@hi ADV cardputer? edit: under £50 with wifi card, BT support, LoRa support available, USB-C interface although battery life isn't very food. Display is barely an inch.

https://github.com/m5stack/M5Cardputer/blob/master/examples/Advanced/SSHClient/SSHClient.ino

@hi @prahou
Maybe add optional serial, even if extenal/usb.

@hi

ESP32 will run ssh.

@hi this already existed in 2000s, minus the usb-c. It was called the HTC Merge. Loved the slide out keyboard. Nothing like it really exists anymore to my knowledge.

@hi Hmm? OpenSourceSDRLab UConsole with ClockworkPi https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256811687027709.html?channel=twinner

@hi uConsole but not sure about 1 week battery.

@hi

Should be foldable with built-in keyboard.

And doable with 200 eur smartphones, so except for the battery life it should be achievable for maybe 100 bucks.

@hi - I think so. The Gemini PDA has a 6 inch display. Runs linux which you can configure to be headless and only have SSH on it. It's wifi and cellular. Not sure on battery life, but its robust. Price is right. USB-C.

It does have its own keyboard on it as well.

https://www.www3.planetcom.co.uk/gemini-pda

@hi Saw this thing just this morning and it's on my potential pocket computer list especially due to the LoRa support. Obviously I don't care about the "AI" accelerator but a stripped down RISC-V Linux port with just the console and busybox would be rad.

I am a bit confused about one thing though; it seems you have to have the keyboard attachment to get the LoRa/mesh radio?

https://www.cnx-software.com/2026/10/28/lilygo-t-display-k230-risc-v-ai-dev-kit-features-amoled-lora-and-an-optional-keyboard/

@hi Clockwork's PiCalc gets close. Cellular is missing but I've run SSH firmware on it. It's a microcontroller so a bit limited but it worked. Battery life was good but might need some extra cells ... easy enough to expand or swap since you only need one battery in at a time so you can hotswap.

Alas, the OS did not have SSH-only; it was some java morass. Basically Android was the HipTop 2.0 (and got worse and worse, particularly after Alphabet Inc./Google ditched physical keyboards).

@hi I think the battery life will be mostly limited by supporting WiFi and Cellular, also these will, like USB-C, consume a bit of CPU time in most implementations, so a too small CPU won't work.

Otherwise, no problem, an even lower price should be possible. Not sure if such a minimalist OS exists (Linux might be too good) for a SoC, would need to research it. But you could always take small SoC and all protocols as application level software.

@hi Psion 5a with an ethernet CF card in it and an ssh client installed?

@hi https://pine64.org/documentation/Phone_Accessories/Keyboard/ pinephone+keyboard , but even with the extra battery in the keyboard, no where near a week of battery.

Nura (formerly postmarketOS) can be installed with no window manager.

I wanted the pinephone to be this so much, but either I got a bad device or it was a big miss.

@hi
I've had a similar idea!
Mine wants to be a head-mounted display with a few lines of text, paired with a chord keyboard like the Loop, or maybe just one of those teensy media keyboards, and just enough processor to shell into a grownup computer.

@hi need

@hi Hmm. Something like a $69 SBC like the zimablade would do it, but has no screen. It has a HDMI output, and is small and light enough you could glue its case to the back of the screen to make an integrated unit??? I see 10" HDMI screens for $70. Now, the"OS"... 🤔

@hi Not quite there but close. I’m keeping an eye on this. https://mecha.so/comet#overview

@hi That seems completely doable to me if it uses an e-ink screen. Battery life depends most on how you plan to use it, though.

@mntmn I It!
Could I get one?

@mntmn don't toy with us, the MNTdeck can't come soon enough eheh

@mntmn I want to tippy tap that keyboard.

@mntmn Soooo cute! :3

to clarify, the tiny center display would go away and make room for the big one

@mntmn I love that the keyboard display is comparable to the external one. The variety of hardware we have these days is amazing, and yes, I love good constraints for hardware.

@mntmn mnt + blackberry?

@mntmn like nintendo 2DS form factor?

@mntmn makes me think of the sharp 1211 I had many many years ago.

@mntmn I am basically building this rn but with an old cellphone screen, do iiiiiiiiit

@mntmn love solar and transflective lcd, i think 40x4 would feel too limiting though

160x160 like the palm m500 or 240x160 like the game boy advance would be still feel a bit cramped, but full of possibility

how does e-ink compare in price and power to that 40x4 display?

@mntmn I would love nothing more than a device with a transflective LCD I can use in the sun. I know Pixel Qi are only new old stock, but at least that specific LVDS connector saw ubiquitous use on displays that are likely still available today

@mntmn I'm so getting the standalone keyboard when I can afford it. I have a fancy Moonlander but the Pocket keyboard is the most comfortable to use

@mntmn will it run ed?

@mntmn
#DoesItPlayDoom?

@mntmn Vague, but exciting

@mntmn

does it run a Unixlike (Linux or BSD)?

If so… :swoon:

@mntmn Like a mini TRS-80 Model 100 with a mechanical keyboard! I like it! :)

@mntmn slab tops with transreflective lcd are the best

Alt...

Trs80 model 100 with x11 running xterm and xeyes.

@mntmn lol but also: color epaper? https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper/4.26inch-e-paper-hat-plus-g.htm

@mntmn Did you not have a banana handy? :)

I love this thing, could there be a slightly wider keyboard layout?

@mntmn descended from alphasmart

@mntmn I'd take one. Currently I'm using a https://byok.io, but this device has the clear issue that the battery will be dead in a few years and I'm not even sure if I can open the casing.
A writing device with open hard- and software would be great; solar powering would be magical.

@mntmn y not e ink?

funny, after reading the draft, @dngrs sent me this video by Another Roof, which is concerned with AI in mathematics but hits on very similar fundamental themes, which is that we enjoy art made by humans, and this also applies to mathematics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0MjPe7wXs8

@mntmn
>

@mntmn
> In the same way in which I want to experience art made by other humans as a form of emotional and mental connection, I enjoy using software, hardware, and other products that are made by caring, considerate human beings, and not by unfeeling robots. All of these artifacts are essentially fragments of human communication

So much this.

@mntmn What do I think? I think that I wholeheartedly agree. I think that you write with a beautiful clarity. I think that I'm more happy than ever that I decided to order my next laptop from you. :-) Please keep creating--with words, with code, and with circuit diagrams.

@mntmn I was speaking at a conference recently and many of the others there would do this charade about their business not heing possible without AI. I'd ask how and they'd say "I couldn't possibly do all the work myself" with no hint of irony when I talk about nobody hiring when workloads get tough and instead throw money at AI... which they agree hurts the community.

@mntmn fake people for fake people

@mntmn I see I'm not the only one who's been thinking of “Dollhouse” in our current moment…

@mntmn this is without a doubt one of the best pieces of writing on the topic. Thank you for sharing your thoughts <3

@mntmn Lucie, that article is spot on.

The kind of people who push this are power hungry, their empathy is damaged.

We can tell the care and empathy you have for the mnt community.

@mntmn I'd love to boost this, very well thought out and written, but is this a permalink? Seems like if you blog more in the future, this would shift out from the main index.html, but correct me.

@mntmn I'm reading Magnifica humanitas by the Pope. It's vey similar yet it falls short of consequences. Doesn't makle it less valuable because any reader should come to the right conclusions.
Life is art, programming is art and letting a machine take over is cutting short on what's beautiful in life.

@mntmn

> The people who try this stuff are always of the same kind

I think this is wrong. It might feel that way, but it's weakening the argument. There is more to explore there about what drives people into all this.

> I had a realization that *pain* is the main anchor of reality

I think you're right on the money with this one. And that is also why the idea of AI alignment and trying to teach it ethics is not going to ever fully work.

Ethics are an emergent property of shared vulnerability. Something that can't die cannot truly feel empathy for something that can.

> because they only see the results

Again right on the money I'd say.
The obsession with "efficiency" and believing that it's about the destination, when in reality it is about the journey.

@mntmn
> they lack empathy and are, above all, power hungry. They see others as playthings, or "toys"

I guess it’s a common “just business, nothing personal” thing. Yes, everything/everyone is a tool in this POV

@mntmn fantastic text, thanks!

@mntmn

I think you put up a thesis and then wrote about 3-5 other things that are on your mind, but aren't actually related to the thesis.

Whether or not I value genAI "Art" or human "Art" has nothing to do with making fake people or causing intentional suffering.

I do agree that the remixed stuff isn't as helpful as the marketing says and that "not helpful" is on the bad side of a "feels good to use to feels bad to use" spectrum.

But I think that about human output too, so...

@mntmn

I've been carrying my Assumed Intelligence and Unsupervised Text Extruder dread around for a similar amount of time and today I started writing down my own concerns.

After sending them to a friend I read your thoughts and discovered a whole other angle that was hidden to me, even though as a software developer with over 40 years of experience, I've regularly drawn parallels between art and the process of software development in all its frustrating glory.

Thank you for bridging my gap!

@mntmn like it very much and <3 "please don't sacrifice human connection on the altar of productivity."

@mntmn
Excellent piece!
Also quick note: You're linking to the homepage of your blog, i don't see a way to link to JUST this piece but that will be needed for sharing, as once you write something else it will get pushed off the front page.

@mntmn i'm 100% with you on the second half (discussing programming as an art form and as an empathetic endeavour), but not really on the first one (transhumanism being exclusively a billionaire's fantasy). to the extent i was given a human mind i'm not happy with it and i won't be until i shape it to my own ends. do i get to be put into the same category as the likes of Musk and Bezos, now?

@mntmn
Important perspective. Thanks for the write-up.

I just wonder: what should we do as a socitity? We will not get it back in the bottle. Do you have any ideas how to handle the situation?

@mntmn
Brilliant and connecting mind and human feelings... Thanks.

@mntmn I think you really judge a bunch of people you don't know rather harshly.

I actually used to have interest in recreating actual human thinking in a computer and it had nothing to do with a lack of empathy or need for power but all about trying to understand how I think.

So I made it about 3 paragraphs in and got super offended and stopped.

Now everyone can call me some AI techbro or whatever.

@mntmn “gaslighting as a service” alone would make this worth reading

@mntmn core argument is solid. Unassailable.

@mntmn good article! good code is also a joy to read. I don't think we should valorize suffering (although I don't think that's your intent), but I do see the current rash of AI marketing is callously indifferent to it. Like, if a person believes that their computer system is able to suffer the well adjusted thing to do is stop developing it, then accept your personal moral responsibility for that system and then never do it again. But no, suffering at scale is the frustrated customer's problem

@mntmn

Low calorie Soylent Green?

@mntmn nailed it

@mntmn I disagree with the parts about pain and suffering being essential for art (I have found them both to be severely detrimental for me and to the numerous artists I know), but I broadly agree with the observation that the desire to create a fake human servant comes from a fucked up place, and with the necessity of empathy.

@mntmn Yeah and AI has done some harms that are affecting us globally, however it has helped a lot in some other ways

@mntmn I think the "pusher" terminology is apt. Many marginalized people have been sold a dubious vision that LLMs will level the playing field, and the blame lies with the pushers. Your writing also makes me think "who decided software engineers needed to be *less* empathetic?"

@mntmn You are are touching on an angle that I haven't seen clearly stated before: "consider Claude, Muse, Grok etc. themselves as works made by humans who are clearly deeply unwell"
Seeing AI as the expression of 'fake people' - people completely disconnected from their core humanity, inflicting the resulting suffering on the rest of us. The actual process of getting and staying in touch with one's true self requires work and is painful. The process makes us truely human and can't be faked.

@mntmn Enjoyed the read very much: both the analysis and the beautiful language, thank you for sharing! Also, low key Mark Fisher vibes.

@mntmn there is the argument that LLMs provide access to people for whom computers are opaque machines. Using computers was like cryptic wizardry, but now they can get things done without relying on others (and their patience / judgment).

@mntmn In many parts I agree, but not fully on the art thing. Yeah, there can be code that is art. But most isn’t. It’s like with decoration for me,, where there are unique art pieces, but most isn’t industrial produces „functional“ decoration. Or furniture, where you can have a bed well made by hand that can count as art, but a majority of beds just are mass produced.
For you as programmer, code can be art. But for most people it isn’t even there, the application is and has to serve a purpose.

@mntmn « gaslighting as a service » 👌

@mntmn in the tradition of the good old hypercard this young and fragile plant comes to my mind: https://www.hyperxtalk.com

@mntmn I think Python is still relevant for that use case.

@mntmn
If you mean low-code or now-code tools I really like Rei3. https://rei3.de/home_en
I really like their app signing an versioning workflow.

@mntmn There's a whole genre of tools called "low-code" or "no-code" the predate LLMs. Though they are still probably an order of magnitude more complicated for non-programmers than LLM coding. Examples: Budibase, Appsmith, Tooljet, Retool. (I would bet that many of these pivoted to being AI-driven.)

@mntmn

i guess this is not what you are asking for, but i regurarly use max / puredata / plugdata for sort of these tasks. like automatic control over a video switcher for example.

and very simple bash scripts using things like pandoc etc. i use a lot. but still sometimes a bit of a sudoku for my brain tbh.

@mntmn I love this question, in a world where we have things like Gnome Builder (where you can point and click an interface but then you're faced with wiring the backend C code correctly) there's gotta be something that makes the backend simpler... All the languages I can think of are education focused so while you can do cool stuff with them it ends up complex

@mntmn non-developers become developers when they code though? I find this line a bit to fuzzy to make a recommendation. If you look back at what "non-developers" did with VB6 it was impressive. I think we lost that with the web. It doesn't have to be Basic but it's been there since early personal computing and it's not ideal but its approachable.

For general-purpose high-level programming, #Python is still very approachable and capable. Very well documented with plenty of learning avenues for all experience levels.

For actually starting a newbie programmer, a general-purpose language would probably be too much, given the implied learning curve and delayed payoff. It may be more fruitful to know exactly what they want to do and pick some more focussed automation / hacking that will give rapid results for their initial efforts. @mntmn

@mntmn Not that I know of. It runs opposite to what I have observed in this industry over the last ~40 years.

Pascal was great. (Delphi was amazing.)

C proved faster. But, C is dangerous. The internet fostered C because geeks who avoid general social contact liked it, because C is dangerous, so using C demonstrated geek machismo.

So C grew huge and took over both the Windows market and the Mac market (via NeXTstep, which is a Unix).

That has led to 2 things:

1. The rise of "better C replacements" which are _harder_ -- C++, and then after that rose and fell, Rust.

2. A steep decline in easy entry-level tools. Hypercard dead, the main clones dead, Visual Basic dead, Excel deeply uncool, Java banned from the WWW and now a dull enterprise tool, etc.

@mntmn Several variations have been possible to use with the micro:bit - https://tech.microbit.org/software/

@mntmn lua and many others were already listed.

I have a language I wrote, that is super simple.
I've been thinking about turning it into a type 2 lisp, at the moment it's only syntax is white space.

It uses yaml for data. It is stackless, built manually.
It auto fills function calls.
It's written in python so it can transparently use any python library.

I created it solve problems I was having with a contract to write a flashing and testing app for a little iot board.

It's super easy to write apps with a process flow.
I've thought about writing a wumpus game leveraging the manual stack. I need to revisit SPR.

https://codeberg.org/ZeniesQis/SPR

#lisp

@mntmn Visual BASIC/Gambas comes to mind. Scratch is also a building blocks style build environment. Both require minimal code to perform basic GUI tasks.

@mntmn Decker is the first thing that came to mind personally: https://internet-janitor.itch.io/decker

Sort of a spiritual successor to HyperCard

I desperately want to see more things like this though, and I'm especially hoping that some of the work @spritely is doing can eventually be incorporated into an environment like this

@mntmn
Weirdly, I’ve seen people use Godot game engine to make apps. Build you own UI. Export to Linux, Apple, windows, android, etc etc etc

@mntmn A bit out of the blue, but Elixir is an approachable language with Erlang/OTP behind it.

Ash framework (disclaimer, it is partially ensloppified) lets you skip a lot of incidental complexity that modern development always struggles with. You can get your entire functionality done before even thinking about how it should look or what transport protocol to choose.

@mntmn hyperscript is a language that has a lot of its philosophy based on hypercard. I'm not sure if you could create a whole app with it or not (and it'd probably be a website if you did) but it's one of the languages most close to English that I've seen in a while

https://hyperscript.org/

@mntmn i would recommend signing up to scrimba.com it's the most engaging/interactive learning site and it covers everything - from css/html/javascript up to reactjs and even more.

there are lots of pathways that guide your learning and I think you'll find something you enjoy learning, and plenty of places to apply that learning and you'll find a path that suits how you learn and what you like doing with code.

@mntmn Filemaker sits in here. more a program builder than a programming language. my dad built his own inventory and tracking system with it.

@mntmn unfortunately, every time we've created a programming language for this purpose, it's never turned out easy enough that anyone can just pick it up without adjustment. COBOL was supposed to easy enough that business people could write computer programs for their needs without hiring a computer scientist and today it is one of the most niche and difficult languages in existence. Python was designed to read like English but it is a machine learning language today 1/2

@mntmn Learned about the history of VisiCalc recently (precursor to Excel). It was the "killer app" for the Apple II. Businesses choose the Apple computer as a platform, with the sole basis being to run VisiCalc.

The more I learn about the world, the more I question the origins and organic success of things that are heavily promoted as the canonical chosen standard all humanity must adopt for reasons, i.e. excel.

@mntmn I think the language itself won’t matter much, but the human community around it will. A community that isn’t grumpy and has a lot of people willing to help train newcomers is what is needed most. After community the next most important thing is documentation and clear tutorials so the newcomers don’t turn to LLMs for advice.

The onboarding problem is a community/social thing.

@mntmn uhhmmmm, I don’t know if this will be helpful… but Julia is something my husband uses for data analysis…. Again I’m not a programmer, but I’ve heard that this program has a nice language something something similar to ease-of-use like jsons… 😹 (I’m only suggesting what I know, which isn’t much 🥴)

@mntmn In the 90's that was the premise behind MS VBA and VB6 (Visual Basic for Applications). Then in the 2000's VB.Net. They made it easy to automate MS Office apps and also a plain GUI app. I still support apps with VB, though I usually use C#.net for PC apps.

These days isn't that what Python is supposed to be?

@prahou damn, people online gotta offend on anything at this point. I'm with you on this one, and I think they should really go get a newspaper from down the street for once 😅

@prahou thank you for being shameless about money! i appreciate your honesty

@prahou this person is probably upset the original review didn't have enough slop. maybe it's time for a bonus freebsd issue? extra up to date coverage.

@prahou Hmm, I don't see this issue of Funhole Content Review in a negative light...I see some satire, directed at a particular group of people, sure, but this is a reoccurring theme of your art. Eh, they can pay you if it so deeply offends them. I hope they do.

@prahou lmao i just saw the reddit comment. i can't even explain this reaction rationally

@prahou is this a... panda service announcement?

@prahou thank you for explaining the controversy for those of us who have not seen a newspaper before.

@prahou
Power tripping mods are going to power trip. You make fun art on the internet that's multi-layered and interesting. They moderate a subreddit and ban people for saying AI sucks.

They just want to play with the new fascist shaped distro and are glad someone ported it to their favorite os. They got a look in the mirror and didn't like that the mirror was there in the first place. They made the connection.

I hope they pay up lol

@prahou FreeBSD!

...wait no not that free!

@prahou
I don't have a cent on me to support properly but my thoughts and prayers...

wait wrong social network, it ain't fascistbook :-)

I guess your art touched him in places he didn't want to be touched ehehe.

@prahou too much politics in this issue, sorry, I can't support anyone with diacritic in the name. Please rename yourself into something bland and generically anglo-saxon. Until then these €17 are staying with me (it will be spent on beer)

@prahou I am fully supporting you but I am also a bit confused as if I should send money or not to keep the art up sooooo.... will a follow do as well ?

@prahou well that's certainly one obvious self-report by the freebsd people

@prahou
Does the small animal have to be an adult, or do babies count as small?

You know what, I should have never asked.

I feel for you in these trying times.

@prahou Why would anyone care about Reddit?. Didn't they sign over its content to train AI models 3 years ago? 🤷🏻

@prahou

Alt...

Screenshot of three messages from Johnny Silverhand "i ain't reading all that" "i'm happy for u tho" "or sorry that happened"