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• "I Have A Graaand Plan!" -- The 'Universal Formula' for a basic cyberdeck, Part 2 -- A basic hookup guide

  Starhawk • 01/26/2022 at 02:11 • 0 comments

  OK, you have all your parts in a big pile, how do you put them together? Well, as with so many things, the answer to that goes to the adult diaper industry...

  Which is to say: "It Depends!"

  [Insert chorus of groans here...]

  Thank you, thank you, I'll be here till Thursday. Try the veal!

  *ahem*

  There are rather a lot of possibilities here, honestly, and your best option really does rest on what you have. The central determining factor is where you're getting your mainboard, so I've organized a limited build guide here based on that. Rearrange the steps to suit your individual build, the sky's the limit. Each likely scenario is in bold, so scroll to the one that best fits you, and go from there.

  If you have an Intel Compute Stick, a clone, or a compatible as your system unit...

  ...things are fairly easy. This is your textbook basic build. You should have two USB ports -- one might be USB2.0 and one USB3.0, but it's *highly* unlikely you'll have more than two such ports -- plus a MicroUSB for power, a MicroSD slot, and a male HDMI port. If you're lucky, you'll have a separate audio-out, but usually this is handled by HDMI only.

  You should plan on a cheap USB 'sound card', unless you like to argue with Linux, because configuring sound output on these things is typically something of a challenge at best. A USB wireless card is also a good idea -- do your research, though, and try to avoid anything based on Realtek chips. DeviWiki is a good resource, but their ad provider is truly a creation that would scare HP Lovecraft himself; have good adblock software on desktop (AdBlockPlus or UBlock Origin come highly recommended; I can vouch for the former, and my pal who runs the local tech shop prefers the latter) and for the love of all that is good and righteous in this world, do not go there on a phone.

  You also *absolutely* have to have a powered USB hub; the circuitry that runs those two ports is far, far too anemic for anything but the most minimal of peripherals. You can run a wired keyboard and a wired mouse, or a wireless combo and a single USB stick, but much of anything more will be entirely too taxing for it. A seven-port hub here will mean that you have more to use than a single port without unplugging things... if you even have that! A four-port hub will only leave you one spare USB connector if you're using a keyboard and mouse combo that takes only a single plug... or if you forgo either the WiFi adapter or USB 'sound card', in which case you will either have a truly awful Internet connection (when you have one at all!) or a mute machine.

  Also, expect poor thermal performance, even if you have good ventilation. The early Compute Sticks (and clones/knockoffs) were entirely fanless, and the current ones have only token active cooling. Even a dinky 40mm PC fan goes a long way here... something ripped out of a dead laptop, particularly if it's known for sounding like the sort of jet propelled smoothie machines coffee shops use, is truly invaluable.

  Basically, your hookup guide is:

  Hang the external hard drive or SSD off one of your two USB ports.
  Hang the USB hub off the other USB port.
  Run an HDMI cable to the controller board you got for your LCD screen (or whatever other display solution you're using)... you will very likely need a female-to-female gender changer here.
  5v power goes to USB hub and to MicroUSB on the stick PC.
  12v power goes to the LCD controller PCB.
  

  Once you build your structure, housing, whatever, and plug in your peripherals, you're done.

  If you have a MiniPC...

  ...really it's the same situation as with the Compute Sticks, clones, and compatibles, except that cooling will likely be an even more thorny issue than with them -- the MiniPCs really seem to like having huge passive heatsinks with no fans whatsoever, when they really need fans -- and you will almost certainly have an audio jack (unified for microphone and headphones/speakers) and three or four USB ports.

  You also may have a system...

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• "I Have A Graaand Plan!" -- The 'Universal Formula' for a basic cyberdeck, Part 1 -- Parts, Variations, and Substitutes

  Starhawk • 01/23/2022 at 10:15 • 0 comments

  Sorry for the wait. One of the many phrases my grandmother had -- between her, my grandfather, and my mother, I've got a phrase for dang near everything! -- was...

  "Life is what happens when you're making other plans..."

  No kidding. Put differently, life's little unexpected quirks and all can be SUCH a pain in the tail. Ugh.

  So. The magic formula for a simple cyberdeck.

  Stick PC, like an Intel Compute Stick, or a clone or "compatible". USB 3.0 external SSD. *Powered* USB 3.0 four-port hub. eDP laptop LCD panel. Universal HDMI-to-eDP converter PCB. USB keyboard and mouse of some kind. Power supply that runs everything.

  Linux Mint is your OS. You don't need to be smart to use Linux. If you had to be smart to use Linux I'd never get past the boot screen. I'm not out-and-out proof that there's a village somewhere that's short one idiot, but I'm about the modern equivalent of the caveman that hits himself with his own club because he wants to know what will happen if he does. (Spoiler, Og have bad time of it, when Og hit own head with club...) If you can use Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 at an "I know how to turn it on and get to Google" level, you will *probably* be OK in Linux with a little help once you install it. There will be a section on that!

  That's really all you need, at least as far as computery stuff is concerned. I usually add a USB WiFi card because the built-in WiFi on those Compute Sticks and their clones/knockoffs ("compatibles") is universally horrendous at best. For some strange reason, sound of all things is usually a bit of a bear to work out as well, it's one of the few things that doesn't "just work".

  Of course you also need decor and structure -- make it your own! There are just too many creative variations here to even begin to suggest anything, with one sole caveat that I will bring up. It is VERY common to rummage about in the attic, find some vintage relic computer, and upon applying power, discover it's dead -- and then just shrug, gut it, and put something far more modern inside.

  FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND PLEASANT IN THE WORLD, DON'T FREAKING DO THAT!

  (Please read this, but if it genuinely can't possibly apply to you ever no matter what, or you're just beyond any redemption and hope in that department -- there's a [RAMBLE OVER] label at the end of this, just scroll to that... but if I hear that you've destroyed innocent vintage computers by willingly not reading this, I will find you and I will follow you for a week with an out-of-tune thrift shop accordion in the least musical way possible.)

  Instead, Google the make and model of the computer and see if you can find an enthusiasts' community around the machine. If it was a machine of any notoriety or popularity -- even if its notoriety came from poor sales and everyone kind of hating on it (like the TI-99/4A, which famously convinced Texas Instruments not to be in the computer market! -- chances are that a community of people who like the thing for its quirks has grown up around it anyways. Even if you don't want to repair it, you can almost certainly find someone to sell it to, and others who will tell you how to safely sell it and safely ship it.

  A particular special note. Commodore computers, especially Commodore 64s, are NOTORIOUS for their original power bricks going sour over the years and doing awful things to the machines when you plug them in again after a few decades. They are among the easiest computers to repair afterwards, because the community around them has a fanaticism that borders on that of a religious cult (LOL) and there's just so much *of* it. I can recommend personally the Lemon64 Forums, but if you have a little electronics knowledge (all you need, really, is a soldering iron and a multimeter) and some time to kill, Adrian Black's YouTube channel, "Adrian's Digital Basement" has several so-called 'repair-a-thon' videos, and they're quite educational. Each one he fixes multiple dead vintage...

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• "But, What is Internet?" - How to Cyber(deck) and what one is, anyways...

  Starhawk • 10/15/2021 at 21:47 • 0 comments

  https://imgur.com/gallery/Nx1dnUwThe, erm, less-obvious reference, all the way from 1994...

  ...if you don't get the more-obvious one, well, you're probably just not old enough! Wait a few years, I'm not explaining it. Especially not here...
  

  *ahem*

  A brief note on terminology. The field of computers, like nearly any other specialist field, has, over time, evolved sort of its own language -- certainly its own vocabulary! PCI Express, modem, form factor, baud rate, kbps, resolution -- some of these terms are old, some are still in use today, but all of them are computer jargon, terms of art used to describe things in the field that would otherwise be hard to explain or refer to.

  I'm going to need to use that jargon throughout the rest of this, and where it's not been explained adequately, I'll do my best to provide at least enough information that you can ask your own local Friendly Neighborhood Nerd for more... or consult Wikipedia if you're an information junkie (or an information sadist! Most of those articles are highly technical in nature and not simple to understand... sadly). For those who prefer the dead-tree method -- good for you! Hardcopy should *never* be rendered obsolescent or obsolete (if it's still somewhat around, like a PS/2 keyboard, technically it's obsolescent; obsolete is properly both dead and gone in at least practical entirety) -- last I heard, Barnes & Noble still stocked computer maintenance and repair books, although those tend to be rather comprehensive tomes, several inches thick, and priced like college textbooks. An A+ Certification textbook will be priced similarly, but (ironically) may not be nearly so comprehensive, as newer such books tend to omit entirely, or gloss over, a lot of 'legacy' (obsolescent) hardware such as older-style PCI slots and how they work (aka "Conventional PCI", the white expansion-card slots that predate PCI Express... if your PC is much newer than about 2010, you probably can ignore this) that are still on a few really old systems out there.

  A particularly important bit of jargon is "form factor". Simply put, a form factor is a formal or informal specification ("spec") for a hardware design. Typically a given spec sheet (any written documentation) for a form factor describes its physical layout, its dimensions -- and the acceptable ranges and tolerances, as well as restrictions on both in places where such need apply, for such dimensions -- any features that need to be included (and where and how) or excluded, etc.

  A "cyberdeck" is a specific form factor of portable computer. Historically, it is a de facto spec, having evolved from a number of sources in (believe it or not) the mid-to-late-1980s and early 1990s. The term was created by William Gibson for his breakthrough novel "Neuromancer", but, according to his own accounting in an interview many years later, he was, ironically, rather unfamiliar with computers at the time and thus was careful to leave his narrative descriptions extremely vague! Illustrations in the source rulebooks for the first edition of the tabletop role-playing game "Shadowrun" in 1989 (basically, imagine playing "Dungeons & Dragons", but instead of a fantasy world, it's the "Blade Runner" universe) gave a proper imagining to the design, but it wasn't until people actually started designing and building their own such computers based on those illustrations that a spec emerged. It's essentially design by crowdsource (crowdsourcing is the model Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are built on... however, a more appropriate modern approximation might be a Twitch streamer's chat crowd, if we're a bit optimistic) but given enough time and experimentation by the appropriate people, it can indeed turn out quite nicely... as happened here.

  What emerged is simple, but effective. A large, rectangular base, typically at least as large as a 'standard keyboard' (this is to say, a desktop-style keyboard large enough to have a full number...

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• "Going to the Hardware Store" - Some Talk About Tools

  Starhawk • 10/08/2021 at 23:42 • 0 comments

  Here's what you need, for sure. This sounds like a lot more than it is, mostly by way of discussion. You really don't need anything more than what's listed here.

  • A power drill of some sort and drill bits. Corded or cordless doesn't really matter, except that corded is generally (but not always) more powerful and more expensive, and cordless is generally (but not always) more convenient. "Electric screwdrivers" are crap, don't buy them -- they have a clutch in them, but even if you circumvent that so that you can get the full power of the motor (which isn't easy!), it's still like a "Little Tikes" toddler toy ride-in car vs a midsize Toyota. Avoid. As for drill bits, literally the cheapest black metal stuff in the store will do you fine. Don't bother with anything fancier, but do get something with at least a couple dozen sizes.
    
  • A multimeter. Don't get the awful ones at Walmart or hardware stores if you can avoid it. Go to an electronics place -- no, not Best Buy (ha!) or the Late Great Radio Shack. Honestly, the $15 Sparkfun Multimeter is legendary for a reason, and gets my penultimate recommendation. (I have one from back when they were still yellow!) You can kind of get away with not having a multimeter, for what it's worth, but it's really hard. You'll need a "continuity tester" (basically a flashlight-bulb-and-battery plus clip leads to complete the circuit, if whatever you're clipped to is connected through, it lights up) and some sort of voltmeter that can handle up to about 24vDC and tells you if you've got your polarity mixed up but otherwise doesn't mind (+/- ends swapped). Cheaper and easier by far to just get the multimeter, trust me.
    
  • A screwdriver or bit-driver set. Best bet here is an electronics bit-driver set. The ones Amazon carries under weird brand names you've never heard of, marketed as "electronics repair screwdriver bit set" type things -- those are your best bet, especially ones with magnetic bits. (Don't go to AliExpress unless you want to be old and gray with a Gandalf beard when it finally arrives!) Mine is branded "ORIA" and is awesome. Also, protip -- the Walmart "Hyper Tough" one in neon puke green is not a magnetic-bit set... annoyingly. I can't recommend it because of that, but if you're absolutely desperate beyond all reproach, it's better than nothing.
    
  • A big, long-handled Philips and slot-head screwdriver pair. Sometimes things need "persuading"... don't be afraid to apply a little leverage when you have to ;) and have what you need on hand for that. Speaking of which, expect the slot-head model to do double-duty as a miniature prybar... this is an old trick for a reason. Magnetic tips are a plus, here, too, BTW, and you should be willing to pay a little extra for them if you can.
    
  • A mini hacksaw. Sometimes also called a "compact hand hacksaw" which doesn't make much sense. This is the kind where there's a utility-knife-style grip in line with a standard 10in or 12in hacksaw blade. If what you're looking at is a case of "Honey I Shrunk The Otherwise-Normal Hacksaw", pistol-grip and all, that's the wrong thing. These things are incredible, though -- you don't need a big-boy saw, Dremel, or anything like that if you have one of these, not for this project at least... unless you're doing something absolutely whackadoodle to show off, in which case you probably already have a garage half-full of fancy tools I've never heard of anyways.
    
  • A utility knife. Sometimes called a box cutter knife. Put away your tactical survival how-red-is-your-neck Signature Jeff Foxworthy Edition hog-splittin' sawtooth switchblade thing, you want just a basic yellow Stanley "it's sharper than a butter knife" type here, the kind literally everyone uses to open cardboard everything. Don't pay more than you have to, even Walmart's cheapest bargain-bin model is good enough. Anything fancier just gets in the way. Protip: keep spare blades on hand. They're cheap, and if you snap one late in the evening...

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• "But Why?": Build vs Buy, an Introduction to the Concept

  Starhawk • 10/08/2021 at 20:42 • 0 comments

  Maybe you're standing in front of your daughter's computer... maybe it's your own, and they're just watching. Maybe it's your son. Maybe you're a single parent, or maybe your son or daughter has two Mommies, or two Daddies... or maybe you're Mommy or Daddy in a more traditional relationship. I don't judge. In this moment, that's not the focus anyways. You're staring at a computer. The screen is blue and it's frowning at you. Your child looks up at you and they're just as confused as you are.

  "What's wrong with it? Why won't it work...?"

  You don't have a clue how to answer them. You don't even know where to begin. You look down at the thing. You're angry, frustrated, sad. You alternately want to break down crying and throw the machine across the room. Neither option seems terribly useful... and ultimately, you have the same question that your son or daughter does:

  Why won't the #&@$$%!!!! thing just turn on and work?!

  Several hours -- maybe days -- and an expensive trip to the computer repair shop later, the news is even worse. You need a new system, the old one is beyond repair. You look at your family nervously. A new computer is several hundred dollars... that's not a small amount of money! How are you going to afford that?

  But: hit the pause button for a moment. What if you had another option? What if, given a weekend dedicated to it, you could build your own machine? Screw Best Buy and their horrible prices and pounding pounding techno music, screw the desperation in a plastic grocery bag that is Walmart, screw the nerds that wouldn't fix your own machine -- if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! You can do it yourself.

  I know it seems unlikely. I know it makes you feel like Homer Simpson in a physics class when you look inside a Dell box... a stranger in a strange land. You've never taken apart a laptop. You wouldn't even know where to begin. Heck, putting together a desk from Staples is a bit scary for you, sometimes!

  Let me tell you a secret: computers are designed that way. Computers are designed to impress us, to make us feel powerful when we use them, just like driving an expensive sports car does... but just like looking under the hood of a modern Toyota can make your head spin, so can looking under the hood of an HP Pavilion desktop!

  I'm a friendly neighborhood nerd. I'm the guy that Granny calls to program her VCR, and that you, if you live near me, call when your cable box and TV don't want to talk to each other, and Larry the Cable Guy says he might be able to come next Tuesday if it's not raining. I'm the guy you call when you get that frowny Blue Screen of Death (and the one who told you to call it that) and you're trying to figure out if it's worth it to haul the thing down to Jeff for a couple hundred bucks of repair bills or whether it just needs someone to give it the electronic equivalent of "take two aspirin and get over it already", spank its parallel port for being moody, and send it on its way.

  Modern computers look a lot more complicated than they really are. PCs go together like a LEGO set -- if you can plug a DVD player or Roku box into a TV, if you can plug a USB hub into a laptop, and if you know how to turn a screwdriver, you can put together your own portable PC. I'll show you how to build one in a style us computer dorks call a "cyberdeck", and tell you everything you need to know to customize it to your own personal wants, needs, and desires.

  The only power tool you'll need for the typical build will be a drill of some sort -- and the super-cheap ones will do fine. Everything else you need to do can be done with ordinary hand-tools. This stuff is nowhere near as intimidating as it looks at first glance. I promise!
  

  The next section will discuss what tools and such you do, in fact, need -- and what ones you don't need that you might think you do -- and what to get, and why.

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