this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025

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133

The Perfect Pi Pico Portable Computer (hackaday.com)

submitted 3 months ago by mesamunefire@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] TheOSINTguy@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Does it run Doom?

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Be the change you want to see in the world

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The Pi Pico is capable of running Doom and it actually runs quite well when overclocked. It would probably take a bit of work to get it running on this computer since it uses a second RP2040 as a graphics processor.

[–] Morphit@feddit.uk 1 points 3 months ago

Doom is one of the examples for the PicoVision. It might need some hacking to get the keyboard to work since I think he used I2C to connect it instead of USB, but it can definitely run Doom.

[–] balder1991@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There is something about the simplicity of this kind of thing that makes it so attractive. There’s no bloat, just a device for a maker individual to play around with.

But it makes me wonder if there’s something similar to this but more “ready” for people to buy and play around building software. I’ve thought about learning more low level stuff with emulators, not a real device. A real device like this with a minimal Unix-like OS and some development kit to play around would be interesting.

[+] rottingleaf@lemmy.world -11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If it runs modern Linux, there's enough bloat even compared to Windows 2000.

COMMENT: further I've completely forgot what you were saying, so wrote a very loosely connected text.

I agree in dreams, but in truth no piece of tech will change life. Life changes tech. Today's tech environment wouldn't happen were social environment different.

If we want to make computing better, we need to be able to live without computing.

To make downtime acceptable. Same as with repairing floors in a hoarder's apartment, you need to remove all the furniture and junk first. So you (being the hoarder) need to be able to live just fine without what's in that room for a few weeks (I know ideally the process takes much less time).

The reason Facebook and others are so powerful and competition doesn't work is because many people can't live without what they rely upon as utilities.

And the "users mustn't think, users mustn't overcome themselves" mantra is commercial bullshit. Users are humans and are responsible for themselves. We can help them become more responsible. We can't pretend humans are not responsible.

Because ultimately only humans exist and tools are tools.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's a Pi Pico. Linux can technically work there, but it's more of a "I ported Doom to a Casio calculator watch" project than anything practical.

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh. My bad. Then interesting, something RSX-level on a little deck, with a something-commander and a snake game. Fun like it's 1983.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Pop on Meshtasic and maybe a Signal client, and I think this could be useful. Fold-out keyboard might be nice, too, but it does take some careful mechanical engineering to make robust hinges.

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Signal as in those folks whose desktop client for Linux is on electronjs.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 1 points 3 months ago

There's no reason it has to be that way on a small computer like this. It does have to be able to handle some encryption, though.

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Is there a modem included for LTE?

[–] A_A@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There is no such LTE modem mentioned in the article, neither in images, so I think there is none. Yet, one image says WiFi...

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 3 points 3 months ago

With LTE working, I could see me ditching my phone for a device like this 😇

[–] Mars2k21@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago

I think I’m slowly starting to understand the use cases of these small form factor computers. Pretty much Swiss Army knives in computer form.

Makes sense that people are trying to sell them commercially now, even if they are bit experimental and don’t have a defined use case as of yet.

Plus it just looks cool.

[–] pineapple_pizza@lemmy.dexlit.xyz 3 points 3 months ago (3 children)

What would you use it for?

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Private messenger using something like Briar in a protest environment?

[–] Manifish_Destiny@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Playing cataclysm DDA in a zombie apocalypse.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Add meshtastic and it'd be a nice little texting device without relying on external networks.

There's often been times at kink spaces where I want to check the time or send a text or something, but phones or anything that has a camera are banned.