Stardate: 20240721.2004 | |
Location: Local SBUX | |
Input Device: Steam Deck with folding BT keyboard | |
Audio: Cheezy SBUX muzak | |
Visual: FMD + CRT + Transparent background of meatspace. | |
Emotional: Refreshed? | |
I just woke up from a nice long nap that I think my body needed. | |
Unfortunately, it is 8PM and I am drinking hawt coffee, so I will | |
prolly be up for awhile. | |
The old (handheld) computer challenge (OCC) v4 has ended. I felt | |
m0ar disconnected this year due to my choice of device(s). I | |
(hastily) chose 2 handheld devices that could potentially go the | |
distance. The pa1mOne Tungsten E2 from 2005 and the Nokie N900 from | |
2009. | |
I think that v4 was much m0ar of a challenge for me that v3. With | |
OCC v3 [1], I used a Sun Microsystems Ultra 10 from 1998 and an ASUS | |
eeePC 701 from 2007. Both had full-sized user interfaces (screen, | |
keyboard, and mouse) and were easy to use when the initial setup with | |
worked out. | |
With OCC v4, I don't think I really got into much of a rhythm with | |
the devices. Each time I used the devices, it felt like an uphill | |
challenge that kept changing. Power issues, software instability, | |
small screens, hardware incompatibilties, limited network, etc. It | |
felt like survival computing or something. | |
Both devices are stil functional, but I doubt I could use them as a | |
daily driver, outside of the OCC. Then again, they were not really | |
made to be a main device. Pairing it with a laptop would be much | |
m0ar manageable. | |
ONe of the things I noticed was that my eyes are so used to larger, | |
higher-rez screens these days. Going back to the lo-rez older | |
devices took some adjusting, but eventually got used to it. Not my | |
preferred, but somewhat useable in limited amounts of time. Also, my | |
eyes are not what they were back then. | |
With the E2, I think I will still continue using it for the time | |
being for my PIM stuff and maybe get syncing going. | |
With the N900, I will probably set up USB networking, like I did back | |
in the day. With the setup, I can access the device through the | |
terminal and through x11vnc. The battery will also stay charged. I | |
will probably move it on a larger TV display since I use the 7" | |
broken clock thing for testing and retro gaming. Most likely an old | |
portable DVD player with RCA input whose battery died long ago but | |
can still function with a wall wart. | |
For the challenge, I was definitely challenged. I did not do much | |
with the tasks I wanted to do and was not able to connect to the | |
community in realtime,..which kinda reminded me of communications | |
back in the day... I did have fun and glad that I was able to | |
participate this year! | |
Thanks, Solène, for starting this happening and to all of the | |
participants of OCC v4!!! I still have many OCC logs to catch | |
up on and visit outside of gopherspace on the smolnet. | |
[1] the old computer challenge 2023 | |