How long until there's a commercial product that has a built in LLM? Some device that is like a personal encyclopedia that you can ask about anything?
27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)
171–180 of 289 posts
Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
> or the share of those professions on Linux Lol This argument keeps getting reused over and over. The main reason Linux is not used is lazy sysadmins who only care to support Windows and MacOS for other employees. This argument has as much convincing power as "elections" held in separatists regions of Ukraine. I do have macbook offered by my job, yes it's definitely better than windows, and yes i would take a linux…
Not really. MacOS is also heavily used in companies where you can have your pick of OS. > This argument has as much convincing power as "elections" held in separatists regions of Ukraine. So, a lot, given the demographics.
> So, a lot, given the demographics
This is so dumb I am not even going to explain why, enjoy swimming в море говна, и подлечись от идиотизма когда будет возможность
Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)
#173Lots 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.
ZX-Spectrum clone (8 bit, 4 Mhz CPU) running Art Studio (an early Paint) loaded from floppy drive: https://imgur.com/a/VcaBnmP
Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)
#174Lots 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.
So sort of, but let's not look at the past too wistfully. I also remember when moderately long text had to be split across files (even multiple floppies if you were writing a book). I remember having to choose what languages my OS installation was going to be able to display. Farther back I remember not having the spare cash for the expansion card necessary to have lower case letters and typing in program listings out of books because that's how some software was distributed (Apple II). Our current generation of PCs is probably within a factor of two of the minimum spec necessary for robust machine translation and natural language interfaces. I enjoy using the old hardware but it really doesn't do most of the jobs we have now.
Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)
#175I've never had a Psion, but as I've become a dad, I've wished for devices for digital literacy that weren't tablets or phones. Something dumb with a dictionary, encyclopedia, calendar, an editor, and a few games, and physical keyboard is a great, safe introduction to the digital world.
I would like this for my daughter as well. She’s way to interested in my iPhone and handing her a keyboard disconnected from a computer is only interesting for a few minutes
Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)
#176Lots 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.
If you want a kubernetes cluster to experiment, then k3s runs just fine on raspberry pi 4 hardware
Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Planet Computers? https://www.www3.planetcom.co.uk/
Just tried a gemini from them this month, and the software support is awful. Highly recommend against
I found the forums in which people had provided recipes for updates to Debian and Android to be helpful but it was a lot of work and should have been supported by the vendor, I agree.
Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)
#178Certain 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.
Theres a c compiler?? Can you share a link?
Yes, the compiler is available here: https://palmdb.net/app/PocketC-Compiler
And an editor is available here: https://palmdb.net/app/editc
Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)
#179Certain 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? :-)
Basically, getting rid of dopamine-driven entertainment has been the key. Going back to the 90s with pocket versions of games like Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen San Diego has been helpful. Board games, card games, lots of books, antenna TV, and DVDs for entertainment has made a big difference!
Re: 27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
Planet Computers? https://www.www3.planetcom.co.uk/
I highly recommend against anything from these guys. The software situation was dreadful, they pumped out new nearly-identical hardware too quick without fixing gemini issues. Seems like a cash grab. My Gemini PDA sits in my closet, I consider it near-useless with its electrically buggy keyboard and old android/ubuntu images. The PinePhone with its keyboard addon should fix most if not all issues the Gemini PDA had,…
The pinephone would be perfect were it possible to install, e.g. android banking apps on it.