Oh, I got bitten by that! I have my work Linux installation on an USB stick so I can boot it on either my desktop or laptop and one day tailscale stopped working. I thought that might be a rare situation, but it looks like TPM based encryption failed for other reasons too.

I don't know much about ARM SoCs, is this something you would built a phone with? With all the talk about Google locking down Android, can Pine64 please go and make a Pinephone with this if that brings us closer to a Linux phone?

Does anyone know whether more than one device can connect to a Pebble watch at the same time? I'm thinking using it with your phone but also sending notifications from your laptop.

Pebble watches can use Bluetooth LE and Bluetooth Classic connection profiles simultaneously. It's possible to pair two phones this way, but that's considered an undocumented hack. Also there's no ready-made desktop OS support, I'd look into forwarding your laptop notifications to a phone via KDE Connect or something like that instead.

Can't be done, yet.

But I do want to dig into that, someday. There is an open source library in Kotlin multi-platform for building applications that interact with the watch (libpebble3) and, in theory, Bluetooth LE can connect to more than one device. But the PebbleOS probably restricts it.

My dream is to use the watch to authenticate to computers, websites and IoT devices.

PebbleOS is open source now, so there are no roadblocks preventing anything that is technically feasible.

Connecting to a laptop isn't supported AFAIK. Personally I don't have any important notifications on my computer that don't come to my phone already. What would you use it for?

I'm thinking of having Claude send me a notification when it needs my input. I already do that sometimes with desktop notifications and this way I could water the plants or hang the laundry while waiting.

That's a cool idea! I think there are lots of ways to forward that notification to your phone. Probably vibe-codeable.

The hunter2 joke makes me miss bash.org again

Why does the Core 2 Duo not have a heart rate monitor (which I think my Pebble 2 had) and why does the Core Time 2 not have the barometer and compass? It makes it really difficult for me to decide which to get. Also, I have a small preference for the design of the original Pebble Time 2 over the Core Time 2 ...

Very much agree. I want to go take this on a hike in the wilderness. I want a compass and a heart rate monitor. Barometer would be nice but I could take or leave.

This would be nice, but for me I'd never go hiking without my iPhone (especially since they now have satellite-based messaging). I assume there was a tradeoff here, and even if it was just a bit more battery I probably would have to agree with ditching these bits.

That's a fair point. My phone has a compass, so I can always look at a compass there. Not having it on the watch is just an inconvenience. My phone isn't a heart monitor.

What I would really like is something like Docker to build images for my raspberry pis. Just a single file, shell commands, that's it. I feel that Yocto is already too complicated if you want a reproducable setup for you raspberry pi at home.

I've been working on something recently that you might find interesting: https://github.com/makrocosm/makrocosm

It's not a shell script, but it has makefile rules that make it relatively simple to build a Docker image for your architecture, export it and turn into a filesystem image, build a kernel, u-boot, etc The referenced "example project" repo builds a basic Alpine image for the Raspberry Pi (https://github.com/makrocosm/example-project/tree/main/platf...) and others

It was motivated by frustrations with Yocto at a new job after 8 or so years working on firmware for network equipment using an offshoot of uClinux. Hoping to convince new job to use Makrocosm before we settle on Yocto.

Maybe https://github.com/RPi-Distro/pi-gen works for you.

That’s what Balena does. Base immutable OS and docker images.

That reminds me of the second half of this sketch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQjUh4nWwaM

I'm still working on my first self designed PCB. It's nothing special, just a temperature and humidity sensor using esp32. I started it to teach myself more about PCB design and embedded programming. Yesterday I published a blog article on it. https://www.felixmaurer.de/blog/2024/10/27/building-an-iot-s...

This is something similar to what I've been working on. Currently designing a HAT for a Raspberry Pi that includes temp/humidity sensor as well as particle matter (PMS5003). Trying to end up with my own personal weather station which I'll then publish to a small web app.

First pcb is always special. Good luck

Can anyone estimate what it would cost to develop a new phone that's like the N900 with updated hardware (slide out keyboard, camera cover, maybe drop the input stylus, a bit flatter and larger) and mainline Linux support for all components? I'm sometimes wondering if this is something I could have Pine64 do if I accidentally get rich enough. I think I would spent the rest of my days just writing the software for this.

First question is; which SOC would you want to use? Is there any SOC with full mainline support that you would agree to? There is a reason Pine64 and Purism went with SOCs out of the ordinary path.

I believe everyone has similar fantasies. Your best bet is a custom made mini laptop with a x86_64 SoC with perhaps 18650 batteries or thin easily replaceable battery packs..

I believe the GPD Pocket is also x86_64.

This looks interesting for lab-on-a-chip use cases.