How to build a low-tech internet - Kris De Decker, et al
I just read this book/collection of articles from Low-tech Magazine, and it's a fascinating look at their solar-powered web server, the optical telegraph, compressed air energy storage, and more.
★★★★☆
Links and more pics 👇
1/4
The solar-powered Low Tech Magazine website runs on a 2w server, powered by a 30w solar panel, and a 168 Wh battery.
With that it has an uptime of 95-98%. 100% uptime is a non-goal for them. I love it!
Also: it uses dithered images, as smaller files use less power! 🤯
The book also contains an article on optical telegraphs, which were the email of their day. Invented late in the 18th century (!), they could at their peak transmit messages at a speed of 1,380 kilometers an hour. 🤯
This image shows the tower network in France.
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2007/12/email-in-the-18th-century-the-optical-telegraph/
3/4
You can read all the articles for free on their site, but I enjoyed reading the bundle on my Kindle.
Read my longer review on: https://puf.io/books/how-to-build-a-low-tech-internet---kris-de-decker/
Low Tech Magazine (may be intermittently offline): https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/
4/4
Frank van Puffelen
Evan Genest