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Hundred Rabbits – Low-tech living while sailing the world

100r.co

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Re: Hundred Rabbits – Low-tech living while sailing the world

#21

Post by anthk »

accrual wrote: post #12
jvanderbot wrote: post #5

I love the contrast in "Low tech/bootstrapped tech" this way vs, say, duskos.org. I call this "rabbits vs forth" tech bootstrappers. [1]. It's somewhat strange to me that their tech journey is so narrative and ends up with a VM stack, rather than any kind of salvaged / repurposed hard tech. But then again, I'm probably on the forth side of the spectrum. https://jodavaho.io/posts/rabbits-or-forth.html

> ends up with a VM stack, rather than any kind of salvaged / repurposed hard tech I love reading the Hundred Rabbits blog but I view it as sort of an artistic endeavor in addition to pure tech. Indeed, my idea of "low tech" would be 16-bit systems or early 32-bit stuff like 386 and 486 PCs, etc. These machines are surprisingly capable even in 2025 with the right applications. They can be repaired seemingly indefinit…

- gopher browser -> gopher://magical.fish as a portal

- HN can be read at gopher://hngopher.com

- irc -> bitlbee.org to chat with anyone, even IRC with TLS itself. Kirc will run on any potato.

- a high end 486 it's needed to play MP3's. Either that or burn your favourites into CD's.

- sc-im+gnuplot/emacs' ses+gnulot

- srln+slrnpull

- telescope/sacc can do gopher fine. gemini can be stalled.

- sfeed+links to read news. Altough gmane.io and gwene.io can relay mail lists and RSS feeds as NNTP groups and then your might slrn will just read all news happily in a 486 (or less).

- translate -> simply translate

- Reuters -> http://neuters.de

Re: Hundred Rabbits – Low-tech living while sailing the world

#22

Post by kragen »

jdiff wrote: post #11
jvanderbot wrote: post #5

I love the contrast in "Low tech/bootstrapped tech" this way vs, say, duskos.org. I call this "rabbits vs forth" tech bootstrappers. [1]. It's somewhat strange to me that their tech journey is so narrative and ends up with a VM stack, rather than any kind of salvaged / repurposed hard tech. But then again, I'm probably on the forth side of the spectrum. https://jodavaho.io/posts/rabbits-or-forth.html

With their stance of permacomputing, you don't think the two go hand in hand? A simple VM that can be implemented quickly on almost any hardware or underlying tech stack you can scrounge together? The only thing they'd be really against is designing new hardware to run Uxn "natively," which would seem to push you exclusively to reuse what you have.

100r's Uxn/Varvara aspires to be that, but that's not the same thing as succeeding at it. AFAIK the smallest computer with a full Uxn/Varvara implementation is a Nintendo DS [correction! Game Boy Advance], which is faster than the Sun workstation I was using in the 90s (though it has less RAM). You probably aren't going to get it running on an eZ80-based TI calculator, for example, or an Arduino UNO.

It's a good first step in that direction, the first attempt at permacomputing good enough to criticize.

Re: Hundred Rabbits – Low-tech living while sailing the world

#23

Post by roughly »

kragen wrote: post #22
jdiff wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With their stance of permacomputing, you don't think the two go hand in hand? A simple VM that can be implemented quickly on almost any hardware or underlying tech stack you can scrounge together? The only thing they'd be really against is designing new hardware to run Uxn "natively," which would seem to push you exclusively to reuse what you have.

100r's Uxn/Varvara aspires to be that, but that's not the same thing as succeeding at it. AFAIK the smallest computer with a full Uxn/Varvara implementation is a Nintendo DS [correction! Game Boy Advance], which is faster than the Sun workstation I was using in the 90s (though it has less RAM). You probably aren't going to get it running on an eZ80-based TI calculator, for example, or an Arduino UNO. It's a good firs…

> the first attempt good enough to criticize.

Ooh, I like this phrase.

Re: Hundred Rabbits – Low-tech living while sailing the world

#24

Post by xrd »

A friend asked me whether I was concerned about energy usage of AI. I didn't have a good answer. It feels inevitable.

But, I love the write-up here on why the sailboat, and why UXN, because those two things are complementary when you are living in a sailboat and are thinking intimately about your power consumption.

https://100r.co/site/why_a_boat.html

https://100r.co/site/uxn.html

Seeing Devine at StrangeLoop last year was a treat (and took a lot of mental energy!)

Re: Hundred Rabbits – Low-tech living while sailing the world

#25

Post by aosaigh »

This is a fascinating website which I look forward to exploring a bit more, along with the authors personal sites.

Are there any other off-grid low-tech sites/projects/sites like this?

I remember another interesting site that was being run off solar posted here on HN that went down when the batteries went out.

Re: Hundred Rabbits – Low-tech living while sailing the world

#26

Post by yesfitz »

aosaigh wrote: post #25

This is a fascinating website which I look forward to exploring a bit more, along with the authors personal sites. Are there any other off-grid low-tech sites/projects/sites like this? I remember another interesting site that was being run off solar posted here on HN that went down when the batteries went out.

I believe you're thinking of Low Tech Magazine[1]

1: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/

Re: Hundred Rabbits – Low-tech living while sailing the world

#27

Post by munificent »

smikhanov wrote: post #16
kilpikaarna wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unsure about the day-to-day situation, I imagine by now they make enough off of the stuff they put out as 100r that combined with very low expenses it's sustainable or close to. In past blog posts they mention taking on contract work for boat repairs.

Yeah, when you take the rent and many of the temptations of the big city lifestyle out of consideration, the cost of living gets surprisingly low.

And kids.

Re: Hundred Rabbits – Low-tech living while sailing the world

#28

Post by kragen »

roughly wrote: post #23
kragen wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100r's Uxn/Varvara aspires to be that, but that's not the same thing as succeeding at it. AFAIK the smallest computer with a full Uxn/Varvara implementation is a Nintendo DS [correction! Game Boy Advance], which is faster than the Sun workstation I was using in the 90s (though it has less RAM). You probably aren't going to get it running on an eZ80-based TI calculator, for example, or an Arduino UNO. It's a good firs…

> the first attempt good enough to criticize. Ooh, I like this phrase.

From Wiki:

http://found.ward.bay.wiki.org/view/good-enough-to-criticize

> Alan Kay described the Macintosh as the first personal computer good enough to be criticized. It was a serious step toward Kay's Dynabook. Not perfect, but in the right direction. In this 2017 interview Kay explains how he came to his vision and how it has been completely lost in mobile devices since.

https://www.fastcompany.com/40435064/what-alan-kay-thinks-ab...

While I think the implicit equation of Uxn with the 128KiB Macintosh is reasonable, the implicit comparison of me to Alan Kay is not.

Re: Hundred Rabbits – Low-tech living while sailing the world

#29

Post by QRY »

Their work has molded a lot of my views on technology, such a breath of fresh air when I first found out about them! They really inspired me to look at my own work and ask how to make it more resilient, how to decrease dependencies.

From my experience, achieving provider independence boils down to: own your stack, work offline-first, test failure modes constantly.

Been trying to get a setup going with NixOS + local AI + custom CLI tools for development work, and I never would have thought to pursue this sort of thing if I hadn't found these people. Great stuff!

Oh and ORCA is a LOT of fun! Give it a shot if you're into sounddesign, or generative electronic music stuff: https://100r.co/site/orca.html

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