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Post-Apocalyptic Programming

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Re: Post-Apocalyptic Programming

#11

Post by hunterb123 »

teddyh wrote: post #2

Note: This is fun and all, but beware of taking the “Post-apocalyptic” premise too seriously. Down that road lies only hard drive hoarding and becoming a prepper.

I can't think of anything more useful than becoming a "prepper" and hoarding data on hard drives these days.

There's hardly any difference than prepping and camping, you just take your gear with you every now and then, practice with your gear, use your rations and replace.

Prepping is usually pretty ecological as well, it leads to coops, greenhouses, chicken coops, water recycling, composting, solar, repairing skills etc.

On the hard drive thing, I bought box sets of all of my shows and ripped them so I don't pay for the 10 streaming services they get passed around on.

All of my episodes are there forever and won't be edited/censored or removed.

I can even take them all camping with me, the core shows fit on a single flash drive.

TBH prepping is just optimizing your life and mitigating the negative effects of an abrupt change (like loss of power, natural disaster, pandemic, etc.)

You (should) create fail safes in software, do the same for your livelihood.

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Programming

#12

Post by ansible »

BoxOfRain wrote: post #6

I wonder if we got sent back to early modern period technology how much computing would be possible that didn't depend on access to semiconductors. Would glass-blowing and metallurgy be good enough to make thermionic valves (tubes) for example? Would water-wheels, animal power, and perhaps crude steam engines be enough to power them?

It is understandable to want to avoid silicon doping tech, because that requires a substantial industrial base. But you could still try bootstrapping via germanium transistors.

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Programming

#13

Post by daneel_w »

Tepix wrote: post #9

Let's have a look at low-power devices (for post-apocalyptic programming?) - is the Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1 MK2.6 from 2012 the perfect post-apocalyptic device when low power consumption trumps everything else? It has a 2W CPU and dual hot-swappable 7.2V 2900mAh batteries that last 9 hours (i.e. 4.62 Watts). The keyboard is somewhat terrible but the display is "daylight readable". No, it looks as if the Acer Spin 7…

Modern Arm SBCs definitely offer better low-power computing than the Atom and Celeron things of old. The Pinebook Pro Arm64 laptop gets about 8 hours of mixed use on a full charge when using eMMC instead of NVMe storage. It charges using a plain DC barrel jack on just 5 volts, and can trickle-charge on low current. If "mixed use" doesn't involve surfing the web and using Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, it easily goes beyond 10 hours. The M1/M2 MacBook Airs also offer fantastic battery life, even if charging them is a bit more complicated.

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Programming

#14

Post by daneel_w »

robin_reala wrote: post #10
daneel_w wrote: post #7

Somewhat related question: a few years back I saw a dedicated "low-power e-paper Wikireader" type of product which could display a text-only backup of Wikipedia. In essence just a niched e-book reader, really, but with the additional effort of putting it all together in a usable format. Does anyone know of a modernized solution that displays images as well?

It was literally called the WikiReader. But yes, it had some serious limitations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiReader

That was indeed the one. Worse than I (mis)remembered, LCD screen instead of e-paper.

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Programming

#15

Post by codebolt »

teddyh wrote: post #2

Note: This is fun and all, but beware of taking the “Post-apocalyptic” premise too seriously. Down that road lies only hard drive hoarding and becoming a prepper.

The threat most developers should be concerned about is what happens once a major solar flare (like the Carrington event in 1859) shows up. That is destined to happen at some point, and not unlikely within the next few decades. Hard to predict the fallout for the internet and other technical infastructure more broadly, but I'm guessing it won't be pretty.

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Programming

#16

Post by phire »

daneel_w wrote: post #7

Somewhat related question: a few years back I saw a dedicated "low-power e-paper Wikireader" type of product which could display a text-only backup of Wikipedia. In essence just a niched e-book reader, really, but with the additional effort of putting it all together in a usable format. Does anyone know of a modernized solution that displays images as well?

If you want to go down that rabbit hole, I think you are better-off just relying on the ubiquity of android phones.

Instead of preloading an e-reader. Preload a usb-c flash drive with various databases, and an APK with the software to read/copy the databases (and other useful utilities). Flash drives are small, and reasonably cheap. You can stash them in your house, or carry one in your wallet.

If there is an apocalypse, simply find the nearest android phone; enable side-loading, install the APK off the flash drive and copy the databases onto the phone.

With the right software, you can make the database somewhat viral by allowing copying over adhoc wifi networks. A new person can get the database onto their phone by connecting to the adhoc network of a phone with the database, enabling sideloading, installing the apk and letting the two phones sync.

Though this does add an additional problem that the survivors need to keep phones powered. Might be worth investing reliable battery banks that accept the widest ranges of voltages possible, so they can scavenge power from anywhere.

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Programming

#18

Post by havblue »

hunterb123 wrote: post #11
teddyh wrote: post #2

Note: This is fun and all, but beware of taking the “Post-apocalyptic” premise too seriously. Down that road lies only hard drive hoarding and becoming a prepper.

I can't think of anything more useful than becoming a "prepper" and hoarding data on hard drives these days. There's hardly any difference than prepping and camping, you just take your gear with you every now and then, practice with your gear, use your rations and replace. Prepping is usually pretty ecological as well, it leads to coops, greenhouses, chicken coops, water recycling, composting, solar, repairing skills…

While I get the idea that prepping can become an unnecessary use of resources and result in people thinking you're crazy, I still think of the simple fact that all civilizations end eventually. Certainly they collapse for different reasons and at different rates. But the lights will go off eventually for our generation, or the next, or the next... Nothing lasts forever so it's probably worth planning for some level of catastrophe.

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Programming

#19

Post by miniwark »

pull_my_finger wrote: post #4

Similar premise to CollapseOS[1]. In the event of some kind of tech-effecting apocalypse or something we'd likely have to make do from less than scavenged laptops and desktops. [1]: http://collapseos.org/

The first releases of CollapseOS where developed in Z80 assembler, because Z80 is one of the more common CPU used worldwide (in 80's computers, Ti calculators, game consoles, printers, music synthesisers and many more). It's only recently than it was rewritten in Forth. The author explain it here http://collapseos.org/forth.html This history is nice to read.

In the same family of OS in Forth with low tech devices, there is also KnightOS: https://knightos.org/

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Programming

#20

Post by hunterb123 »

havblue wrote: post #18
hunterb123 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think of anything more useful than becoming a "prepper" and hoarding data on hard drives these days. There's hardly any difference than prepping and camping, you just take your gear with you every now and then, practice with your gear, use your rations and replace. Prepping is usually pretty ecological as well, it leads to coops, greenhouses, chicken coops, water recycling, composting, solar, repairing skills…

While I get the idea that prepping can become an unnecessary use of resources and result in people thinking you're crazy, I still think of the simple fact that all civilizations end eventually. Certainly they collapse for different reasons and at different rates. But the lights will go off eventually for our generation, or the next, or the next... Nothing lasts forever so it's probably worth planning for some level o…

The whole purpose of prepping is to prepare the necessary amount of resources for an emergency.

If you stock too much food or water it will expire, you have to rotate it, so you eat it and restock.

If you stock too many non-perishables of something you don't need you won't have enough room for more useful things.

Prepping and looking crazy aren't coupled. Prepared people can be normal, it's not just what you see on TV.

Generally the fun is seeing how long you can prepare for, most likely you won't need to last past a month, but certain natural disasters like a hurricane can hit that easily.

I'd definitely recommend everyone have at least a 1 week supply and plan for emergencies (usually specific to your area).

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