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Collapse OS – bootstrap post-collapse technology

collapseos.org

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Re: Collapse OS – bootstrap post-collapse technology

#111

Post by infoseek12 »

reitzensteinm wrote: post #48
nradov wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We will need to calculate ballistics tables for our trebuchets in order to lay siege to neighboring towns.

Are there any works of fiction like this? A broadly competent medieval society that has scarce supplies of recovered present day technology. There is no end to post apocalyptic fiction but usually it's set fairly soon after the collapse, or the technology uncovered is mysterious and futuristic. Good chance I'm outing myself as an infrequent reader of science fiction asking this!

You might want to check out Eric Flint’s 1632 series. A small Virginia mining town is sent back in time and translocated to 1631 Germany, the series goes into how they try to build up a more technologically advanced civilization. S. M. Stirling‘s Nantucket series is somewhat similar. Nantucket is sent back in time to 1250 BC and they try to build a society there. David Weber’s Safehold series has a different premise, it’s set in the far future on a planet with medieval level technology. A lot of it is about the protagonists trying to build up their tech level.

Re: Collapse OS – bootstrap post-collapse technology

#112

Post by userulluipeste »

omneity wrote: post #16

CollapseOS provides the computation substrate, but is anyone thinking about the kind of computations post apocalyptic communities / individuals might be needing to run? I imagine things like ledgers, basic simulations, farming yield prediction... I couldn't find design documents besides the technical constraints it is willing to be compatible with.

Organizing information and things around in general will be a nightmare without the proper tools. Doing it using paper is hard enough, then count in that most likely paper will suddenly be considered a luxury for not being an easy replenished commodity. Any social structure over a certain size will greatly benefit from computing, even if only for things like keeping secured inventories and accounting. Data is expensive to handle outside the digital realm (think of making an electronic copy vs. making a copy using other media, probably by hand too). Although computing won't be for sure on the base of Maslow's pyramid for individual hierarchy of needs, it will be a great enabler for the social groups that will have managed to reach stability.

Re: Collapse OS – bootstrap post-collapse technology

#113

Post by ben_w »

dharmab wrote: post #95
ben_w wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Just Wikipedia” exceeds the 16-bit address capacity of a z80 by a factor of 288,391 [0] even when compressed. Heck, you couldn’t even list all the article titles even if they were all an average of one character long. Plenty of useful things you can still do with a z80, but at that tech level paper and ink is a better storage system than silicon and magnets. [0] As per Wikipedia’s stats page, the size of current ver…

You don’t need the entire dataset to be addressable. Just a working set. How do you think we played 20GB video games on our Pentium 4s?

Much as I enjoy seeing old machines on the modern web [0], they’re still the wrong tool for the job and the wrong job for the tool.

We did useful stuff with computers even back in the 60s when transistors were the technobabble plot device for how Iron Man could fly [1]; we just used them to calculate solutions rather than as electronic libraries.

[0] https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/File:ContikiBreadbox64.png

[1] https://comicbooktheblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/iron-man-and-t...

Re: Collapse OS – bootstrap post-collapse technology

#114

Post by mikewarot »

imtringued wrote: post #107
dejv wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the machinery both industrial and in home are now computer controlled. Things like furnaces, CNC machining centers and lathes.

Actually, manual lathes and mills tend to keep their value. You can often find century old machines in reasonable condition.

You can find them in unreasonable condition in the middle of woods, etc... and those can be brought back as well.

Re: Collapse OS – bootstrap post-collapse technology

#115

Post by dharmab »

ben_w wrote: post #113
dharmab wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t need the entire dataset to be addressable. Just a working set. How do you think we played 20GB video games on our Pentium 4s?

Much as I enjoy seeing old machines on the modern web [0], they’re still the wrong tool for the job and the wrong job for the tool. We did useful stuff with computers even back in the 60s when transistors were the technobabble plot device for how Iron Man could fly [1]; we just used them to calculate solutions rather than as electronic libraries. [0] https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/File:ContikiBreadbox64.png [1] https:…

I wasn't thinking a web browser, more like a WikiReader [0]. A tiny microcontroller, a text display and a flash memory card with an offline copy of the Wikipedia database.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiReader

Re: Collapse OS – bootstrap post-collapse technology

#116

Post by JoeyBananas »

stolenmerch wrote: post #5

Genuine question: if we're in a collapse scenario that is so devastating to the global supply chain that we're scavenging microcontrollers, how do we generate electricity to power them? Solar panels and batteries don't last forever and would presumably require the same or similar supply chain as the microcontrollers. This is a cool project regardless, but in such a catastrophic scenario it seems easier to just give u…

microcontrollers are very low power because they are designed to run on batteries

Re: Collapse OS – bootstrap post-collapse technology

#117

Post by ben_w »

dharmab wrote: post #115
ben_w wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much as I enjoy seeing old machines on the modern web [0], they’re still the wrong tool for the job and the wrong job for the tool. We did useful stuff with computers even back in the 60s when transistors were the technobabble plot device for how Iron Man could fly [1]; we just used them to calculate solutions rather than as electronic libraries. [0] https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/File:ContikiBreadbox64.png [1] https:…

I wasn't thinking a web browser, more like a WikiReader [0]. A tiny microcontroller, a text display and a flash memory card with an offline copy of the Wikipedia database. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiReader

The microcontroller in that is significantly more powerful than a z80 ;)

Re: Collapse OS – bootstrap post-collapse technology

#118

Post by emteycz »

mauvehaus wrote: post #80
emteycz wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternators are also trivial to build by hand.

Sure. If you have the input materials. If you're at the point of having to build an alternator by hand rather than just taking one off a car, I'd like to know where you're getting magnet wire, the machined shaft, the various rotor and stator parts, the end-bells, and the ball bearings.

Consider that you're not necessarily building from raw materials, you will be repurposing things you find around. Finding an alternator probably won't be a problem in the populated areas of USA but might be elsewhere - thankfully building it is still sufficiently simple.

Re: Collapse OS – bootstrap post-collapse technology

#119

Post by cturner »

throwaway316943 wrote: post #82
Anarch157a wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can scavenge car's alternators and use a water wheel or windmill to turn it. Alternators can work for a decade with minimum maintenance. Just have five or six stashed, just in case. They can supply 40A at 12V, or using a transformer to up the voltage, 4A at 120V.

Have you successfully run any modern hardware off of the irregular current coming out of something like that? You could charge batteries off of an alternator with a voltage regulator but I doubt any modern electronics are going to work well on current supplied by a jerry rigged water wheel and step up transformer. You’d be reliant on a lot of ICs to do it properly at a small scale.

Would it be viable to use a rig of leyden jars to smooth out power coming from a scrappy alternator/commutator, and to implement cut-outs?
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