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Imagine being isolated off-grid for an unknown number of years. Maybe you're stuck somewhere like Davidge or Mark Watney; or perhaps you've chosen a life of isolation like Yoda or Obi-Wan Kenobi. Maybe you're a survivor of the $Apocalypse. Wouldn't keeping a journal be a great idea? You could pass on your knowledge, keep track of daily activities, maybe even keep yourself from going insane!
Forget all the wastefulness, extravagance, and complexity of most modern devices, you've got survival to think about! Obviously power usage would be a major concern, but ergonomics, searchability, repairability, and data robustness would be important too. Keeping in mind that this is a dedicated device for journaling and barring the old Russian pencil and paper, what would the best solution look like with off-the-shelf modern technology?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @12:07AM (3 children)
Honestly we don't build computers like that yet, but I think we are getting better at the technology through cell phones. The important bits use less power and are getting more rugged with each generation. I'm very hopeful that if/when humans set up outposts in space that we will see the demand go up for very long lasting devices.
Still, if we were to get the best engineers together with today's tech I could envision a device that:
-Is phablet/tablet sized.
-Is solar, possibly mechanically charged. You wouldn't want to throw it doing a "shake-a-weight" move by accident though.
-Is completely sealed and water proof. No external ports. Would take a lot of courage.
-Is powered by energy stored through a stable nano-material capacitor. NO chemical batteries.
-Utilizes an E Ink display or something like it that only uses power to refresh, along with ability to connect wirelessly to other displays.
-Makes use of a touch screen qwerty keyboard, and also has the ability to connect wirelessly to a good mechanical keyboard.
-Contains no electrolytic capacitors and is designed to avoid whiskering of the electrical innards.
-Runs at a very low temperature to avoid wear.
-Contains a very simple and rugged, yet completely open, single board computer design that is in the public domain. Could use a VERY low clock speed.
-Keeps memory stored in static RAM and ROM.
-Has some sort of UNIX based embedded OS with busybox containing vi (or whatever).
-Contains a long range UHF transceiver like goTenna.
-Is actually multiple clones in a mesh network that periodically back each other up and error check over the UHF.
Thanks, I actually want a few of these now...
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday June 12 2018, @12:16AM (2 children)
> Thanks, I actually want a few of these now...
There was a company with a kickstarter for a ruggedized open tablet that was going to do many of these features. It was called Earl; www.meetearl.com. Unfortunately the design team burned through all of the kickstarter money and is now kaput. It's a shame; it was a clever idea.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @12:56AM
Cool to know. This seems like a really simple idea, but as Earl demonstrated building and delivering is hard.
I really like the idea of an heirloom computer that's still functional. Imagine leaving one of them on a stump in the woods only to find it again working 10 years later with the stump rotten away! Surely it's possible, I think a big company would have to get behind it. Guess I still have my mother's old calculator from 73. Still works.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @03:14AM
And just like that the OLPC laptop is lost forever, forgotten by history. Less than a generation old and already no one remembers it, not even me.