#collapsecomputing — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #collapsecomputing, aggregated by home.social.
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CW: longgg
@denny @lolaodelola Was there a realistic chance for things to go differently? AFAIK everyone was doing their own thing at the time. Heck, even ASCII wasn't on everything, see the Apple II for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_character_set
My impression is that for a while most computers were designed for one market and one language, which kinda makes sense.
When memory is expensive, you don't want to waste encoding space on characters you assume you'll never need, and you probably don't want to give up random access either by going for a compressed representation like UTF-8.
You would also need sufficiently powerful character rendering hardware, which will also make your machine more expensive and you will need to store the fonts too, which will take up ROM space somewhere.
And ASCII came from telegraph codes and there you run into human limitations.Maybe socialist countries had something planned earlier, but I doubt it, seeing how learning Russian was practically required in Hungary just a few decades ago. Colonial countries wouldn't need Unicode, because they don't want to communicate with others as equals.
Maybe some other groups were working on something like this? Closest I can think of in spirit are constructed languages like Esperanto.
But I don't know of any 20th century group that had the infrastructure to build telecommunication networks or had the power to influence standards, and also prioritized the best interests at humanity at large instead of national or corporate interests.I guess I should bump that book about Project Cybersyn higher on my reading list...
This topic of encodings is also interesting in terms of #permaComputing and #collapseComputing .
Given the very tight constraints that a post-collapse device operates under (salvaged chips, scarce electricity, limited storage) and the intended audience of most projects (highly technical operators), it's tempting to simplify things and just use ASCII.
Personally, I'd like to expand the target demographic in my project and get things like internationalization and accessibility right from the start, but I can see how it eats into the hardware and complexity budgets.There are also questions about the language of identifiers and keywords, but this post is already too long. :neofox_laugh_sweat:
-
CW: longgg
@denny @lolaodelola Was there a realistic chance for things to go differently? AFAIK everyone was doing their own thing at the time. Heck, even ASCII wasn't on everything, see the Apple II for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_character_set
My impression is that for a while most computers were designed for one market and one language, which kinda makes sense.
When memory is expensive, you don't want to waste encoding space on characters you assume you'll never need, and you probably don't want to give up random access either by going for a compressed representation like UTF-8.
You would also need sufficiently powerful character rendering hardware, which will also make your machine more expensive and you will need to store the fonts too, which will take up ROM space somewhere.
And ASCII came from telegraph codes and there you run into human limitations.Maybe socialist countries had something planned earlier, but I doubt it, seeing how learning Russian was practically required in Hungary just a few decades ago. Colonial countries wouldn't need Unicode, because they don't want to communicate with others as equals.
Maybe some other groups were working on something like this? Closest I can think of in spirit are constructed languages like Esperanto.
But I don't know of any 20th century group that had the infrastructure to build telecommunication networks or had the power to influence standards, and also prioritized the best interests at humanity at large instead of national or corporate interests.I guess I should bump that book about Project Cybersyn higher on my reading list...
This topic of encodings is also interesting in terms of #permaComputing and #collapseComputing .
Given the very tight constraints that a post-collapse device operates under (salvaged chips, scarce electricity, limited storage) and the intended audience of most projects (highly technical operators), it's tempting to simplify things and just use ASCII.
Personally, I'd like to expand the target demographic in my project and get things like internationalization and accessibility right from the start, but I can see how it eats into the hardware and complexity budgets.There are also questions about the language of identifiers and keywords, but this post is already too long. :neofox_laugh_sweat:
-
CW: longgg
@denny @lolaodelola Was there a realistic chance for things to go differently? AFAIK everyone was doing their own thing at the time. Heck, even ASCII wasn't on everything, see the Apple II for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_character_set
My impression is that for a while most computers were designed for one market and one language, which kinda makes sense.
When memory is expensive, you don't want to waste encoding space on characters you assume you'll never need, and you probably don't want to give up random access either by going for a compressed representation like UTF-8.
You would also need sufficiently powerful character rendering hardware, which will also make your machine more expensive and you will need to store the fonts too, which will take up ROM space somewhere.
And ASCII came from telegraph codes and there you run into human limitations.Maybe socialist countries had something planned earlier, but I doubt it, seeing how learning Russian was practically required in Hungary just a few decades ago. Colonial countries wouldn't need Unicode, because they don't want to communicate with others as equals.
Maybe some other groups were working on something like this? Closest I can think of in spirit are constructed languages like Esperanto.
But I don't know of any 20th century group that had the infrastructure to build telecommunication networks or had the power to influence standards, and also prioritized the best interests at humanity at large instead of national or corporate interests.I guess I should bump that book about Project Cybersyn higher on my reading list...
This topic of encodings is also interesting in terms of #permaComputing and #collapseComputing .
Given the very tight constraints that a post-collapse device operates under (salvaged chips, scarce electricity, limited storage) and the intended audience of most projects (highly technical operators), it's tempting to simplify things and just use ASCII.
Personally, I'd like to expand the target demographic in my project and get things like internationalization and accessibility right from the start, but I can see how it eats into the hardware and complexity budgets.There are also questions about the language of identifiers and keywords, but this post is already too long. :neofox_laugh_sweat:
-
CW: longgg
@denny @lolaodelola Was there a realistic chance for things to go differently? AFAIK everyone was doing their own thing at the time. Heck, even ASCII wasn't on everything, see the Apple II for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_character_set
My impression is that for a while most computers were designed for one market and one language, which kinda makes sense.
When memory is expensive, you don't want to waste encoding space on characters you assume you'll never need, and you probably don't want to give up random access either by going for a compressed representation like UTF-8.
You would also need sufficiently powerful character rendering hardware, which will also make your machine more expensive and you will need to store the fonts too, which will take up ROM space somewhere.
And ASCII came from telegraph codes and there you run into human limitations.Maybe socialist countries had something planned earlier, but I doubt it, seeing how learning Russian was practically required in Hungary just a few decades ago. Colonial countries wouldn't need Unicode, because they don't want to communicate with others as equals.
Maybe some other groups were working on something like this? Closest I can think of in spirit are constructed languages like Esperanto.
But I don't know of any 20th century group that had the infrastructure to build telecommunication networks or had the power to influence standards, and also prioritized the best interests at humanity at large instead of national or corporate interests.I guess I should bump that book about Project Cybersyn higher on my reading list...
This topic of encodings is also interesting in terms of #permaComputing and #collapseComputing .
Given the very tight constraints that a post-collapse device operates under (salvaged chips, scarce electricity, limited storage) and the intended audience of most projects (highly technical operators), it's tempting to simplify things and just use ASCII.
Personally, I'd like to expand the target demographic in my project and get things like internationalization and accessibility right from the start, but I can see how it eats into the hardware and complexity budgets.There are also questions about the language of identifiers and keywords, but this post is already too long. :neofox_laugh_sweat:
-
CW: longgg
@denny @lolaodelola Was there a realistic chance for things to go differently? AFAIK everyone was doing their own thing at the time. Heck, even ASCII wasn't on everything, see the Apple II for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_character_set
My impression is that for a while most computers were designed for one market and one language, which kinda makes sense.
When memory is expensive, you don't want to waste encoding space on characters you assume you'll never need, and you probably don't want to give up random access either by going for a compressed representation like UTF-8.
You would also need sufficiently powerful character rendering hardware, which will also make your machine more expensive and you will need to store the fonts too, which will take up ROM space somewhere.
And ASCII came from telegraph codes and there you run into human limitations.Maybe socialist countries had something planned earlier, but I doubt it, seeing how learning Russian was practically required in Hungary just a few decades ago. Colonial countries wouldn't need Unicode, because they don't want to communicate with others as equals.
Maybe some other groups were working on something like this? Closest I can think of in spirit are constructed languages like Esperanto.
But I don't know of any 20th century group that had the infrastructure to build telecommunication networks or had the power to influence standards, and also prioritized the best interests at humanity at large instead of national or corporate interests.I guess I should bump that book about Project Cybersyn higher on my reading list...
This topic of encodings is also interesting in terms of #permaComputing and #collapseComputing .
Given the very tight constraints that a post-collapse device operates under (salvaged chips, scarce electricity, limited storage) and the intended audience of most projects (highly technical operators), it's tempting to simplify things and just use ASCII.
Personally, I'd like to expand the target demographic in my project and get things like internationalization and accessibility right from the start, but I can see how it eats into the hardware and complexity budgets.There are also questions about the language of identifiers and keywords, but this post is already too long. :neofox_laugh_sweat:
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Considering this format is used to encode & archive most of modern research/knowledge/information, I also see this inherent complexity as a gigantic threat in terms of #PermaComputing, #CollapseComputing, #FrugalComputing. I think there's a need for something like https://qoiformat.org/, i.e. simplifying, rethinking and omitting some of the features in PDF in lieu of increased simplicity, longevity & usability in lower compute resource environments/futures...
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Considering this format is used to encode & archive most of modern research/knowledge/information, I also see this inherent complexity as a gigantic threat in terms of #PermaComputing, #CollapseComputing, #FrugalComputing. I think there's a need for something like https://qoiformat.org/, i.e. simplifying, rethinking and omitting some of the features in PDF in lieu of increased simplicity, longevity & usability in lower compute resource environments/futures...
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Considering this format is used to encode & archive most of modern research/knowledge/information, I also see this inherent complexity as a gigantic threat in terms of #PermaComputing, #CollapseComputing, #FrugalComputing. I think there's a need for something like https://qoiformat.org/, i.e. simplifying, rethinking and omitting some of the features in PDF in lieu of increased simplicity, longevity & usability in lower compute resource environments/futures...
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Considering this format is used to encode & archive most of modern research/knowledge/information, I also see this inherent complexity as a gigantic threat in terms of #PermaComputing, #CollapseComputing, #FrugalComputing. I think there's a need for something like https://qoiformat.org/, i.e. simplifying, rethinking and omitting some of the features in PDF in lieu of increased simplicity, longevity & usability in lower compute resource environments/futures...
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Considering this format is used to encode & archive most of modern research/knowledge/information, I also see this inherent complexity as a gigantic threat in terms of #PermaComputing, #CollapseComputing, #FrugalComputing. I think there's a need for something like https://qoiformat.org/, i.e. simplifying, rethinking and omitting some of the features in PDF in lieu of increased simplicity, longevity & usability in lower compute resource environments/futures...
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@scops This is maybe more of a #collapseComputing approach, but my reason for trying to go for a much lower common denominator is part availability. Random microcontrollers are easier to scavenge than FPGAs, they also don't need as much specialized tooling.
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@scops This is maybe more of a #collapseComputing approach, but my reason for trying to go for a much lower common denominator is part availability. Random microcontrollers are easier to scavenge than FPGAs, they also don't need as much specialized tooling.
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@scops This is maybe more of a #collapseComputing approach, but my reason for trying to go for a much lower common denominator is part availability. Random microcontrollers are easier to scavenge than FPGAs, they also don't need as much specialized tooling.
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@scops This is maybe more of a #collapseComputing approach, but my reason for trying to go for a much lower common denominator is part availability. Random microcontrollers are easier to scavenge than FPGAs, they also don't need as much specialized tooling.
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@scops This is maybe more of a #collapseComputing approach, but my reason for trying to go for a much lower common denominator is part availability. Random microcontrollers are easier to scavenge than FPGAs, they also don't need as much specialized tooling.
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The goal is to reduce/eliminate e-waste, and to have a software ecosystem that is resistant to supply chain constraints or even collapse. I think a subculture of #PermaComputing is what you might call #CollapseComputing (not certain about the terminology there) -- creating software tools and hardware flexibility that can survive even the total collapse of the modern economy and supply chain -- think Mad Max with computers, haha.
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The goal is to reduce/eliminate e-waste, and to have a software ecosystem that is resistant to supply chain constraints or even collapse. I think a subculture of #PermaComputing is what you might call #CollapseComputing (not certain about the terminology there) -- creating software tools and hardware flexibility that can survive even the total collapse of the modern economy and supply chain -- think Mad Max with computers, haha.
...
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...
The goal is to reduce/eliminate e-waste, and to have a software ecosystem that is resistant to supply chain constraints or even collapse. I think a subculture of #PermaComputing is what you might call #CollapseComputing (not certain about the terminology there) -- creating software tools and hardware flexibility that can survive even the total collapse of the modern economy and supply chain -- think Mad Max with computers, haha.
...
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...
The goal is to reduce/eliminate e-waste, and to have a software ecosystem that is resistant to supply chain constraints or even collapse. I think a subculture of #PermaComputing is what you might call #CollapseComputing (not certain about the terminology there) -- creating software tools and hardware flexibility that can survive even the total collapse of the modern economy and supply chain -- think Mad Max with computers, haha.
...
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...
The goal is to reduce/eliminate e-waste, and to have a software ecosystem that is resistant to supply chain constraints or even collapse. I think a subculture of #PermaComputing is what you might call #CollapseComputing (not certain about the terminology there) -- creating software tools and hardware flexibility that can survive even the total collapse of the modern economy and supply chain -- think Mad Max with computers, haha.
...
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The #FPGA uxn thread is giving me Ideas. What could one do with a salvaged FPGA and are they even salvageable? What kind of equipment would one need to make use of them?
Found this SE thread so far:
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/32746/cheap-old-consumer-devices-to-recover-fpga-boards-from
cc #salvageComputing / #collapseComputing -
The #FPGA uxn thread is giving me Ideas. What could one do with a salvaged FPGA and are they even salvageable? What kind of equipment would one need to make use of them?
Found this SE thread so far:
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/32746/cheap-old-consumer-devices-to-recover-fpga-boards-from
cc #salvageComputing / #collapseComputing -
The #FPGA uxn thread is giving me Ideas. What could one do with a salvaged FPGA and are they even salvageable? What kind of equipment would one need to make use of them?
Found this SE thread so far:
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/32746/cheap-old-consumer-devices-to-recover-fpga-boards-from
cc #salvageComputing / #collapseComputing -
The #FPGA uxn thread is giving me Ideas. What could one do with a salvaged FPGA and are they even salvageable? What kind of equipment would one need to make use of them?
Found this SE thread so far:
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/32746/cheap-old-consumer-devices-to-recover-fpga-boards-from
cc #salvageComputing / #collapseComputing -
The #FPGA uxn thread is giving me Ideas. What could one do with a salvaged FPGA and are they even salvageable? What kind of equipment would one need to make use of them?
Found this SE thread so far:
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/32746/cheap-old-consumer-devices-to-recover-fpga-boards-from
cc #salvageComputing / #collapseComputing -
"How to power your gadget without battery"
Some good #salvageComputing / #collapseComputing ideas.
I've seen a lot of folks in #postmarketOS chat want to use their phones as servers, they might also be interested in this. Sadly it doesn't use the battery at all, so it lacks the UPS feature some desire from using a normally battery operated device in a tethered fashion.
https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=O4kCMQs1X88
cc #electronics #theFoundry -
"How to power your gadget without battery"
Some good #salvageComputing / #collapseComputing ideas.
I've seen a lot of folks in #postmarketOS chat want to use their phones as servers, they might also be interested in this. Sadly it doesn't use the battery at all, so it lacks the UPS feature some desire from using a normally battery operated device in a tethered fashion.
https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=O4kCMQs1X88
cc #electronics #theFoundry -
"How to power your gadget without battery"
Some good #salvageComputing / #collapseComputing ideas.
I've seen a lot of folks in #postmarketOS chat want to use their phones as servers, they might also be interested in this. Sadly it doesn't use the battery at all, so it lacks the UPS feature some desire from using a normally battery operated device in a tethered fashion.
https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=O4kCMQs1X88
cc #electronics #theFoundry -
"How to power your gadget without battery"
Some good #salvageComputing / #collapseComputing ideas.
I've seen a lot of folks in #postmarketOS chat want to use their phones as servers, they might also be interested in this. Sadly it doesn't use the battery at all, so it lacks the UPS feature some desire from using a normally battery operated device in a tethered fashion.
https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=O4kCMQs1X88
cc #electronics #theFoundry -
"How to power your gadget without battery"
Some good #salvageComputing / #collapseComputing ideas.
I've seen a lot of folks in #postmarketOS chat want to use their phones as servers, they might also be interested in this. Sadly it doesn't use the battery at all, so it lacks the UPS feature some desire from using a normally battery operated device in a tethered fashion.
https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=O4kCMQs1X88
cc #electronics #theFoundry -
The book / #newsletter Virgil Dupras (creator of #CollapseOS and #DuskOS and general #Forth wizard) started about getting started in low level programming is finally available on something that *isn't* #Substack .
https://tumbleforth.hardcoded.net/
If you are interested in topics like #permacomputing / #collapseComputing / #frugalComputing but don't really know where to start and have some moniez to spare, this might be worth taking a peek at. -
The book / #newsletter Virgil Dupras (creator of #CollapseOS and #DuskOS and general #Forth wizard) started about getting started in low level programming is finally available on something that *isn't* #Substack .
https://tumbleforth.hardcoded.net/
If you are interested in topics like #permacomputing / #collapseComputing / #frugalComputing but don't really know where to start and have some moniez to spare, this might be worth taking a peek at. -
The book / #newsletter Virgil Dupras (creator of #CollapseOS and #DuskOS and general #Forth wizard) started about getting started in low level programming is finally available on something that *isn't* #Substack .
https://tumbleforth.hardcoded.net/
If you are interested in topics like #permacomputing / #collapseComputing / #frugalComputing but don't really know where to start and have some moniez to spare, this might be worth taking a peek at. -
The book / #newsletter Virgil Dupras (creator of #CollapseOS and #DuskOS and general #Forth wizard) started about getting started in low level programming is finally available on something that *isn't* #Substack .
https://tumbleforth.hardcoded.net/
If you are interested in topics like #permacomputing / #collapseComputing / #frugalComputing but don't really know where to start and have some moniez to spare, this might be worth taking a peek at. -
The book / #newsletter Virgil Dupras (creator of #CollapseOS and #DuskOS and general #Forth wizard) started about getting started in low level programming is finally available on something that *isn't* #Substack .
https://tumbleforth.hardcoded.net/
If you are interested in topics like #permacomputing / #collapseComputing / #frugalComputing but don't really know where to start and have some moniez to spare, this might be worth taking a peek at. -
Can't get this thought out of my brainmeats:
What if a portable #permacomputing / #collapseComputing languages used something like G expressions in #Guix to cross compile expressions to other architectures?
Imagine a cluster of salvaged hardware (possibly just the embedded CPUs already found in a modern PC) that you can deploy native code to, for a mix of redundancy and performance. -
Can't get this thought out of my brainmeats:
What if a portable #permacomputing / #collapseComputing languages used something like G expressions in #Guix to cross compile expressions to other architectures?
Imagine a cluster of salvaged hardware (possibly just the embedded CPUs already found in a modern PC) that you can deploy native code to, for a mix of redundancy and performance. -
Can't get this thought out of my brainmeats:
What if a portable #permacomputing / #collapseComputing languages used something like G expressions in #Guix to cross compile expressions to other architectures?
Imagine a cluster of salvaged hardware (possibly just the embedded CPUs already found in a modern PC) that you can deploy native code to, for a mix of redundancy and performance. -
Can't get this thought out of my brainmeats:
What if a portable #permacomputing / #collapseComputing languages used something like G expressions in #Guix to cross compile expressions to other architectures?
Imagine a cluster of salvaged hardware (possibly just the embedded CPUs already found in a modern PC) that you can deploy native code to, for a mix of redundancy and performance. -
Can't get this thought out of my brainmeats:
What if a portable #permacomputing / #collapseComputing languages used something like G expressions in #Guix to cross compile expressions to other architectures?
Imagine a cluster of salvaged hardware (possibly just the embedded CPUs already found in a modern PC) that you can deploy native code to, for a mix of redundancy and performance. -
#collapseComputing idea: HDD controller as general purpose machine??
https://www.malwaretech.com/2015/04/hard-disk-firmware-hacking-part-1.html
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#collapseComputing idea: HDD controller as general purpose machine??
https://www.malwaretech.com/2015/04/hard-disk-firmware-hacking-part-1.html
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Hmm. Yknow how people make DIY laptops from PC parts? I wonder if one could make a DIY rugged laptop that way...
cc #theFoundry is this within the realm of possibility?
Also cc #collapseComputing / #frugalComputing since if you had to build a computer from spare parts in the apocalypse, you'd probably want to make it last. -
Hmm. Yknow how people make DIY laptops from PC parts? I wonder if one could make a DIY rugged laptop that way...
cc #theFoundry is this within the realm of possibility?
Also cc #collapseComputing / #frugalComputing since if you had to build a computer from spare parts in the apocalypse, you'd probably want to make it last.