8 ms·

Cyberdecks, going analog, and convivial technology

126 points by akkartik 4mo ago

ideasphere 4mo ago
Cyberdecks are nice for photos and build blog posts, but does anyone actually regularly use them?
- functionmouse 4mo ago
  no, they're plastic crap for kickstarter photos. not designed for human hands. They once existed (see Sony Vaio P 2nd gen; coolest thing in the universe) but modern OEMs no longer have such taste.
  - colechristensen 4mo ago
    I always wanted one of the tiny form factor laptops but during that period I had a specific need for a real non-usb hardware serial port and instead bought a laptop that actually had one which was very strange (2009 maybe?)
  - d3Xt3r 4mo ago
    GPD makes several devices that come close to the old compact Vaios. I have the GPD Win Mini and it's a pretty capable machine - 32GB RAM, 2TB storage, RDNA 3.5 gfx, built-in gamepad, full set of ports. The keyboard is surprisingly usable, although of course nowhere close to that of a laptop, but still usable for short periods. I got a fully fleshed out Arch gaming setup (manual install) and I use it on a regular basis like a Steam Deck and just a portable dev/test machine at work.
- Retr0id 4mo ago
  The ideal "cyberdeck" form factor is just a regular laptop. So to the extent that a macbook pro counts as a cyberdeck, yes.
  - throwthrowuknow 4mo ago
    Technically, a real cyberdeck is a VR rig with no screen. This fad is more about making custom cases for hardware.
- glaslong 4mo ago
  More of a fun Maker project for sure
- yummypaint 4mo ago
  For general compute they will lose to a laptop, but that isn't supposed to be their purpose. I think the best use cases require extra hardware that would make a laptop too bulky or awkward. For example a deck with a VNA, SDR, scope, and arbitrary waveform generator for field work with radio equipment. The traditional computer capabilities are sort of extra. Any sort of diagnostic "cart" with a dedicated computer and a bunch of test equipment could be a candidate for miniaturization.
  - inigyou 4mo ago
    I'm imagining a computer set up for DJing with big-ass speakers on the outside top lid, and a bunch of analog controls on either side of the keyboard, and a heavy battery.
    - sublinear 4mo ago
      That's not only possible, but was done to death in the early 2000s during the heyday of car audio components, "home theater" PCs, iPods, and finally good enough laptops. If you built one of those you were automatically the DJ after school, at the skate park, etc. You better believe those SLA batteries were heavy.
      - solomonb 4mo ago
        The modern equivalant is the all-in-one karaoke machine :)
  - ThrowawayR2 4mo ago
    > "For example a deck with a VNA, SDR, scope, and arbitrary waveform generator for field work with radio equipment." Any real world examples? I don't think that's plausible from a RFI, power, heat, or just plain fragility perspective even with the cheapo hobbyist instruments suitable for kitbashing and only energizing a couple of instruments a time.
    - RansomStark 4mo ago
- matheusmoreira 4mo ago
  Been working on a handheld cyberdeck with a good thumb keyboard. I'm masochistic enough to write entire projects on my smartphone with vim running inside termux, so I think anything that improves on this will certainly be used. Measured my thumb's swiping arc and designed a split keyboard specifically for my hands. Managed to get every symbol in there with no layers. Now I just need to save up some money and order protypes so I can get a feel for the switches. Can't move forward until I've perfected the keyboard.
  - backscratches 4mo ago
    Are you documenting the process anywhere? Also dying for a good thumb keyboard someday.
    - tmzt 4mo ago
      Personally, I'm repurposing an older HTC phone with slide-out keyboard (the Speedy) with a new Linux port.
- tartoran 4mo ago
  I got a ClockworkPi uConsole and am not really using it much, and that’s because it’s become very hard for me to read on the high dpi small screen for too long.
- overvale 4mo ago
  They're interactive art projects!
- skydhash 4mo ago
  The two non computer device I use today are my digital audio player (DAP) and my ereader. If I have the time and money, that would be the kind of specialized tasks that I could design a cyberdeck towards. The laptop form factor is quite nice for computing although I would like more direct ports than USB which is complex for experimentation.
- muyuu 4mo ago
  Idk if it merits being called a cyberdeck, but i use my rickety suitcase tablet+keyboard+mouse (+ powerbank) setup which I VNC from to my house computers mainly. One of the reasons is local LLMs being often impractical to run directly in my laptop, especially as I also do other things. Before that I didn't use it as much. Sometimes I just put the laptop and the mouse in the suitcase, mainly because I find the trackpad virtually unusable for VNC, particularly for copy-paste.
nl 4mo ago
I recently got a (good!) 3D printer, and that combined with Claude has got me building lots of custom hardware devices using ESP32s. I don't really see the value in a full-computer experience (which seems to be what most cyberdecks try to do - badly) but I can see utility in "sidecar"-style hardware, which is more akin to a phone app but with a better experience because of custom hardware.
- stackghost 4mo ago
  I'd be very interested in reading about the kinds of hardware projects you're doing with esp32s and your printer!
  - icedrift 4mo ago
    Something I've been doing is making an automated hydroponic tent. Temp, humidity, EC sensors and a few servos to control nutrients all feed into an esp32 + servo controller and broadcast data through a local webapp. Just need to add a camera for timelapses and remote viewing.
  - nl 4mo ago
    I have a (very much!) enhanced version of https://github.com/anthropics/claude-desktop-buddy https://github.com/anthropics/claude-desktop-buddy running on a different ESP32 board with a case: https://github.com/nlothian/claude-desktop-buddy-FNK010B/tree/main/3D-print/v2 https://github.com/nlothian/claude-desktop-buddy-FNK010B/tre... I have a bunch of Home Assistant controls using a variety of custom controls and cases. I have a custom version of Seeed's ESPClaw (https://github.com/Seeed-Projects/espclaw https://github.com/Seeed-Projects/espclaw - there are a lot of other ESP Claws too) with a case. I'm working on a Tamgotchi-style mini-game device using ESP-NOW to connect with nearby devices. Lots of other random projects at various stages of development.
    - cobertos 4mo ago
      Any chance you have or could post pics of those custom HA controllers? Seeing custom interactables and how they integrate with ppl's environments are always suuuuper interesting
jesse_dot_id 4mo ago
I became an engineer because I'm lazy.
NDlurker 4mo ago
I'll just wait until I can jack in with a jailbroken Neuralink.
- noosphr 4mo ago
  If you already have the electrodes installed in your brain you can use stimulation circuitry from the courtocal labs cl1 to get a bidirectional bci. https://corticallabs.com/cl1 https://corticallabs.com/cl1 Unfortunately getting that as elective surgery is impossible in the developed world and the quality of Brazilian back alley brain surgery leaves a lot to be desired.
inigyou 4mo ago
At CCCamp 2023 was someone showing off how they converted a laptop with a broken screen into a cyberdeck by removing the screen and permanently connecting the bottom half to VR glasses. There was also a musical Tesla coil. And some group called Anderstorp, who converted a massive obsolete router into a beer tap.
- y1n0 4mo ago
  Now this would at least resemble a cyberdeck from the books.
nl 4mo ago
I read the article and sadly I think the author missed a key thing that is going on. Yes, there are few people who created cyberdecks as a counter-culture, anti-company tool (which is a lot of what the author argues). But some of the newer ones they highlight are nothing more than engagement farming reels. They are the very definition of the opposite of what the author writes here: > We want to escape the algorithmic plantations that tech companies have herded us into. I don't know of they fail to see this because they are blinded by their hope or there is a more complex viewpoint I'm missing.
- edgarvaldes 4mo ago
  Agree. Any hobby can become superficial content for Instagram, especially if your only or main source of information is online channels. But real communities exist, and you need to be in the real world to experience them firsthand.
  - nl 4mo ago
    Not arguing that real communities don't exist! I'm arguing that the author's main point is based on the Instagram posts, and this is invalid.
- chongli 4mo ago
  I don't know of they fail to see this because they are blinded by their hope or there is a more complex viewpoint I'm missing. There is. "We want to escape" is a very different viewpoint from "we want to liberate the masses." Freeing yourself from the social media is definitely doable. Depending on how firmly engaged you are at the moment, it can vary in difficulty between fait accompli and moderately challenging. It's obviously possible for anyone to do themselves. Liberating the masses? Morpheus said it best: "The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."
palmotea 4mo ago
> Cyberdecks are changing for the better > I say that cyberdecks are having another wave of resurgence because the interest in cyberdecks waxes and wanes, like everything in life, there is a cycle to the ideas coming into focus and out of focus, washing into the shore and washing back out to the sea of etheral thought. > In my own view, cyberdecks have remained popular because of hacker culture. And all of the cultural norms wrapped up in hacker subcultures carries along with it. Specifically, the design of cyberdecks over the years has maintained a steady state of projects that maintain a military or scientific bend to them. They are afterall, influenced by science fiction about dystopian future societies that focus on war, dystopian corporate megacities, or interstellar travel. AI or just terrible writing?
- tsylba 4mo ago
  The whole piece feel like vibe farming by some youngling piecing together part of the hacker culture as seen by the media in the 90s with some reddit or vintage tumblr trends on top. I resonated with a lot of themes it tries to capture but it ends up looking more like a teen trying to commodify a subculture in a performative way rather than a real tentative alternative to the system, as we saw every generation or so. I'm all in for lowtech, degrowth, permacomputing, Bookchin municipalism and Illich like "tools for conviviality" but here it seems.. candid and non genuine.
goodboyjojo 4mo ago
i've seen many people get into cyberdecks. stuff like this gets people feet wet for stem professions like engineering and programming.
- thenthenthen 4mo ago
  This! Its learning and a rite of passage, like with ‘guilds’ / the arts and crafts movements / craftsmanship described in the article (but not discussed as far as i can see). Sorry forgot the name for this thing… basically a master / apprentice project.
utopiah 4mo ago
"Yeah I don't get it..." meanwhile me packing for holiday with my GrapheneOS Pixel with my 3D printed phone stand and my BT mechanical keyboard "Wait a minute!" Also gave a workshop last weekends to kids and brought a "server" as a RPi Zero and a cheap (as in goodie level) tiny battery. Damned, I'm part of the "movement".
y1n0 4mo ago
I think these things are interesting, but I grew up on neuromancer...and so I have some cognitive dissonance when I see these described as cyberdecks and see screens. I get that the term has moved on, and cyberdeck means whatever people say it means now. But to me, these are just novel retro diy laptops. I think given today's technology you could sort of a approximate a cyberdeck with some low end ar/vr glasses like something from xreal and ditch the screen.
- _glass 4mo ago
  that's why I still love the quest3, just for the potential. but xreal makes more sense, and then a more open platform. but I think post-covid we approach neuromancer more than ever.
- QuesnayJr 4mo ago
  Someone said to me yesterday "I'm thinking about building my own cyberdeck" and I boggled, because the only meaning I knew was the Neuromancer one.
aaronbrethorst 4mo ago
Forget the Ono-Sendai Cyberspace Seven, I'm still waiting for a Sandbenders.
globular-toast 4mo ago
> Technology was supposed to connect us[...] Was it? According to whom? The quoted phrase is pretty much a meme at this point, but I don't think it's true. This would suggest people in the 80s and 90s were sitting around feeling lonely and isolated, wishing they could be "more connected". Technology has always been about one thing: giving people more freedom. Whether it's the ability to make coffee at home, or travel vast distances at great speeds whenever you want to, it's all about people being free from the constraints of relying on society (and the environment) for things. It's all fundamentally counter to a cohesive society. It was never going to make us "more connected", quite the contrary. Asimov saw where this was going half a century ago. In his books the Solarians took technology to the extreme, allowing them to live alone on enormous estates affording them all the freedom in the world. But they were alone, communicating only remotely through screens. They didn't even have sex any more. Sound familiar? When I read this as a teen it totally put me off "freedom" as the singular goal so many people treat it as. I didn't want to end up like that. I don't want to be alone. Life is about sharing and technology is never going to help with that, it's only going to make it worse, if we let it. > This is apparent in the rise of "journal tok", where people on TikTok are posting about returning to written journals, planners, and sketchbooks. Is this intended to be ironic? People will do anything for views on TikTok, including making videos about not using TikTok. If anyone does anything and puts it on TikTok, or other social media, I assume they're doing it for the views, not because they actually enjoy it. If you want to find someone who enjoys cooking, find someone who will cook and eat with you, don't look on TikTok. If you want to find someone who doesn't like TikTok, well, guess where you won't find them. The rest of the article is filled with TikTok videos which I'm not going to watch.
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]
GL26 4mo ago
Analog Electronics are the goat, there this whole branch of people who make electronic music using pure analog circuits, here is an example : https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOr4ShNCFBv/?igsh=MTR2MWx6aHhzZWc0cw%3D%3D https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOr4ShNCFBv/?igsh=MTR2MWx6aHh...
ma2kx 4mo ago
What keeps going through my mind regarding this topic is that we have Instagram for pictures, YouTube for videos, Reddit as a forum, Twitter/Bsky as a microblogging service, and so on. But what if we focused on locality again? What if each city/region had its own virtual meeting place for pictures, videos, forums, microblogging, and so forth? I don't mean a "super app" that simply divides things regionally, but rather that each regional center builds its own Hangout. I realize that this sounds fantastical, and I don't know how something like that could be implemented in the current situation. It's more the idea that while Facebook and similar platforms allow us to see content from people all over the world, we completely miss out on what's happening in our own local area.
- goldenarm 4mo ago
  Local social is one of the most attempted startup ideas of the 2010s. It is quite challenging because network effects are hard to reach at the local scale, and you need significant moderation to prevent bullying.
  - ma2kx 4mo ago
    Yes, I see scaling as the biggest problem. Instead of developing one service for potentially 7 billion users, you're building 10 services for maybe 1 to 10 million users each. It would probably come down to patching together open-source solutions like Keycloak, Immich, FreeTube, Flarum, etc. I find atproto, on which Bluesky/Eurosky are based, particularly interesting. I'm not so sure whether bullying is really a big problem. In such a regional environment, it makes little sense to appear "anonymous." You might not want your name and address publicly available, but if you comment on the popular parties and clubs, neighborhood happenings, etc., people who know you in real life will naturally recognize you. Ultimately, it comes down to how the local population operates.
  - dsr_ 4mo ago
    Moderation is a hard problem, period.
  - asdff 4mo ago
    A big issue is the NextDoor effect. The most prolific posters are going to be people who saw a black person walking around and are startled by it and posting about it. Sane people see that and leave.
mentalgear 4mo ago
Very compelling read on how common people cooperatives were always the only counterweight to the ruling class - and how the elites constantly tried to polarise the common people to take power from them. > The Middle Ages, the Industrial Revolution, and our current Techno-Fudalist time are all connected. We still have lords (land lords, the bourgeoisie), we still have kings who enclose the commons (billionaires who enclosed the commons of the internet), who enforce violence with the hand of private armies of knights (the police and military), who demand that we provide for them while they subjugate us. Medieval Guilds & The Arts and Crafts movement > Medieval guilds were created during feudal times as a challenge to the labor exploitation of the working class of the time. In some areas, guilds were organized by specific crafts. Metalsmithing, woodworking, and textiles are some examples. Guilds had specific guidelines on quality, and they created widespread quality control over the goods produced by the artisans in the guild. If a woodworker produced bad-quality furniture, their guild could basically force them to remake it to their quality standards. > Guilds were basically worker cooperatives (in some cases) or could be thought of as trade-specific labor unions
everyone 4mo ago
Or just pick up any shithouse old laptop from a thrift store or wherever and put Linux Mint on it. Done.
imthias404 4mo ago
At the end of the day, the very system you claim to oppose will ultimately profit from this "movement." I am not trying to look down on a hobby. Building cyberdecks is cool, and it's a great learning experience, but it's not a movement. Other than being a fun project, a cyberdeck serves no practical purpose and lacks any real daily driving application. It sparks no actual rebellion. it's just a product not the revolution. but i wish it was, i genuinely wish people would just show the finger to big corporations.
Flingerthing 4mo ago
[dead]

126 points by akkartik 4mo ago

ideasphere 4mo ago

Cyberdecks are nice for photos and build blog posts, but does anyone actually regularly use them?

functionmouse 4mo ago
no, they're plastic crap for kickstarter photos. not designed for human hands. They once existed (see Sony Vaio P 2nd gen; coolest thing in the universe) but modern OEMs no longer have such taste.
- colechristensen 4mo ago
  I always wanted one of the tiny form factor laptops but during that period I had a specific need for a real non-usb hardware serial port and instead bought a laptop that actually had one which was very strange (2009 maybe?)
- d3Xt3r 4mo ago
  GPD makes several devices that come close to the old compact Vaios. I have the GPD Win Mini and it's a pretty capable machine - 32GB RAM, 2TB storage, RDNA 3.5 gfx, built-in gamepad, full set of ports. The keyboard is surprisingly usable, although of course nowhere close to that of a laptop, but still usable for short periods. I got a fully fleshed out Arch gaming setup (manual install) and I use it on a regular basis like a Steam Deck and just a portable dev/test machine at work.
Retr0id 4mo ago
The ideal "cyberdeck" form factor is just a regular laptop. So to the extent that a macbook pro counts as a cyberdeck, yes.
- throwthrowuknow 4mo ago
  Technically, a real cyberdeck is a VR rig with no screen. This fad is more about making custom cases for hardware.
glaslong 4mo ago
More of a fun Maker project for sure
yummypaint 4mo ago
For general compute they will lose to a laptop, but that isn't supposed to be their purpose. I think the best use cases require extra hardware that would make a laptop too bulky or awkward. For example a deck with a VNA, SDR, scope, and arbitrary waveform generator for field work with radio equipment. The traditional computer capabilities are sort of extra. Any sort of diagnostic "cart" with a dedicated computer and a bunch of test equipment could be a candidate for miniaturization.
- inigyou 4mo ago
  I'm imagining a computer set up for DJing with big-ass speakers on the outside top lid, and a bunch of analog controls on either side of the keyboard, and a heavy battery.
  - sublinear 4mo ago
    That's not only possible, but was done to death in the early 2000s during the heyday of car audio components, "home theater" PCs, iPods, and finally good enough laptops. If you built one of those you were automatically the DJ after school, at the skate park, etc. You better believe those SLA batteries were heavy.
    - solomonb 4mo ago
      The modern equivalant is the all-in-one karaoke machine :)
- ThrowawayR2 4mo ago
  > "For example a deck with a VNA, SDR, scope, and arbitrary waveform generator for field work with radio equipment." Any real world examples? I don't think that's plausible from a RFI, power, heat, or just plain fragility perspective even with the cheapo hobbyist instruments suitable for kitbashing and only energizing a couple of instruments a time.
  - RansomStark 4mo ago
matheusmoreira 4mo ago
Been working on a handheld cyberdeck with a good thumb keyboard. I'm masochistic enough to write entire projects on my smartphone with vim running inside termux, so I think anything that improves on this will certainly be used. Measured my thumb's swiping arc and designed a split keyboard specifically for my hands. Managed to get every symbol in there with no layers. Now I just need to save up some money and order protypes so I can get a feel for the switches. Can't move forward until I've perfected the keyboard.
- backscratches 4mo ago
  Are you documenting the process anywhere? Also dying for a good thumb keyboard someday.
  - tmzt 4mo ago
    Personally, I'm repurposing an older HTC phone with slide-out keyboard (the Speedy) with a new Linux port.
tartoran 4mo ago
I got a ClockworkPi uConsole and am not really using it much, and that’s because it’s become very hard for me to read on the high dpi small screen for too long.
overvale 4mo ago
They're interactive art projects!
skydhash 4mo ago
The two non computer device I use today are my digital audio player (DAP) and my ereader. If I have the time and money, that would be the kind of specialized tasks that I could design a cyberdeck towards. The laptop form factor is quite nice for computing although I would like more direct ports than USB which is complex for experimentation.
muyuu 4mo ago
Idk if it merits being called a cyberdeck, but i use my rickety suitcase tablet+keyboard+mouse (+ powerbank) setup which I VNC from to my house computers mainly. One of the reasons is local LLMs being often impractical to run directly in my laptop, especially as I also do other things. Before that I didn't use it as much. Sometimes I just put the laptop and the mouse in the suitcase, mainly because I find the trackpad virtually unusable for VNC, particularly for copy-paste.

nl 4mo ago

I recently got a (good!) 3D printer, and that combined with Claude has got me building lots of custom hardware devices using ESP32s. I don't really see the value in a full-computer experience (which seems to be what most cyberdecks try to do - badly) but I can see utility in "sidecar"-style hardware, which is more akin to a phone app but with a better experience because of custom hardware.

stackghost 4mo ago
I'd be very interested in reading about the kinds of hardware projects you're doing with esp32s and your printer!
- icedrift 4mo ago
  Something I've been doing is making an automated hydroponic tent. Temp, humidity, EC sensors and a few servos to control nutrients all feed into an esp32 + servo controller and broadcast data through a local webapp. Just need to add a camera for timelapses and remote viewing.
- nl 4mo ago
  I have a (very much!) enhanced version of https://github.com/anthropics/claude-desktop-buddy https://github.com/anthropics/claude-desktop-buddy running on a different ESP32 board with a case: https://github.com/nlothian/claude-desktop-buddy-FNK010B/tree/main/3D-print/v2 https://github.com/nlothian/claude-desktop-buddy-FNK010B/tre... I have a bunch of Home Assistant controls using a variety of custom controls and cases. I have a custom version of Seeed's ESPClaw (https://github.com/Seeed-Projects/espclaw https://github.com/Seeed-Projects/espclaw - there are a lot of other ESP Claws too) with a case. I'm working on a Tamgotchi-style mini-game device using ESP-NOW to connect with nearby devices. Lots of other random projects at various stages of development.
  - cobertos 4mo ago
    Any chance you have or could post pics of those custom HA controllers? Seeing custom interactables and how they integrate with ppl's environments are always suuuuper interesting

jesse_dot_id 4mo ago

I became an engineer because I'm lazy.

NDlurker 4mo ago

I'll just wait until I can jack in with a jailbroken Neuralink.

noosphr 4mo ago
If you already have the electrodes installed in your brain you can use stimulation circuitry from the courtocal labs cl1 to get a bidirectional bci. https://corticallabs.com/cl1 https://corticallabs.com/cl1 Unfortunately getting that as elective surgery is impossible in the developed world and the quality of Brazilian back alley brain surgery leaves a lot to be desired.

inigyou 4mo ago

At CCCamp 2023 was someone showing off how they converted a laptop with a broken screen into a cyberdeck by removing the screen and permanently connecting the bottom half to VR glasses. There was also a musical Tesla coil. And some group called Anderstorp, who converted a massive obsolete router into a beer tap.

y1n0 4mo ago
Now this would at least resemble a cyberdeck from the books.

nl 4mo ago

I read the article and sadly I think the author missed a key thing that is going on. Yes, there are few people who created cyberdecks as a counter-culture, anti-company tool (which is a lot of what the author argues). But some of the newer ones they highlight are nothing more than engagement farming reels. They are the very definition of the opposite of what the author writes here: > We want to escape the algorithmic plantations that tech companies have herded us into. I don't know of they fail to see this because they are blinded by their hope or there is a more complex viewpoint I'm missing.

edgarvaldes 4mo ago
Agree. Any hobby can become superficial content for Instagram, especially if your only or main source of information is online channels. But real communities exist, and you need to be in the real world to experience them firsthand.
- nl 4mo ago
  Not arguing that real communities don't exist! I'm arguing that the author's main point is based on the Instagram posts, and this is invalid.
chongli 4mo ago
I don't know of they fail to see this because they are blinded by their hope or there is a more complex viewpoint I'm missing. There is. "We want to escape" is a very different viewpoint from "we want to liberate the masses." Freeing yourself from the social media is definitely doable. Depending on how firmly engaged you are at the moment, it can vary in difficulty between fait accompli and moderately challenging. It's obviously possible for anyone to do themselves. Liberating the masses? Morpheus said it best: "The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."

palmotea 4mo ago

> Cyberdecks are changing for the better > I say that cyberdecks are having another wave of resurgence because the interest in cyberdecks waxes and wanes, like everything in life, there is a cycle to the ideas coming into focus and out of focus, washing into the shore and washing back out to the sea of etheral thought. > In my own view, cyberdecks have remained popular because of hacker culture. And all of the cultural norms wrapped up in hacker subcultures carries along with it. Specifically, the design of cyberdecks over the years has maintained a steady state of projects that maintain a military or scientific bend to them. They are afterall, influenced by science fiction about dystopian future societies that focus on war, dystopian corporate megacities, or interstellar travel. AI or just terrible writing?

tsylba 4mo ago
The whole piece feel like vibe farming by some youngling piecing together part of the hacker culture as seen by the media in the 90s with some reddit or vintage tumblr trends on top. I resonated with a lot of themes it tries to capture but it ends up looking more like a teen trying to commodify a subculture in a performative way rather than a real tentative alternative to the system, as we saw every generation or so. I'm all in for lowtech, degrowth, permacomputing, Bookchin municipalism and Illich like "tools for conviviality" but here it seems.. candid and non genuine.

goodboyjojo 4mo ago

i've seen many people get into cyberdecks. stuff like this gets people feet wet for stem professions like engineering and programming.

thenthenthen 4mo ago
This! Its learning and a rite of passage, like with ‘guilds’ / the arts and crafts movements / craftsmanship described in the article (but not discussed as far as i can see). Sorry forgot the name for this thing… basically a master / apprentice project.

utopiah 4mo ago

"Yeah I don't get it..." meanwhile me packing for holiday with my GrapheneOS Pixel with my 3D printed phone stand and my BT mechanical keyboard "Wait a minute!" Also gave a workshop last weekends to kids and brought a "server" as a RPi Zero and a cheap (as in goodie level) tiny battery. Damned, I'm part of the "movement".

y1n0 4mo ago

I think these things are interesting, but I grew up on neuromancer...and so I have some cognitive dissonance when I see these described as cyberdecks and see screens. I get that the term has moved on, and cyberdeck means whatever people say it means now. But to me, these are just novel retro diy laptops. I think given today's technology you could sort of a approximate a cyberdeck with some low end ar/vr glasses like something from xreal and ditch the screen.

_glass 4mo ago
that's why I still love the quest3, just for the potential. but xreal makes more sense, and then a more open platform. but I think post-covid we approach neuromancer more than ever.
QuesnayJr 4mo ago
Someone said to me yesterday "I'm thinking about building my own cyberdeck" and I boggled, because the only meaning I knew was the Neuromancer one.

aaronbrethorst 4mo ago

Forget the Ono-Sendai Cyberspace Seven, I'm still waiting for a Sandbenders.

globular-toast 4mo ago

> Technology was supposed to connect us[...] Was it? According to whom? The quoted phrase is pretty much a meme at this point, but I don't think it's true. This would suggest people in the 80s and 90s were sitting around feeling lonely and isolated, wishing they could be "more connected". Technology has always been about one thing: giving people more freedom. Whether it's the ability to make coffee at home, or travel vast distances at great speeds whenever you want to, it's all about people being free from the constraints of relying on society (and the environment) for things. It's all fundamentally counter to a cohesive society. It was never going to make us "more connected", quite the contrary. Asimov saw where this was going half a century ago. In his books the Solarians took technology to the extreme, allowing them to live alone on enormous estates affording them all the freedom in the world. But they were alone, communicating only remotely through screens. They didn't even have sex any more. Sound familiar? When I read this as a teen it totally put me off "freedom" as the singular goal so many people treat it as. I didn't want to end up like that. I don't want to be alone. Life is about sharing and technology is never going to help with that, it's only going to make it worse, if we let it. > This is apparent in the rise of "journal tok", where people on TikTok are posting about returning to written journals, planners, and sketchbooks. Is this intended to be ironic? People will do anything for views on TikTok, including making videos about not using TikTok. If anyone does anything and puts it on TikTok, or other social media, I assume they're doing it for the views, not because they actually enjoy it. If you want to find someone who enjoys cooking, find someone who will cook and eat with you, don't look on TikTok. If you want to find someone who doesn't like TikTok, well, guess where you won't find them. The rest of the article is filled with TikTok videos which I'm not going to watch.

deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]

GL26 4mo ago

Analog Electronics are the goat, there this whole branch of people who make electronic music using pure analog circuits, here is an example : https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOr4ShNCFBv/?igsh=MTR2MWx6aHhzZWc0cw%3D%3D https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOr4ShNCFBv/?igsh=MTR2MWx6aHh...

ma2kx 4mo ago

What keeps going through my mind regarding this topic is that we have Instagram for pictures, YouTube for videos, Reddit as a forum, Twitter/Bsky as a microblogging service, and so on. But what if we focused on locality again? What if each city/region had its own virtual meeting place for pictures, videos, forums, microblogging, and so forth? I don't mean a "super app" that simply divides things regionally, but rather that each regional center builds its own Hangout. I realize that this sounds fantastical, and I don't know how something like that could be implemented in the current situation. It's more the idea that while Facebook and similar platforms allow us to see content from people all over the world, we completely miss out on what's happening in our own local area.

goldenarm 4mo ago
Local social is one of the most attempted startup ideas of the 2010s. It is quite challenging because network effects are hard to reach at the local scale, and you need significant moderation to prevent bullying.
- ma2kx 4mo ago
  Yes, I see scaling as the biggest problem. Instead of developing one service for potentially 7 billion users, you're building 10 services for maybe 1 to 10 million users each. It would probably come down to patching together open-source solutions like Keycloak, Immich, FreeTube, Flarum, etc. I find atproto, on which Bluesky/Eurosky are based, particularly interesting. I'm not so sure whether bullying is really a big problem. In such a regional environment, it makes little sense to appear "anonymous." You might not want your name and address publicly available, but if you comment on the popular parties and clubs, neighborhood happenings, etc., people who know you in real life will naturally recognize you. Ultimately, it comes down to how the local population operates.
- dsr_ 4mo ago
  Moderation is a hard problem, period.
- asdff 4mo ago
  A big issue is the NextDoor effect. The most prolific posters are going to be people who saw a black person walking around and are startled by it and posting about it. Sane people see that and leave.

mentalgear 4mo ago

Very compelling read on how common people cooperatives were always the only counterweight to the ruling class - and how the elites constantly tried to polarise the common people to take power from them. > The Middle Ages, the Industrial Revolution, and our current Techno-Fudalist time are all connected. We still have lords (land lords, the bourgeoisie), we still have kings who enclose the commons (billionaires who enclosed the commons of the internet), who enforce violence with the hand of private armies of knights (the police and military), who demand that we provide for them while they subjugate us. Medieval Guilds & The Arts and Crafts movement > Medieval guilds were created during feudal times as a challenge to the labor exploitation of the working class of the time. In some areas, guilds were organized by specific crafts. Metalsmithing, woodworking, and textiles are some examples. Guilds had specific guidelines on quality, and they created widespread quality control over the goods produced by the artisans in the guild. If a woodworker produced bad-quality furniture, their guild could basically force them to remake it to their quality standards. > Guilds were basically worker cooperatives (in some cases) or could be thought of as trade-specific labor unions

everyone 4mo ago

Or just pick up any shithouse old laptop from a thrift store or wherever and put Linux Mint on it. Done.

imthias404 4mo ago

At the end of the day, the very system you claim to oppose will ultimately profit from this "movement." I am not trying to look down on a hobby. Building cyberdecks is cool, and it's a great learning experience, but it's not a movement. Other than being a fun project, a cyberdeck serves no practical purpose and lacks any real daily driving application. It sparks no actual rebellion. it's just a product not the revolution. but i wish it was, i genuinely wish people would just show the finger to big corporations.

Flingerthing 4mo ago

[dead]