/tec/ introducing the MINIbase and no se vende mesh network

I have this laptop setup to function as a tiny server. Running NixOS and I'm working on building a bootable image for this XU4 I bought years ago to serve as a piratebox. I'll be getting these two setup to work in concert so I can test out network configs! I don't have any spare routers, so I'm kinda stuck making my own shitty ones out of old SBCs and USB NICs that I have collected over the years.

I have another similar laptop with a broken hinge that I'm gonna try to refurbish and give away. Does anyone have experience with that type of build? Hmu somewhere if so. My best idea so far I think is making a case from Legos

I'm keeping a detailed log of all the stuff that I have to chase down across the Internet to get the setup working to my specifications on Nix. I'll be publishing the manual once I have the new setup online. I will also take care to document some of this skill share backlog for reference. And finally, I'll have a reasonable spot to publish some of the infosec & threat modelling documentation I had mentioned I was working on a while back.

I'm using `ronn` to generate roff and html files based on a markdown-like syntax. I picked up this tool ages ago and I find it super useful. I have some of my old osdev project manuals sitting around that were written in this format.

I'm still pretty far from completing my infrastructure changes, but I'm making progress towards being able to host some resources that we can use to get no se vende off the ground. I'm trying to resist the temptation to make my own infra management tool, but I'm not all that impressed with the status quo in nix-world either. I like this kinda pubnix concept that tilde.zone and others are doing, but I would love to see a decentralized version where we can all host our own content and share it over a wholly community owned mesh network that can share CPU and storage and such.

finally a mesh network!

We're using common public mesh technologies like batman and trying to recycle mesh-capable routers to build small meshlocals that expand internet access to as many people as feasible locally. We don't have a specific strategy in mind atm for how these segments will be bridged but tech that has been tossed in for that role includes yggdrasil, i2p, and reticulum.

I'm hoping minibase can fit into a similar niche as that clan.lol project, but specifically promote cooperative workflows/ethics and usability. maybe i'm too quick to jump to making new shit, but I'd like us to have tools that are tuned to the specific needs of no se vende mesh and managing its infrastructure. I'd like to eventually come around to doing the modular computer stuff that I started off on, but the software side needs loads of work. FOSS broadly is just a bunch of copycat systems that don't really interrogate what the actual point of the computer is.

What I consider to be a modern computer is intrinsically connected to like radio, signal processing, message routing, and cryptography. to support all of these capabilities with reasonable power consumption, you end up somewhere in the 20th century. imo we haven't fully cracked storage (fused quartz laser annealing is still out of reach for portable writing, but making that cheap will make small hologram projectors feasible which is kinda wild to think about), but SSDs are pretty nice.

I think Taiwo's conception of modernity is pretty beneficial here. a lot of the foundations of modern computer technology were created by women and people of color of all kinds. white people only delude themselves into thinking that everything they take credit for is actually theirs. I used to limit myself substantially to try to find some way to build technology that wasn't based on western technological concepts (and/or some sci-fi notion of perma-computers), but eventually realized that I was just cutting myself off to the fruits of Labor to try to spite Capital. I think its important to be critical of technology and the way it interfaces with our lives, but all of the technology and infrastructure that we've built under capitalism is really the shared heritage of humanity. Some should be broken, but a lot of that shit needs to be taken over and repurposed.

Will LA Mesh?

I really wish LA was ready to collaborate to build an open mesh network, but nowhere is the Amerikkkan ideal of every person for themselves more pronounced than LA.

Yk maybe there's a lesson in there for us. Like we can use BATMAN for certain functions, for example to create a large WiFi network at a community center. Any place where there's space to place infrastructure. In between there's a huge crowd of people with at least one computer in their pocket with potentially 3 radios. A lot could be possible if people had a reason to install an app. On android at least.

It adds a big complication, but a smallish motivated group might be able to pull it off. Especially if there's a strong like design and art component that speaks to people in some way. Our app doesn't even have to be married to a particular technology. We can try to build a nice multi-protocol app that helps people get online and build utility networks starting with their own devices.

Meet people where they're at type beat.

LA has a buried radical history. There's reason to believe in its potential.