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This is an incredibly important project under the new reality that Russia can cause war and havoc at any time and in any state. If they can do it in a Europe th
by logicallee 4y ago
This is an incredibly important project under the new reality that Russia can cause war and havoc at any time and in any state. If they can do it in a Europe that has basically been at peace for 70 years, and facing massive worldwide opposition and direct opposition from the United States in the form of aid, weapons, and people, then they can do it anywhere, even in the continental United States. No place is safe under such conditions. In Ukraine as a war crime, Russia targeted energy infrastructure including power plants, bringing energy grids offline.
This is something that could deprive people of basic communications and information access.
The mitigation of this seems difficult. Solar panels on the outside of houses can be destroyed by bombing easily, and gasoline powered generators on the inside are loud, expensive, and require ventilation for safety.
How can a people stay connected and continue to communicate under active Russian attacks on their energy grid?
With these thoughts in mind, when I saw this project I smiled, because it approaches the issue from an alternative angle. Who needs a loud and potentially noxious gasoline generator if it is possible to reduce the display draw to an amount that can be successfully powered from incident light?
Such a solution can solve pressing issues in our time and going forward. Quiet, compact, and mobile.
A good solution for the worst possible world.
- initramfs 4y agoI wrote about that idea a few months ago, and covered the solar gameboy too: https://iotmote.substack.com/p/remaking-the-nokia-6110-and-psion https://iotmote.substack.com/p/remaking-the-nokia-6110-and-p... In 2011, Intel demonstrated a solar powered Pentium chip- they remade the 1994 Pentium it on 32nm. But it was a demo only. The reason it's been so "demo" for over 10 years is because no one thinks solar is possible to run anything portable, but no one questions why so much investment is focused on the latest graphics cards and AI chips like the A100. If there was more consumer demand, you'd see it released yesterday. The solar calculator in 1978 was far more advanced for its time, but now you have most people laughing at such an idea for a few hundred thousand more transistors. Sad.