Typical day for this Open Source Advocate… Photoshoot for PineCone BL602 RISC-V Board
📝 15 Dec 2020
2020 has been… A very challenging year!
Over the past year I’ve been an Open Source Advocate for Embedded and IoT. Mostly on PineTime, PinePhone, Pinebook Pro and now PineCone. (Plus a tiny slice of pie… the Raspberry kind)
I’ve made a couple of mistakes… But I shall improve! Here’s how…
Immersing myself into the Matrix / Discord / Telegram / IRC community was… Whoa! Overwhelming.
There were times when I got impatient and barked (like an angry chinchilla)… Not realising that people among us come from various places, age groups, and have different perspectives.
I’m sorry if I have hurt you or offended you online. I promise to be kinder the next time I connect to the online community.
2020 was an incredible year for PineTime. I ported the MCUBoot Bootloader to PineTime. And the bootloader was shipped to real customers.
But maintaining the bootloader for a shipping gadget is a serious Operational Job. And it clashes with my original objective: Teach IoT with PineTime
Sadly I have to drop my Operational Duties on PineTime… And bring my focus back to Education.
I’m happy to be starting from scratch with PineCone… RISC-V is a Really Good Thing and I’m doing all I can to bring everyone onboard!
2020 was a great year for writing and coding. I published 28 articles on all kinds of topics… And I’m super delighted that you read them!
I’ll stick with the same plan for 2021… Publish an article (with code) every 2 weeks.
Expect more photos, sketches and terrible puns. Maybe a silly story too!
Why? Because it’s really tough to get mindshare for Open Source projects. And I’ll do my best!
This one is tricky… I realise that I’m in the wrong timezone (Singapore).
Whenever I hang out in Matrix / Discord / Telegram / IRC, most of the interesting discussions happen between 10pm and 6am (Singapore time).
Shall I change my sleep cycle?
Or join a community that has more people in my timezone? (Probably Asia + Australia + New Zealand)
Until I solve this problem, I’ll have to stick with asynchronous, non-realtime comms with the Open Source community. Sorry! 🙏
My GitHub History
In September 2020 I started taking medication for Hypertension (Super High Blood Pressure).
Then life became soooo slooooooow. (“Time Goes By… So Slowly…”)
I couldn’t write or code as quickly as before. I had to drop my projects, and do only one tiny project at a time.
(You can see the huge gap around September in my GitHub History above)
I still don’t feel fully productive right now. Hopefully my health will improve in 2021.
2020 was full of surprises… Can’t wait to see what happens in 2021 😉
I must thank My Sponsors for supporting my Open Source work. It’s great to know that my Open Source work is helping people in the real world… And I shall definitely do better 🙂
Happy Holidays Everyone! Stay Healthy, Have A Great 2021! 😀
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