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blakesmith

403 karma · joined January 8, 2012

http://blakesmith.me
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blakesmith··on No Calls
Love this anecdote. Having a really capable sales team that actually listens to customers unique needs, and feeds that back into a better product can be such a huge asset. Your sales team is usually a huge repository of unique customer pain and problems (opportunities!)
blakesmith··on Reading QR codes without a computer
Reminds me of how the first generation iPod firmware and keys were reverse engineered. They blinked out bit patterns on the LCD backlight and used a camera to read the data in! https://mastodon.social/@bagder/111538350617290554
blakesmith··on Open Sourcing Ferrocene
This is really cool. A really big step forward for the Rust ecosystem. Being able to use Rust in safety critical systems is a big win.

Congrats to everyone involved!

blakesmith··on Show HN: Garnix, fast and easy CI for Nix
This looks really cool, and showcases how simple CI can be if every git repository exposes a nix flake. Congrats on shipping!
blakesmith··on A naked skydive inspired a way to keep pilots oriented in flight
It's usually tradition that your 100th jump is supposed to be naked, at least amongst the skydiving communities I was a part of.
blakesmith··on Why keyboard shortcuts don't work on non-US layouts and how devs could fix it
Another Dvorak typist here! Personal funny anecdote: I learned vim modal navigation after I learned Dvorak, and never bothered to remap the keys. Totally debilitating if I'm using a coworkers QWERTY keyboard for vim navigation, but at least I can still navigate on remote servers without reconfiguring anything!
blakesmith··on mRNA's next challenge: Will it work as a drug?
I've been a little out of the loop on how COVID vaccines were different than others. In case you're like me, here's a nice primer on "mRNA vaccines": https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different...
blakesmith··on Early Work
This article reminded me of the same quote! Here's the original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wLP0izeJE
blakesmith··on Ami, a tiny cube on wheels that French 14-year-olds can drive
I converted an old 1978 Puch Maxi moped that wasn't running to fully electric. Was a great way to learn how EVs work, and build a quiet around-town cruiser. https://photos.app.goo.gl/jgL4VmpmSWA5csba8
blakesmith··on Dumping MiniDisc Media
Looks like a cool project! I have a box of old mini discs (and a Sony player) in the basement that I've been wondering what to do with. I would love to give the project a try and get them converted for digital archival.
blakesmith··on Ask HN: What projects are you working on now?
I play mandolin, but come from playing the cello: so chords are less familiar to me than scale based melodies. This looks really useful, thanks for sharing!
blakesmith··on Show HN: Gameslab, a FPGA powered handheld game console
Thanks! Love the video. I love the brushed and beveled panel. I'll definitely look at something like this for some of my designs.
blakesmith··on Show HN: Gameslab, a FPGA powered handheld game console
This is awesome. The case fabrication looks great. What materials and fabrication process did you use? I'm particularly interested to hear more details of how you made such a pro looking design.
blakesmith··on Actix-web 1.0 – A small, pragmatic, and fast web framework for Rust
Agreed. Rocket has been an absolute pleasure to use. I'm looking forward to it being able to run on Rust stable at some point. Procedural macros abound!
blakesmith··on Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch
This project was more about learning the schematic, PCB, firmware and laser cutting work. There might be some fun learnings from 3D printing the keycaps, but I didn't want to expand the scope of this too much, since there were already quite a few "risky" parts of the build (given my current electronics skillset). The top and bottom plate design was mostly about simplicity.
blakesmith··on Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch
Thanks for the kind words. It was also a lot of fun, and full of good learnings for future projects.
blakesmith··on Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch
Whoa, sweet project. Your assembly video is drool worthy cool. I've thought about doing my own laptop some day, but figured I'd work my way up to that difficulty with some other smaller projects to keep learning. Any advice to share for doing a custom laptop?
blakesmith··on Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch
Nope! In fact, I run mine with a Dvorak layout by default. A lot of people who use the QMK firmware do all kinds of custom modifiers, macros, and what not. And if you're doing your own PCB, you can arrange the buttons any way you want, with any switch type.
blakesmith··on Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch
There are a lot of people who 3D print keycaps I believe. I skipped that and bought DSA blanks from Signature Plastics.
blakesmith··on Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch
Oh nice, didn't know that! Thanks for the info!
blakesmith··on Lessons from Running a Small-Scale Electronics Factory in My Guest Bedroom
Out of curiosity, who do you usually use for your assembly service? I've ordered boards from JLCPCB, but only ever done assembly myself. Can you typically send your JLCPCB orders straight to the assembly house? Would love to hear more about the process of using an assembly service.
blakesmith··on Ask HN: What technologies did you learn in 2018?
Whoa, nice! Sometimes, the world is smaller than you think. Joined up, looking forward to January!
blakesmith··on Ask HN: What technologies did you learn in 2018?
Chris! I owe you big time for your getting started with KiCad youtube series. Your "Getting To Blinky" video is what gave me the confidence to get started with PCB design, so thank you! If you're ever in the Chicago area, I'd love to buy you a beer.
blakesmith··on Ask HN: What technologies did you learn in 2018?
Taught myself the basics of embedded systems, and completed a few projects. Learned circuit design, PCB layout, CAD / laser cutting, and embedded C / C++ in the process. Started with a 555 LED blinker [1]. Then built a desk clock, with a goal of writing a device driver for the LED display from the data sheet of a controller I found on DigiKey. After that, built my own USB keyboard, since I wanted to learn more about how USB devices work. I use this keyboard at work now as my daily driver now!

Taking a break from embedded for a bit, and teaching myself Rust. Working on a queue server at the moment!

[1] LED blinker: https://www.instagram.com/p/BaND2tQlvlB/

[2] LED desk clock ("picoclock"): https://www.instagram.com/p/Blf_Fw1gBAO/

[3] USB keyboard ("KeeBee"): https://photos.app.goo.gl/zKgCkudf97FjraJp7

blakesmith··on Mail Loop From Hell (2012)
If you like the IRC format, check out http://bash.org - some pretty hilarious IRC logs from a glorious time in Internet history
blakesmith··on The relative performance of C and Rust
Check out Bazel: http://bazel.build. I've been using it a lot to build several multi lingual projects that include Java, C++, embedded C, Javascript, CSS, and even Docker images. There are community Rust rules, that I haven't tried yet, but am planning on investigating soon: https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_rust
blakesmith··on Automattic is closing its San Francisco office as most employees work remotely
Don't long walks qualify as "real exercise"? The op's weight loss seems to indicate so. Even without the results, you can't discount the fact that they might get far more enjoyment out of long walks than being crammed in a smelly Gym each day. It's not always about being efficient with your time. Often the most enjoyable things in life are the least time efficient.
blakesmith··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2017)
Sprout Social | Chicago, IL| Full-time | React Native Mobile Engineer| http://sproutsocial.applytojob.com/apply/ZkZkXt/React-Native...

We leverage React Native to build beautiful, performant and intuitive Android and iOS applications for our products. You’ll help us ensure that the Bambu product mobile applications are better than a native equivalent by pushing the bounds of JavaScript and to look for high-value opportunities to introduce React Native to our Sprout applications.

At Sprout we encourage cross-functional collaboration. The Mobile 'squad' consists of a dedicated Mobile Product Designer, dedicated QA Analysts, other Mobile Engineers and a Mobile Product Manager.

Sprout Social is used by more than 17,000 brands around the world. Companies like Marvel, Adobe and Pivotal Labs rely on Sprout to create stronger relationships with their customers through social media

We are looking for someone that has contributed to and submitted several applications on a professional team. Please apply via the above link and mention Hacker News!

blakesmith··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2017)
Sprout Social | Chicago, IL| Full-time | Engineering Manager, iOS| http://sproutsocial.applytojob.com/apply/jkJxjm/Engineering-...

You will help deliver a quality application to thousands of users, working on a small iOS team allowing you to take ownership of the code base and provide weigh in on user experience and design discussions. You will also manage fellow iOS Engineers with specific responsibility to support the growth of their careers. This is very much a working manager opportunity.

At Sprout we encourage cross-functional collaboration. The Mobile 'squad' consists of a dedicated Mobile Product Designer, dedicated QA Analysts, other Mobile Engineers and a Mobile Product Manager.

Sprout Social is used by more than 17,000 brands around the world. Companies like Marvel, Adobe and Pivotal Labs rely on Sprout to create stronger relationships with their customers through social media

We are looking for someone that has contributed to several apps in the Apple Store, preferably at a SaaS company. Please apply via the above link and mention Hacker News!

blakesmith··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2017)
Sprout Social | Chicago, IL| Full-time | Android Engineer | http://sproutsocial.theresumator.com/apply/ctiz5a

You will help deliver a quality application to thousands of users, working on a small Android team allowing you to take ownership of the code base and provide weigh in on user experience and design discussions. We encourage cross-functional collaboration. You'll work alongside a Mobile Product Designer, other Engineers and a Product Manager as well as receive guidance from a working Manager.

Sprout Social is used by more than 17,000 brands around the world. Companies like Marvel, Adobe and Pivotal Labs rely on Sprout to create stronger relationships with their customers through social media

We are looking for someone that has contributed to several apps in the Play Store, preferably at a SaaS company. A strong foundational understanding and use of Java is ideal. Please apply via the above link and mention Hacker News!

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