Transparent ledger of donations: https://hcb.hackclub.com/oxy2dev-laptop/transactions
We need about $500 more USD to get him an M1 MacBook Air (they are more expensive in Bangladesh, where he is based).
GitHub thread with details: https://github.com/OXY2DEV/markview.nvim/issues/218. Here is a Reddit comment from the author showing this is the official fundraiser: https://old.reddit.com/r/neovim/comments/1h7vhmg/bro_been_de...
I'd have preferred something from new Intel ones but I couldn't find anything available there.
- Galaxy S24 Ultra
- Termius: I think it is the best terminal emulator and SSH client on Android. The sad thing is that the paid version is a bit too expensive. ($10 per month, no permanent option)
- tmux: Mobile connections are brittle so it is a must.
- Vim: Allows me to navigate the code freely without using arrow keys, which is really useful on the touch keyboard.
Edit: The biggest pain point for me was the limited width of the smartphone screen. It is a bit hard to skim over the code quickly because most lines are severely cut. Text wrapping helps this but personally I hate text wrapping. Keeping landscape mode is not an option because the code area is completely hidden when the touch keyboard is displayed. That's why foldable phones are great for coding, as they have a wider screen. My previous phone was Galaxy Fold and it was a wonderful coding machine.
For longer trips (train, airplane), add a mechanical wireless bluetooth keyboard (my choice would be a NuPhy Air 75) to feel like a king. For the occasional browser + SSH on the go, it's better (less space + better keyboard + larger screen experience) than bringing my 13" laptop (+ phone).
It does nothing to fix lag, but connection failures are handled without a hitch, same session resumes like normal on spotty train wifi and mobile data.
I am guessing they using some specialised keyboard that makes it easier to type symbols etc.
There's some okay text editors for Android, Hacker's Keyboard (which I still use) and of course Termux. The tools are all there, but when I tried to write simple little scripts on mobile, it was all the nightmare I thought it would be.
Been using smartphone touchscreens for a decade+ now and still feel like an old man that just can't get used to this new-fangled way of doing things. You can look back at my comment history to see the types of errors my brain, thumbs and far-sighted eyes love to produce. I honestly do not know what I was thinking when I decided to practice code on these devices, but that quickly ended.
Either way, very painful
One of my best friend - in his village in the hills they did not have electricity but the government had sent a PC. No one was allowed to go close to it but that was the very thing that inspired him to learn computers. Today he's one of the sharpest linux/infosec folks in my small circle.
Transport and booking apps (Airbnb, etc) are all pretty decent and similar to the speed on a laptop. But I can do that while walking the dog, while on the bus, and many other situations where I’m not at a proper computer.
Elder millennial (1982), so it’s not just a young people thing.
The problem is more about the software. The HP48 is pretty slow, and has a tendency to lose your data a bit too easily. There are some editors written in assembly that are good enough though, and since you had a GX, you could use memory card backups.
But now, if something gets a little bit more complicated or repetitive in my cozy Neovim environment I think more about how to avoid this with ChatGPT, Cursor, Windsurf… maybe a restrictive environment is sometimes better to actually build something?
The HP48 series lives on as a free android app, for all the RPN fans. =3
We are used to think that younger people know more about computers, but in the case of desktop computers this might not be the case.
Most computer hobbyists hate seeing talent hobbled by circumstance. Our local telecom has a nonprofit up-cycling program for these kids. =3
:)
To me, it doesn't matter how many pixels your phone is displaying when you're limited to a whopping 6 inch diagonal.
And I can't even imagine torturously attempting to touch type on the phones keyboard (which is displacing even more of your limited phone screen), versus a dedicated mechanical keyboard which was also common at the time.
https://www.geeknative.com/6955/the-painted-man-written-on-a...
Like computer keyboards, it also had a ctrl key. That means that I can ctrl+c and ctrl+v to copy paste.
Then again maybe this is only possible with the superpower of childhood cognition. I recently witnessed a friends 9yo playing with a 1940s typewriter I'd restored. Having basically never used a full sized keyboard before, within about 2 minutes she'd familiarized herself with the qwerty layout, figured out how to turn the shift lock on and off, deduced the correct key action to bounce the hammers off the platten without them clashing, and figured out how to change colours. All this took me at least 20 minutes.
You might be interested in https://www.clicks.tech/
I have no idea if it’s good or not, just remembered it exists.
Also, python programs :D
Cell phone novels has been a thing for over 20 years and they were originally written using numpad cellphones.
I've been using it for years, and have solved crises at work with it and Termux by SSH:ing from my phone into a box attached to the right VPN and jumped from there to control over production. Tablets are really nice in this area, they have a lot of battery time and one can lay in bed and do the stuff in vim, tmux, &c. as one usually does, just a little bit slower due to software keyboards being a bit less efficient.
Funny thing is, I don't know if some high sec work envs are much better, where developers have to nest remote through machines (of different OSes) just to get a terminal...
$job before that I would remotely connect to clients machines through various ways. Most would be a webpage with some terminal emulation in JS, or some web-based RDP (to a Linux or a Windows machines), and sometimes bouncing again to our last machines. And sometimes you get the actual VPN where all you have to do is to run the client (typically IPDiva, sometimes they use OpenVPN) and just run putty to connect to your machine.
That last experience was often painful especially when certain softwares in between you and your work start to fail. Also a lot of those clients had none or very restricted internet access, so it is really hard to get debugging tools. Sometimes your work would just be a loop of "connect, type a few commands, get the web-based terminal messed up, disconnect, repeat" until your problem is solved. Especially, for our needs we set up our own windows VMs with all software needed to connect to all the clients, hosted in our office and accessible via our own VPN. This way our clients would only see our office IP. But that meant one more VPN for everybody and one more "bounce" to do before any work...
Is this some kind of developer dominatrix fetish or something where people get off punishing themselves.
“You’ve been a bad boy! You used AI! No Internet for you”
Also, I have access to all of them on my phone via Files app and the iCloud sync, this is surprisingly practical.
[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Control_(macOS)
Although I'd be surprised if you haven't.
I write a mail (usually subject only) to myself. Actually, to noone, because my mobile devices Bcc myself. The notes are accessible from any device I can access my mailbox with, with no additional tools or servers for note keeping needed.
In fact, I found it less annoying for typing code than current big capacitive screens or even N900's keyboard (which was great for texting, but could really use an additional row of keys for symbols).
Always have written markdown without preview and hoped that it looked right when I commited it.
Edit: Or on edge cases I have used remarkable[1], which I have found ages ago. I don't even know how """good""" it is, but I like its simplicity.
I'm using Keep notes - for crafting the issues and bugs I want to fix, reshaping the solution ChatGPT - Copy shortcuts - I'm able to copy various parts of the application and sent to ChatGPT (file path, code...) and then after the code I'm writing my plans. asking to tell what to change Neovim - with many great shortcuts to make life easier, copying and pasting specific parts, quick save, run python scripts, the tree navigation and search is awesome, git plugins as well Fastapi & Vue - I'm running on my phone the Web app and debugging it with pdb Kiwi browser - has great debug tools Termux of course Git - pushing to a repo and it's being deployed to vercel it's great when I find small bugs in the app when I'm using it, i can fix it right away without opening laptop
>>I'd caution against posting a laptop to Bangladesh as there is a very real chance it'd spend the next six months sat in customs while an official looks for a pay off.
>Yeah, this is the reason I wasn't too keen on having stuff shipped from outside.
[1] https://github.com/OXY2DEV/markview.nvim/issues/218#issuecom...
We tried to ship banking 2FA devices to india and customs took them too.
200% useless to anyone but us, but confiscated anyway
Always boggles my mind how raw talent, dedication, and integrity can all come together and just by pure chance of life, you can just miss out on a world of opportunity where people with far less dedication end up with so much more. Hope that this little moment on the internet actually results in a bigger opportunity for him eventually.
Edit: Seems like there is an open issue [1] to get him a PC to code on. Just one more reason why I love the community.
If you were to develop a programming language, IDE and DX optimized for coding on a phone, what would that look like?
That would be 90% of a laptop IMO. Although I haven't tested it much, Samsung Dex makes my phone appear very much like a laptop when using an external keyboard and monitor.
But fair play, I find it hard enough to program on a keyboard.
It makes me question all the assumptions I have about dev UX. If my dev tooling was taken away, the saas products I depend on shut down, slack replaced by email, keyboard with phone, etc. would I eventually adapt to such a situation? Would my productivity cut be only marginal?
I sure hope the case is that this developer is just a genius, as I'd like to think we as devs (and maybe as a society at large) are not just deluding ourselves thinking that software is innovating.
As others have noted, plenty of us have developed on computers where the display had merely 25 lines and 80 columns of characters, or less, and no Internet connection at all. Not intermittent connection, complete absence of connection. Exchanging data meant physically carrying disks, which contained as little as 360 kilobytes (or less).
That developer's phone is probably thousands of times more powerful than what we had back then, and has the luxury of a nearly permanent network connection to a huge amount of even more powerful computers. The only real limitation, other than arbitrary operating system restrictions, is the very small screen size and tiny keyboard size. Give that phone an external USB or Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and a way to connect to a television as an external monitor, and it becomes close enough to a desktop PC.
That's ... something.
Not every developer gets to work on Sora, Quantum AI chip, or CUDA source code.
For the very vast majority, it is facing stupid PMs, MBA bosses, daily standups, and getting fired with no fault of your own. There are good sides, too, of course. But you have to live through these.
Do you choose these or getting VIP treatment in society with tenured jobs and after MD + 10 YoE, you can say fu to any boss and open your own clinic, and economically be forever in the 0.1%?
And honestly, outside the US, many of the positive sides of being an SWE disappear completely (like crazy compensations, having too many options, etc.).
Programming is crazy cool, but the profession of Software Engineering is not always that cool.
For the vast majority, it is facing the medical colleagues who don't care, and will bury you from envy if you do, and get any better than them for it. It's facing patients who don't take care of themselves, or who just take your time, want favors from you outside of your working hours, but most importantly, the burden of having many people die despite you trying your very best.
Do you choose these, or getting chill treatment in society with freedom, where after 10 YoE you can say fu to any boss and open your own consultancy, and economically be forever in the 0.1%?
And honestly, outside the US, many of the positive sides of being an MD disappear completely (like crazy compensations, having too many options, ease of opening your own business)
I understand the point that you're trying to make, but being an MD is hell of a job, and honestly, as a unit, I don't wish it on anyone who does not specifically want to be there. And even then, your good motivation to do it might be your undoing.
It's really not all that it's cracked up to be, and the only reason I wouldn't recommend to be a software engineer is that the future of it is fairly uncertain.
Not every developer wants to work on those. Many developers even find at least one of those to be unethical. It is possible to find rewarding challenging jobs as a developer without having to go work for the big names.
> Not every developer gets to work on Sora, Quantum AI chip, or CUDA source code.
> For the very vast majority, it is facing stupid PMs, MBA bosses, daily standups, and getting fired with no fault of your own.
Those two are not mutually incompatible. I saw examples of all of that while working at outwardly glamorous companies. Thankfully I didn't experience any of that personally.
> Programming is crazy cool, but the profession of Software Engineering is not always that cool.
You could say the same about medicine. It is a tough stressful job for most.
I work for a factory maintaining it's existing custom ERP and building new software for it (basically imagine a programmer consultant for 1 costumer just with regular contract). Mix of maintaining legacy code, writing new one and servicing hardware is dynamic enough not to be bored and I have a lot of independence in the job. It's comfy af.
On top of this, school is long and expensive.
Getting a good dev job is better in comparison.
The hours, work expectations and imposition on daily life can be pretty grim for a medical doctor, presumably with a strong correlation on speciality and role. I’m very much not-a-doctor.
- it's hard to have a complete career only coding (assuming that you'll still enjoy it at 40-50-60). Ageism is a thing.
- you're extremely dependent on economy. Sure, you can earn $500K+ at FAANG, but you can also get laid off and earn much less. You probably won't earn such high salary for your whole life (see above point)
- SWE not a respected profession. What do you do for a living? I'm a coder VS I'm a doctor.
I'm not saying being a doctor is perfect, it certainly varies. But I feel it's more future proof than SWE. Also it's easy to code as a hobby. Perhaps even more fun than doing it professionally. Another point, in some developed countries, having access to healthcare can be increasingly difficult. If you're in the system, you make it easier for you and your family to get care when you need it.
I hope this guy can do whatever he wants, but I can understand his parents.
In turns of future proofing it's not even comparable. SWEs have negative protection. Mostly not unionized. You don't even need a license to write code.
If the government says we're going to launch 100 programming schools and flood the market with 100,000 coders in next 4 years, no one bats an eye. If it's for doctors you can see what happened in Korea[1].
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_South_Korean_medical_cris...
Apparently what he/she shows him/herself to be is something akin to avatar level concentration and intelligence level similar to that of Audrey Tang perhaps...