Re: build a hack box of choice?

> about the subject, ppl from east asia usually asks the eyes
> on your face for linux developing kits/boards/CDs/manuals

I didn't get this at first. Here we'd say "they charge an arm and a leg".

> KN-50!! it is too much just for a manual with GPL'd software!!

I was tasked with installing an expensive commercial toolchain at one
place I worked.  When I opened the 3 ring binder I found... a gcc
manual!! Hey! They justified the cost by making it easy to install.
Since then I have built GNU toolchains and thing it was probably a
fair price. It can be nasty!

> crappy firmware is also a constant (I use cheap routers a
Been there! I have a Speedstream WAP now that is
totally flaky but it sure was cheap!

Having worked in shops producing products based on embedded systems I
think one of the biggest issues is they don't want to spend the money
to produce decent docs. None of the places I ever worked ever had much
of any internal docs beyond the initial spec and design stages. Once
things were in production, I had to go and beg for help. Last place I
was at, I was the build/release engineer! I had to sit at the feet of
the engineers with my notepad to capture the knowledge and write it up
for posterity.

Our final project before we ran out of funding was a Linux based
product. :-( ARM 7 based.  I am still frustrated and sad.  Everything
we'd done up to that point was based on proprietary kernels.

-- 
Brian Wilson
Corvallis, Oregon
541-757-2045