Permacomputing

Interesting look into Dune and the Luddites, and how technology can take two forms. Apropos permacomputing I think.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/28517038

Web browsers were very limited compared to today's offerings but still very extensive when compared to other applications. Now, browsers on desktop are at a point where they're equivalent to an OS in scope.

This frustrates me as it's led to stagnation, where very few companies can hold their position. Firefox can only keep up due to preexisting groundwork and the large amount of funding from Google. Chrome had billions thrown at it to quickly enter the market.

The thing that kills it the most for me is there is no way to fix the massive amount of effort needed for a web browser. It's extensive because it has to deal with thousands of situations: image rendering, video rendering, markup language support (HTML), CSS support, JavaScript support, HTML5 support, security features, tabbed browsing, bookmarking and history, search engine integration, cross-platform compatibility, performance optimisation, developer tools, accessibility features, privacy controls, codec support, to name a few.

Now, for my unpopular opinion: stripping back a general-purpose browser to its core, forcing web redesign, and modularising the browser. Rather than watching videos in the browser, an instance of VLC would be started where the video will be streamed. Instead of an integrated password manager and bookmarks, we have something akin to KeepassXC with better integration. Markup documents and articles automatically open in word processing applications. I know this idea seems wholly impossible now, but it often crosses my mind.

I thought this video was rather interesting, because at 12:27, the presenter crunches the numbers to find out how many years it would take for a new computer purchase to be more environmentally friendly (in regards to total CO2 expended) compared to using a less efficient used model.

Depending on the specific use case, it could take as little as 3 years to breakeven in terms of CO2 if both systems were at max power draw forever, and as long as 30 if the systems are mostly at idle.

After a drop, my hard drive was making an intermittent beeping noise and not being recognized by my computer.

I decided to take it apart and found that the actuator arm was stuck on top of the platter when it should be safely docked at the orange landing tray.

I carefully rotated the platter while pulling on the actuator arm with tweezers and unstuck it, bringing it back to the landing tray.

After reassembly, I tested it out again but this time, it made a loud beep, some concerning mechanical noises, then... nothing.

I took it apart yet again and inspected the read/write heads. Well, the picture speaks for itself. They were a mangled mess.

Lesson learned: inspect the read/write heads first before attempting any kind of recovery. Fortunately, this didn't have any important info on it (hence not being backed up!). However, I'd find someone who is better at data recovery than I am to help if I couldn't afford to lose the data. You only get one shot with data recovery!

Don't use Firefox, use Lynx.

Better yet, boycott http etc entirely.

Gopher or die.

Why are you still using a backlit display? Pipe your terminal into a passive character LCD and go to bed when the sun goes down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsOaahWFfug

Alt-ASCIIart image for those already on a 20x4 display (modified to fit in a 20x4 display):

╔══════════════════╗
║Debian GNU/Linux  ║
║ttyACM0  Login: █ ║
╚══════════════════╝

This is your life now.

Modern computing has revealed itself to be mostly unreasonable.

Go outside; potatoes need harvesting, the birds are eating your tomatoes, and the chickens haven't been fed yet.

In the most recent blog post on NetBSD, they said:

And as an (unexpected) bonus support for the Nintendo Wii has been added to the evbppc port.

Looks like they have instructions on how to run it in the mailinglist https://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-powerpc/2024/01/27/msg003636.html and a video of it as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-MShCcFm_w.

It's exciting that the WII can potentially be used for general computing tasks.

Short reminder:

The human genome, with all its magic, is about 3,117,275,501 base pairs long. Source: Wikipedia

If you would encode that data digitally, and store it on a SSD drive, it would take up < 1 GB.

So, if we can do so much magic with 1 GB, that should be an inspiration to all software to do more, with less space.

Thank you for coming to my talk.

Just the other day I read an article about how the average size and weight of cars have increased significantly in the past 60 years, both in Germany and the US.

I have a screenshot (in german):

I wonder whether there is a common reason, for why both software and cars seem to undergo "bloating" right now.

Maybe, it is because we live in a time where we don't appreciate making efficient use of resources anymore.

But maybe somebody has other ideas?

So what's it got to do with this community?

I wonder, whether, if we find an efficient solution to the obesity of cars, maybe that would lead to an efficient solution against software bloat as well?

The abundance of digital storage and processing power has caused an explosion in wastefulness, which shows in things like ridiculous hardware requirements for computing even the most trivial tasks. Permacomputing is about using computation only when it has a strengthening effect on ecosystems.

Hello! Can someone shed some light about the fact that there's no "LowTech" definition on the Permacomputing wiki ?

Looking for perspectives about the above. On my meanderings around the web I've found cybersecurity is all the rage now, cybersecurity experts are desperately needed. Looks a bit like a protection scheme to me - first have everyone save their data in the cloud and buy a smart fridge, then flood everything with ethical hacking courses and cybersecurity certifications.

Reminds me of my marketing translation days working on copy where you always were supposed to outpace your competitors by using some [insert software here]-as-a-service solution to 'compete in an increasingly fast-paced business environment'. Yay rat race.

On the other hand, as to cybersecurity experts, we will need smart people who can re-stupidify our smart appliances when they go rogue.

What would you consider ethical work within IT? Now and in a brighter future?

I have an ac1900 wifi router that isn't in use and had support dropped by the vendor. My home network is already set up, so I don't have a need for it – otherwise, I'd probably flash OpenWRT on it. Any ideas for what I could use it for?

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/4470763

(link covers a 2021 study by Purdue, Yale, and MIT)

Some folks think teleworking is favorable to the environment on the basis that they avoid driving to work. IMO that’s quite far-fetched when you consider that a worksite with a capacity of ~1000 workers would consume much less energy than heating and cooling 1000 residential homes. Then you have account for the footprint attributed to heavy internet bandwidth demands.

Nothing beats cycling to work and working on-site. But if you are working from home, it’s worthwhile to try to attend non-video conferences. A presenter may have no choice in some cases but certainly you need not see everyone’s faces.

FWiW, these are steps to disable high-bandwidth frills:

Firefox

(disable animations)

• disable animations (non-CSS, non-GIF varieties): about:config » toolkit.cosmeticAnimations.enabled » true→false
• disabling CSS animations needs these ad-hoc steps
• disabling animated GIFs (useless?): about:config » image.animation_mode » (normal → none) or (normal → once, to just disable the play loops) Or for refined on-the-fly control install this plugin ⚠Disabling animated GIFs in Firefox may be useless. I get the impression animated GIFs are still fetched but simply not played automatically, thus bandwidth is still wasted.

(disable still images)

about:config » permissions.default.image » 1→2

Chrome/Chromium

• Disabling animations- impossible (bug report from ~14 years ago still unresolved). Hence “stop using Chrome” in the title.

(disable GIF animations only)

Install this plugin first which only works sometimes; when it fails try this one.

(disable still images)

1. Click the Customize and control Google Chrome menu button, which is the on the far-right side of the URL toolbar.
2. Select Settings on the menu to bring up that tab.
3. Click Privacy and security on the left side of Google Chrome.
4. Select Site Settings to view the content options.
5. Then click Images to bring up the options shown directly below.
6. Select the Don’t allow sites to show images radio button.

I have deliberately spared readers from the source links to the above info because the information is buried in enshitified webpages with shenanigans like cookie popups that have no reject all option. Looks like this post is a bit enshitified itself since the details/summary HTML tags are broken here (they tend to be accepted on other Lemmy instances). If anyone knows the fix plz let me know. (reported)