Re: living without fridge or food preparation

"Carol" <cshenk@virginia-beach.com> wrote in message
news:vsenc6$vmq1$1@dont-email.me...

Jill McQuown wrote:
>

On 3/30/2025 5:57 PM, Carol wrote:

Paul Edwards wrote:

Good luck!  What's the plan for the laptop?  Trying to fill a
powerbank of any size at 40w will be painful.

The rough figures I have from an internet search is:

smartphone    5 Wh (one charge per day)
laptop       56 Wh ("typical daily")

Theoretically I only need 2 hours of sun per day to keep
those things operational.

And if I want to start getting draconian, I can do programming
on my smartphone, with the laptop only being used for maybe
10 minutes per day on average to cover a new release.

I have previously experimented with having the smartphone
display turned down to minimum, or one less than minimum,
brightness.

And I haven't yet tried selecting a laptop for minimum
power usage.

So still data to collect.

It's an odd wish considering food is the least consideration.  One
can live without computers but one cannot live without food.

One can live with food pared down to just a drink designed
to keep you alive.

One can't release software without electricity.

I suspect he'll be at home and wandering maybe a week fairly nearby.

There is no particular need to leave home at all.

When I read the book "The Kontiki Expedition", there was one
person who was horrified at the thought of bringing a radio, as
if that would invalidate the experiment.

But the other person pointed out that so long as they didn't use
it to assist with navigation, it wasn't going to affect the experiment
at all.

The situation may not be immediately obvious. E.g. in Australia,
some people have been given a penalty (by the government)
of not being allowed to use the internet. Maybe one day I will
be banished to not be allowed to use electricity, and they are
unaware that I have access to portable solar. Or parents
could be issuing such a penalty to their child.

Or - a genuine situation that arose recently (not in Australia).
A family has access to grid electricity. One member of the
family is not working, not paying bills, but using the air
conditioner. To the point that the electricity bill has been
unpaid and the electricity has been cut.

Due to cultural constraints, the freeloader can't be kicked
out of the house, nor can the air conditioner be unscrewed
and removed. And nor can the freeloader be reasoned with.
In some mentalities, people don't stop spending money
until their physical wallet is empty. They have no self-control.

So what are other members of the family meant to do?
40W solar is a whole lot better than ZERO.

And give me some time, and I'll show you what you can
do with 80 Wh. ie release new versions of PDOS. I have
already demonstrated that when I had a 100W solar. This one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0977T9ZNJ

using just the USB-A outlet, ie not PD. I wasn't so much
after the 100W to get 100W, as to compensate for
rainy weather, where things operate at something like
50% of sunny weather capacity. So basically I was
getting 50W, rain or shine.

But now I am driving towards more minimalism.

The solution is not only for me, but for perhaps situations
(Africa or whatever) where people may be able to get
some solar installed, but have to share it between 50
people, so each individual gets just enough to charge
a smartphone in a day. Can they do computer
programming? Yes they can. Demonstrably so (as I
demonstrate it).

They do some shows like "Survivor", not sure if they
are deliberately testing human endurance. I am doing
something similar - how much work you can get
done with a little bit of electricity. The liquid food is
more of a nice touch. Without sleep deprivation - ie
just waking up naturally - how much programming
can you do in one day? Right at the moment I'm not
trying to screw maximum time out of a programmer
(ie me) with sleep deprivation etc. I'm just trying to
find the minimum amount of electricity I need to
provide to a programmer (ie me), so that lack of
electricity is not a barrier if he "does the right
thing" by not "wasting" precious energy on hot
food or hot showers etc and prioritizes keeping
the computer operational.

I'm not saying it is exactly that goal. That's just the
sort of analogy. And it's not just for me. It's a
starting point for someone in a similar but
different situation. I do not have a cultural
constraint of kicking out a freeloader. Others do.
So they may or may not need to adjust the
parameters of the experiment.

Another example might be a blind person who
doesn't need a screen at all. I don't know what
the electricity consumption is for using a screen
reader (audio). And there may be software
solutions to minimize even that. E.g. only give
audio feedback if someone types an invalid
word - otherwise they trust that they have
touch-typed correctly, or the auto-correct has
done the job sufficiently well. I'm personally
not testing this right at the moment. But perhaps
under the right circumstances - severe energy
constraint - everyone will be hiring blind
programmers (note that they exist, but they don't
currently swamp the market because electricity
isn't a constraining factor - right now). Maybe in
Cuba it will be a constraint. Or a war zone like
Sudan. It didn't use to be an issue in Venezuela,
but then suddenly it was. In Ukraine the electricity
has been deliberately targeted.

There is another OS - Collapse OS:

https://collapseos.org/

that is based on that concept for different reasons
(and they are not alone - they provide such links).

I'm not covering that aspect (scavenging). Just
electricity. And there could be a wartime situation
too where whoever uses electricity the most
efficiently to keep programmers programming wins.

BFN. Paul.