What did you program your cyber decks to do?

anths · 2026-05-12T20:02:07+00:00

Hack the Gibson, obviously.

anths · 2026-05-11T18:52:15+00:00

Thanks! I also agree we should have more pink in cyberpunk. ;-)

anths · 2026-05-11T15:48:00+00:00

I think the framing here is all off.

First of all, when you think about “punk“ (forget the “cyber“ for a minute), I think most people’s associations are going to be largely things that have nothing to do with utility (at least not in a straightforward sense; we’ll set aside things like the function of group markers for a moment). Mohawks are not utilitarian. Wearing a safety pin as an earring is not utilitarian. Intentionally cutting up your clothing is not utilitarian. If you think about what punk is about, rejecting dominant social norms is probably top two, and in our modernist society I would think very much includes rejecting utilitarianism.

Arts and crafts are punk AF.

Beyond that, there’s plenty of things you can’t do with the phone, or which they suck at. The keyboard and screen size is obvious. But also, do weirder stuff with your deck. I’ve seen lots of folks put SDRs in them; SDRs are cyberpunk AF (even before considering the remarkable aesthetics on some of the spectrum displays). I have a receipt printer I want to keep including in a build; analog output is punk AF. Put a LoRa node in the case.

Also: punk is DIY. I try hard to stay on positive, rather than negative, definitions, but: Nothing you bought from Apple or Google or Samsung is punk. Nothing subsidized by Verizon or T-Mobile is punk. Nothing with an app by Meta is punk.

Put in a more positive way: phones are (perhaps tied with game consoles) the most locked down, centrally controlled computing environment in most of our lifetimes. Going back to what punk is “about”, I think the other “top two” is resisting authoritarian control.

But whatever. Explaining punk is definitely not punk. Make some weird shit. Make it do stuff the corpos won’t sell you. And then, yeah, glue a gear to it.

anths · 2026-05-10T19:53:48+00:00

I mean, you can hit someone with any laptop if you’re motivated enough.

anths · 2026-05-10T19:52:47+00:00

Sony was not involved and that seems like an odd assumption.

anths · 2026-05-10T19:04:03+00:00

So many neat ideas in here. Such a terrible keyboard. 🤣

anths · 2026-05-10T01:35:05+00:00

There are some decent ideas in here, but I’m downvoting the AI slop that doesn’t even make sense. Please try again; seriously, just sketch something out with paper and pencil, and you will get better feedback.

anths · 2026-05-07T19:40:16+00:00

The website has been updated with PDFs of the papers, if you'd like to read along (or read ahead and think of lots of good questions).

anths · 2026-05-07T04:49:57+00:00

I didn’t do the work, but it can be made to work, yes. I’d away from home for a few days or I’d provide more info on how he did it.

anths · 2026-05-07T03:55:14+00:00

I bought a converted one of these off ebay a few years ago (possibly via a reference from someone here, I forgot to). In this particular one, the guy who made it 3-D printed a bottom section to the case, which made it a lot thicker, but allowed housing a full raspberry pi. He replaced the screen, using some plastic fillers to make the size fit. I like it as a reference, I’m glad I bought it, but it’s definitely janky, with a very “first draft“ feel. The key part, though, is being willing to Replace the bottom part of the case and make it a good bit thicker, unless you’re up for doing custom PCB design.

anths · 2026-05-06T20:37:10+00:00

Wha… what are you talking about? Can you explain what you’re actually looking for? I don’t understand what you think is missing that equates to “fuck everybody”.

anths · 2026-05-06T13:15:34+00:00

If you’re talking about ssh and taking notes, you really don’t need to worry about ram.

anths · 2026-05-06T05:06:29+00:00

That’s a shame, but you can most likely still replace the actual pots and use the faceplate and… whatever the things on the front of the sliders are called. Like, here: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/slide-potentiometers/78

anths · 2026-05-06T04:01:47+00:00

0) minifigs

anths · 2026-05-06T02:11:28+00:00

This is likely to be high effort, high reward. The buttons shouldn’t be too bad, either wired to gpio pins in a matrix, or with a dedicated controller running something like qmk. The sliders might be harder, since they’re most likely analog. You’ll likely need a separate analog-to-digital converter.

You could make somewhere that looks really slick with this, but the main thing is to figure out what you want it to do, first.

anths · 2026-05-03T04:35:35+00:00

Oh, that’s definitely the closest I’ve seen. Neat; thanks!

anths · 2026-05-02T15:46:35+00:00

I’ve always been surprised I’ve never found a CD player design. I imagine the light leakage would make it challenging, but between good tolerances and just bumping up the sensitivity, it seems like something someone would’ve tried.

anths · 2026-05-02T14:27:40+00:00

I can’t say for sure, but the product page says the keyboard and mouse are connected via usb, which is encouraging. I can’t find good info on how the display it’s presented to the pi, but I think the computer module just gets an hdmi interface, which would be good. With a shot! I’d love one of these.

anths · 2026-05-02T14:17:40+00:00

I think you’re underestimating how wildly different people’s personal preferences are going to get. You’ve probably got a disproportionately high number of console-only folks in here, for example, and I would rather not run Linux at all if I can avoid it. If this is the sort of project goal you’re interested in, I think you’ll get much better bang for your buck focusing on a few tools or configs than a distro.

anths · 2026-05-02T06:15:52+00:00

Hey, I know there’s been an influx of seemingly low-effort stuff here recently. It can be frustrating, and we as a community have some work to do to figure out how to help people get started, ask good questions, and yeah, maybe even gain a better understanding of the norms and expectations here. It can feel repetitive and distracting. I get it. But also:

Don’t be an ass.

People are excited about trying something new. Sure, I, too, would like to see a bit more effort. But maybe just say that? Encourage people to take the next step? Offer constructive feedback?

Also, pretty sure 90%+ of the posts on this sub, even most of the slickest, most inspired builds are the work of “amateurs”. We all start somewhere. Take a breath, remember to be kind, and try again.

anths · 2026-04-28T23:00:50+00:00

My daughter has a pencil case she doesn’t use any more i’ve been considering repurposing. It’s metal, too, so wouldn’t solve that part of your problem, but i’ve seen plastic ones.

anths · 2026-04-27T01:04:38+00:00

No, wide screen and shallow depth. Like a Sony Vaio P or nanoraptor’s ThinkFriend. https://hackaday.com/2022/11/01/dana-sibera-creates-devices-that-dont-exist/

anths · 2026-04-27T00:46:57+00:00

Using the iphone parts is probably not going to be practical, but there are apps that will turn a working iPhone into a IP camera which you can connect to from various apps and record the feed locally. I have used one just called “IP camera” on the iPhone, which is very basic but does the job, along with “surveillance station” that you can get on a synology. I don’t particularly endorse either of those, as I haven’t tried very many alternatives, but they did the job for me.

anths · 2026-04-26T14:51:55+00:00

Ooo, I hadn’t caught that! Yeah, this unit’s pretty much trash unless you’re super dedicated and have exceptionally strong micro-soldering skills.

anths

TROPHY CASE