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Hosting a website on a disposable vape

(bogdanthegeek.github.io)
1386 points BogdanTheGeek | 12 comments | 15 Sep 25 17:53 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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x187463 ◴[15 Sep 25 14:07 UTC] No.45249934[source]▶
Re-using this sort of device is super cool. I can imagine a post-apocalyptic scenario where a city is run on a hodgepodge of random computing devices like this.

I will say, though, disposable vapes with microcontrollers inside (and even full games and screens from recent reporting) are an egregious source of e-waste. Many layers of stupid are present here.

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kilroy123 ◴[15 Sep 25 14:45 UTC] No.45250322[source]▶
Makes me think of these:

https://duskos.org https://collapseos.org

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amelius ◴[15 Sep 25 15:48 UTC] No.45251137[source]▶
How do I build a 6502 from just the elements?
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vdupras ◴[15 Sep 25 15:58 UTC] No.45251268[source]▶
You begin by making a pen "from just the elements", then work your way up to there.

In other words, it's a huge challenge, but 6502 is closer, in complexity, to the pen than to the, say, AMD Ryzen.

But the primary idea behind Collapse OS isn't to run from 6502 built from the ground up (although it partly is), but to run from frankenstein cobbled up machines made from scavenged parts.

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1. mm263 ◴[15 Sep 25 16:26 UTC] No.45251649[source]▶
If I scavenge any machine today, how likely would I be to find a 6502 vs something more modern? I’d argue that some people might have a NES at home and one could get a 2A03 from it, but in a hypothetical scenario where I need to scavenge some computational power, I’d find an Android phone
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2. vdupras ◴[15 Sep 25 16:36 UTC] No.45251800[source]▶
You're much more likely to stumble one something more modern, but that modern something is also much less repairable. It's great if it works and if it can run Linux or Dusk OS, but when it can't, you're out of luck.

With a 6502 or other such CPU, the machines you scavenge them from are much more repairable and adaptable. You can use those components like lego blocks. It breaks? either repair it or strip the working parts to use in another frankenstein computer.

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3. tlavoie ◴[15 Sep 25 17:04 UTC] No.45252209[source]▶
DuskOS apparently runs on ARM, so one of these vape boards running FORTH would likely feel very roomy indeed.
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4. vdupras ◴[15 Sep 25 17:17 UTC] No.45252389[source]▶
Even for a Forth, 3KB of RAM is rather tight. Dusk OS intentionally de-prioritize compactness and it couldn't run on that amount of RAM. It can get a C compiler loaded in about 100KB of RAM, but 3? not enough to boot.
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5. BogdanTheGeek ◴[15 Sep 25 17:36 UTC] No.45252598[source]▶
I have ported zForth to an even weaker chip, the famous 10c risc-v micro ch32v003 (16k flash, 2k ram) so no issue running on this: https://github.com/BogdanTheGeek/zForth
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6. tlavoie ◴[15 Sep 25 17:58 UTC] No.45252888{3}[source]▶
OK, so we'd play with zForth then, as BogdanTheGeek notes here. That reminds me, I have a Scamp board sitting here on my desk that I really should play with more. https://udamonic.com/what-is-a-scamp.html
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7. mm263 ◴[15 Sep 25 18:18 UTC] No.45253141[source]▶
I get the idea of making a frankenstein computer, I just disagree that 6502 is THE platform to do it on. Practically, there's no way for me to find it. Other comment mentions ARM, which is a much more interesting proposal to me
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8. vdupras ◴[15 Sep 25 19:01 UTC] No.45253629{3}[source]▶
ARM is an interesting proposal if you want to order a SBC online and run software on it. Soldering an ARM CPU with low tech tools? That's something else.
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9. vdupras ◴[15 Sep 25 19:10 UTC] No.45253726{4}[source]▶
"we'd", you mean in a collapse scenario? Forths are, by nature, "collapse-friendly", but one particularity with Collapse OS and Dusk OS is that they are fully self-hosted. This includes the tools necessary to improve upon themselves.

From a quick glance, it looks like BogdanTheGeek's Forth is written in C, which means that it's not self-hosted. If all you have is that disposable vape with this Forth in it, you lack the tools to deploy it on another machine or to improve it in place.

One could also port Collapse OS to ARM. I guess it wouldn't be a very big effort.

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10. tlavoie ◴[15 Sep 25 19:38 UTC] No.45254015{5}[source]▶
Good points! Really, I should start with learning Forth on the devices I have first, before getting to concerned about others. ARM does seem like a useful target though, given that they're basically everywhere these days.
11. ShroudedNight ◴[15 Sep 25 21:17 UTC] No.45255040{4}[source]▶
Time of a strategic reserve of J-Links?
12. romforth ◴[16 Sep 25 02:08 UTC] No.45257232{3}[source]▶
Allow me to brag about romforth (https://github.com/romforth/romforth) which I ported to the "3c" Padauk and can run on really small rom/ram microcontrollers. Caveats: - tested only on an emulator SDCC/ucsim_pdk, not on real hardware - given how small the ram is, there is no user dictionary but new words can be defined and tested using what the Forth folks refer to as "umbilical hosting".