i know you can run a processor on a coin battery for weeks/months, look at tamagotchis/digimons.
iirc, many microcontrollers can be put into special modes that draw very little current from their power source. they may be running at a clock speed in the region of tens of kilohertz, but that is no issue for me.
my problem is i just can't find much practical instruction online about how to do such designs 'homebrew'. usually people just point me to a specific microcontroller datasheet, and that's it.
maybe my next deep dive will be how to build a lil puter that runs on a current draw that is ultra-low.
the permacomputer project has more followers than i do
there was a lot of activity on the profile last night
i got some scathing criticisms of the permacomputer off-fedi the day before that really affected me. i think i am far too sensitive for my own good.
the attention the permacomputer idea is getting makes me feel a little bittersweet about the hobby project--i feel good about the huge amount of support it is getting, but i wonder whether the whole project is misguided and impractical.
should it be focused on a speculative, and as yet imaginary societal collapse, or should the project instead change to instead promote ecological and sustainable computing?
i think the project needs to change focus.
Subtoot
https://hostux.social/@kta/113608384079034353
OR, and hear me out on this, we can all just agree that it's high-time to migrate to Plan 9 and systems built like it.
Adding complexity on top of complexity will make things increasingly insecure, not more.
Your $12-15 payment every month to Spotify disappears into a blackhole and is noticed and appreciated by exactly NO ONE. By contrast, you could spend that same amount today at Bandcamp, OWN three albums because of it, AND make the day of each of those artists.
Seriously, a $5 sale can change a life.
@permacomputer Can I suggest dropping the "70s" from the "What is"? (As a Board member of Permaculture Australia, very much 2020s and looking forward).
Libreboot 20241206 released!
Free/opensource firmware, replacing proprietary BIOS/UEFI.
https://libreboot.org/news/libreboot20241206.html
Highlights:
* ThinkPad T480 and T480S support
* Dell OptiPlex 3050 Micro bug fixes e.g. PWM fan controls work now
* U-Boot payload on x86 machines, providing UEFI-based booting; not tested on all boards yet, so chainloaded from SeaBIOS. Use a "seauboot" ROM; ESC menu in SeaBIOS can bypass U-Boot
* Mate Kukri rewrote deguard. It can disable Intel Boot Guard on any MEv11 machine now!
analognowhere serialized special
p. 0-2
I've spent nearly 48 hours wondering about the UHC CEO attack and hearing all of the vitriol directed his way. And now I am hearing that Blue Cross Blue Shield has repealed its decision to charge patients extra for anaesthesia if their surgery takes too long, as if the attack had an effect.
But, yet, the political right somehow lands the message in the United States that the left wants to "take away your private healthcare." They. Land. That. Message. All. Of. The. Time.
How?
It is obvious now that USian healthcare firms and the rent-seekers who get rich off them are among the most reviled people in the country. How does this message keep landing? It is quite obvious that next to nobody likes their private insurance.
#HealthCare
#UHC
#PrivateInsurance
#CEO
#UnitedHealthCare
#BlueCrossBlueShield
i need to listen to my own advice to others
fuck the haters, people who try and bring you down are spiteful
I see shit like this happening, and I can't help but shake my fists and gnash my teeth in frustration. https://hachyderm.io/@robpike/113602589372259355
And, Rob isn't exactly what I'd call a complete newb at this computer touching thing, either.
This is why I desperately want to have a truly personal operating system that runs on my truly personal computer.
VM/OS is my latest attempt at making my dreams a reality. But, I'm only one person. It would sure be nice if, someday, I could get some help with it.
Day 5 of the #DecemberAdventure and, honestly, I thought I was gonna chill this evening and not do any code, but then my 8 year old and I pulled together the bones of a little gravity platformer game!
billionaires should take note at just how much normal people rejoice when they die
Absolutely in awe - and extremely envious - of this successful project to build a functional replica of Harmut Esslinger's 1984 FlatMac tablet prototype - which was only ever a non-functional design prototype, never launched.
I want one.
#3DPrinting #Design #RetroComputing #VintageComputing #RaspberryPi
been thinking about BASIC and how computers can be engrossing and fascinating
i feel like exploring how it might be possible to make computers simpler and easier to learn
what would that involve?
- a far simpler command line than bash?
- a different UI than a desktop metaphor?
- access to the internet?
- a suite of software for doing most simple computer tasks? games?
- a programming environment that encourages creativity and exploration?
- wonderful documentation?
- a dedicated target model of hardware?
honestly i am not sure i can yet properly express this concretely...
You learn a lot about most programmers by observing things like how line of code counters don't consider comments “code” despite them (in a healthy project) needing just as much maintenance as the code around them and for a library or complex algorithm, being equally useful to the code itself
I'm really proud to present my fully documented source code for Elite on the Commodore 64.
This is the original 1985 source, recently released by Ian Bell, with every single line of code explained.
It’s a thing of beauty. Enjoy!