This is sooo true. I have multiple computing ideas that I want to do just for fun but I am not doing because each requires buying a mini-pc, sometimes with a screen too, and put Linux + my app on it.

At the same time I have multiple old phones laying around, Pixels, iPhones, Galaxy that are out of date, have cracked screens or worn out batteries.

Each one of these old phones have same or more computing power than a $300 mini-pc, but I can't use them because I can't just ssh into them and install an app...

Sad, really.

The pixels all ship with unlocked bootloaders.

Just nitpicking: unlockable bootloaders. The bootloader is locked by default. But you can unlock it without needing Google.

Additionally, Pixels support a Linux VM and has a desktop mode (I'm running GrapheneOS, it may still be that these features have to be enabled through the developer settings).

> But you can unlock it without needing Google.

Well akshually.... the bootloader is initially not unlockable. You must connect the phone to the internet. Within a few minutes a background process will reach out to Google servers to check whether it was purchased outright or with a payment plan. It will only enable the bootloader unlocking toggle after this step. Phones bought with a carrier contract won't be unlockable until paid off.

In those initial few minutes (/ before you connect it to the interwebs), the bootloader unlock option in the developer settings & fastboot will be disabled.

Thanks for the correction! Though I recently set up and unlocked a new Pixel and I don't recall it. Maybe SKUs for European countries are an exception since such payment plans do not really exist? Or I forgot.

And even with this there are still apps which require hardware attestation and won't work on alternative operating systems.

I recently turned my unused Google Pixel 8 into a server for my personal site and various side projects. It's super satisfying to spin things up in a couple hours, point a cloudflare tunnel at it, and share it with the world.

Do you have a write up of the software you used to do this?

Was it just using Android apps or did you flash GrapheneOS or PostmarketOS onto it first?

Is it permanently plugged into power (risking spicy pillow scenarios)?

In Android you can use termux and run them as a servers I have done it that way

I'm using a Nexus 5 with postmarketOS as an SMS gateway connected to the internet! So glad old phones were a bit more open

> but I can't use them because I can't just ssh into them and install an app...

of course you can. just ask your agent. it took me 1 hour to vibe-code and install an Android app on my locked down Android.

Same, the computing capacity and redundancy you could achieve with your spare devices...

Another +1 from me at 62 years. My problem is this has led to me feeling like I am tech lead for a team of a dozen excellent developers, but I have no task for them!

Yeah we had a good laugh when Downdetector was down during the Cloudflare outage yesterday. So this is appropriate. +1

I remember when the CDN I was working for had to change our status page provider when our first one became our client.

I can imageine that. Although not using Channel Sounding, as it has a accuracy of +/- 200mm according to TFA. Which is still very good, though.

I don't follow your reasoning. (+-)200 mm is better accuracy than 1000 mm.

1m? 1mm? Apparently I was seeing double

In case you're not familiar with the metric system: 1m is 1000mm. In other words, one millimeter is one thousandth of a meter.

I wonder why when swipeing between the two sides of the disc it always appears convex from the currently viewed side, but flat when viewed edge on.

Anyone knows what could cause this?

I think it's to avoid having two sets of data points. I think the "view angle" affects the "convex amount" so that edge-view = flat and all other viewing angles "bump" the data points a little bit to give the "convex" look.

I would question whether a PWM "technically" counts as digital... It is on and off, sure, but so is a mechanical power switch, which few would describe as digital. "Digital" is more when we get higher level values represented by multiple signals that are on or off (aka bits).

A mechanical power switch can certainly be digital; the Harvard Mark I digital computer was made entirely out of mechanical power switches, actuated by solenoids (so-called "relays"). It depends on how you use it—as you say, by combining multiple different bits, either simultaneously or serially.

I agree that a PWM signal is not really a digital signal, but it's kind of on the edge—for example, https://tinyurl.com/25y54mph is a simulation I designed of a completely analog PWM generator (a simulated LM324 op-amp, five transistors, 13 resistors, and a couple of caps), and several vendors offer better-designed versions of the same thing on an IC, but you can also get a perfectly adequate PWM signal out of a digital GPIO pin, and the PWM peripherals commonly included in microcontrollers are entirely digital.

Totally agree. Dashboard felt like a thorn in the eye.

Same for me. The car looks beautiful and then you see the dashboard and it's just plain ugly. Doesn't match the rest of the car at all. It's easy enough to simply offer another trim option for the dash though.

And read scrolls while having a a cocktail in the bar.

Sounds like a PERFECT chip for my next HomeAssistant box :-D

- Low power when only idling through events from the radio networks

- Low power and reasonable performance when classifying objects in a few video feeds.

- Higher power and performance when occasionally doing STT/TTS and inference on a small local LLM

My thoughts exactly! Although I may end up getting some Mini M1/M2 variant with Asahi Linux instead

Strong typing built in from the start. More approachable syntax (unless you are used to Ruby).

Static typing. Elixir already has strong typing (no implicit conversions).