Linux Devices and More

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jun 25, 2024

• Linux Gizmos ☛ Palmshell PuER N1: Upcoming Networking Compact PC with 4x 2.5GbE Ports

  The Palmshell PuER N1 is an upcoming compact networking PC built around the defective chip maker Intel Celeron J6412 Quad-core processor from the 10th generation lineup.

• Antranig Vartanian ☛ The FreeBSD-native-ish home lab and network | Antranig Vartanian

  For many years my setup was pretty simple: A FreeBSD home server running on my old laptop. It runs everything I need to be present on the internet, an email server, a web server (like the one you’ve accessed right now to see this blog post) and a public chat server (XMPP/Jabber) so I can be in touch with friends.

  For my home network, I had a basic Access Point and a basic Router.

  Lately, my setup has become more… intense. I have IPv6 thanks to Hurricane Electric, the network is passed to my home network (which we’ll talk about in a bit), a home network with multiple VLANs, since friends who come home also need WiFi.

  I decided to blog about the details, hoping it would help someone in the future.

  I’ll start with the simplest one.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • Data Swamp ☛ The Old Computer Challenge v4 (Olympics edition)

    This is the time of the year where I announce the Old Computer Challenge (OCC) date.

    I recommend visiting the community website about the OCC if you want to connect with the community.

  • Arduino ☛ Easily add Python-controlled GPIO pins to any computer

    USBgpio connects to any modern PC via USB. It has a row of exposed GPIO pins and users can control their states programmatically using Python. If you noticed that this sounds a lot like connecting an Arduino board to a computer, then you’re most of the way to understanding the concept. That’s because the enclosure does, indeed, contain a Nano 33 IoT. The header pins on the top of the USBgpio device connect directly to their counterparts on the Arduino.

  • Matt Evans ☛ MicroMac, a Macintosh for under £5

    The original Macintosh was released 40.5 years before this post, and is a pretty cool machine especially considering that the hardware is very simple. Insanely Great and folklore.org are fun reads, and give a glimpse into the Macintosh’s development. Memory was a squeeze; the original 128KB version was underpowered and only sold for a few months before being replaced by the Macintosh 512K, arguably a more appropriate amount of memory.

    But, the 128 still runs some real applications and, though it pre-dates MultiFinder/actual multitasking, I found it pretty charming. As a tourist. In 1984 the Mac cost roughly 1/3 as much as a VW Golf and, as someone who’s into old computers and old cars, it’s hard to decide which is more frustrating to use.

    So back to this £3.80 RPi Pico microcontroller board: The RP2040’s 264KB of RAM gives a lot to play with after carving out the Mac’s 128KB – how cool would it be to do a quick hack, and play with a Mac on it?

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Bradford Morgan White ☛ Of Psion and Symbian

    In 1984, there was one company whose vision was far beyond any other. This company wanted to put a computer complete with a screen, keyboard, solid state storage, and software in the user’s pocket.