arm-netbook July 2018

arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk

19 participants
17 discussions

Laptop LCD Touch Pad: Display KB Layout Idea
by Alexander Ross 25 Mar '19

25 Mar '19

On the laptops lcd touch pad. Here’s a idea for a feature. When leaning new keyboard layout. Say dovrak for example. The trouble is learning where the new keys are. For me at least, one could do with a constant reminder. What if the lcd touch pad displayed the current pressed keys? Maybe on a image of the keyboard, meaning some way of representing where the key you pressed is relative to other keys. So if its the wrong one you can see where the right one is. This info is only displayed while the keyboard is in use. When the touch pad is in use it switches to a relevant display for touch pad use. As for when the user is using not the touch pad nor the keyboard? What then? display keymap? If playing video display: video controls, time left, is internet speed fast enough for this stream? etc.

5 12

Microdesktop v1.7
by Richard Wilbur 25 Sep '18

25 Sep '18

By the way, what is the status of the microdesktop design v1.7? Have you already invested in parts (specifically the 2x10 header) and/or circuit boards?

3 13

Re: [Arm-netbook] Logos
by John Luke Gibson 22 Sep '18

22 Sep '18

I would highly recommend avoiding any logos, without proper historical reference. One of the problems with traditional Linux icons, are that they are very un-iconic. It's better to be textually based, in my opinion, than to use disorienting imagery. At this point, most of the clay has already set so referencing/alluding-to other gnu projects [such as blender] wouldn't be detrimental, however ascii has a very richer history of use by "hacktivists". Referencing some historically relevant (to "hacktivism") ascii iconography either overtly or subtly, kindof more or less as a hat tip to communities which support said historical events will cause the logo a greater likelihood of being regarded as iconic. I wish I had specific examples, but possibly using cloister black font would be a subtle hat tip to anonymous for some individuals use of various letters in that font as copy-cat of L from Death Note. Another thing of note, would be that we need to be careful who we tip our hats to, to be careful of who in the future people might assume us to endorse. A font is innocuous enough, that it can be adapted later due to circumstance (should a need arise to disassociate) without damaging the recognize-ability of any logo. The universal and modular style of blender, is a good point to mimic. A solid dot in the center of the "O" would probably be a subtle enough correlation to the blender logo. This is the pattern of thinking we need in developing logos and "slogans". Thinking about what sounds catchy only correlates us with random corporate culture. We don't need to be entirely original as we have a history to fall back on. However originality might also help distinguish us from our predecessors, the last thing we want is to fail to distinguish ourselves from your neighborhood corporation. I would recommend Luke to contact Wenqing Yang a.k.a. "Yummei", using the notability of the project to attract their attention. I would like to point out that despite being a cultural figure (famous artist) in the hacktivist community they previously lauched a multi-million dollar successful indiegogo which caused them much heart ache (per their blog) over legal controversy with so-called partners and their personal admonishment that they failed to do enough. >From: Alexander Ross <maillist_arm-netbook(a)aross.me> >To: Linux on small ARM machines <arm-netbook(a)lists.phcomp.co.uk> >Cc: >Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2017 16:07:15 +0000 >Subject: Re: [Arm-netbook] Logos >this all these efforts, got me to have a play around too. :) > > i was started having a go at one idea of letters inserting into each > other kinda like a module. > > I had put E and O in side the M. it then kinda looked like/spelled Meoo > like a cat. > So what about a darn cat logo? maybe a cat playing with a eoma68 card in > its paws? > > sry for the yet another internet cat image type of suggestion, never > thought id be making one heh.

9 18

Re: [Arm-netbook] Logos
by John Luke Gibson 21 Sep '18

21 Sep '18

> The idea about a dot in the "O" of EOMA made me think of fonts where the > dot is in the 0 (zero) to distinguish it from O (capital letter O) As we > all are somehow computer related I would find such a design confusing. If it was really to be in honor of the modularity and progress of blender, one would want to make the "O" not really in any particular font, but to look exactly the shape blender logo, except without the flay or the color scheme: a perfect solid-color circle within another perfect circle. It wouldn't theoretically be confusing because the mark you are thinking of is a hollow circle in an oval. Letter-o'es and zeroes can only sometimes be confusing because in some fonts they are both written as vertical ovals, not just the zero. I'm not sure on the required dimensions of a certification mark, however, the solid-shape flag-esque convention I've noticed among popular one's, often seems to detract from the continuity of the design on the objects that bear them, making them seem particularly foreign and like they don't belong. The vaporwave-esque color palate which most of them choose only add to this affect, as if they themselves are trying to distance themselves on some subconscious level from their endorsements. As a side effect to this, it makes them harder to trust. Any symbolism of any significant body, displays historical awareness.. It's what tells people whether they can trust it, before reading or attempting to judge it. Therein lies the axiom, there is no such thing as an original thought, so, if by means of arbitrary work dedicated to make more concise and thoroughly plastered an announcement of what historical or cultural event may have inspired such thoughts and such work, people will then engage in the arbitrarily difficult work of judging whether the project is sincere or not. In other words, if we don't display more than necessary effort in our symbol that can be recognized with several magnitudes less effort than it took to generate, then no highly-self-valuing person will have any sane reason to take us seriously, because if they took every slightly promising project, which failed to create a Sybil-certificate reputation in this manner, then they would never find a single valuable project in their lifetime (obviously this is an exaggeration).

3 2

Linux now boots on 22nm RISC-V Shakti CPU
by Wean Irdeh 31 Jul '18

31 Jul '18

Check out @ShaktiProcessor’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/ShaktiProcessor/status/1022384131064430593?s=09

4 7

slashdot submission help needed on IIT Madras RV64 SoC
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 30 Jul '18

30 Jul '18

https://slashdot.org/submission/8436790/iit-madras-shakti-group-produce-ind… hi can people help hit "+" on this, to help get it onto the front page, many many thanks.

3 4

riscv-basics.com
by David Boddie 30 Jul '18

30 Jul '18

This site popped up on the radar for me this morning. It's currently down - perhaps there was a public backlash, the server overheated, or something - but at least the Internet Archive still has a copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20180710130206/https://riscv-basics.com/ Time to start a riscv-netbook mailing list, perhaps? ;-) David

6 10

Why Crytek certainly regrets releasing their source code..
by Jean Flamelle 29 Jul '18

29 Jul '18

In the coming reality where only ventures to extend hardware's usefulness support software development, programmers mostly fulfill roles as "hired guns" like accountants in the days of yester-era so then, seeking to join with Amazon and Microsoft and Google et cet in tasting their SaaSS intoxicated open source future, probably for a first in games history distributed macro-economically invested source code under a mutual promise not to sue license and without NDA. This means from the beginning, there was never any enforceable restriction not to reveal the source code. They marketed their support as hired guns, and sold their code to amazon to release as open source which amazon then co-opt'ed into their SaaSS fetish and initiated a complete rebranding effort unwittingly betraying Crytek. The games company which originally tipped the spear of Crytek's marketing themselves as hired guns, now also betrayed them by embracing amazon's rebranding effort. Crytek dreamed a future where they could customize free as in freedom software to suit whims specified by whatever company offered enough fiat to purchase the respected "hired guns": Crytek. Feeling the bitterness of betrayal they commence an inactionable lawsuit against who supported them the most and where the betrayal stings the most: their hope and their demise, their intimate friend Star Citizen. ... Obviously, this is a mixture of known fact and tongue-and-cheek inferences, which could be true. In case your not well 'versed' on what's happening, all facts mixed in the muddle authoritative sources should be trace-able through these links: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=star+citizen+leonard+french https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/star-citizen-re-built-in-amazons-lumbe…

1 0

HDMI Player Stick as DRM-free Merch Alternative
by Jean Flamelle 28 Jul '18

28 Jul '18

So the thought is pretty simple. A monofunction PCB that when power is supplied from the HDMI, generates a private key signature, displays it as a QR code for a few moments, then plays whatever video is stored on nand. The QR code confirms the legitimacy or official-ness of the copy. Encourage copying, modifying, as well as redistributing the content. However build a culture of the 'Unpause-able Player Stick': Friends should still feel obligated to support the art through peer pressure to use one of these sticks that can prove its legitimacy, during ritualistic communal watchings. Airgapped for security and durability (viruses can still damage hardware after all)

8 19

Fwd: Liberapay is in trouble
by lkcl 19 Jul '18

19 Jul '18

whoops... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Liberapay Support <support(a)liberapay.com> Date: Mon, Jul 16, 2018 at 2:00 PM Subject: Liberapay is in trouble To: lkcl <luke.leighton(a)gmail.com> Our payment processor (Mangopay) is throwing us out, so we recommend that you evacuate the money from your account before July 26th. Clicking on the link above will bring you to a new page titled “Emptying your wallet” and ask you to choose between two options. If you use Liberapay as a donor the first choice is recommended, especially if you wish to continue using Liberapay. This first option distributes all the money from your wallet to the people who would have normally received it over time. The recipients will be able to see that this sudden burst of income corresponds to multiple weeks of donations. For example, if you’re donating $1 per week to 2 creators, and you have $40 in your wallet, then each creator will receive $20, and 20 weeks from now you’ll receive our usual email reminding you that it’s time to add money again. Please note that the disbursement may fail for various reasons. If you get an error message like “The attempt to distribute all the money in your wallet failed: XX.XX remains.” then the problem is probably on the recipient side, for example someone who hasn’t filled the identity form or a team that hasn’t defined how the income should be split between the members. The other option is to get your money back, if possible through a refund, otherwise by withdrawing it to your bank account. If you receive donations on Liberapay you may want to wait a week before withdrawing your income in order to give your patrons a chance to transfer the remaining of their donations from their wallets to yours. We’ll inform you as soon as the integration of a new payment processor is complete, and tell you if there’s anything you need to do to start receiving donations on Liberapay again. If you’re a member of a team, you should make sure that your take is set and up-to-date. You can do that from your “Receiving” page. You can find more information in this blog post, and as always you can reply to this email if you need help.

3 2

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

arm-netbook July 2018