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How to create a handheld Linux terminal

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Re: How to create a handheld Linux terminal

#51

Post by throwaway473739 »

erikb wrote: post #23

I think the key point to efficient mobile linuxing is neither the hardware nor the basic software but the language input. I feel touchpads and mobile keyboards are both not handy to communicate with bash/vim in the subway. We need a better mobile keyboard for that. Does anybody know who's working on something in that direction?

It does seem like a software problem to me. Most of what we do in the bash/vim isn't "typing text" per se, it's executing commands and configuring things. Those things can be solved in other ways that isn' as mush reliant on text input.

Re: How to create a handheld Linux terminal

#52

Post by fit2rule »

Karunamon wrote: post #44
fit2rule wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah those days are over .. the survivor of the OpenPandora project - EvilDragon/Michale Mrozek - is the owner of the DragonBox Shop, and he has been the only trustworthy guy in the project so far, which was severely hamstrung by the financial mis-management of the originator of the project, Craig Rothwell. That is all water under the bridge now - EvilDragon has been selling the OpenPandora through his shop, and he i…

This is great to hear - the Pandora is a cool enough device and really needs some more love, but the experience for a random person wanting to buy one is still fantastically bad. Opaque storefronts which lead to opaque "unavailable" messages (despite the previous page declaring "in stock now!"), a news page that looks like the default from some ecommerce package. Let me give you my money! Please! :(

Yeah, the Pandora is a sweet little device. I love mine! I hope you tune in and get a chance to find yourself one - they do come up on the forums at board.openpandora.org fairly frequently. Or, just wait for the Pyra .. ;)

Re: How to create a handheld Linux terminal

#53

Post by Lambdanaut »

krenoten wrote: post #33
gcb0 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

true. that's why the way to go with portable is to put a beagle bone or a Chinese arm soc in a mechanical keyboard. add some small screen (though you will always use the bb video out or a makeshift gglass) and you got yourself a cyber punk deck, minus the neural interface :-(

You can also make your own EEG and train a classifier of your choice (heavily biasing the "do nothing" command) with sklearn or something. I've used off the shelf EEG's (emotiv epoc with the emokit library, there may be better options) to bind thought actions to moving a mouse, clicking, opening a web browser, but it was a bit noisy. I had to bind the act of clicking to the thought of a flavor, because it turned out…

I don't have a lot of experience(nil) in EEG, but it seems like the way you're doing it is the "unnatural" way to progress. We move our body parts as if with no thought at all. It's more like we "will" them to move rather than think the command "move!" and they move for us. They're connected to a different part of our brain, lower on the cortical hierarchy.

Maybe you'd get better results if you instead pretended you physically were the computer, and the cursor was just an extremity that you could wave about and click with like one of your body parts. You'd bind the clicking and moving functions of the computer to this instead of verbal commands/thoughts.

Or maybe I'm misunderstanding how this all works, and it's already done like I described. :)

Re: How to create a handheld Linux terminal

#55

Post by jff »

fit2rule wrote: post #8

If you don't want to build your own, you can buy one: http://openpandora.org/ Its not just a terminal, though .. ;)

I have looked at openpandora on and off since... I swear I was hearing about it as a college freshman, in 2005-2006? It was interesting and promising then but they completely failed to deliver. It has NEVER been available for purchase, regardless of when I've checked. Looking at Wikipedia it appears that they've managed to finally ship a massive total of 6000 units... well, it only took them 8 fucking years! That's an average of about 750 a year... is he hand-soldering these boards?

Re: How to create a handheld Linux terminal

#57

Post by erikb »

freehunter wrote: post #25
erikb wrote: post #23

I think the key point to efficient mobile linuxing is neither the hardware nor the basic software but the language input. I feel touchpads and mobile keyboards are both not handy to communicate with bash/vim in the subway. We need a better mobile keyboard for that. Does anybody know who's working on something in that direction?

I was trying to find a small Blackberry-like keyboard for a side project I was working on about a year ago. Doesn't exist, at least not in a form-factor that is easy to integrate (USB, Bluetooth, etc). The best I could find is a USB wireless keyboard that they sell on Adafruit that really, really, really sucked and was still way too big.

It's not about size, but about the idea behind it. The basic keyboard is designed for people sitting in front of a desk and using both hands. Making it smaller is just not enough. In the subway I have one finger, my thumb. I want an input device designed with that in mind. E.g. the iPod sliding wheel was exactly a result of designing an input device for a single finger. We need more like that and less blackberry keyboards.

Re: How to create a handheld Linux terminal

#58

Post by erikb »

extra88 wrote: post #35
erikb wrote: post #23

I think the key point to efficient mobile linuxing is neither the hardware nor the basic software but the language input. I feel touchpads and mobile keyboards are both not handy to communicate with bash/vim in the subway. We need a better mobile keyboard for that. Does anybody know who's working on something in that direction?

How about a chording keyboard? Having one strapped to your thigh would be the wearables pioneer approach. The Twiddler3 is a modern one-handed keyboard product. There are also projected laser keyboards with a traditional layout; the projected keyboard takes up a fair amount of space and really needs a flat stable surface (not good for use on public transportation or while queueing) but the hardware is quite small. ht…

That really looks like what I want. I'm looking into it, thanks

Re: How to create a handheld Linux terminal

#59

Post by maghis »

9999 wrote: post #54

Pretty neat. I still like the concept of the kindleberry a bit better though: http://maxogden.com/kindleberry-wireless.html

I love that this is totally self contained. Best of the best would be an e-ink version of this (using something like this: http://www.pervasivedisplays.com/products/74 )

Re: How to create a handheld Linux terminal

#60

Post by wtbob »

extra88 wrote: post #35
erikb wrote: post #23

I think the key point to efficient mobile linuxing is neither the hardware nor the basic software but the language input. I feel touchpads and mobile keyboards are both not handy to communicate with bash/vim in the subway. We need a better mobile keyboard for that. Does anybody know who's working on something in that direction?

How about a chording keyboard? Having one strapped to your thigh would be the wearables pioneer approach. The Twiddler3 is a modern one-handed keyboard product. There are also projected laser keyboards with a traditional layout; the projected keyboard takes up a fair amount of space and really needs a flat stable surface (not good for use on public transportation or while queueing) but the hardware is quite small. ht…

The Twiddler looks interesting, but I think that I'd need to radically rebind emacs in order to make it usable. Maybe not though.
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