[PLUG] PostmarketOS: Bluetooth Fob with "backspace" and "enter" keys?

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Thu, Mar 27, 2025 at 03:18:19PM -0700, Russell Senior wrote:
> >Introducing postmarketOS: Alpine Linux-based distro for
> >smartphones, tablets, and more, that emphasizes device re-use and
> >user freedom.

My old hands are too jittery to use a gesture-based "smart phone
or tablet; I hit backspace maybe 60 times typing the first line
of this paragraph, and that with a clicky-key QWERTY keyboard.

If the Alpine distro is as mod-friendly as laptop linux, I can
imagine designing and making a bluetooth dongle with a clicky
"backspace" and also an "enter/execute/send" button that helps
me "dejitter" my input before causing a difficult-to-reverse
action.   I can design and program the tiny single-chip CPU
circuit board if someones else 3D-prints the plastic case, 
and the code that connects it.

-----

And as a Really Spiffy extension, I can imagine an alternative
dongle driven by a breath switch, usable by quadriplegics for
mousing and text entry.  That would resemble a digital circuit
project I helped create as a teenager, more than 50 years ago.

Our "quad box" was a toaster-sized box of TTL logic with
a breath switch, a DB25 RS232 serial output, two rows of
lights, and a scan rate knob.  This box enabled a fully
paralyzed quadraplegic to "blow" serial ASCII characters
that could drive a teletype, dial a telephone, summon a
nurse, turn lights and radios on and off. 

The bottom row of lights was an adjustable rate scan; when
the breath switch was blown synchronous to a lower light,
it would light a "bit" in the upper row.  The last light
in the row was "execute", which would send a single serial
byte from the RS-232 output port to connected devices.

The AMAZING "component" of this kludge was the disabled user.

After months of all-day practice, our disabled users (mostly
"wounded warriors" at the Oregon Veterans Administration
Hospital) learned to "blow" 30 bits per second.  We had to
redesign the clock circuit and frequently tweak the
sequential cadence to keep up with their growing skills. 

It's AMAZING what a mentally-normal person can learn with
a 5000-hour-per-year training schedule, and a brain capable
of talking much faster.

Such a system can be VASTLY improved in software, with
additional voice input and modern technology. 

The interface could be to an open source "smart" phone
rather than a box of chips and lights and serial RS-232.
That's why "postmarketOS" may enable MILLIONS of people
to conquer much greater challenges than my own.

How many "Steven Hawkings" are out there?   Ready to Rock
Our World using an evolved breath switch (or eye movement,
or ...) interface. 

Freeing the challenged and CRUSHING smart-phone monopolies
are just the beginning.  There will be regulatory pushback
financed by "Monopoly Big Business".  Serving "wounded
warriors" FIRST would give the open source movement far
more formidable political clout, with the energetic help of
MILLIONS of "abled" veteran allies helping their comrades. 

----

Full disclosure:  I am horrified and disgusted by what
politicians send our warriors to do.  I am inspired by
warriors who strive to create "quick and CLEAN" victories,
minimizing the killing and destruction before the munition
makers learn how to stretch misguided conflict into
Vietnam-style "forever wars".   So yes, I helped vets,
but I also hacked a recruiting office or two, slowing the
processes bamboozling gullible teens into cannon fodder.

That said, it was a different crew who "reassigned" the
water cooler from the Corvallis recruiting office to the
lobby of the Oregon State University campus police.  Took
almost a year for OSU Kampus Kops to notice the "Property
of the United States Government" tag riveted to the back
of the never-reconnected water cooler.

ALL THAT SAID - I presume many of the above hacks can be
implemented in Linux, justifying this blovating posting
to the PLUG list rather than PLUG-TALK list.  But leave
the water coolers where they are; a "pissy" cop is better
than an inebriated pissy cop.

Keith L.
---
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com