Your Vendor's BSP Is Probably Not Built For Product Longevity - Now What?

Organizing My Desk as an Embedded Engineer

• Anna-Lena Marx
• August 9, 2023
• Embedded

As an embedded dev, my desk is always a mess (and I think the ones of my colleagues, too). Working with real hardware leads straight to a number of boards, additional debuggers, tools, cables and more. And of course, as the most developers, I have a number of work projects and another of private ones. Even worse, I’m working from home for a good share of my time, so both kinds contribute to the mess there. Managing this is a constant effort and fight, but rarely successful.

Patching Unpatchable Files

• Anna-Lena Marx
• December 5, 2024
• Embedded , Conferences

In the Yocto world, the .bbappend file is a well-known and documented mechanism for altering recipe files, and an essential part of daily operations. While not common, there are instances where it becomes necessary to modify other file types, such as .inc or .bbclass, which do not offer an equivalent append mechanism. This session will summarize various strategies for effectively handling these file types when patching cannot be avoided.

In my recent presentation at the Yocto Developer Day in Vienna, I mentioned using the KAS patch mechanism for minor modifications to files like .inc or .bbclass, where the Yocto internal overwriting mechanism via .bbappend files does not apply. Initially intended as a helpful side note on how I navigated a few unique situations, this part quickly escalated into the most discussed segment of the talk. Half of the attendees I spoke with found it valuable, while the other half expressed strong objections.

International Women's Day - Why I wear Yocto Shirts on the Embedded World Exhibition

• Anna-Lena Marx
• March 8, 2024
• Personal , Embedded

Today, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, I’d like to give you an insight on working in Embedded as a woman: Why I’m searching for my best Yocto shirt and the nerdiest hoodie when I’m visiting the Embedded World exhibition.

Let’s go back some years to one of my first Embedded World visits. I was still a student doing my master’s degree in Embedded Systems. EW traditionally invites embedded students from all over Germany and adjacent countries on the third day, the student’s day. Together with some of my fellow students, I joined the trip and was looking forward to seeing new trends, talking to people, but also getting an idea where to apply for a job after finishing. At the exhibition, I started exploring together with some peers. Of course, all male. When going through the exhibition and talking to the people at the booths, I quickly recognized a pattern. The staff talked rather to the boys than to me. Mostly not quite obvious and probably not even on purpose. I think it’s about internalized stereotypes. They probably do not think that much about it, but obviously I was not a technically competent conversational partner to them at first sight, even if I asked the questions. I was an addition, an accompanying person from university or marketing. Mostly it was rather subtle, and I did not recognize it that much as the problem it was in the actual moment. But at some point we reached the Intel booth. I asked a question on something I was really curious about, and the male staff member started explaining to me and the accompanying students. During his talk, he started turning more to the boys until he showed me his back. I got a bit angry and told him directly that I would really like to hear the answer to the question I asked. Ok, bad, but human. So why am I telling this, and why do I mention Intel? Because I believe particularly such large companies should sensitize their employees working on a booth.