The Old Computer Challenge Explained
====================================
The Old Computer Challenge is a challenge, started by Solène Rapenne
in 2021.
The challenge is to only use a computer with limited capabilities for
the duration of one week.
On Libera.chat, the IRC channel #old-computer-challenge was created
for this challenge. This channel turned out to be a great plus, and it
is still in use today. Recently, this channel is renamed to
#oldcomputerchallenge.
2021 edition
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The challenge of 2021 was the first edition, with the following rules:
* 1 CPU maximum, whatever the model. This mean only 1 CPU|Core|Thread.
Some bios allow to disable multi core.
* 512 MB of memory (if you have more it's not a big deal, if you want
to reduce your ram create a tmpfs and put a big file in it)
* using USB dongles is allowed (storage, wifi, Bluetooth whatever)
* only for your personal computer, during work time use your usual
stuff
* relying on services hosted remotely is allowed (VNC, file sharing,
whatever help you)
* using a smartphone to replace your computer may work, please share
if you move habits to your smartphone during the challenge
* if you absolutely need your regular computer for something really
important please use it. The goal is to have fun but not make your
week a nightmare.
The challenge took place from 10th July morning until 17th July
morning.
At the end of the challenge it turned out that the participants
were all very positive about the experience.
2022 edition
------------
The 2022 edition focused on limited internet time. The idea was to
recreate the experience of the old time of RTC modems with a monthly
time budget. Again, the duration of the challenge was one week,
from 10th to 17th July 2022.
The challenge rules for this edition were easy: you are allowed to
_connect_ your computer to the Internet for a maximum accumulated time
of 1h per day, from 10th to 17th July included. This mean you can
connect six times for ten minutes, twice for thirty minutes, or once
for one hour in the day.
Again, for the participants it was a challenging experience. The rules
of the challenge resulted in an unexpected side effect. It allowed for
limited interaction on the IRC channel. Other than that, people were
positive about having attended.
2023 edition
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This edition is a bit back to the roots: let's use a SLOW computer for
seven days. This will be achieved by various means with any hardware:
* Limit your computer's CPU to use only 1 core. This can be set in the
BIOS most of the time, and on Linux you can use maxcores=1 in the
boot command line, on OpenBSD you can use bsd.sp kernel for the
duration of the challenge.
* Limit your computer's memory to 512 MB of memory (no swap limit).
This can be set on Linux using the boot command line mem=512MB. On
OpenBSD, this can be achieved a bit similarly by using
datasize-max=512M in login.conf for your user's login class.
* Set your CPU frequency to the lowest minimum (which is pretty low on
modern hardware!). On Linux, use the "powersave" frequency governor,
in modern desktop environments the battery widget should offer an
easy way to set the governor. On OpenBSD, run apm -L (while apmd
service is running). On Windows, in the power settings, set the
frequency to minimum.
Of course, you can also simply use an old computer.
The challenge will start the 10th July 2023, and end the 17th July
2023 at the end of the day.
Participation
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We hope you will participate in the challenge. The past editions have
shown that for everybody the challenge holds some unexpected effects
which turns the participation in a learning experience and that people
participate in a way that matches their personal capabilities.
Whether you are a complete IT noob, or a hard core hacker, you are
welcome to join! There are no prizes to win, but participating is
fun.
Please join the IRC channel #oldcomputerchallenge, and please write
about your experiences in a phlog post, blog post, or on your Gemini
capsule, and share the link to it.