Top all-time · #2590
George Hilliard
Personal blog · thirtythreeforty.net/posts · on HN as thrtythreefortyhardwaresystemssecurity
George Hilliard writes &>/dev/null, a personal blog at thirtythreeforty.net about hardware, systems and security. Since 2019, 29 different Hacker News readers have linked it 42 times, most often “My Business Card Runs Linux”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-02-26, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (16) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link George Hilliard's posts about building a Linux-running business card on a cheap Allwinner F1C100s chip, plus embedded Linux guides such as Mastering Embedded Linux and a Reolink camera reverse-engineering write-up.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 16 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- My Business Card Runs Linux13 people · 15 mentions · first linked 2019-12-24
- Reverse engineering a camera protocol for fun and profit4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2020-05-16
- /posts/2019/12/designing-my-linux-business-card/4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-12-24
- The Insane Innovation of TI Calculator Hobbyists3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-10-06
- Mastering Embedded Linux, Part 1: Concepts (2019)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-12-24
- The Wave/Particle Duality of Git Commits3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-01-20
- Trying the Allwinner F1C200s2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-03-02
What Hacker News says?
Don’t forget to look at the more detailed companion to this excellent article! https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/12/designing-my-...
Comment linking /posts/2019/12/designing-my-linux-business-card/
on “My Business Card Runs Linux”Submitted My Business Card Runs Linux as a story · 2595 points
HN discussionI have thought about it and I am writing one entitled "Mastering Embedded Linux." Its goal is to take you from zero to expert with hacking embedded Linux systems. https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/08/mastering-emb... Hopefully the next installment will come out today. The holidays are letting me catch up on writing.
Comment linking /posts/2019/08/mastering-embedded-linux-part-1-concepts/
on “My Business Card Runs Linux”Submitted Reverse engineering a camera protocol for fun and profit as a story · 479 points
HN discussionDon't miss the "Designing my Linux Business Card" post https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/12/designing-my-... Edit - I find it amazing that the CPUs for these are sold for $0.90 on Taobao, without needing a bulk discount or anything.
Comment linking /posts/2019/12/designing-my-linux-business-card/
on “My Business Card Runs Linux”Submitted The Insane Innovation of TI Calculator Hobbyists as a story · 358 points
HN discussionHmm. A followup question: are there any cheats/hacks that would make it possible (if painful) to for example explore the world of USB3, PCIe, or Linux on low-end-ish ARM (eg https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/12/my-business-c... , based on the tiny 533MHz https://linux-sunxi.org/F1C100s ), without needing to buy equipment in the mid-4-figure/low-5-figure range, if I were able to substitute a statistically l…
Comment linking /posts/2019/12/my-business-card-runs-linux/
on “Facts every web dev should know before they burn out and turn to painting”Submitted Hacking Reolink cameras for fun and profit (2020) as a story · 192 points
HN discussionGood read! Some others that I have enjoined in the embedded Linux realm are the posts by George Hilliard, Mastering Embedded Linux series and the Designing my Linux-powered Business Card. https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/08/mastering-emb... https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/12/designing-my-...
Comment linking /posts/2019/12/designing-my-linux-business-card/
on “So you want to build an embedded Linux system?”Submitted A DIY business card that runs Linux as a story · 12 points
HN discussionThat was a super fun read! I was super impressed with the content! It seems like the "mastering embedded Linux" is extremely rich too [1]! [1] https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/08/mastering-emb...
Comment linking /posts/2019/08/mastering-embedded-linux-part-1-concepts/
on “Reverse engineering a camera protocol for fun and profit”Submitted The Wave/Particle Duality of Git Commits as a story · 12 points
HN discussionNot sure who was first(as the article linked isn't dated), but remember seeing something a few years back that someone else created as a business Linux card Tracked it down: https://hackaday.com/2019/12/24/now-even-your-business-card-... https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/12/my-business-c... This design looks better. Both creative Edit: somehow I duplicate posted when I edited my last comment, qchris beat m…
Comment linking /posts/2019/12/my-business-card-runs-linux/
on “My business card runs Linux”Submitted The Wave/Particle Duality of Git Commits as a story · 6 points
HN discussionThis is really cool! It's a shame that jsTIfied isn't open source; I would have liked to use it for live demos in my roundup [1] of cool TI software projects. Your project with a skin would be perfect. [1]: https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2021/10/ti-calculator...
Comment linking /posts/2021/10/ti-calculator-innovation/
on “I 10x'd a TI-84 emulator's speed by replacing a switch-case”Submitted Mastering Embedded Linux, Part 4: Adding Features as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI honestly feel like building something like a PDA would be easier using a bespoke layout. You can entirely remove stuff you don't need (like, say, the VPU (lol)) and save battery life. You can also optimize for what you're actually going to be using, eg once you've selected the type of display you can just support the type of interface it will use (SPI perhaps), etc. FWIW, the Allwinner F1C100s is ~$2, 533MHz, has…
Comment linking /posts/2019/12/my-business-card-runs-linux/
on “How is the free firmware for the Raspberry progressing?”Submitted My Business Card Runs Linux (2019) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIncidentally the Allwinner F1C100s used in this business card ( https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/12/my-business-c... , https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21871026 ) contains an ARM9 series core clocked at 900MHz alongside 32MB of on-die DDR1, is designed for dashcam-type applications (SDIO, LCD, USB2 OTG, no PHY) and the author of the linked article was able to buy them for $1.42 each. I've long been cu…
Comment linking /posts/2019/12/my-business-card-runs-linux/
on “Janus WebRTC Server”Submitted My Business Card Runs Linux (2019) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionHere's one with 533MHz ARM926EJ core, 32 megs of RAM and 8 megs of Flash. No emulation here. https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/12/my-business-c...
Comment linking /posts/2019/12/my-business-card-runs-linux/
on “My business card runs Linux and Ultrix (2022)”Submitted Hacking Reolink cameras for fun and profit as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI really enjoyed reading this, especially the little branches off into other useful topics and tools. Here are my notes as a summary: Good blog write up about reversing Reolink B800 IP camera end result: https://github.com/thirtythreeforty/neolink tools used: * wireshark & dissector in Lua https://mika-s.github.io/wireshark/lua/dissector/2017/11/04/... * binwalk * visualize the BIN for blank space, code, etc. https:…
Comment linking /posts/2020/05/hacking-reolink-cameras-for-fun-and-profit/start-debug.exp
on “Hacking Reolink cameras for fun and profit (2020)”Submitted Mastering Embedded Linux, Part 5: Platform Daemons as a story · 3 points
HN discussionNot quite, but the "Linux business card" that went round recently uses the F1C100s, which is $3.50 including RAM in package. https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/12/my-business-c...
Comment linking /posts/2019/12/my-business-card-runs-linux/
on “RISC-V Stumbling Blocks”Submitted Mastering Embedded Linux, Part 3: Buildroot as a story · 3 points
HN discussionWhat, it doesn't run Linux [1] ? [1] https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/12/my-business-c...
Comment linking /posts/2019/12/my-business-card-runs-linux/
on “PCB Business Card”Submitted My Business Card Runs Linux (2019) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis chip looks similar to the F1C100s that was used in the $3 Linux business card: https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/12/my-business-c... By switching to RISC-V I guess Allwinner can save a few cents of Arm license fees.
Comment linking /posts/2019/12/my-business-card-runs-linux/
on “Allwinner D1s/F133 RISC-V Processor Integrates 64MB DDR2”Submitted The Insane Innovation of TI Calculator Hobbyists as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
