7 ms·

Cyberdecks (2013)

188 points by keiferski 3y ago

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
thih9 3y ago
Can we add 2016 to the title? The article starts with the "2016/02/13" date. Current title is just "Cyberdecks".
- appplication 3y ago
  They updated the title but the wrong year
alexpotato 3y ago
Didn't Immersed + Oculus 2 basically create the Virtual Desktop mentioned in the article?
- swiftcoder 3y ago
  The one mentioned in the article exists as a commercial product too: https://www.vrdesktop.net/ https://www.vrdesktop.net/
tetris11 3y ago
I'd be interested to know what SDXL generates for "cyberdeck" based on the images, hopefully some of which come from this article
- washadjeffmad 3y ago
  I'm making focaccia this morning, but give me an hour or two and I'll post a link.
  - washadjeffmad 3y ago
    "an hour or two" https://imgur.com/a/mzQpB1u https://imgur.com/a/mzQpB1u minimal prompting - just variations on "handheld electronic cyberdeck, netrunner OR cyperpunk"
    - tetris11 3y ago
      Hauntingly beautiful, with a hint of blackberry beefiness. Are these the base prompts, or the refined ones?
      - washadjeffmad 3y ago
        No refiner, just base sdxl 1.0 + sdxl vae in automatic1111, 1024x1024, without lora, textual inversions, or embeddings, and largely 2M Karras. Vlad works well, and I'm still sussing out the character of sdxl for a comfui workflow while I wait on controlnet. The seed seems to matter differently with sdxl, producing stronger but more consistent stylistic variations that the prompt can work with. For example, a recent one produced everything as aqueous media over line art on what looked like cotton rag. I didn't bother to record seeds before, but I'm starting a small list as I come across interesting ones.
throwaway33381 3y ago
I always felt that a lot of the aesthetic choices in the cyberpunk genre have been subject to scrutiny as the genre aged. Things like black leather outfits to punk rock. The overall tone of cyberpunk as a genre has always been a favorite of mine. But that it hasn't really changed too much in the decades that came. Instead derivates instead of additions and adjustments to the core cyberpunk genre. The Cyberdeck itself is well gone a bit off the rails, personally I think a more modern rendition work be more about discreteness it would provide in contrast to a conventional notebook, along with it's utility purposes. But the more modern renditions still heavily favor brick like designs which is fine, sometimes I wish the genre would change. Personally I think the addition of virtual reality and it's inclusion since early on in the genre was a mistake by authors who at the time didn't have an understanding of what the cyberspace really was. This is getting long but if anyone wants to talk I'm all ears.
- swiftcoder 3y ago
  > Personally I think the addition of virtual reality and it's inclusion since early on in the genre was a mistake by authors who at the time didn't have an understanding of what the cyberspace really was It remains a neat way to get around the display problem, though. Even if most practical work in cyberspace takes place on 2D surfaces, nobody really wants to cart around a pair of 34 inch 4k monitors to work on the go.
  - throwaway33381 3y ago
    Yeah that's true. Though usually I see more of a retinal display but that's also more of a times piece sort of thing. Carrying around goggles is also kind of makes you really stand out. Google Glasses were pretty interesting in the early 2010s. Realistically for a netrunner, you aren't even really coding while you're at the location, Mr.Robot does a good job with this but in a different way.
    - Aeolun 3y ago
      If we’re going there we might as well have cybernetic eyes right? As long as you can somehow attach the nerves to your new eyes.
bloopernova 3y ago
I'd like a cyberdeck that uses a Linux tablet as its display. So I could dock it and use a good small mechanical keyboard, maybe a low profile Keychron, or use it on the go. An Android tablet would also do, since there's a lot that can be done with Termux, but I'd much rather have a "real" Linux device. Seeing a keyboard like this one[1] makes me wish I could get some sort of origami fold out dock for a tablet, that would be so cool I'd have to wear shades indoors. [1] https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/75acdf98-6bb5-4d5b-8dd5-a879a100f61d.jpeg https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/75acdf98-6bb5-4d5b-8dd5-a87...
- seltzered_ 3y ago
  I've been using this as my setup for two years, but I've been calling it more humbly an ergonomic mobile computer ( https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/ ) , not a cyberdeck. I'm aiming more for a boring everyday setup to hopefully own less electronics compared to the virtualism/maximalism/tacticool stuff I see in the cyberdeck world. The other thing is I hesitate around maximizing around personal computing - I think we need setups friends can walk up to and use when appropriate. See https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/comments/vzs8mm/how_long_have_you_been_using_an_ergo_mobile/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/comments/vzs8mm... for my particular linux tablet setup.
  - bloopernova 3y ago
    Oh that is really nice, thank you for sharing!
- WillAdams 3y ago
  Now that Raspberry PIs are back in stock, I'm actually working on this concept using a Wacom One screen. The RasPad v3 isn't too far from it: https://raspad.com/products/raspadv3 https://raspad.com/products/raspadv3 but touch only, no stylus.
  - maxwell 3y ago
    > Now that Raspberrt PIs are back in stock Didn't see retail 8 GB models in probably over a year, had to confirm, sweet: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/raspberry-pi/RASPBERRY-PI-4-MODEL-B-8G/12159401 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/raspberry-pi/RASP...
syx 3y ago
Nice article I would say the most cyberdeck looking computers from 80s would probably be MSX/MSX2. I remember reading a blog post from a guy converting an old MSX to a working cyberdeck using Raspberry Pi. Now I want to look up the article again!
- slim 3y ago
  that pictured black msx with double cartridge + diskette is a Sakhr https://www.msx.org/wiki/Sakhr_AX-370 https://www.msx.org/wiki/Sakhr_AX-370
- hoherd 3y ago
  Adafruit makes a cyberdeck HAT for the pi400 https://www.adafruit.com/product/4863 https://www.adafruit.com/product/4863 It's definitely not the same aesthetic as what people think of as a cyberdeck, but as far as retail cyberdecks go, it might be the closest thing.
  - Beached 3y ago
    I have one of these and they work well, my only issue is display support is limited. running this with a secondary display isn't currently support, you will have to write that yourself. also, window scaling and resizing of windows is not fully supported and you have issues with normal daily use at a screen that size. if you are 100% sold on a single 3.5" screen and no gui, then it will work. outside of that, it's a novelty item
karaterobot 3y ago
I love that they credit Tumblr and Pinterest for the illustrations, most of which are just taken from the Shadowrun sourcebook. It would be like me crediting The Pirate Bay as the director of a movie.
- anthk 3y ago
  Sometimes I fire up a MegaDrive/Genesis Shadowrun romhack under Mednafen, it adds lots of stuff and balances the game difficulty a bit down.
  - ChikkaChiChi 3y ago
    Most underrated game of all time. Thanks for the tip on the hacked version.
    - anthk 3y ago
      You have the patch at that HackRom site, I can't recall it's name now. Romhacking? I think it was Shadowrun 2053 or Shadowrun 2054, one of the patches has the year in the name. If you want to patch it from a Linux/BSD/Mac sys, search for "ips.pl", save it and run it as "perl ips.pl shadowrun.rom thepatchfile.ips". Backup the "shadowrun.rom" rom first.
chongli 3y ago
Ahhh, I thought this would be about real cyberdecks people are actually building now. These devices are basically laptops without a hinge. A "slab" computer with a small, wide-format display and a compact mechanical keyboard layout. They seem to be an off-shoot of the mechanical keyboard builder hobby.
- nvy 3y ago
  The overwhelming majority of cyberdecks I see get posted on reddit are basically raspi + pelican case + ortho/ergodox. It's grown quite stale and certainly almost none of these devices get toted around despite the emphasis on portability in the source material. I think a really useful cyberdeck would be something like one of the old chunky ThinkPads with the guts replaced with something smaller, leaving space for a KVM switch and other interconnects/peripherals, so that you can use its keyboard and display for an external server box, or accessing the serial console on random digital signage boxes/IOT things.
  - eternityforest 3y ago
    It's just extra stress to go out and do real work with handmade tools. Now I have two points of failure. The cyberdeck (unless I have a backup regular laptop) and the actual device I'm working on. If either goes wrong the client is unhappy and I get yelled at(or more likely, they don't actually yell but might like to). Making a cyberdeck as reliable as a laptop is going to be hard, there's lots of mechanical stuff to consider. Might be worth it, but I wouldn't trust a random reddit build with an important job I don't think. The pi is just OK at best for actually using like a laptop. I think a really useful cyberdeck would probably be something that could be put together with no soldering or real diy, just 3d printed aesthetic parts, a tablet and keyboard, power bank, etc, nicely mounted but still just some gear in a box like a normal technician would carry. Or, something not at all meant to be used like a computer, that isn't already portable. No reason solar generators or NASes or something can't look like cyberdecks. Or maybe something modular in multiple cases. Keyboard/monitor/serial adapter/battery/Ethernet in one, just use a phone for the actual computer part to ssh into stuff, or a secondary pi box if you really need it.
  - 3y ago
ruleryak 3y ago
The article is from 2016, not 13. I was confused for a minute, like wait did the rift come out then years ago? 2016 was a fairly monumental year for VR and hmds
DonHopkins 3y ago
>The Deck I would like to build: Given unlimited budget and access to good workshop, I would build highly customized workstation, with highly customized software. I was playing around with the Smalltalk/Self/Alternate Reality Kit kind of highly customized software side of that equation in NeWS PostScript, with the PSIBER Space Deck and Pseudo Scientific Visualizer (inspired by Gibson's Neuromancer of course): The Shape of PSIBER Space: PostScript Interactive Bug Eradication Routines — October 1989: https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-shape-of-psiber-space-october-1989-19e2dfa4d91e https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-shape-of-psiber-space-octo... >Abstract: The PSIBER Space Deck is an interactive visual user interface to a graphical programming environment, the NeWS window system. It lets you display, manipulate, and navigate the data structures, programs, and processes living in the virtual memory space of NeWS. It is useful as a debugging tool, and as a hands on way to learn about programming in PostScript and NeWS. >PostScript Source Code Available Here: http://www.donhopkins.com/home/pub/NeWS/litecyber/ http://www.donhopkins.com/home/pub/NeWS/litecyber/ >Introduction: Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts … A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding …. [Gibson, Neuromancer] [...] >The Pseudo Scientific Visualizer >Darkness fell in from every side, a sphere of singing black, pressure on the extended crystal nerves of the universe of data he had nearly become… And when he was nothing, compressed at the heart of all that dark, there came a point where the dark could be no more, and something tore. The Kuang program spurted from tarnished cloud, Case’s consciousness divided like beads of mercury, arcing above an endless beach the color of the dark silver clouds. His vision was spherical, as though a single retina lined the inner surface of a globe that contained all things, if all things could be counted. [Gibson, Neuromancer] >The Pseudo Scientific Visualizer is the object browser for the other half of your brain, a fish-eye lens for the macroscopic examination of data. It can display arbitrarily large, arbitrarily deep structures, in a fixed amount of space. It shows form, texture, density, depth, fan out, and complexity. >It draws a compound object as a circle, then recursively draws its elements, scaled smaller, in an evenly spaced ring, rotated around the circle. The deeper an object, the smaller it is. It will only draw to a certain depth, which you can change while the drawing is in progress. >It has simple graphical icons for different data types. An array is a circle, and a dictionary is a circle with a dot. The icon for a string is a line, whose length depends on the length of the string. A name is a triangle. A boolean is a peace sign or an international no sign. An event is an envelope. A process is a Porsche. >It randomly forks off several light weight processes, to draw different parts of the display, so there is lots of drawing going on in different places at once, and the overlapping is less regular. >After the drawing is complete, the circular compound objects become mouse sensitive, selectable targets. The targets are implemented as round transparent NeWS canvases. When you move the cursor over one, it highlights, and you can click on it to zoom in, pop up a description of it, open up another view of it, or select it, and then push it onto the stack of the PSIBER Space Deck. >Figure 9 shows a Pseudo Scientific Visualization of the NeWS rootmenu instance dictionary, also shown in figure 3 and figure 8. Figure 10 shows two views of a map of Adventure. Figure 11 shows two views of a map of the ARPAnet. [...] [...] >References: [...] Shu, Nan C.: Visual Programming; 1988; Van Nostrand Reinhold; New York https://archive.org/details/visualprogrammin00shu_2pf https://archive.org/details/visualprogrammin00shu_2pf
anthk 3y ago
- Get a netbook, even the libretto would work with a wired conn/pcmpcia/wifi-wpa2 would work with a custom current-ish kernel such as Hyperbola GNU/Linux once you strip linux-libre of all the unneded junk. - Connect kbtin or tintinplusplus to cs.netsville.com - type in "help" Congrats, you got a recursive retrofuturist experience. Also, if you use slrn/lynx/links/irssi/gopher/gemini software/networks, you already are in the retro cyberpunk dream. Finally: gopher://midnight.pub or gemini://midnight.pub . Best viewed under sacc or bombadillo.
- anthk 3y ago
  OK, I'l correct myself: cs.netsville.com 7777 That's it, a cyberpunk MUD.
wazoox 3y ago
The Hosaka OSC7 looks almost exactly like a TI99/4A... with a neural interface cartridge :)
retrocryptid 3y ago
Is it just me or does the Hosaka OSC 7 look an awful lot like a TI 99/4A?
corysama 3y ago
This is pretty darn close https://www.theverge.com/23727583/spacetop-augmented-reality-laptop-release-hands-on https://www.theverge.com/23727583/spacetop-augmented-reality... https://www.sightful.com/ https://www.sightful.com/
throwaway2903 3y ago
The whole point of the cyberdeck was that it was a way to see VR in your minds eye rather than with a screen. Hence the no screen. I always thought the decks themselves would be rather boring looking - the keyboard would just be a black rectangle. Only Case could like the aesthetic in any way that was meaningful, which was why Armitage had to have his approval. To anyone else it just looks like a plastic brick.
29athrowaway 3y ago
I recommend this post from the r/cyberdeck subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/jzvvli/a_7_screen_laptop/ https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/jzvvli/a_7_scree...
pimlottc 3y ago
The black and white line drawing of the Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7 [0] is basically an exact copy of the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A [1] 0: https://blog.rfox.eu/en/Hardware/Cyberdecks/Untitled_12_thumb.jpg https://blog.rfox.eu/en/Hardware/Cyberdecks/Untitled_12_thum... 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-99/4A#/media/File:TI99-IMG_7132_(filter_levels_crop).jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-99/4A#/media/File:TI99-IMG_...
- zoklet-enjoyer 3y ago
  https://www.nathanandersonart.com/neuromancer https://www.nathanandersonart.com/neuromancer
araes 3y ago
If you're doing a cyberdeck, and you already include some form of AR display, then why include the keyboard? Haptic feedback gloves [1] are already a thing, and would allow typing wherever. They frankly need to get smaller, and not include such bulky hardware, even if it means "light, soft" feedback, yet they exist. I'd be happy with a floating "type zone" and soft "you touched a key" response. Wolfram's mobile computing piece [2] was one of the only tech things I've been a bit envious of lately. Now if smart/digital contacts could just get around all the patent fortresses / other issues, and actually produce a working product. Saw research prototypes back in the early 2000's. Apparently people are still trying. [3] [1] https://www.manus-meta.com/vr-gloves https://www.manus-meta.com/vr-gloves [2] https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/02/seeking-the-productive-life-some-details-of-my-personal-infrastructure/ https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/02/seeking-the-prod... [3] https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/augmented-reality-contact-lenses-vision/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/augmented-reality-co...
- Groxx 3y ago
  https://www.tapwithus.com/product/tap-strap-2/ https://www.tapwithus.com/product/tap-strap-2/ seems like a very pragmatic option, tech-wise - I'm not convinced floating will ever actually be good. Bouncing off a surface is extremely efficient, self-calibrating, and basically always available in some form (e.g. tap on yourself).
  - ilyt 3y ago
    Make it look like knuckle dusters and it will look cyberpunk too
- Vecr 3y ago
  Nah, typing on a keyboard is faster and more precise. I think having a split keyboard with each side on the cummerbund of your plate carrier (split by the mag pouches or med kit you have on the front of your carrier) would work better. Assuming you actually want this to be practical and not just an aesthetic/signaling thing.
rcarr 3y ago
- Steam Deck - Viture AR glasses - Ferris Sweep 34 key Bluetooth Split Keyboard - Magic Trackpad This is my intended setup for long term travel, about as cyber deck as it gets.
- valzam 3y ago
  Have you tried the glasses already? I always wanted something like this but from the LinusTechTips review they seem horrible.
  - rcarr 3y ago
    Yes I've tried both the XReal Air and the Viture. I like them. The XReal pinch my head which is really fucking annoying which is the main reason I ended up going for the Viture. The Viture are crystal clear apart from the very edges which are a bit blurry. From comments I've read on reddit, I believe this might be due to mild astigmatism so I'm going to the opticians soon to get my prescription so I can get the custom lenses and see if that fixes it. I think this is the better way forward if you have myopia/astigmatism rather than using the myopia dials on the top of the glasses, I think I have very mild myopia in one eye (like -0.5 or something) so I played around with the dials and you can dial it in with a bit of trial an error but it is an annoying process trying to get it right - they really should have done it so that when you change the dial it shows you what level you're changing it to on the screen (e.g -0.25, -0.5, -0.75 whilst you're turning) which would have made it far easier. Other than that I think they're great. If you want more detail I did a bit of a longer post here where I go into a more detailed comparison of why I went with the Viture over the XReal: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36659411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36659411
causality0 3y ago
Odd to me that futurists always seem to eschew the power of convenience. Everything runs on a balance between opportunity and convenience. Technology is created to generate opportunity, then refined to create convenience without losing that opportunity. Decks were never going to take off because nobody wants to deal with a setup that has all the inconveniences of a laptop and a headset and almost none of the advantages of either. Not to mention that the nature of the internet means it's all available at home anyway. There's no advantage to hiding in the back of a delivery truck with your deck and breaking into an evil company's network from their underground parking lot when whatever exploit you used may as well be deployed from your multi-monitor desk at home.
bullen 3y ago
http://move.rupy.se/file/last_computer.png http://move.rupy.se/file/last_computer.png If you want to drive VR you'll need minimum Jetson Nano and 15W.
prenoob 3y ago
Applause for the cyberdeck that looks like a TI99/4A.. saved
dtx1 3y ago
Whenever I get a swept into the Cyberdeck Youtube rabbit hole and think about building one, after a while of planning, Ideas, etc, I end up realising I just want a notebook with lots of USB Ports.
IOT_Apprentice 3y ago
I think back to the movie Hackers with a young Angelina Jolie. Lord Nikon, the Sony game at the arcade, the fight over the late night cable channel. Mess with the best, die like the rest. Hack the Planet !
kmstout 3y ago
Imagine cleaning out the case of a Kaypro II [0], replacing the internals with a RPI or something more capable; the display with an LCD of the same size; and a large battery pack. After leaving a dedicated space for a flask of whiskey, you'd still have a lot of space to put in modules for extra capabilities. [0] https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=550 https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=550
gumby 3y ago
> Deck or CyberDeck is this mobile computer first imagined by William Gibson in Neuromancer ... The Cyberdeck was first used in the 1980 John M. Ford novel Web of Angels, about half a decade before Neuromancer, and before Vinge's far more influential "True Names" for that matter. I have always had a fondness for Ford's cyberdeck as it had analog sliders as well (and a few other absurd features).
PsychoOil 3y ago
[dead]

Cyberdecks (2013)

188 points by keiferski 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

thih9 3y ago

Can we add 2016 to the title? The article starts with the "2016/02/13" date. Current title is just "Cyberdecks".

appplication 3y ago
They updated the title but the wrong year

alexpotato 3y ago

Didn't Immersed + Oculus 2 basically create the Virtual Desktop mentioned in the article?

swiftcoder 3y ago
The one mentioned in the article exists as a commercial product too: https://www.vrdesktop.net/ https://www.vrdesktop.net/

tetris11 3y ago

I'd be interested to know what SDXL generates for "cyberdeck" based on the images, hopefully some of which come from this article

washadjeffmad 3y ago
I'm making focaccia this morning, but give me an hour or two and I'll post a link.
- washadjeffmad 3y ago
  "an hour or two" https://imgur.com/a/mzQpB1u https://imgur.com/a/mzQpB1u minimal prompting - just variations on "handheld electronic cyberdeck, netrunner OR cyperpunk"
  - tetris11 3y ago
    Hauntingly beautiful, with a hint of blackberry beefiness. Are these the base prompts, or the refined ones?
    - washadjeffmad 3y ago
      No refiner, just base sdxl 1.0 + sdxl vae in automatic1111, 1024x1024, without lora, textual inversions, or embeddings, and largely 2M Karras. Vlad works well, and I'm still sussing out the character of sdxl for a comfui workflow while I wait on controlnet. The seed seems to matter differently with sdxl, producing stronger but more consistent stylistic variations that the prompt can work with. For example, a recent one produced everything as aqueous media over line art on what looked like cotton rag. I didn't bother to record seeds before, but I'm starting a small list as I come across interesting ones.

throwaway33381 3y ago

I always felt that a lot of the aesthetic choices in the cyberpunk genre have been subject to scrutiny as the genre aged. Things like black leather outfits to punk rock. The overall tone of cyberpunk as a genre has always been a favorite of mine. But that it hasn't really changed too much in the decades that came. Instead derivates instead of additions and adjustments to the core cyberpunk genre. The Cyberdeck itself is well gone a bit off the rails, personally I think a more modern rendition work be more about discreteness it would provide in contrast to a conventional notebook, along with it's utility purposes. But the more modern renditions still heavily favor brick like designs which is fine, sometimes I wish the genre would change. Personally I think the addition of virtual reality and it's inclusion since early on in the genre was a mistake by authors who at the time didn't have an understanding of what the cyberspace really was. This is getting long but if anyone wants to talk I'm all ears.

swiftcoder 3y ago
> Personally I think the addition of virtual reality and it's inclusion since early on in the genre was a mistake by authors who at the time didn't have an understanding of what the cyberspace really was It remains a neat way to get around the display problem, though. Even if most practical work in cyberspace takes place on 2D surfaces, nobody really wants to cart around a pair of 34 inch 4k monitors to work on the go.
- throwaway33381 3y ago
  Yeah that's true. Though usually I see more of a retinal display but that's also more of a times piece sort of thing. Carrying around goggles is also kind of makes you really stand out. Google Glasses were pretty interesting in the early 2010s. Realistically for a netrunner, you aren't even really coding while you're at the location, Mr.Robot does a good job with this but in a different way.
  - Aeolun 3y ago
    If we’re going there we might as well have cybernetic eyes right? As long as you can somehow attach the nerves to your new eyes.

bloopernova 3y ago

I'd like a cyberdeck that uses a Linux tablet as its display. So I could dock it and use a good small mechanical keyboard, maybe a low profile Keychron, or use it on the go. An Android tablet would also do, since there's a lot that can be done with Termux, but I'd much rather have a "real" Linux device. Seeing a keyboard like this one[1] makes me wish I could get some sort of origami fold out dock for a tablet, that would be so cool I'd have to wear shades indoors. [1] https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/75acdf98-6bb5-4d5b-8dd5-a879a100f61d.jpeg https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/75acdf98-6bb5-4d5b-8dd5-a87...

seltzered_ 3y ago
I've been using this as my setup for two years, but I've been calling it more humbly an ergonomic mobile computer ( https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/ ) , not a cyberdeck. I'm aiming more for a boring everyday setup to hopefully own less electronics compared to the virtualism/maximalism/tacticool stuff I see in the cyberdeck world. The other thing is I hesitate around maximizing around personal computing - I think we need setups friends can walk up to and use when appropriate. See https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/comments/vzs8mm/how_long_have_you_been_using_an_ergo_mobile/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/comments/vzs8mm... for my particular linux tablet setup.
- bloopernova 3y ago
  Oh that is really nice, thank you for sharing!
WillAdams 3y ago
Now that Raspberry PIs are back in stock, I'm actually working on this concept using a Wacom One screen. The RasPad v3 isn't too far from it: https://raspad.com/products/raspadv3 https://raspad.com/products/raspadv3 but touch only, no stylus.
- maxwell 3y ago
  > Now that Raspberrt PIs are back in stock Didn't see retail 8 GB models in probably over a year, had to confirm, sweet: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/raspberry-pi/RASPBERRY-PI-4-MODEL-B-8G/12159401 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/raspberry-pi/RASP...

syx 3y ago

Nice article I would say the most cyberdeck looking computers from 80s would probably be MSX/MSX2. I remember reading a blog post from a guy converting an old MSX to a working cyberdeck using Raspberry Pi. Now I want to look up the article again!

slim 3y ago
that pictured black msx with double cartridge + diskette is a Sakhr https://www.msx.org/wiki/Sakhr_AX-370 https://www.msx.org/wiki/Sakhr_AX-370
hoherd 3y ago
Adafruit makes a cyberdeck HAT for the pi400 https://www.adafruit.com/product/4863 https://www.adafruit.com/product/4863 It's definitely not the same aesthetic as what people think of as a cyberdeck, but as far as retail cyberdecks go, it might be the closest thing.
- Beached 3y ago
  I have one of these and they work well, my only issue is display support is limited. running this with a secondary display isn't currently support, you will have to write that yourself. also, window scaling and resizing of windows is not fully supported and you have issues with normal daily use at a screen that size. if you are 100% sold on a single 3.5" screen and no gui, then it will work. outside of that, it's a novelty item

karaterobot 3y ago

I love that they credit Tumblr and Pinterest for the illustrations, most of which are just taken from the Shadowrun sourcebook. It would be like me crediting The Pirate Bay as the director of a movie.

anthk 3y ago
Sometimes I fire up a MegaDrive/Genesis Shadowrun romhack under Mednafen, it adds lots of stuff and balances the game difficulty a bit down.
- ChikkaChiChi 3y ago
  Most underrated game of all time. Thanks for the tip on the hacked version.
  - anthk 3y ago
    You have the patch at that HackRom site, I can't recall it's name now. Romhacking? I think it was Shadowrun 2053 or Shadowrun 2054, one of the patches has the year in the name. If you want to patch it from a Linux/BSD/Mac sys, search for "ips.pl", save it and run it as "perl ips.pl shadowrun.rom thepatchfile.ips". Backup the "shadowrun.rom" rom first.

chongli 3y ago

Ahhh, I thought this would be about real cyberdecks people are actually building now. These devices are basically laptops without a hinge. A "slab" computer with a small, wide-format display and a compact mechanical keyboard layout. They seem to be an off-shoot of the mechanical keyboard builder hobby.

nvy 3y ago
The overwhelming majority of cyberdecks I see get posted on reddit are basically raspi + pelican case + ortho/ergodox. It's grown quite stale and certainly almost none of these devices get toted around despite the emphasis on portability in the source material. I think a really useful cyberdeck would be something like one of the old chunky ThinkPads with the guts replaced with something smaller, leaving space for a KVM switch and other interconnects/peripherals, so that you can use its keyboard and display for an external server box, or accessing the serial console on random digital signage boxes/IOT things.
- eternityforest 3y ago
  It's just extra stress to go out and do real work with handmade tools. Now I have two points of failure. The cyberdeck (unless I have a backup regular laptop) and the actual device I'm working on. If either goes wrong the client is unhappy and I get yelled at(or more likely, they don't actually yell but might like to). Making a cyberdeck as reliable as a laptop is going to be hard, there's lots of mechanical stuff to consider. Might be worth it, but I wouldn't trust a random reddit build with an important job I don't think. The pi is just OK at best for actually using like a laptop. I think a really useful cyberdeck would probably be something that could be put together with no soldering or real diy, just 3d printed aesthetic parts, a tablet and keyboard, power bank, etc, nicely mounted but still just some gear in a box like a normal technician would carry. Or, something not at all meant to be used like a computer, that isn't already portable. No reason solar generators or NASes or something can't look like cyberdecks. Or maybe something modular in multiple cases. Keyboard/monitor/serial adapter/battery/Ethernet in one, just use a phone for the actual computer part to ssh into stuff, or a secondary pi box if you really need it.
- 3y ago

ruleryak 3y ago

The article is from 2016, not 13. I was confused for a minute, like wait did the rift come out then years ago? 2016 was a fairly monumental year for VR and hmds

DonHopkins 3y ago

>The Deck I would like to build: Given unlimited budget and access to good workshop, I would build highly customized workstation, with highly customized software. I was playing around with the Smalltalk/Self/Alternate Reality Kit kind of highly customized software side of that equation in NeWS PostScript, with the PSIBER Space Deck and Pseudo Scientific Visualizer (inspired by Gibson's Neuromancer of course): The Shape of PSIBER Space: PostScript Interactive Bug Eradication Routines — October 1989: https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-shape-of-psiber-space-october-1989-19e2dfa4d91e https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-shape-of-psiber-space-octo... >Abstract: The PSIBER Space Deck is an interactive visual user interface to a graphical programming environment, the NeWS window system. It lets you display, manipulate, and navigate the data structures, programs, and processes living in the virtual memory space of NeWS. It is useful as a debugging tool, and as a hands on way to learn about programming in PostScript and NeWS. >PostScript Source Code Available Here: http://www.donhopkins.com/home/pub/NeWS/litecyber/ http://www.donhopkins.com/home/pub/NeWS/litecyber/ >Introduction: Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts … A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding …. [Gibson, Neuromancer] [...] >The Pseudo Scientific Visualizer >Darkness fell in from every side, a sphere of singing black, pressure on the extended crystal nerves of the universe of data he had nearly become… And when he was nothing, compressed at the heart of all that dark, there came a point where the dark could be no more, and something tore. The Kuang program spurted from tarnished cloud, Case’s consciousness divided like beads of mercury, arcing above an endless beach the color of the dark silver clouds. His vision was spherical, as though a single retina lined the inner surface of a globe that contained all things, if all things could be counted. [Gibson, Neuromancer] >The Pseudo Scientific Visualizer is the object browser for the other half of your brain, a fish-eye lens for the macroscopic examination of data. It can display arbitrarily large, arbitrarily deep structures, in a fixed amount of space. It shows form, texture, density, depth, fan out, and complexity. >It draws a compound object as a circle, then recursively draws its elements, scaled smaller, in an evenly spaced ring, rotated around the circle. The deeper an object, the smaller it is. It will only draw to a certain depth, which you can change while the drawing is in progress. >It has simple graphical icons for different data types. An array is a circle, and a dictionary is a circle with a dot. The icon for a string is a line, whose length depends on the length of the string. A name is a triangle. A boolean is a peace sign or an international no sign. An event is an envelope. A process is a Porsche. >It randomly forks off several light weight processes, to draw different parts of the display, so there is lots of drawing going on in different places at once, and the overlapping is less regular. >After the drawing is complete, the circular compound objects become mouse sensitive, selectable targets. The targets are implemented as round transparent NeWS canvases. When you move the cursor over one, it highlights, and you can click on it to zoom in, pop up a description of it, open up another view of it, or select it, and then push it onto the stack of the PSIBER Space Deck. >Figure 9 shows a Pseudo Scientific Visualization of the NeWS rootmenu instance dictionary, also shown in figure 3 and figure 8. Figure 10 shows two views of a map of Adventure. Figure 11 shows two views of a map of the ARPAnet. [...] [...] >References: [...] Shu, Nan C.: Visual Programming; 1988; Van Nostrand Reinhold; New York https://archive.org/details/visualprogrammin00shu_2pf https://archive.org/details/visualprogrammin00shu_2pf

anthk 3y ago

- Get a netbook, even the libretto would work with a wired conn/pcmpcia/wifi-wpa2 would work with a custom current-ish kernel such as Hyperbola GNU/Linux once you strip linux-libre of all the unneded junk. - Connect kbtin or tintinplusplus to cs.netsville.com - type in "help" Congrats, you got a recursive retrofuturist experience. Also, if you use slrn/lynx/links/irssi/gopher/gemini software/networks, you already are in the retro cyberpunk dream. Finally: gopher://midnight.pub or gemini://midnight.pub . Best viewed under sacc or bombadillo.

anthk 3y ago
OK, I'l correct myself: cs.netsville.com 7777 That's it, a cyberpunk MUD.

wazoox 3y ago

The Hosaka OSC7 looks almost exactly like a TI99/4A... with a neural interface cartridge :)

retrocryptid 3y ago

Is it just me or does the Hosaka OSC 7 look an awful lot like a TI 99/4A?

corysama 3y ago

This is pretty darn close https://www.theverge.com/23727583/spacetop-augmented-reality-laptop-release-hands-on https://www.theverge.com/23727583/spacetop-augmented-reality... https://www.sightful.com/ https://www.sightful.com/

throwaway2903 3y ago

The whole point of the cyberdeck was that it was a way to see VR in your minds eye rather than with a screen. Hence the no screen. I always thought the decks themselves would be rather boring looking - the keyboard would just be a black rectangle. Only Case could like the aesthetic in any way that was meaningful, which was why Armitage had to have his approval. To anyone else it just looks like a plastic brick.

29athrowaway 3y ago

I recommend this post from the r/cyberdeck subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/jzvvli/a_7_screen_laptop/ https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/jzvvli/a_7_scree...

pimlottc 3y ago

The black and white line drawing of the Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7 [0] is basically an exact copy of the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A [1] 0: https://blog.rfox.eu/en/Hardware/Cyberdecks/Untitled_12_thumb.jpg https://blog.rfox.eu/en/Hardware/Cyberdecks/Untitled_12_thum... 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-99/4A#/media/File:TI99-IMG_7132_(filter_levels_crop).jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-99/4A#/media/File:TI99-IMG_...

zoklet-enjoyer 3y ago
https://www.nathanandersonart.com/neuromancer https://www.nathanandersonart.com/neuromancer

araes 3y ago

If you're doing a cyberdeck, and you already include some form of AR display, then why include the keyboard? Haptic feedback gloves [1] are already a thing, and would allow typing wherever. They frankly need to get smaller, and not include such bulky hardware, even if it means "light, soft" feedback, yet they exist. I'd be happy with a floating "type zone" and soft "you touched a key" response. Wolfram's mobile computing piece [2] was one of the only tech things I've been a bit envious of lately. Now if smart/digital contacts could just get around all the patent fortresses / other issues, and actually produce a working product. Saw research prototypes back in the early 2000's. Apparently people are still trying. [3] [1] https://www.manus-meta.com/vr-gloves https://www.manus-meta.com/vr-gloves [2] https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/02/seeking-the-productive-life-some-details-of-my-personal-infrastructure/ https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/02/seeking-the-prod... [3] https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/augmented-reality-contact-lenses-vision/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/augmented-reality-co...

Groxx 3y ago
https://www.tapwithus.com/product/tap-strap-2/ https://www.tapwithus.com/product/tap-strap-2/ seems like a very pragmatic option, tech-wise - I'm not convinced floating will ever actually be good. Bouncing off a surface is extremely efficient, self-calibrating, and basically always available in some form (e.g. tap on yourself).
- ilyt 3y ago
  Make it look like knuckle dusters and it will look cyberpunk too
Vecr 3y ago
Nah, typing on a keyboard is faster and more precise. I think having a split keyboard with each side on the cummerbund of your plate carrier (split by the mag pouches or med kit you have on the front of your carrier) would work better. Assuming you actually want this to be practical and not just an aesthetic/signaling thing.

rcarr 3y ago

- Steam Deck - Viture AR glasses - Ferris Sweep 34 key Bluetooth Split Keyboard - Magic Trackpad This is my intended setup for long term travel, about as cyber deck as it gets.

valzam 3y ago
Have you tried the glasses already? I always wanted something like this but from the LinusTechTips review they seem horrible.
- rcarr 3y ago
  Yes I've tried both the XReal Air and the Viture. I like them. The XReal pinch my head which is really fucking annoying which is the main reason I ended up going for the Viture. The Viture are crystal clear apart from the very edges which are a bit blurry. From comments I've read on reddit, I believe this might be due to mild astigmatism so I'm going to the opticians soon to get my prescription so I can get the custom lenses and see if that fixes it. I think this is the better way forward if you have myopia/astigmatism rather than using the myopia dials on the top of the glasses, I think I have very mild myopia in one eye (like -0.5 or something) so I played around with the dials and you can dial it in with a bit of trial an error but it is an annoying process trying to get it right - they really should have done it so that when you change the dial it shows you what level you're changing it to on the screen (e.g -0.25, -0.5, -0.75 whilst you're turning) which would have made it far easier. Other than that I think they're great. If you want more detail I did a bit of a longer post here where I go into a more detailed comparison of why I went with the Viture over the XReal: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36659411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36659411

causality0 3y ago

Odd to me that futurists always seem to eschew the power of convenience. Everything runs on a balance between opportunity and convenience. Technology is created to generate opportunity, then refined to create convenience without losing that opportunity. Decks were never going to take off because nobody wants to deal with a setup that has all the inconveniences of a laptop and a headset and almost none of the advantages of either. Not to mention that the nature of the internet means it's all available at home anyway. There's no advantage to hiding in the back of a delivery truck with your deck and breaking into an evil company's network from their underground parking lot when whatever exploit you used may as well be deployed from your multi-monitor desk at home.

bullen 3y ago

http://move.rupy.se/file/last_computer.png http://move.rupy.se/file/last_computer.png If you want to drive VR you'll need minimum Jetson Nano and 15W.

prenoob 3y ago

Applause for the cyberdeck that looks like a TI99/4A.. saved

dtx1 3y ago

Whenever I get a swept into the Cyberdeck Youtube rabbit hole and think about building one, after a while of planning, Ideas, etc, I end up realising I just want a notebook with lots of USB Ports.

IOT_Apprentice 3y ago

I think back to the movie Hackers with a young Angelina Jolie. Lord Nikon, the Sony game at the arcade, the fight over the late night cable channel. Mess with the best, die like the rest. Hack the Planet !

kmstout 3y ago

Imagine cleaning out the case of a Kaypro II [0], replacing the internals with a RPI or something more capable; the display with an LCD of the same size; and a large battery pack. After leaving a dedicated space for a flask of whiskey, you'd still have a lot of space to put in modules for extra capabilities. [0] https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=550 https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=550

gumby 3y ago

> Deck or CyberDeck is this mobile computer first imagined by William Gibson in Neuromancer ... The Cyberdeck was first used in the 1980 John M. Ford novel Web of Angels, about half a decade before Neuromancer, and before Vinge's far more influential "True Names" for that matter. I have always had a fondness for Ford's cyberdeck as it had analog sliders as well (and a few other absurd features).

PsychoOil 3y ago

[dead]