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Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

projectnomad.us

111–120 of 236 posts

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#111

I come from a time when internet connectivity was not permanent. It was only available a few times per day when you connected via the phone line. My first ISP gave me an allowance of 20 hours of internet per month. You would dial-up, check the news, check your email, read a page or two, download what you had to download, and then disconnect. The internet was very slow by today's standards, and the connection would ge…

20 hours? My first internet (actually not even internet, it was called eWorld) gave you 4 hours a month… which actually was ok because there wasn’t much to do on it, and you couldn’t go long without someone in your family accidentally picking up the phone anyway, and everyone would be mad if you kept the phone line busy for very long, too.

Email IRC Gopher etc. download. Just connect 10 min a day.

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#112
Found a click or two in looking for storage and other system requirements:

  What About Raspberry Pi?
  Project NOMAD is designed for more capable hardware to support local AI. 
  If you're looking for a Raspberry Pi-based solution, check out Internet 
  in a Box — it's a great lightweight option for basic offline content.
  Project NOMAD is for when you want the full experience: GPU-accelerated 
  AI, comprehensive content libraries, and a professional management 
  interface.
Sounds like I should look at one of the other options mentioned there and in this thread, assuming their libraries and maps are basically the same. I'd like the “comprehensive content libraries” while travelling or when otherwise away from a reliable connection, perhaps with a useful management interface for easy updates and such when on good connectivity, but just in a format I can click or grep through. While I'm assuming I could just turn off, or otherwise ignore, the LLM side, just not having it in the first place would be more efficient.

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#113
post #103
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well usually when people refer to someone as a prepper its the specific type of person that is buying hundreds of guns, tons of dehydrated meals but still living on city water - like they're preparing for a disaster movie but not anything real. Specifically the idea that you would be able to stay in place, with all your hoarded disaster crap, during the end of the world is kind of funny.

Do you know of any preppers who buy guns and rations but don't have a plan for water? OK steelmanning you, certainly a lot of them are way more interested in gun collecting and making beef jerky than other aspects.

I don’t think we have a term for people who quietly keep a well stocked pantry, have a water setup, garden, have hobbies like canning, etc. That’s just being a bit rustic/prudent I guess. So then, the “prepper” derogatory label is only applied to the people who do it in the action movie/silly way. But, the question of how prevalent they are is a good one…

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solar cells work no matter what, I agree that maybe less processing is more useful but LLM is uniqely useful as well

Well yeah, but, hypothetically speaking (and just for the sake of pure curiosity) - what about "no sun" scenario, such as nuclear winter or something similar?

Well, yes, in that edge case it probably wouldn't be worth the energy usage.

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#117
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a doomsday scenario one wouldn't need a "rebuild all of civilization" book, but more a "basics like building a fire, filtering water, repairing a car engine, basic wound treatment" and such book. Nobody is going to be building cathedrals, and factories and computers for a good while...

And we did it all without a manual the first time, so it stands to reason we (or more accurately, our descendants) could figure it out.

We did it in a pristine world the first time. The next time we do it in a world stripped of natural resources and easy energy with a collapsing biosphere soaked in poison and radioactive waste.

Not impossible but I doubt we get another Industrial Revolution.

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#118
post #52

There's a company which sells something like this, as "Prepper Disk".[1] In the 1950s, US Civil Defense had a set of microfilms on how to rebuild society. These were packaged with a sunlight reader and stored in larger fallout shelters. Someone should find one of those. [1] https://www.prepperdisk.com/

joke’s on the survivors who have to go find sunlight in nuclear winter

I suppose you could have a gasoline powered battery and then charge electronics with that, no?

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#119
post #102

Normally I cringe at doomsday preppers but given how many dictators out there love the idea to cut their country off Internet whenever anything starts going not in their favor, I imagine a lot of people may find this useful. I wouldn’t want to lose access to knowledge how to fix a sink or which medication is better, just because the local kingface currently feels that free exchange of opinions about him threatens his…

"I don't like people who prepare for the worst, but I now realise I should have prepared for the worst." Why cringe at something people do privately in their own time that doesn't affect you? Why cringe at people who want to be prepared, even if you think their preparations are misplaced or nonsense? People deserve to be incorrect without being judged.

Often because they keep intruding into hobbies I enjoy with a clear misunderstanding of the space or even a hostility to playing within the rules. Examples include people coming into Meshtastic chats and wondering if a 50W amp will help them talk to their buddy on the other wide of the mountain when civil war breaks out ("no, you'll just be ruining the airwaves for everyone else in the mean time, you still won't have line of sight to your friend, and your radio will look like a spotlight in the dark when the National Guard goes fox hunting"), or which ham radio they buy without a license ("no government's gonna tell me what I can say on the air").

If they'd be doing this in private, I couldn't care less. But in these cases, their actions would actively make my hobby less enjoyable, and I'll judge them for that.

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#120
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know of any preppers who buy guns and rations but don't have a plan for water? OK steelmanning you, certainly a lot of them are way more interested in gun collecting and making beef jerky than other aspects.

I don’t think we have a term for people who quietly keep a well stocked pantry, have a water setup, garden, have hobbies like canning, etc. That’s just being a bit rustic/prudent I guess. So then, the “prepper” derogatory label is only applied to the people who do it in the action movie/silly way. But, the question of how prevalent they are is a good one…

The term you're looking for is "homesteader"
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