Goldkin @Goldkin@awoo.space

“Siri, what does DST ending feel like to a computer?”

@LazyTechsupport@cybre.space Yeah, the only preprocessing I’m doing is Imagemagick, then PIL to load the file into their Python library. It’s super simple.

@Jo @Canageek@cybre.space Looks like the 7.5 inch one is ~$75, though, so that could be a starting point.

Also, if you build such a thing, make sure to select the two-color models. The tri-color ones take forever to refresh the screen (the refresh rate on these is also pretty long, though apparently there are others that are faster).

@Jo @Canageek@cybre.space Yeah, this one is definitely not good for reading longer text off of. They have larger displays, but they're a power of 2 increase in price, with the >9 inch ones running $200 or so (ie, more expensive than buying a Kindle and deconstructing it).

You also have to do the text wrap and/or conversion to BMP yourself, though I'd bet some output format from Calibre could work.

I used Cacti for graph generation, and the software was all FOSS as far as I'm aware.

(The Nordic Thingy is not part of the build, by the way. The entire computer is hidden under the solar panels, since it's about the size of a Tic Tac container once it had its tiny heatsink and GPIO pins installed.)

For those interested in building their own, this is:
* One Raspberry Pi Zero W. I used the Vilros starter kit (~$35)
* One Waveshare 4.2 inch e-ink display ($10-40 depending on wholesale rates)
* One HI-S025 solar charger (~$40)

The thing is wireless and can do USB and HDMI too, which is just crazy.

And we now have a solar-powered computer, tracking solar power and energy usage for the whole house.

Update: it’s still running a few days later:

Happy Blade Runner month, y’all

@fakemaxkeeble In fact, the best snapshot of a capitalist hellscape in 30-40 years might be a snapshot of today, frozen in time as the ultra-rich freeze everyone else out.

That’s exactly what Cuba looked like when my parents were able to visit there when the embargo was (briefly?) lifted. A small tourist strip and city to keep appearances and for government officials, with shantytowns for everyone else based on infrastructure from the 1950s.

@fakemaxkeeble@snouts.online For setting, global warming has already made hurricanes substantially worse since I grew up there. That trend will continue into the capitalist hellscape future — folks just kind of casually aware a big storm is coming, and that the local Publix is already cleared out.

Huge market for things that can survive local infrastructure getting knocked out. Workarounds to water damage. Gig workers living in broken down boats for housing.

@fakemaxkeeble@snouts.online Also, since no one on thread has mentioned it yet: Cuban and Latinx culture would play a big part, especially in South Fla. I think folks would (correctly!) compare what’s happening to the hell of living under Castro, and that that would be a cultural touchstone as times get bad.

Meanwhile, up in Clearwater, Scientologists just bought Clearwater (https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-ne-scientology-clearwater-property-20191022-dcq3kljehzbtjkbcyybi6nbzwi-story.html), and they’re busily trying to annex tech companies.

@DialMforMara @fakemaxkeeble@snouts.online This, this this this.

U. Miami has a page from their job incubator that reads like the YA novelization of this: https://www.thelaunchpad.org/

The predatory hunger of tech capitalists to eat Miami and Tampa alive, compared to the lived experience of families that fled Castro and natural disasters to start a new life in South Florida, would play out this way. Folks know how to be good to each other through the bad times.

Success!

Now playing with e-ink displays. A few hours of soldering and staring at wiring charts later, I decided to be vain.

The goal of this experiment is to display some data graphs, but might as well have some fun with it first.

(Image credit Falvie, from a really long time ago.)

Turns out I had the leg joycon set up wrong yesterday, so day two was just about the right level of effort.

Yay for not being as out of shape as I thought I was! And for this being a routine I can probably keep.