snotang
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2024
Computing after the collapse:
1. Enjoy thinking about software and planning
2. Scavenge a bunch of nonfunctional hardware, excited to try to frankenstein something working from the various parts
3. Realize you have access to none of the hardware documentation
4. Realize that even before the collapse you didn't have access to the hardware documentation
5. Try to power through with sheer trial and error and your multimeter that has definitely not run out of batteries by now
6. Destroy any hardware that was working when you connect the wrong pins
From my limited experience trying to work with undocumented PCBs as a layman, it sounds extremely annoying and time-consuming. But maybe those with an electrical engineering background or extensive experience with the circuits in question could actually accomplish something.
In the mid-term, I feel like the most essential capabilities would be replacing the parts of computers that typically fail, like storage, power delivery, capacitors, etc.
Personally I like the idea of creating mechanical computers. Ideally they could be created with commonly-available materials, and would have a rather natural interface to mechanical energy sources instead of needing generators. Sure they'd be slow compared to electric computers, but could still probably compute a block of chacha20 much, much faster than I can.
Although for simple calculations I don't know how they'd compare to the abacus and slide rule.
1. Enjoy thinking about software and planning
2. Scavenge a bunch of nonfunctional hardware, excited to try to frankenstein something working from the various parts
3. Realize you have access to none of the hardware documentation
4. Realize that even before the collapse you didn't have access to the hardware documentation
5. Try to power through with sheer trial and error and your multimeter that has definitely not run out of batteries by now
6. Destroy any hardware that was working when you connect the wrong pins
From my limited experience trying to work with undocumented PCBs as a layman, it sounds extremely annoying and time-consuming. But maybe those with an electrical engineering background or extensive experience with the circuits in question could actually accomplish something.
In the mid-term, I feel like the most essential capabilities would be replacing the parts of computers that typically fail, like storage, power delivery, capacitors, etc.
Personally I like the idea of creating mechanical computers. Ideally they could be created with commonly-available materials, and would have a rather natural interface to mechanical energy sources instead of needing generators. Sure they'd be slow compared to electric computers, but could still probably compute a block of chacha20 much, much faster than I can.
Although for simple calculations I don't know how they'd compare to the abacus and slide rule.