. I did several fun stuff with just CLI and C/tcl under the zipitz z2. Even with TLS. You understimate what we did in the 90's too with just 32 or 64MB of RAM. Jabber uses XML and I did it fine under a system daemon like Bitlbee AND an IRC client on top of that. 48MB overall on the Zipit z2, 32MB + compressed ZRAM. The total usage was about ~16MB with a tiny MUSL build, tmux, ash, bitlbee and sic. SM…

Sure I'm not saying it's not possible. I did stuff in the 90s too. But usually you had to put a lot of effort into arena allocators and reusing pointers. Also lots of software then was pretty jank and would just segfault and errnos we're often not handled.

in the 90s i remember waiting 15-30 minutes to send an email. maybe revisiting some of these super low end devices would be worth it now that fiber is ubiquitous.

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

#359

Post by richardfey »

alexb_ wrote: post #349
allendoerfer wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the cost of any mistake is in actual real money That's the same in software engineering. You are losing your own time. If you are just breaking your prototypes and not the machines to build them, your time lost is probably multiple times more valuable than the material. I guess, once you have billed a certain number of hours to clients, the relation between time and money just ingrains itself so deep inside you…

This is true, but it gets worse with hardware - it's not like your code fries itself because you forgot a character.

But your customer's data can, with equally destructive results.

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

#360

Post by grishka »

allendoerfer wrote: post #345
grishka wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen people build one-of-a-kind custom electronics for themselves. There are PCB manufacturers that specialize on small orders with no setup costs (I think you can get as little as 3 copies?) and you can 3D print or laser cut the case if you need one. Though the thing that does stick out to me as a software engineer is that you need parts and thus can't iterate on your ideas nearly as quickly. You can't just pul…

> And the cost of any mistake is in actual real money That's the same in software engineering. You are losing your own time. If you are just breaking your prototypes and not the machines to build them, your time lost is probably multiple times more valuable than the material. I guess, once you have billed a certain number of hours to clients, the relation between time and money just ingrains itself so deep inside you…

That's when you're working for money. If it's your own project, your mistakes cost you nothing but you learn something from every one of them.
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