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I think the disconnect between us is that this is running on a microcontroller. Think "a beefier version of what runs your smart thermostat." Linux isn't unhear

I think the disconnect between us is that this is running on a microcontroller. Think "a beefier version of what runs your smart thermostat." Linux isn't unheard of for such a device, but is a pretty heavy lift because of limited resources. Using a microcontroller has its advantages. One advantage goes exactly to the point--with smart design it can maintain a wifi connection, waking for milliseconds at the required interval, so when you want to use it there is no wifi negotiation time. Keeping things open all the way to the remote host is whole other matter, but I believe that's touched on in the document. What is your use case for this sort of device? We'd certainly like to support as many as possible without compromising the overall vision. You mention PDFs--is your use case for reading or creating documents? There was no plan to support local viewing of PDFs--again, parsing them is a pretty heavy lift for a low-power microcontroller to do with acceptable performance. We've got a related (very alpha) project that uses Chromium to render websites in a fancy text-only fashion. This is because for most devices, having a modern web browser is table stakes so we want to support that for this device. However, this browser would would be installed on the host you connect to with this device, not on the device itself. The browser can view PDFs (it uses Mozilla's pdf.js). I can show you screenshots of output of this browser, but not much else at this point. Those closest relative of this browser that is public is Browsh. It would give you an idea for what can be done: https://www.brow.sh/ https://www.brow.sh/

nixpulvis 5y ago
> What is your use case for this sort of device? We'd certainly like to support as many as possible without compromising the overall vision. You mention PDFs--is your use case for reading or creating documents? Creating documents implies reading them in their final form, unless you have a publisher on staff. Even then I'd argue the medium matters. Most of the time I stick to plaintext, but there's a lot of value in PDF layout as well. So yes, I plan to use this device for both reading and creating. And I DO NOT trust my network connections. Just saying.
- torgoguys 5y ago
  Gotcha. I don't think we could make this the right fit for you then, sorry. Well, the more I think about it, it's conceivable it could handle it with some small amount of extra hardware, but would take a LOT of software work and as hobbyists with no funding... > And I DO NOT trust my network connections. Just saying. Yes, this should be a hard pass for you then! (Unless built-in, dirt-cheap cell connectivity would assuage those concerns.)
  - nixpulvis 5y ago
    Maybe you make a little RPi-like device that is designed to connect and host this thing as a module that attaches nicely to the enclosure. You could build out the whole idea as you have it and come back to this for people like me. Meanwhile, I might just carry around a RPi for this purpose, as long as they can share power easily. I hope I'm not being too discouraging. I really like this idea, which is why I'm pushing you on it a bit. I would love to help, but yea, fund-less hobbies are tough to get large scale support for. I wish I had more to offer.

nixpulvis 5y ago

> What is your use case for this sort of device? We'd certainly like to support as many as possible without compromising the overall vision. You mention PDFs--is your use case for reading or creating documents? Creating documents implies reading them in their final form, unless you have a publisher on staff. Even then I'd argue the medium matters. Most of the time I stick to plaintext, but there's a lot of value in PDF layout as well. So yes, I plan to use this device for both reading and creating. And I DO NOT trust my network connections. Just saying.

torgoguys 5y ago
Gotcha. I don't think we could make this the right fit for you then, sorry. Well, the more I think about it, it's conceivable it could handle it with some small amount of extra hardware, but would take a LOT of software work and as hobbyists with no funding... > And I DO NOT trust my network connections. Just saying. Yes, this should be a hard pass for you then! (Unless built-in, dirt-cheap cell connectivity would assuage those concerns.)
- nixpulvis 5y ago
  Maybe you make a little RPi-like device that is designed to connect and host this thing as a module that attaches nicely to the enclosure. You could build out the whole idea as you have it and come back to this for people like me. Meanwhile, I might just carry around a RPi for this purpose, as long as they can share power easily. I hope I'm not being too discouraging. I really like this idea, which is why I'm pushing you on it a bit. I would love to help, but yea, fund-less hobbies are tough to get large scale support for. I wish I had more to offer.