Soaring for Solar (and Sustainability)
I’ve been reading
“How
to build a low-tech internet” and it has made me realize that all of
the usability choices that I’ve made in my own on-line journey, have
been made also pretty “sustainably” - everything I do, no matter local
or worldwide. And with “sustainably” I actually mean annoyance free. I
try to keep my own sites to the minimum in load size but maximum in
usability (even tho, sometimes I do fail, sometimes on purpose;
sometimes because I just want a thing to be done).
This realization has caused an re-ignited flame for solar power in me-
most of my stuff runs on various cheap VPS’s all around the world with
very little resource usage - what’s preventing me from moving those
services (that mind you, get medium to very little usage (peaks
included)) and having one VPS that’s powered by 100% renewable energy to
handle connections (akin to a bastion host/jump-server).
Sure, this isn’t exactly “sustainable” as I still route traffic trough
the wider internet which causes massive energy use, emissions (because
that energy has to be produced - and very little of the current age
network operators use fully, 100%, green energy) and latency
issues.
But at least for this blog, I’d love to go for that route - as it is all
just a static web-page and could be hosted with very little resources,
especially with rate limiting for RSS feed fetches etc. Image
compression is; and HTTP/3 could also been deployed for quicker loads -
but what’s realistically preventing me from just serving a
HTTP/2 page with very minimal traffic and trying to reap the benefits of
lower bandwidth use,?
I am going to do a test in the coming months with an Nanopi Zero, and a
40w (hopefully) solar panel that outputs to a power-bank acting as a
load balancer for the panel and a battery for the nights / when its
cloudy - Yes, I’m quite literally going the #
LOW←TECH MAGAZINE
route. At least for this test.
I’ve also realized that all of the people near me who have asked me for
help getting a laptop that: 1: Lasts more than a few years (1-3) 2:
Doesn’t break if thrown into a backpack 3: Is comfortable enough to use
for a daily driver 4: Doesn’t cost more than a few hundred euros
And for all of those requirements I always go back to ThinkPads. Yes,
even the ones that Lenovo made. Yes, even the X240’s. They simply are
the most repairable, cheap and durable laptops that I’ve ever used.
Hell, the Framework would be an even better option for repairability /
upgradeability; but then there’s the cost of it. Maybe one day?
Anyways, I have a friend. They run a X230 that I recommended - as a
daily driver for all of their work. Sure, it’s on Windows 10, but the
install has been Neutered:tm: - which makes it run like a dream! The
x230 having an SSD keeps things snappy and 16gb of RAM also do a lot, I
think. Besides, the aftermarket batteries - they just keep on chuggin’.
Oh and also, The X230 is 12 years old.
That’s a long life for laptop, at least in my eyes - and if
something doesn’t break catastrophically - I honestly think the X230 has
another 10 years of life left - if, of course - they ditch M$’s Windows
for “something else :)” - which might happen sooner than later.
Seeing that October 14th, 2025 is closer than we think.
For myself, I’m still on the X240 - but just now thinking about getting
some new batteries and maybe getting rid of the touch-pad that doesn’t
have buttons - tho - I have kind of grown to like it, but the fact that
the button inputs have to be determined in-firmware is a bit of
a mehhh. Other than that, USB-C PD Mod is on the horizon (and the same
for the X230 if my friend wants it).
I’ll have to write once again whenever the decision for the panels and
the final blog-server has been made (server as in what SBC I’ll end up
using).
- k
What the
fuck is this? Is this some kind of an twitch-tube hybrid monster?
Why are the comments on the side? What the fuck is the point of the
bottom homepage 2.0 layout?? I already have enough content on the
fucking home page, that’s where I go if I’m looking for something new to
watch? I try to reveal the description and BOOM I get redirected to the
FUCKING CHANNEL PAGE BECAUSE I MISS-CLICKED YOU FUCKING PIECES OF SHIT
WHO MADE THE “…more” SO FUCKING SMALL AND I CANT CLICK ANYWHERE
ELSE.
so the
Here's the code for it, enjoy as you please.
