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27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)

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Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)

#161

Post by samstave »

nazgulsenpai wrote: post #157
samstave wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gosh windows 95 was great - especially the ability to navigate the OS from the keyboard alone - At one point I knew W95 so well I could literally navigate the OS by hand without a screen. An aquaintance at one point changed all the graphics settings to black - so ever screen, menu, text etc was black and you couldnt see anything. I was able to help her by using just the keyboard to navigate to settings and restore de…

As fond of memories as I have of the time I used Windows 95 and how much I learned from using it as a pre-teen, I mostly remember my maintenance schedule of reinstalling by the entire OS about once every month or so when it broke. I guess that jumpstarted my lifelong career/hobby of computer fuckery. My first PDA was a Casio too, I don't remember which exact model but it was a Pocket Viewer and it was great. https://…

"Memories... they're basically the only thing you have to think back on"

-- Steven Write

---

I love "anecdotal trips down memory lane" -- because its stunning how much I have done and known in my life that I forget.

I truly regret not listening to my mom's advice to journal.

Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)

#162

Post by tivert »

thesuperbigfrog wrote: post #147
tivert wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think that looking at it from a MHz standpoint is a red herring. How many things can you do per watt now, than you could per watt then? Obviously a lot more. The OP said the thing could run in two AAs for a month . Nowadays, almost nothing can last a month on one charge/set of batteries. The only thing I can think of that might pass is a Kindle, due to the trick where it's literally shut down almost all the time.

Ultra low power processors exist: "GreenArrays is shipping its 144-core asynchronous chip that needs little energy (7 pJ/inst). Idle cores use no power (100 nW). Active ones (4 mW) run fast (666 Mips), then wait for communication (idle). Tight coding to minimize instructions executed will minimize power. The programmer can also reduce instruction fetches, transistor switching and duty cycle. Chuck Moore GreenArrays,…

> They just are not widely used because ARM and similar processors offer much more computational power and people are happy charging their devices every day or so.

This is exactly my point. Ultra low power processors exist, but they're not used for consumer electronics. Developers would rather build something bloated, quickly, than take the time to optimize. And technological advancements has taken away a lot of the pressure for optimization (e.g. I'm sure it was a super high priority to get a Psion to sip power, because a recharge was going to the store and paying $4 for a set of new batteries).

If I were a dictator that ruled with an iron fist, I'd mandate that all software be developed on underpowered devices, then released on fast ones.

Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)

#163

Post by sriku »

I used to own a psion way back and also had a brush with the OS which morphed into Symbian on Nokia iirc. I loved the software architecture (which borrowed aspects from the B5000), APIs and "services" and overall the focus on robustness. Some aspects like threads having their own heaps contributed to the robustness.

Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)

#164

Post by hinkley »

oliwarner wrote: post #49

Lots of focus on the hardware here but its form factor still exists in niches. What has vanished, is our ability to do general-purpose computing at ~8MHz. Consider the computers you had in the 90s. Windows 3.11 and Office ran on a 286 but I sit here with 12 cores at ~4Ghz just to post this crumby comment. We are spoilt. It really makes me yearn to do more with less.

I keep wanting to fiddle with kubernetes on rPi class hardware. Even the minimalist versions want half a gigabyte per node. Admin software does not need half a gigabyte of memory.

Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)

#165

Post by ofrzeta »

westcort wrote: post #109

Certain classic computers powered by “AA” batteries are amazing to use today. I have an Alphasmart Dana set up for my children to play chess, do word procession, and learn to program in C. It is much better than dealing with the potential hazards of a modern device.

What did you do to make your children happy with a LCD screen, chess, word processing and programming in C? :-)

Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)

#166

Post by awiesenhofer »

MobiusHorizons wrote: post #142
wishfish wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not Linux, but you can roughly get this form factor with mainstream devices without having to take a risk on small companies or crowdfunded projects. There are hinged laptop-style cases for the iPad Mini. iPadOS is generally good with keyboard shortcuts so that would be a decent combo as long as you can put up with the limitations of the OS. Zagg sells a hinged keyboard that works with 7 inch tablets. I bought o…

I have used a boox tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard (actually an iPad keyboard with hinges) there is nontrivial latency while typing, but I found it was quite manageable. It just forces you to keep more of the command or line of text in your head. I found myself writing on it a lot. Even did a little programming.

Interesting, when or which device did you try this on?

On my Boox Nova 3, typing via the BT Keyboard is pretty much instant, no noticable delay. Though in Word or Outlook it helps to choose the faster screen mode. No issues in Termux though.

Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)

#167

Post by mysterydip »

m4lvin wrote: post #136
pydry wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ive looked for a 5mx form factor in the form of a phone and not been able to find it.

The pro1x from fxtec with lineageos plus termux is useful :-)

Looks nice, can't see pricing though. Their website https://www.fxtec.com/smartphones/pro1x shows "available March 2023" for me.

Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)

#168

Post by rcarmo »

semiprime wrote: post #115
predictsoft wrote: post #43

I have gone through several Psion 5's over the last few years. They all broke eventually - mainly the screen (ribbon cable). Because I couldn't justify spending yet another £60 for a Psion 5 which soon breaks down, I run Epoc Agenda now on my Windows PC on an EPOC emulator, and it's great for keeping track of events.

I'm currently writing an agenda app inspired by the Psion 3a/5 Agendas - because they were the best calendar apps I ever used. Github: https://github.com/semiprime/pygenda Demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvQqFmlZ6nM If you liked the S5 agenda, I'd appreciate any feedback you could give. (Video shows it on a Gemini, but I also run it on my Linux Laptop. Running on Windows is probably possible, but I haven'…

this is pretty amazing - well done!

Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)

#169

Post by manicennui »

stavros wrote: post #131
ekianjo wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pointless since you need to recharge your device all the time. It's not progress if you have a lighter that needs gas every 2 minutes to work.

Except the lighter nowadays is a flamethrower. You can get a lighter that needs gas every month, or a flamethrower that needs gas every two minutes, but complaining that the flamethrower needs much more gas than the lighter is silly.

I think the argument is that we mostly want to accomplish the same sorts of things, but now we have to use a flamethrower.

Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)

#170

Post by stavros »

manicennui wrote: post #169
stavros wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the lighter nowadays is a flamethrower. You can get a lighter that needs gas every month, or a flamethrower that needs gas every two minutes, but complaining that the flamethrower needs much more gas than the lighter is silly.

I think the argument is that we mostly want to accomplish the same sorts of things, but now we have to use a flamethrower.

But we don't, even the fact that we browse the Web and watch videos would have been impossible on a Nokia 3210.
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