(to be clear i would love an e-ink laptop)
(or even desktop)

Alt...

a picture of a composition notebook plugged into a keyboard with usb-c and a pencil laying next to it. It is silly and not realistic.

@hi this is the dream. I think the closest we're reasonably near is external e-ink displays, but last I looked, just a few of the newer ones are doing the 30+hz refresh tricks.

Excited for the thread to prove me wrong though.

@hi https://shop.boox.com/collections/all-products
E-ink android tablets with usb-c (keyboard is working, most of the time).
They violate gpl, but they have pretty good displays.

@OpenBSDAms I really hope you don't need 8 bits today... but also counting from 1 and not 0?! 😂💖

✅️️ odd numbered hosts (except 1... investigating).

@OpenBSDAms does it concern you that you've made them even by moving from 7.9 to 8.0?

@mntmn good soundtrack!

@dianea

I want to make that switch, but I rely so heavily on Podman and Flatpaks and I need to do some serious testing (or perhaps soul-searching?) before I'm ready.

If you don't mind my asking, what made you decide to go with NetBSD? And, have you had any experience/luck with containerized workflows there?

@dianea I was shocked by the state of Linux a while ago when I was trying to build a minimal GPIB system with ISA and PCI GPIB cards and found myself needing to "kickstart" the Debian Linux installation using a Pentium 4 with 2GiB RAM, then transfer the disk back to my <1G system. The installer wouldn't complete with 640M. NetBSD installed fine on a Pentium P5 TX chipset board with 64M RAM, but no GPIB support, unfortunately.

@dianea nice job!

@passthejoe There is also:

/usr/share/doc/usd/vi/vitut.txt

(Open with less, contains terminal escape sequences.)

@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.

@hi sounds like browsing YouTube from "raspberry pi zero cyberdeck" ;-)

@hi

name options:
⁃ Lil' Dummy
⁃ Humpty Dumb T
⁃ Smolssh

I would use this

@hi The old GPD Micro comes pretty close and adds a real serial port but misses on battery life.

It would not be hard to build something like that with an ESP32 to get the battery life up excluding the cellular bit.

@hi TBH lets add BT for Mouse and Keyboard, since they're everywhere and avoids Dongleits

@prahou
the goddamn ikea manul

@prahou might have been a bunch of @b0rk's excellent illustrated explainers, the Wizard Zines

@prahou usually a video game or computer hardware that I was going to buy anyway, but forgot the release date.

Hard to say. If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have bought it… unless I eventually remembered.

@prahou

A toothbrush recommended to me by my dentist

@prahou a safety razor. It did turn out to be pretty good.

@prahou Pokémon Pokopia
I was already planning on buying a video game

@prahou Porn from @JenJen I believe.

@prahou I guess when I was a child I was exposed to several cereals adds that I ended up eating so I may have dragged the stuff in mom's cart myself in a blurr. *_*

20y since then I have no recollection of brain control (they may just have gotten better at it thought aaaaah).

@prahou Holy powdered energy drinks, in 2024 or early 2025. Have switched to them completely, no more carrying heavy ones from the shop or resorting to carbonated ones when the only non-carbonated one is not available. Before that Vivaia shoes in 2021, made of old plastic bottles, foldable for travel, machine washable, also bought a few pairs since. I used affiliate links from YT for both.

And before that, I do not remember 🤷

@prahou One would have to get very generous about the definition of "ad".

Because even then every single instance that came to mind I was effectively looking for that sort of thing or "solutions to XYZ problem".

Is a game trailer an ad? Especially if one's deliberately seeking out trailers of a certain genre?

@prahou probably a video game

@prahou The Cyberpunk 2077 DLC, which was finally on a discount after i decided that i wanna play it now.

@prahou I don't see many ads so this is hard to know. Probably a jungle vinyl?

@prahou a passive drum machine/synth that was on sale, and advertised through a newsletter I had signed up for because I wanted to support the tiny company.

@prahou Video games from browsing a steam sale page. Oh, and some paints for Warhammer.

Ads are a lot more tolerable when you're the one deciding when to go look at them.

@prahou some small power tools in neat cases, and a combined desk hoover / air duster / air pump thing.

@prahou I can't recall anything. I only see ads in the street and they are for things that don't interest me.

@prahou That's an interesting question. I can't think of a time I've consciously bought a thing brand new because of an ad, I have contempt for ads for new things.

But at the same time I'm absolutely riddled with desire to buy things I think of as historically notable pieces of technology, often for their aesthetic and sentimental appeal - commodity fetishism - often this is fueled by advertisements decades old by companies that either no longer exist or are complete opposites now.

@prahou Bike tyres, youtube review aka ad. Been good so far.

@prahou both my in-ears, Kuba Mali 2 and Kuba Auri. Love the brand!

@prahou DO NOT TALK TO COMPUTER stickers.

@prahou hungry jacks (aka burger king) was giving away some pretty nice glasses with a burger and something meal deal

@prahou scrolled through my bank to give you a good response

got reminded of an unpaid invoice (done now)

most recent thing i paid for (with my data) after seeing an ad is signing up somewhere after already giving them money to get more stuffs (admittedly they now think i'm called charlie kirk)

@prahou Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the nintendo DS, the local charity shop had ads on the side of the building showing what they were selling

@prahou subscription for ad free search engine

@prahou
I stopped buying swastikas because I found out I could draw my own from a magazine article!

@prahou this thing

Alt...

a peepy from itemLabel

@prahou
the PowerPC build 9front iso

@prahou It could've been a book by Kim Crawley (here on the fediverse!) called "Recovering After Gen AI" (which was less an ad and more someone posting about a thing they did), but it could also be my "God forbid a girl lie a little to her investors" hat that I saw in an email from the Cards Against Humanity's clothing company. 😅

@prahou

I wish they made ads for the things I want to buy. Then I would know about them.

But I guess I could say my "dictionary camera" I bought because I saw an ad. A 30 year old reprint, but still

Alt...

110 film dictionary camera with tiny comic book ad "spy" camera. The dictionary says "book 110 camera" on the spine

@prahou I'd rather not say

@prahou a #c64 but the ad only decided exactly when, from whom and for how much

@prahou probably some sort of takeaway food

@prahou 1 kg of potatoes

@hi 💪

@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