Title: The Old Computer Challenge V2: back to RTC | |
Author: Solène | |
Date: 01 July 2022 | |
Tags: life offline oldcomputerchallenge nocloud | |
Description: Meet the old computer challenge second edition, an entire | |
week with only 60 minutes a day of Internet connectivity. | |
# Introduction | |
Hello! Let me start straight into the topic: The Old Computer | |
Challenge, second edition! | |
Some readings if you don't know about the first Old Computer Challenge | |
The first edition of the challenge consisted into spending a week | |
(during your non-work time) using an old computer, the recommended | |
machine specifications were 1 core and 512 MB of memory at best, | |
however some people enjoyed doing this challenge with other | |
specifications and requirements, and it's fine, the purpose of the | |
challenge is to have fun. | |
While experimenting the challenge last year, a small but solid | |
community gathered on IRC, we shared tips and our feelings about the | |
challenge, it was very fun and a good opportunity to meet new people. | |
One year later, the community is still there and over the last months | |
we had regular ideas exchange for renewing the challenge. | |
I didn't want to do the same challenge again, the fun would be spoiled, | |
and it would have a feeling of déjà vu. I recently shared a new idea | |
and many adopted it, and it was clear this would be the main topic of | |
the new challenge. | |
# The Old Computer Challenge v2 | |
This new challenge will embrace the old time of RTC modems with a | |
monthly time budget. Back in these days, in France at least, people | |
had to subscribe to an ISP for a given price, but you would be able to | |
connect only for 10, 20, 30, 40... hours a month depending on your | |
subscription. Any extra hour was very expensive. We used the Internet | |
the most efficiently possible because it was time limited (and very | |
slow, 4 kB/s at best). Little story, phone lines were not available | |
while a modem was connected, and we had to be careful not to forget to | |
manually disconnect the modem after use, otherwise it would stay | |
connected and wasting the precious Internet time! (and making expensive | |
bills) | |
The new challenge rules are easy: you are allowed to _connect_ your | |
computer to the Internet for a maximum cumulated time of 1h per day, | |
from 10th to 17th July included. This mean you can connect six times | |
for ten minutes, twice for thirty minutes, or once for one hour in the | |
day. | |
Remember, the challenge is about having fun and helping you to step | |
back on your computer habits, it's also recommended to share your | |
thoughts and feeling a few times over the challenge week on your usual | |
medias. There is nothing to prove to anyone, if you want to cheat or | |
do the challenge with two or six hours a day, please do as you prefer. | |
The old computer challenge v2 cover | |
This artwork was created by our community member prahou (thanks!), and | |
is under the license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, you can reuse it as-this. It | |
features a CD because back in the RTC time, ISP were offering CDs to | |
connect to the Internet and subscribe from home, I remember using those | |
as flying discs. | |
A page gathering the reports from all the participants | |
# Time accounting | |
While I don't have any implementation yet, here is an ideas list to | |
help you to accounting your Internet time: | |
* simple but effective, use airplane mode for Wi-Fi or unplug Ethernet, | |
and use a chronometer when you connect | |
* adding/removing the default route can be easier than playing with the | |
firewall and still allow you to use the local network | |
* a script that would try a ping every minute and account success in a | |
file with a timestamp, it becomes easy to get information from this | |
* some firewall rules you would trigger after a sleep 3600 command | |
* define a time slot in your day for the challenge and use a cron job | |
to manipulate the firewall to allow/block network depending on the | |
current time | |
prahou's shell script counting time and enabling/disabling Internet, you need t… | |
# Frequently asked questions | |
## Does it apply on work time? | |
No. | |
## Can I have an exemption? | |
If you really need to use the Internet for something, it's up to you. | |
Don't make your life unbearable for a week because of the challenge. | |
## Does it apply to 1h/day per device? | |
No, it's 1h cumulated for all your devices, including smartphones. | |
## Where is the community? | |
We are reachable on #oldcomputerchallenge IRC channel on the | |
Libera.chat network | |
Website of the libera.chat network and instructions how to connect | |
However, during the challenge I expect the channel to be quiet because | |
people will be limited to 1h a day. |