Fluffy Kitty Cathttps://bogdanthegeek.github.io/blog/projects/vapeserver/#fn:2
The free web will never die so long as we never give up
Flower@fluffykittycat I see these things on the side of the road sometimes. So soon I will be able to pick up "compute" like a video game character getting ammo. OK.
@flower that vape has the equivalent of a late 70's early 80's PC under the hood
R@fluffykittycat @flower it's exceeding that already
and this level of compute costs down to about USD 20 cents, new, in quantity 1, depending on the specific part
what's the (possibly mangled) quote? the future is already here, it's just not equally distributed
@fluffykittycat @flower for less than 1 USD you can get a chip that contains a digital signal processor and bluetooth radio
they're designed for toys... and also fancier disposable vapes
Kevin Karhan 
@r @fluffykittycat @flower the only reason noone takes an #RP2040 and tries to build a new #Retro-Style #Microcomputer with it is because it's way more effort and hassle than the $5 (/ $1 / $10) discount compared to a #Pi0W (/ #Pi0 / #Pi0W2) - which already come with USB, HDMI & microSD - is worth it.
Krutonium://@kkarhan @r @fluffykittycat @flower
Makes me wish there was a "Disposable" vape company that deliberately built a little too much compute into their vapes, and when it was time to dispose of them, you instead plug it into a cheap baseboard that facilitates communications between N vapes and lets you do baowulf clusters.
Completely insane but I want it.
@krutonium @r @fluffykittycat @flower you mesn "Beowulf Clusters"?
That reminds me of that #HarderDrive and the fact that I am still looking for a bootable #ROM card for #ISA and/or #PCI for @OS1337 …
Harder Drive: Hard drives we didn't want or need
@krutonium @r @fluffykittycat @flower Ideally I'd find a vommercially-available & affordable #SSD with a transparent #WriteBlocker.
Putting @OS1337 on a #CD-R or 3,5" #Floppy feels rather clunky and unelegant for many use-cases…
@kkarhan @r @fluffykittycat @flower @OS1337 Why not an IDE to SD Card adapter and just set the read only switch on the SD Card?
@kkarhan @r @fluffykittycat @flower @OS1337 TIL, you're right, it's honor system.
Now that said apparently there are Compact Flash cards you can buy that are 64GB in size that have a read only switch that makes the firmware transparently ignore all writes.
@krutonium @r @fluffykittycat @flower @OS1337 sadly I've yet to find some…
- So far the only actual "write blockers" that are transparent that ain't very expensive digital forensics equipment are those #IODD drive cases.
@kkarhan @fluffykittycat @flower this is not the "only" reason, and in fact there also *are* retro-style computers featuring RP2040s (usually as peripherals!)
comparing against a pi zero is largely missing a major point of what makes retro-style computers interesting (they are understandable and tinker-able)
raspberry pi is largely not / no-longer an education/hobby-focused company, and the rp2040 is pretty clearly targeted at industrial/commercial users first
@r @fluffykittycat @flower Obviously people have used the #RP2040 for many projects and given it's ease of programming, low price, excellent documentation and easy availability it's no wounder it does put pressue on #ATmega / #ATtiny, #Arduino, #Teensy, etc.
- At least for low volume productions and prototypes as proof of concept.
#RaspberryPi shure are more and more targeting #embedded & #industrial clients given they do in fact disrupt the market as one can get proper #documentation and #tools without paying $$$$ upfront (AND sign NDAs) just to be able to boot #Linux on it.
- And competitors fail at understanding that this makes #Broadcom look good and is their entry-way into acquiring new clients. Because selling hardware purely off specs may work in #amd64 land where shit's legacy and the way things work is so entrenched that basic stuff just works as in booting. #ARM and even #ARM64 fail at having that level of #standardization.
OFC the #Pi0 / #Pi0W / #Pi0W2 doesn't need to innovate since every competitor isn't even trying to compete but merely farting out boards with 0 documentation and some halfassed boot images and no post-sales support so they keep dominating by virtue of being the only ones that just work...