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[libreplanet-discuss] EOMA68 and freedom in digital technology
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 13 Sep '16

13 Sep '16

sorry, i'm receiving this as digest mode, from libreplanet, and haven't been watching it (or the other lists cc'd). i'll try to recreate the cc set of lists, apologies in advance if this doesn't get through to all of them. also, please be aware that i'm leaving for HK in about 10 hours time and it's an extremely long flight, so i'll be offline for at least the next 2 days. also i'm adding arm-netbook (needs subscription) because i'd like to make people on that list aware of this discussion, which appears to have been ongoing for some time. >> I disagree. There is simply nothing you can compare this project to. We >> are achieving results that can't be demonstrated via any other means. If >> we could get here some other way at a lower cost with the same long term >> impact I would have gone that route. > > See what Olimex has been doing for years then. you're aware that olimex operates as a criminal cartel, from shipping GPL-violating A10 bootloaders and kernels provided by Allwinner, back around 2011/2012? you're also aware that with the sole exception of the olimex laptop's PCBs the only thing that they provide is auto-generated PDFs *from* the schematics source code... not the actual schematics and certainly not the PCB design files? > They're also coming up with a laptop design. ... where they've taken off-the-shelf china-sourced (proprietary) casework: i started the GPLv3+ casework project for the EOMA68 15.6in laptop housing *two years* ago as a completely and fully libre project. you can verify that by looking at the git commit logs. tsvetan has caused a hell of a lot of trouble for the EOMA68 project and has sponged off of the resources of a *lot* of people. he truly doesn't understand the word "libre". at all. also, the A64's processor - which tsvetan is using for the olimex laptop - requires a proprietary early-bootloader. in fact, the first A64 SDK that came out was an absolute mess, comprising several GPL violations in both the early-bootloader, the u-boot source *and* the linux kernel. the SDK was even exclusively distributed over a chinese illegal filesharing network (this is an "official" released SDK from allwinner!) over a considerable period of time, pine64 and the sunxi community worked to eliminate as many of those GPL violations as they could, but Allwinner insisted on keeping the early-bootloader proprietary. so at present the A64 is classified as a "non-libre" processor. that it's the basis of the olimex laptop tells you everything you need to know. to tsevetan's credit he is doing his best as he understands it, but there's nobody taking him to task on the things that matter to software freedom. he's happy to take your money even if it means selling you product that requires proprietary software. he's *less* happy to then *invest* that money into helping solve the issues which create all the problems that go *with* proprietary software. now, whilst tsevtan is making money selling you hardware that requires non-free components to operate basic functions, i've put my foot down and said NO, i will NOT sell GPL-violating product. i don't care if that means it's harder to deliver ethical products, i'll deal with that on an ongoing basis, but here's the thing: it means i've established a reputation for setting some ethical rules *AND STUCK TO THEM*. > I agree that you went steps further than most before, but this is > incremental improvement, not something truly new and groundbreaking compared to > what existed before. hmmm, an interesting perspective, which i feel may be based on not being aware of the sheer overwhelming number of issues being tackled (all at once). yes it's "incremental improvement" but it's a MASSIVE stack of MULTIPLE "incremental improvements", all done at once. *nobody* has tried to do that before. not Dell, not Olimex, not IBM - *nobody*. for example you compare the EOMA68 Housing to the olimex laptop. the olimex laptop's casework is proprietary (the EOMA68 Housing's is GPLv3+ libre-licensed). so automatically you can see that it's nowhere near being a legitimate comparison. >> The issue is your looking at one thing. A few specs. It's not the specs? >> that matter. It's the standard, it's the modularization, it's the? >> response and cooperation we are getting already as a result of our? >> actions here, etc. Intel and AMD are not going to cooperate and building? >> off of other companies products (higher up the chain) is not a reliable? >> long term solution. > > Again, I don't see how modularization changes anything here. you can't focus on just the one aspect and conclude that "it's not significant". bear in mind that this has been a 5 year project, where i've had 15 years of working near-exclusively with software libre, looking at the endemic and systemic problems and coming up with a *long-term* strategy to tackle *all* of the issues associated with the consequences of proprietary computing... *all at once*. modularisation (and having open standards despite what the wikipedia-page-that's-already-scheduled-for-deletion would have you believe) is one - *one* - critical - *critical* part of that strategy. > Hardware availability has never been the problem. libre hardware availability has *always* been a problem. entropy guarantees that it always will. you actually have to make a concerted continuous effort to push back against the corner-cost-cutting of the mass-volume industry. > For laptops, we only had minor > annoyances,?like Wi-Fi chips that require proprietary firmwares, proprietary firmware for WIFI is a bit more than a "minor" annoyance, paul! > with the most > advanced designs for freedom like ARM Chromebooks. So you took a step forward > there. It's not a revolution, it's a step forward: solving the (minor) Wi-Fi > issue. For single-board computers, you didn't bring any specific improvement > over Olimex's Allwinner boards. at least we waited until we could get the entire set of sources for as much of the hardware as we could get (the only exception being that we haven't got a libre MALI driver yet, but there's even a plan to deal with that). no, paul, what you're missing here is that there's an *active committment* to tackling the pain, cost burden and inconvenience that proprietary software (and hardware) causes. everybody else - Dell, IBM, HP, Asus, Olimex, they're all *sleep-walking* - making MONEY off of you (and everyone else) because you really don't know any better, you think it's *okay* to throw away a perfectly good printer because its proprietary driver is no longer "compatible" with modern OSes. there's no *active* committment from any of these companies to *actually* try and solve the problems.... because they don't understand that there *is* even a problem! > Again, I don't want to sound like your project doesn't matter to me, because it > really does. Only that it's an improved iteration over what exists rather than > whole new ground. And that's totally fine by the way, it is a very sane way to > go. It also shows that you're not the only person on earth caring about these > issues and producing hardware that solves an increasing number of them (even > though I suspect some other players produce devices with such results without > really aiming at that goal). exactly. there's no coordinated committment. they sell you product because you buy it... because you don't have any other choices, so you don't ask, so you keep buying more product, which gives them money to keep on doing what they're doing.... .... it's a vicious self-sustaining cycle that has to be broken by an *active* committment. ok i leave it at that. l.

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RAM
by Vincent Legoll 13 Sep '16

13 Sep '16

Hello, and apologies if this already has been talked about, I tried to find previous discussions on ML archives, elinux & rhombus sites. It looks like the DRAM will be standard DDR3, has low power DDR3 been studied ? Too expensive ? No available init code ? I ask because some other ARM boards differentiate themselves from the other one by using LPDDR3 and that has much better power consumption characteristics, and so do not heat as much. The regular DDR3 ones (in certain cases have a heat problem and have to be down-clocked to operate properly whereas the LP ones don't... On the same subject of heat dissipation, some boards use a layer of the pcb just below the soc to act as a heat spreader by having a copper area that is not used for signals, and it looks like this is effective, because other boards that don't have it endure heat problems. I had a look at EOMA PCB pictures, but I lack knowledge to definitely tell if there is such a copper layer provisioned. Thanks And Luke, don't overwhelm yourself into burn out. -- Vincent Legoll

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Housing idea: screenless laptop
by Matt Campbell 13 Sep '16

13 Sep '16

Hi, It occurred to me that for blind people, who use a screen reader such as Speakup or Orca, a laptop housing without the screen or the touchpad would be quite convenient. And if this housing used the same battery as the regular laptop housing, it would last longer because there's no screen. To the engineers on the list, how difficult would it be to modify the current laptop housing to remove the screen and touchpad? I suppose there are two ways to go about removing the touchpad: either it could just be replaced with empty space, or the keyboard could be moved to the front. In the latter case, how much smaller could the housing be made without removing anything inside (battery, space for a USB dongle, etc.)? Matt

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how to use the stand-alone cables
by chadvellacott＠sasktel.net 12 Sep '16

12 Sep '16

Regarding the offerings on the page at "Crowd Supply"- To use one of the computer-cards as stand-alone, with the cable-set offered for that purpose, do I just- (1) buy "a smartphone / tablet 2A USB-OTG Charger (which is easily found at any store these days including Walmart or Asda’s)", (2) connect the 3-way cable to (a) that charger, (b) the computer-card, and (c) the HDMI-cable, (3) connect some HDMI-screen to (a) the computer-card and (b) the HDMI-cable? Where or how would I connect a key-board and a "mouse"? I do not remember reading anywhere that such could be directly connected to the "EOMA 68"-card, but perhaps I am forgetting something relevant about that standard. The "Intel Compute Stick" seems to use "Bluetooth" for those (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Compute_Stick), and the "Chromebit" seems to add the possibility of "WiFi" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromebit), ... but how will Rhombus-Tech's stand-alone enable these peripherals? Eagerly, Chad. (:^)

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by "Resin" (versus "PLA"), is meant what? ABS?
by chadvellacott＠sasktel.net 12 Sep '16

12 Sep '16

Considering which "PFY" lap-top housing to choose. On the page on "Crowd Supply", for the "PFY" lap-top housings, most of the options involved "PLA", but one was rather "Resin". I imagine that by the former is meant "Polylactic acid" <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLA_polymer>. But that is listed under "Resin Identification Code" 7 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resin_identification_code#History> so seems to itself be considered a kind of Resin. [Rats, an ambiguity. (:^) ] So what is meant by "Resin", in the list of options? If the meaning is "ABS", then this comparison is relevant- <http://www.absplastic.eu/pla-vs-abs-plastic-pros-cons/> Ideally, I'd like something which is- (a) sturdy enough to let a clumsy adult use, and sturdy enough to gift to a child (even if the child is just starting to use a computer), (b) can be left in a hot car without deforming, (c) can be used in temperatures as cold as the parts can handle, without becoming brittle (any one for computing outside in fresh air, in winter?), (d) durable enough to last as long as the parts, (e) transparent, so that I can see the inner parts through the housing, (f) made from renewable materials, (g) safer during the 3D-printing. But I suspect that the "PLA"-option does not meet A to D as well as the "Resin / Black" does. I guess that then my decision is not so easy. Hoping to pre-"order" soon, Chad. (:^)

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"zombie" campaign
by chadvellacott＠sasktel.net 12 Sep '16

12 Sep '16

So, as mentioned in my list-message "Sorry to Luke (and others)", I have some questions. This message is just to give context for the questions. The questions are regarding the campaign on "Crowd Supply". I HAVE NOT YET SENT MY ORDER AND PAYMENT. But from a private reply from Luke (quoted next below), I guess that we have SOME more time. I will number the "e"mails of questions, as to priority for me deciding whether and what to back, with #1 as top priority for me. (This is not to be pushy, just to inform you what can most help me personally.) (Actually, now I am thinking to buy the printed lap-top kit, plus the desk-top housing, plus the stand-alone, plus one or more libre-tea cards, plus the break-out board, plus the pass-through card.) (By the capitals, I did not mean to "shout". I just meant "emphasis". Do you prefer "emphasis" be marked not by capitals but rather *thus* or _thus_?) (Quotes below, might have minor changes, and might have additions enclosed by {}, and ~ for omissions.) On 16.8.26 12:11, lkcl . <lkcl(a)rhombus-tech.net> wrote: > On ~, {8th month}~ 26, 2016 at 6:33 PM, Crowd Supply <orders(a)crowdsupply.com> wrote: >> chadvellacott(a)sasktel.net submitted a question about your project, >> "Earth-friendly EOMA68 Computing Devices": >> ~~~~~~ > >> It looks like I only have a few hours left if I wish to order now. >> (My 3 questions are numbered below.) >> (1) Can I order, after your campaign ends in a few hours? If I had AT LEAST >> another day for deciding on purchasing, that would help me to make a wise >> decision. > > yes you can. i'll be doing a lot of preparation over the next few > weeks so you have time. > ~~~~~~ >> I am now thinking of ordering your libre "tea"-card (65.00), and the >> lap-top-kit (500.00). > > cool. > ~~~~~~ > > l. > > On 16.9.2 8:49, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote: > --- > crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68 > > > On ~, {9th month}~ 2, 2016 at 6:43 AM, <chadvellacott(a)sasktel.net> wrote: ~~~~~ >> Sorry, Luke, for the "shower" of private "e"mails today. > > that's ok - i was fine answering up to a point but then realised that > the answers i was giving would benefit a lot of other people. and > that some i had already answered (dozens of times) so other people > would be able to answer them (saving me some time). so, please > re-send them. > > l. >

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Clear and Translucent- so base-half is see-through, screen's half is "fogged"?
by chadvellacott＠sasktel.net 12 Sep '16

12 Sep '16

Considering which "PFY" lap-top housing to choose. One option listed was "PLA / Metallic Silver Base with Translucent Screen Assembly". One option listed was "PLA / Clear and Translucent". (a) So for the latter option, the base is the clear part, and the screen is the translucent part? (b) And by "Clear", is the meaning, "see-through", as in I could see the hard-ware components inside of the base, while typing at the lap-top? That'd be really nice, educational. (c) And by "Translucent", is the meaning, like privacy-glass and "frosted" bulbs and "fogged" glass? That sounds interesting. I am guessing that Translucent is offered because it looks nice or something. (d) But how so? What kind of a visual "effect" does the "Translucent" have that looks nice? Some of the answers might seem obvious enough to not even ask. But I like things to be really unambiguous, even if the cost involved is "only" 500.00 rather than 10,000.00 (;^). Hoping to pre-"order" soon, Chad. (:^)

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HDMI HEC on future boards
by Vincent Legoll 12 Sep '16

12 Sep '16

Hello, I wanted to ask here, after trying to search ML archives & rhombus site. The EOMA68 standard has no provision for ethernet, but AFAIU the other end of the CPU card can be more or less free to use. So would it be possible to link a future SoC w/ ethernet to the HDMI HEC pins and get at least a 100Mbps ethernet, without needing any USB dongle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Communication_channel_protocols Regards -- Vincent Legoll

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arrived in HK
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 12 Sep '16

12 Sep '16

ouaaaaa, 13-hour flight, arrived 5am, 1hr bus to the hotel, arrived 7am, had a huge breakfast whilst waiting for the room to be ready... what's the first thing i do? reply to a long thread from paul across four separate mailing lists instead of showering and changing. ew. ... hilarious :) --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68

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#2- "MLC NAnd" corrupts-on-read how oft? Would your's have "ECCs", and use them to boot correctly?
by chadvellacott＠sasktel.net 12 Sep '16

12 Sep '16

The questions in THIS "e"mail, are regarding the "MLC NAnd" mentioned (as planned in the computer-cards via "Crowd Supply") in the "Q/A"-section on the campaign-page- https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop (My earlier off-list question on this, and Luke's reply, are quoted at the bottom.) I have been reading on "MLC NAnd", and it seems that now I better understand the problem of corruption-on-read. (I have included links at the bottom, to some literature which I have looked at. This might give you a sense of my current state of understanding on this. And others of you might even find that some of the linked information is news to you.) But I have a few more questions. (a) How common is it for corruption-on-read to occur with "MLC NAnd" (like by something as basic as reads done by the built-in "ROM" "boot"-loader)? (Perhaps the answer is like "N % probability that one or more of the [1 to 4] bits in a cell, shall wrongly change it's logical value, after X reads of one or more pages in the same block, Y writes to one or more pages in the same block, and Z erases of the block".) At first I was thinking that the FIRST time data (mini "boot"-loader or otherwise) is read from the "NAnd", corruption might likely occur. But perhaps this corruption-on-read naturally happens ONLY after many reads or writes in a block and many erases of a block. So how common is it? (b) Would the "MLC NAnd" planned in the computer-cards via "Crowd Supply", have Error-Correction Codes? (c) If so, then does whatever reads the "NAnd" on "booting" (I guess it is called the "eGON boot-ROM"), know that it should (and know how to) use those "ECCs", to correct errors (if any) which it encounters when trying to start the "booting" process, so that it loads the correct original bits of the "boot"-loader ("minimalist" or otherwise)? I am looking forward to receiving answers to my questions, and soon sending my money to back many of the current offerings via "Crowd Supply". Sincerely, Chad. (:^) Links- a little info' on corruption, and on patented ]:^[ work to solve it- https://storagegaga.wordpress.com/category/data-corruption/ a little on how "NAnd-flash" works, and file-systems- http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/doc/nand.html more on how it works and how it can get corrupted- http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1279762 followed by pages 2 to http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1279762&page_number=4 some research on read-disturbs and mitigation- https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~saugatag/papers/15dsn.pdf detailed comparison of "MLC" and "SLC", with advice on how to use both- https://cdn.selinc.com/assets/Literature/Publications/White Papers/0015_NANDflash_IO_20141211.pdf?v=20151004-191546 (There should be a single space between "White" and "Papers".) booting "Allwinner" chips- http://linux-sunxi.org/BROM (Quotes below, might have minor changes, and might have additions enclosed by {}, and ~ for omissions.) On 16.8.26 12:11, lkcl . <lkcl(a)rhombus-tech.net> wrote: > On ~, {8th month}~, 2016 at 6:33 PM, Crowd Supply <orders(a)crowdsupply.com> wrote: >> chadvellacott(a)sasktel.net submitted a question about your project, >> "Earth-friendly EOMA68 Computing Devices": >> ~~~~~ > >> ~ it seems that your latest plan is or was, to use MLC-NAnd-flash for the >> internal "hard disk drive". And I noticed the mention that that can corrupt >> itself on read, not just on write. ~~~ > > primarily you should be looking to store a "mostly-read-only" OS on > the internal NAND, which then mounts external USB drives and Micro-SD > cards as well as mounts tmpfs's for the stuff you really don't need to > be persistent. i referenced somebody's script called > "readonlyrootfs.sh" which i've successfully used with CompactFlash > rootfs booting in the past. > > also you should really be looking to use jffs2 or better ubifs - some > work's going to be needed here - so that you don't end up losing data. > you can see online that people are talking about just dropping ext4 > directly onto raw NAND just because that's what allwinner does with > android... this is incredibly stupid and you clearly shouldn't be > doing it... but ignorance like this tends to get copied wholesale on > BBS forums... *sigh*. > > in the meantime you can always boot from external micro-sd card, > that's what i do all the time, i have a minimalist bootloader at the > front of the NAND and leave the rest of the NAND entirely alone. > > i *may* have to ship people with configs like that (a small 4gb or > 8gb microsd included)... just have to see how it goes. > > >> And I noticed the mention that you are considering using SLC instead. ~~~~~~ > > l. > >

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Re: [Arm-netbook] [Dev] [libreplanet-discuss] EOMA68 and freedom in digital technology
by IngeGNUe 10 Sep '16

10 Sep '16

On 09/10/2016 04:07 PM, Josh Branning wrote: > On 10/09/16 20:38, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote: > Unlike your boards, which give a 404 forbidden message when trying to > access the server. [2] Hopefully this is something you can correct. > _______________________________________________ > Dev mailing list > Dev(a)lists.parabola.nu > https://lists.parabola.nu/mailman/listinfo/dev 403 error is "forbidden", 404 is "not found" I poked around the eoma parent directory and noticed that the same error happened on some other files. I'm not a web person but as the error states: "You don't have permission to access /~lkcl/eoma/microdesktop on this server. Server unable to read htaccess file, denying access to be safe" it's probably something to do with the .htaccess file on his webserver. As he mentioned he's going to be offline for a couple days so just give him time.

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EOMA68 - linux and whatnot interview
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 10 Sep '16

10 Sep '16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c_YTX06TL0 this was a lot of fun, to talk to these guys, and joshua as well. --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68

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EOMA68 Microdesktop Revision 1.4
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 10 Sep '16

10 Sep '16

https://youtu.be/E9root8aZFA must add this to the news page, just sending for now. l. --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68

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microdesktop pcb
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 09 Sep '16

09 Sep '16

eeek, i started on the microdesktop pcb again, prior to sending it off for prototyping cost-estimates and samples, and found that the USB ports were mirror-imaged! thank goodness i checked. we're off to HK in about 44 hours time, it's a looong flight. update about the past couple of weeks to be on crowdsupply shortly. l. --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68

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Wikipedia's EOMA68 page
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 08 Sep '16

08 Sep '16

... is going to quickly turn into a clusterf*** if people don't step in sharp-ish and help out. > [Wikipedia correctness and authoritative edits] > >> interesting situation - one that wikipedia's clearly never had to deal >> with before. > > Rather than spend a paragraph or two talking about that, I suggest that we > just build more robust external sources that the Wikipedia page can make use > of. Personally, I'm not a Wikipedia person, but I can possibly spend a little > more time looking at the page. (My previous edits were mostly about fixing up > citations, of which more are needed as the page stands.) yeahyeah, i noticed - appreciated. okay. well, i've had to revert *six* false and misleading statements on the page... so far. unfortunately the wikifascists [1] are beginning to step in - one of them unfortunately has Administrative rights. a "COI" notice was set up: this resulted in a rash of further misleading and factually incorrect statements being made. if people care about this, can you please step in? l. [1] definition (2) of http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fascist

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Puzzle Phone? FOSS?
by Alexander .S.T. Ross 08 Sep '16

08 Sep '16

catching up with the news that project ara is dead i leant of puzzlephone: http://www.puzzlephone.com does anyone know weather they mean by them taking care of firmware? Do they mean 100% FLOSS or other?

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USB-to-Ethernet efficient throughput
by SohKa 07 Sep '16

07 Sep '16

Hello Does anyone have an idea of the efficient throughput with an Ethernet adapter connected to the micro-usb-otg port of the EOMA68 or to the USB2 ports of the micro desktop housing ? SohKa

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EOMA68: DRM and Tivoisation
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 07 Sep '16

07 Sep '16

http://elinux.org/Embedded_Open_Modular_Architecture/EOMA-68#DRM_and_Tivois… i've added a specific section on tivoisation and drm - basically it's not permitted. it didn't occur to me to add this until the issue of the RYF Certification came up, where it was discussed the rather scary prospect on the horizon of USB3 devices not working due to there being some weird "online firmware real-time download database". it suddenly occurred to me that if there isn't a specific section which explains why DRM is not permitted (because it stops interoperability), someone might actually think it's okay to implement DRM. i can only think of *one* instance where DRM is okay, and that's in an *isolated* Hardware-Virtualised (Guest) OS... and that's only if its tentacles don't extend *outside* of that OS. any thoughts which can make this clearer really appreciated. l. --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68

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As promised... a small fix to the Wiki
by Mike Leimon 07 Sep '16

07 Sep '16

Okay, I think I finally got this one section of the wikipedia page correctly ironed out now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EOMA68#Size I did notice while I was cross checking things though, that the PC Card spec for Type III cards is actually 10.5mm in height, not 8mm (as it is for the EOMA68 spec). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Card#Type_III I'm not sure if this is an issue or not but, I'm going to point it out to all of you anyhow. If I get a chance later I'll try to take a closer look at some of the other sections too. -Mike p.s. Ugh.. after reading Luke's last email comment about articles-for-deletion, I'm now wondering if I just wasted my time fixing that.

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One issue with the EOMA68 Wikipedia
by Mike Leimon 07 Sep '16

07 Sep '16

Luke, I took a quick glance at the Wikipedia entry and saw what I thought was an error and I will fix the problem if you can confirm that I understand the situation correctly. The wikipedia article says the following: """ There are two different physical profiles of EOMA68 (based around the legacy PCMCIA <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCMCIA> classifications):[2] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EOMA-68#cite_note-2> - 54 mm × 85.6 mm; 5mm variant (Type II) - 54 mm × 85.6 mm; 3.3mm variant (Type I) Type I is reserved for up to 1366x768 RGB/TTL video output; Type II is reserved for up to 1920x1080 RGB/TTL video output, on the basis that a Type I 3.3mm card may fit into a Type II 5.0mm socket but not vice versa. Thus, a module with a lower-capacity video output will physically be prevented from being used with incompatible higher-resolution devices, preventing any possible confusion about interoperability. """ However, as I understand things, the second part of the article is incorrect and should probably be as follows: """ Type II is reserved for up to 1366x768 RGB/TTL video output; Type I is reserved for up to 1920x1080 RGB/TTL video output, on the basis that a Type I 3.3mm card may fit into a Type II 5.0mm socket but not vice versa. Thus, a module with a lower-capacity video output will physically be prevented from being used with incompatible higher-resolution devices, preventing any possible confusion about interoperability. """ Please respond and let me know if I am understanding this issue correctly and if so, I'll make this correction to the article after I am back home from work for the day. I'm not sure about any other issues with the article but, when I get a chance I'll try to take a closer look at it (maybe some time tomorrow). -Mike

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EOMA-68 or EOMA68? How to write name?
by Alexander .S.T. Ross 07 Sep '16

07 Sep '16

I’m not sure anymore. how are you supposed to write eoma-68? with or without the dash "-"? Could you clarify how the name is written, on the elinux wiki page please. could it also be unofficial or official, as to weather for referring to all/any eoma standard if the notation of eoma*/eoma-* counts/is permitted/ok? cus ive been using it as a young cool shorthand :). reminds me of diaspora*/D* and how they use the wildcard in there logo. if its not ok, then ill stop and use "a eoma standard" instead. Thanks!

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EOMA68 A20 DDR3 SA15 (2GB addressing), finance records in bugtracker
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 05 Sep '16

05 Sep '16

http://bugs.rhombus-tech.net/index_by_target.html i'm keeping a record of the amounts in and out. thinkpenguin (my sponsor) is handling the money... which if you've been following (running) the assess_campaign.py program is pretty much gone / accounted for. there are a number of reasons why the amounts are being published, not least is so that people can see exactly where the money's going, but also to ensure that it is absolutely clear that this is *NOT* being run as a "profit maximising business". over the past five years i've put at least $40,000 of my own personal funds into this; over the past two years thinkpenguin has sponsored the project with a further $60,000 approximately (so far). one of the other reasons for making this clear statement on-list is because now that there exists a wikipedia page, we're getting well-meaning people try and contribute to it, and, so far, there's a 100% track record of the contributions being factually incorrect, misleading and just plain wrong. that's led to me having to step in to correct them, which has led to a request that i make a (false) declaration that there exists a "conflict" between the two roles {wikipedia editor | guardian and editor} of the EOMA68 open Creative Commons Licensed {wikipedia page | Standard} on the wikimedia site {wikipedia.org | elinux.org}. it's yet to be demonstrated that such a "conflict" exists. i absolutely flat-out refuse to make a publicly auditable FALSE declaration that a conflict exists when it does not: that brings both the EOMA68 standard *and* wikipedia into disrepute. interesting situation - one that wikipedia's clearly never had to deal with before. http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/news/ the DDR3 RAM address line that needed to be added has been done... it's extremely tight and has been quite disruptive. i'll need to do some close inspection of what the auto-router's altered during the many push-and-shove events required to make room for the extra address line. the problem is that if it wasn't planned for, the available space is used up for VIAs and components that literally makes it impossible to get the extra track into the available space without considerable knock-on modifications. at the time that the original A10 board was done, we actually didn't *know* if it was possible to do 4x DDR3x8 2GB RAM layout: it was only tom cubie's team who discovered the extra address line and used it with the Cubietruck. l. --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68

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New Open Access Journal for Open Source Hardware
by Mike Leimon 05 Sep '16

05 Sep '16

Greetings all, One of my friends brought this new open access journal to my attention this morning. Apparently, it is just starting up now and looking for an initial call for papers. http://www.journals.elsevier.com/hardwarex/ Ordinarily, I wouldn't have brought this up at all however, since it appears this is going to be an open access journal, I am thinking that it may in fact be handled in a manner that is compatible with the spirit and the goals of the EOMA-68 project. Given the readership of scholarly journals, an effort to get a publication about this new open hardware standard could result a lot of interest and adoption within the scientific community. Perhaps if that comes to fruition, we may see EOMA-68 cards adopted as components used within custom sensors or instrumentation. Anyhow, I'd say looking into this may be worth at least a few minutes of time. -Mike

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http://bugs.rhombus-tech.net/
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 02 Sep '16

02 Sep '16

ok so thanks to phil hands, we've now got a bugtracker (bugseverywhere). the number of tasks that are needed to be fulfilled is so enormous that i felt it best to set one up. it's in the same repo as the rhombus-tech.net wiki and i've started putting in the top-level tracker items. l. --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68

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Sorry to Luke (and others)
by chadvellacott＠sasktel.net 02 Sep '16

02 Sep '16

(From a computer-libErTarian) Sorry, Luke, for the "shower" of private "e"mails today. [To avoid any of you confusing me with someone else (I guess Al Billings)- No, it was not me who sent 10 private messages, containing demands, in 20 minutes. Mine was like- 7, containing questions, in over 3 hours.] To you on this mailing-list, and to Luke when he is not so (understandably) busy, please let me "explain" my apology and how this happened. I had many questions, regarding the products offered at https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop for backing. And I am nearly sure that it HAD occurred to me, in the past, that if a question whose answer is likely of interest to others, can be asked and answered PUBLICLY, then that can save time for the person answering, by not having to answer the question twice. And I HAD noticed that "Rhombus-Tech" had a mailing-list. But I guess that it has been a long time since I was on ANY mailing-list, and that I did not think clearly about what that meant. (Mistake 1) I did not "put two and two together". It did not occur to me that perhaps my questions should be sent to the list, rather than privately to Luke. I did not even think to ask him whether I should send my questions, to the list. So I sent him a "shower" of questions in private "e"mails, mostly this morning but a few were before then. After responding to several of them, in reply to one of them he (in a gracious way) asked me to "send this" to the list (send the question or send that "e"mail of mine, or perhaps, by "this", he meant something more). (Mistake 2) I supposed or guessed that he just meant the one or more questions in that particular message, or just questions of that particular kind. And since I had questions which were on DIFFERENT sub-topics, I continued and sent one or more other private "e"mails to him. Then he (well-manneredly, again) replied to another of mine, and his reply made it clear enough for me, that I should send most or all of these questions, to the list. (Mistake 3) BUT, I had already sent another "e"mail, BEFORE reading his 2nd request asking me to post to the mailing-list. So, understandably, he again replied by directing me to the list. Again, not rudely, though I had been acting foolishly. And, understandably, he mentioned "critical tasks" for him to do. After that, I felt quite ashamed. Perhaps a little like a baby. ~(:^o)--- At least I am learning by this event. [(A) to use mailing-lists when proper. and (B) generally, to read received messages from the same person or on the same topic, before clicking <Send>.] I guess that I was not thinking at my best, this morning. I should have stepped back and taken a break. Sorry, Luke. And thanks for the patience with me. And sorry too, to you who benefit from work which Luke does when unnecessarily-private messages do not distract him from "critical" tasks! (And I suspect that I wasted some of Chris Waid's time, too, by "CCing" him with every one of those messages of mine, other than one message where I guess I unintentionally put Chris into a "To"-field!) I will now send questions, to this list. And if Luke at some time says that he is fine with it, I will copy (to this list), in some form, at least some of my earlier questions and his answers. Sincerely, a computer-libErTarian. (:^)

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