Computer Punk Laptop+SoC

[hazeinmybong]

My idea is to make a laptop that has a low power SoC or Arm controller for doing simple browsing tasks or even playing video, but the full power laptop for when there is electricity to do more complex tasks such as video editing, 3D rendering, or digital currency mining. It appears to be a fairly easy task, add a $8 LCD controller that has two HDMI inputs, and make the laptop monitor use its own battery. This design would also be good for security. The laptop can check sum the Arm installation and vice versa. Plus, it would be sweet to SSH into the laptop from the SoC because, thats what is sweet haha. Anyway, some day. I have an old laptop I installed Lubuntu on. I am far from a linux/GNU security expert, but it would be cool if I could participate in the StP distro.

This is a youtube video on how to make a laptop into a monitor. The guy adds 18650 lion cells and a LCD driver.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfirQC99xPc

 

[sub lumpen filth]

nerd crust. fuck yea!

 

[Antlered]

A SoC is certainly capable of smaller tasks, but something that can render 3D, edit media, or play serious games on is large and heavy because of the heatsinks it needs to stay cool. A SoC doesn't need a large heatsink as it doesn't pull enough power to generate the heat.

It really is an either/or deal. ARM and x64 are not really compatible with each other. It wouldn't be great for security, because by running two architectures, you have two attack surfaces, instead of only one. An adversary could compromise your box with either a vulnerability in an ARM distro, or an x86 one.

You can forget mining cryptocurrency on anything you can physically pack around. Everyone that mines it, uses large desktops, or custom racks with powerful cards, or even ASICs.

What I decided was decent for a backpack laptop was a GPD WIN. It's small, it charges off of the same charger my phone does, and it features a full Windows 10 OS. While I don't particularly care for Windows 10, there are some softwares I have to use that adamantly refuse to run on anything else. Documents are easy to edit on such a device as well.

If you want something that is ARM powered, there do exist many mods that allow the unplugged use of a Raspberry Pi. Using a Raspi would also allow much greater freedom

 

[hazeinmybong]

It really is an either/or deal.

Why should I choose either or? The whole point of this is to make a machine that has multiple capabilities with power consumption options. Yeah, the laptop is heavy and dead weight when I am using the ARM or SoC, but it is there for when I do need to perform those more processor intensive tasks.

An adversary could compromise your box with either a vulnerability in an ARM distro, or an x86 one.

This is a valid point. Maybe my fantasy of a server/workstation opens up more vulnerabilities, but this hardware is capable of having better security if I NEVER connect the LAPTOP to a network and I only use the ARM/SoC for network connected activities such as browsing or sharing footage (p2p).

I can reinstall my ARM/SoC image every time I plug in and turn the actual laptop. I can run a check sum of the ARM/SoC image with the laptop before I even install it. The laptop is normally off, so attackers would have to gain physical access of the device. Maybe I was wrong about running a checksum on the laptop image with the ARM/SoC because it would take too long. So, it would be better to have multi-boot options on the laptop.

There is a method to my madness. Have you seen Kodi firesticks? Kodi, formally XBMC, is a media center that runs on linux/GNU and other embedded devices. Some people flash the Amazon firestick with Kodi installations with Add-ons pre-installed. There are dozens of legitimate Add-ons that offer amazing content such as RedBullTV, Crackle, Young Turks Network, ETC. These add-ons are basically only links to youtube channels, but if you can offer your own content alongside the content of other content you and your intended audience might enjoy then all you gotta do is flip them a firestick and they plug it into their TV.

Ahh, and as for crypto-currency mining. There are AMD chips with onboard GPU, but I do not know about making a distro with crypto-currency mining capabilities installed per the GPL. It appears to be a gray area in my mind, but there might be good purpose for this type of operation, but that goes against the security protocol of never connecting the laptop to a network.

I was trying to work towards something along the lines of "Plug in laptop. Laptop serves up footage to p2p network. Laptop mines coin. Coin is insurance against the deck." But violating the GPL is wrong.

I was learning NAS and everything so I could jail plex servers and torrent servers.

 

[hazeinmybong]

I will put together a deck sometime if I come up on some hardware. I am in Saint Paul, MN.

 

[hazeinmybong]

https://coinvedi.com/coders-beware-licensing-issues-abound-for-ethereum-apps/

rms says that hacking is only ethical as a computer lesson. I assume that he means between an instructor and a consenting student. So, stop wrecking computers at this library.

There must also be rules for CHMOD permissions. View, Add, Delete, and Modify.

I am sorry for rambling. My life is a product of "double secret probation." Secret lessons and other incredibly exclusive behavior.

 

[hazeinmybong]

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/09/gnu_glic_abort_stallman/

 

[hazeinmybong]

I won't use Windows.

 

[hazeinmybong]

I have been opposed to currency in the past. So, I understand why cryptocurrency can be an unattractive feature of community created content, but I kind of consider myself to be a syndicalist and I do believe in certain capitalistic principals.
The idea is that a cooperative makes footage more available in a kind of democratic way. A special forum would be opened. The forum would have threads for footage torrents. Footage that is good would be more widely seeded. There would actually have to be some sort of incorporation so that the footage can be copyrighted, but the footage is available to content creators for editing.

 

[hazeinmybong]

Maybe the cooperative is federated and "footage creators" exist under this federation. The "footage creators" are obviously on the road. So, they have "team members" who serve up their footage to "content creators". The "team members" are involved in alpha phase technology and posses a deck. It is actually good for the safety of travelers and there by including many people in the creation process there is a grass roots interest in the project.

 

[Antlered]

Why should I choose either or? The whole point of this is to make a machine that has multiple capabilities with power consumption options. Yeah, the laptop is heavy and dead weight when I am using the ARM or SoC, but it is there for when I do need to perform those more processor intensive tasks

I see what you're saying now. You could, at least in theory, hook the SoC ARM side into the existing display of a laptop, and have a three way switch to choose which computing device the laptop boots on. {SoC__ OFF__x86} Or some such device. The issue that remains is that even if you only use the SoC, you still have the rest of the heavy laptop to pack around. Granted, that 70-90 Wh battery of a laptop, for a 2w draw of a SoC, will last a very long time. By far, your greatest power draw will be the display of this hybrid laptop.

This may be a sub optimal set up, but if you could arrange it, what you could do would be to have a very powerful desktop set up at a trusted friend's house, then remote access it with the SoC from abroad. All heavy numbercrunching is done on the desktop. The issue lies with the latency. The lag may make some programs tricky to use. GUI based programs especially, but command line stuff remains mostly unaffected.

Would be interesting to see what happens if someone got a Raspberry Pi, a screen and a few batteries together and logged into a box that they had somewhere. Just to see how it works.

 

[Dameon]

Why wouldn't you just carry a laptop? The GPU draws power based on how much use it's getting. If you want something for low-power browsing and video watching, you'll probably have a smartphone anyway. Myself, for traveling, I'd forget about the laptop altogether, and get a tablet + bluetooth keyboard. If you get an x86-based tablet, you can install Linux onto it, and do basic 3D stuff (tablets and smartphones have GPUs in them), although it'll never really be equal to a laptop/desktop GPU for 3D rendering. No need for jury-rigging a laptop display up to its own power.

 

[hazeinmybong]

I guess torrents and plex are cross platform and polyculture is better than a monoculture.

 

[hazeinmybong]

It would actually be pretty dope to demonstrate a content creation effort and get Class A Alphabet stock, but I don't know what a contract of Alphabet is? 100 shares? Thats why I want to get down on developing some sort of open source work flow design. A design that encourages many content creators to create as much content as they want because the get fed as much footi that they can handle. If you register footi.org I will pay you back.

 

[hazeinmybong]

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3XW2xwtX5k

 

[hazeinmybong]

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PZxj7ojSFY

 

[hazeinmybong]

Youtube swag is Class A Alphabet Stock

 

[hazeinmybong]

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaO_V9U-Bec

 

[hazeinmybong]

Maybe Diane Hendricks wants some for her kids.

 

[Dorkimus Prime]

I got a Dell i3162 netbook last week just for the road. It's actually way more powerful than I expected. The downside is the battery life sucks on it. Maybe four hours of video unplugged if you have the brightness maxed, which I always do.

I installed Linux Mint on it and it works fine with the latest drivers. It's fairly sturdy too for a 160$ budget laptop.

My old road computer was an Acer inspiron with a dual core 1.6ghz and 2g ram. It was kind of slow but the battery would last 12+ hours full brightness with video playing.

I'm just glad to have a laptop for now. I was literally losing my mind out of boredom without one.