All correct, except it was the book that put No Starch Press on the map, not O’Reilly — I am a proud owner of the first print, it is a fscinating course in reverse-engineering hardware.
I need to get Bunnie to sign it next time I run into him! Best -F PS: Tom, you really have a handle on the news! On Apr 2, 2014, at 10:28 PM, Kurt L Keville <[email protected]> wrote: > Wow... your Google Alerts must be working overtime. This was only announced > today at EELive! Bunnie Huang is held is considerable reverence at MIT for > being one of the early guys to reverse engineer game consoles. IIRC his first > O'Reilly book got recalled as part of a MS lawsuit and then re-released with > some redactions. Apparently you can now get the original e-book from his > website... > > Quoting Tom Metro <[email protected]>: > >> The Almost Completely Open Source Laptop Goes on Sale >> http://mprod.wired.com/2014/04/novena/ >> >> Earlier this year, the two Singapore-based engineers fashioned a >> laptop made almost entirely from open source hardware, hardware whose >> designs are freely available to the world at large. They called it >> Project Novena. Anyone could review the designs, looking for bugs and >> security flaws, and at least in theory, that meant you could be >> confident the machine was secure from top to bottom, something that's >> more desirable than ever in the post-Edward Snowden age. >> ... >> Starting today, you can order your own pre-built Novena laptop through >> the crowd-funding site Crowd Supply, and it will ship out in the >> coming months. >> ... >> The project is part of larger movement towards open source hardware. >> ... If you share designs, others can make them better. The new, >> commercial version of the Novena does include some parts that are >> closed source, such as the processor, but Huang and Cross have tried >> to minimize these as much as possible. >> ... >> ...designed so that you can readily expand the hardware that's inside. >> "Half of it is empty," Huang says of the machine. "It's designed with >> the thought that you would add to it yourself." >> ... >> You can purchase a version of the machine, including the aluminum >> case, high-definition display, and motherboard for $1,195. For $1,995, >> you also get a battery and a 240 gigabyte solid-state hard drive. >> ... >> You can also buy just the motherboard for $500 and use it with your >> own case. >> ... >> All versions of the Novena run the open source Linux operating >> systems, and they're powered by an ARM processor... Yes, these >> machines are a bit underpowered by today's standards, and they're even >> more expensive than a premium laptop... >> >> >> It's less of a laptop and more of a portable: >> >> The aluminum version of the machine is unusual in that the display >> sits on the outside of the case. When you lift the case lid, you see >> not a keyboard but the insides of the machine. That makes it easy to >> add new components. You then attach your own external keyboard, as you >> would with an iPad or some other tablet PC. >> >> See the photo, but basically it is a "pizza box" configuration, where >> the display makes up the lid. You open the box and prop the display at >> the desired angle with an easel stand. Exposed in the base of the box is >> the motherboard. I guess it is up to you to tote around a keyboard >> separately. >> >> >> The pitch is that this is open design for improved security, "...it's >> open source, for people who care about the security, privacy." But the >> article doesn't explore any of the specific of how they accomplished >> that, such as all the usual proprietary binary blobs that would need to >> be replaced. >> >> >> Lifton also emphasizes that if you purchase one of these laptops, you >> shouldn't think of yourself as an investor in company. You're simply >> getting a laptop at a lower price than others will in the future. >> >> As crowd funders of the Oculus Rift recently were reminded, when the >> company cashed out to a Facebook acquisition, and the original >> supporters were left out of the windfall. >> >> The SEC has changed some of its investment rules to potentially >> accommodate taking an equity stake in a business through crowd funding. >> I wonder when we'll see sites designed to facilitate that, instead of >> these pre-sales online stores. >> >> -Tom >> _______________________________________________ >> Hardwarehacking mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Hardwarehacking mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking > _________________________________________ -- "'Problem' is a bleak word for challenge" - Richard Fish (Federico L. Lucifredi) - flucifredi at acm.org - GnuPG 0x4A73884C _______________________________________________ Hardwarehacking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking
