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A DIY business card that runs Linux (2019)

220 points| hansc | 2 years ago |thirtythreeforty.net

58 comments

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thrtythreeforty|2 years ago

Author here! Trivia: I really, really wanted it to run Doom, so that I could have a section titled "But Does It Run Doom?". This is challenging with no screen; SDL has an experimental ASCII backend where in theory you could draw terminal graphics over SSH. But it refused to cross compile despite repeated efforts.

So, sadly it does not in fact run Doom.

NBJack|2 years ago

In other words, it doesn't run Doom yet. Great project, and excellent execution!

randombits0|2 years ago

“It’s cheap enough to give away. If you get one from me, I’m probably trying to impress you.”

Mission accomplished! Well done, sir.

qbasic_forever|2 years ago

What if you make a USB network device gadget and serve a mjpeg video stream to it that's the framebuffer/screen output? Web browsers or VLC on the host can show the video, and if you can get ffmpeg compiled and running on the device I think it has a fbdev input that can capture the framebuffer directly and likely convert it to a mjpeg stream (even acting as a http or rtmp, etc. server).

crote|2 years ago

The chip already seems to have an integrated display interface, with a nice dedicated PAL/NTSC output pin. Why not use that?

AndrewKemendo|2 years ago

This is such a cool project but you also did fantastic documentation which was certainly quite a bit of work too so thank you!

messe|2 years ago

More of a suggestion for a future design, but how about using DOOM's software rendering over X forwarding (potentially over SSH)? You'd need to have the card present itself as a network interface, which would add to the complexity and cost however.

What's the highest baud rate the serial interface supports? You could theoretically get PPP over serial working, but I suspect at best you could only manage a few frames per second. 320x200x4bpp at 1fps requires a 256k baud rate minimum, and that's just streaming the video, without any overhead—I suppose you could apply compression: ssh -C with the "none" cipher; or just compress each frame as a PNG, but I'm thinking outloud—this would probably involve writing your own renderer.

TZubiri|2 years ago

But can't the computer boot from usb? Then you could just modify the display memory. The challenge would be figuring out what the display memory is, you'd need a strong knowledge of display standards.

NoZebra120vClip|2 years ago

I have some business cards that are so valuable, I can't give them away.

I was attending a conference with some vendor booths, and while it wasn't anything like a job fair, I thought I'd try my luck at pitching myself as a prospective hire. So I went to the most IT-oriented vendor that I could find, introduced myself, and proudly presented my solid plastic CompTIA A+ certification.

The good fellow thanked me and promptly pocketed it! It all went downhill from there as I had to explain that was a credential and not a calling-card, so I got it back, and definitely didn't get hired for anything!

halflings|2 years ago

It's not necessarily why they didn't reach out, but waiving certifications and other random credentials (e.g. completion of some Coursera course) is usually not the best strategy to get hired.

Talking about concrete work you've done (of interest to the company) is much more convincing.

rickstanley|2 years ago

Look at that subtle circuit, the tasteful thickness of it... Oh my god, it even has a nano ARM!

de6u99er|2 years ago

This was a novel idea once. But nowadays I would stay away from plugging in a usb device of someone I just met.

PragmaticPulp|2 years ago

This is from a professional embedded systems engineer who is presumably only giving these to prospective clients because, obviously, they’re more expensive than regular business cards.

If you can’t bring yourself to connect a USB device from your embedded systems engineer then you shouldn’t be working with that person. You’re also going to have a difficult time working with them on just about any product.

Maybe just appreciate this for what it is: A novel business card.

m00dy|2 years ago

exactly. I was going to say the same thing, then I realised I'm in hacker-news and then afraid of getting down-voted.

russellbeattie|2 years ago

I'm surprised that Apple or Google hasn't integrated a business card app of some sort and accompanying file format. Like a digital rolodex. I don't need my plumber, accountant, dry cleaner, or a zillion random people I meet at a tech conference in my contacts/address book, even if they're grouped. Exchanging info by giving them my phone number/email is usually a lot more than I want, and URLs just get lost. A QR code or a peer-to-peer transfer with an open, stylized/formatted, .vcf style file that's meant for a business related info app seems like a non brainer.

I want to have a conversation with the digital equivalent of:

> "That's bone. And the lettering is something called Silian Grail."

> "It's very cool, Bateman, but... Egg shell, with Roman."

> Now a third broker pulls out his card. It looks exactly like the first two, except it reads TIMOTHY BRICE: VICE PRESIDENT.

> "Raised lettering, pale nimbus."

> "Impressive", Bateman mutters. "Let's see Paul Allen's card."

> The room falls silent as the third broker produces an absent colleague's card.

> «Look at that subtle colouring. The tasteful thickness.»

> His face creases in horror.

> «Oh my God. It even has a watermark.»

mrweasel|2 years ago

Really cool, but I can't help thinking: All that effort, and you're email address have a "5" in it....

thrtythreeforty|2 years ago

Heh. I am George Hilliard V (that is, my dad is IV and my son is VI). So it makes a certain amount of sense!

solarkraft|2 years ago

Quite cool, but what are the chances people will plug a USB drive they just got from someone they just met into their computer?

thih9|2 years ago

If it’s in a conference setting, perhaps a solution would be to add some cheap retro computer as part of a booth, so that people could immediately insert the business card and play with it.

wkat4242|2 years ago

Really cool! It would be a pretty thick card though I imagine, as the USB connector requires an above-average board thickness and some of the components are also quite thick (especially that winbond chip, looks like NAND flash).

Kudos on finding something that can run linux without having to deal with BGA by the way.

xg15|2 years ago

I had heard about that project before and was wondering how he managed to emulate USB devices on linux to a host system. TIL about the Linux Gadget framework: http://www.linux-usb.org/gadget/

jxf|2 years ago

Delightful, but in the simulataneous categories of "I would absolutely buy this" and "I do not have the time or energy to make this myself".

gmac|2 years ago

Also: incredibly cool, but next week’s e-waste. :(

Vaslo|2 years ago

My memory isn’t good on most articles that are more than a few years old but I remember seeing this a few years ago and being amazed.

Author is probably a millionaire by now.

gareve|2 years ago

I wasn't expecting this to cost less than 3$

unwind|2 years ago

That was in 2019. It has probably tripled by now, and/or the SoC is unobtainium. Mumble.

xyst|2 years ago

Cool concept. But no way am I plugging that into my computer without creating a sandboxed environment with no network access.

Aspos|2 years ago

I can see someone instantly hiring a guy with a linux-driven business card which pierces through the sandboxed environment.

barbariangrunge|2 years ago

The fsf membership cards are also usbs with gnu-Linux on them

yafbum|2 years ago

Looks fun, but who in their right mind would plug this into anything other than an air gapped sandbox ?!