this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2026
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Permacomputing
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Computing to support life on Earth
Computing in the age of climate crisis is often wasteful and adds nothing useful to our real life communities. Here we try to find out how to change that.
Definition and purpose of permacomputing: http://viznut.fi/files/texts-en/permacomputing.html
Sister community over at lemmy.sdf.org: !permacomputing@lemmy.sdf.org
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Most ewaste isn't built for surviving over 3 to 5 years in operation.
I'll take that warning as a vote of confidence in my ability to configure systems for reliability! Honestly if we get to the point that systems are failing for hardware lifespan reasons we'll have exceeded my expectations and I'll issue some new ewaste. Fortunately the return policy at the free stuff swap shop is very generous.
Where is this statistic from? Surely depends on how it's used. I made a Raspberry-Pi powered kiosk to monitor cameras (very similar to OP's project in concept) for a friend 7+ years ago, it's still running.
Things are built to warranty. That take engineering. Most things are designed to fail, unfortunately.
Most warranties are 3-5 years. The government and businesses also depreciate technology (computers) on a 5 year basis.
Most technology follows a bathtub failure curve. Technology that outlasts 3-5 years is frequently a fluke and they try hard to minimize those.