I don’t know about specific OS, but desktop-less Debian (or Alpine/postmarketOS for mobile) would be able to automatically log in and run fullscreen Chrome. Network/WiFi config would need to be done only once.
I built a kiosk-like weather display a while ago. Same idea applies, just with Chrome instead of Midori.
(USA)
Less lawn care and more native plants: save money on fertilizer, save time on mowing, grass looks better too, you get fireflies and birds.
Own tomatoes taste much better. And they grow like weeds in subtropical regions of the US, so very little effort needed there.
Repair and DIY: You want to get ripped off by some person who will also put minimum effort into fixing your house or things? Or worse, company salesman who will wear you out with endless speeches until you agree? “Want it done right? Do it yourself”.
Solar power: This is MY power.
No car / smaller car / older car: Gas is expensive (ironic for Americans, I know, but it’s a common complaint)
Smaller house / apartment: Save lots of money on heating and cooling, pay less taxes and lower insurance rates.
But to even get this far, we have to somehow overcome cultural norms, such as: my neighbor(s) whose hobby is mowing the grass twice a week; people ordering shit on Amazon as the default; stupid laws about solar; wanting a bigger car, house, yard for no practical reason.
And I can’t find a good selfish argument against big tech and AI - it’s free, and most people are indifferent about external costs and surveillance.
Did not watch the video, but really enjoyed Everyday Utopia - feminist views on labor and family, arguments against current values/ideas of nuclear family, good historical anecdotes, and very little negativity.
TBF many mid-to-late 2000s phones already had color screens and cameras, along with ability to send and receive images (at 0.5 units / min on prepaid, same as internet access)
There are options of Android on a flip-phone (CAT S22), candybar, or just too-small-to-doomscroll (unihertz jelly). I presume most of those are fairly clean Android due to performance.
There are more “gimmicky”/expensive devices such as Mudita Kompakt, Minimal Phone.
Hate to point to reddit, but r/dumbphones has a guide to dumb and simpler devices. (Ignore annoying daily asks for recommendations)
IIRC you need data for MMS (media and group messages)
When a Thinkad is disassembled, there are like 20—40 fragile pins on the connector
AFAIK high-resolution screens (laptops, tablets) often use LVDS interface and connector, thin wires in twisted pairs. Like this one
TBH I don’t know that much. If it is a wider ribbon (40-50 pins), it is parallel RGB (5 or 6 bits per color, clock, power, etc). But for 10 pin cable, it probably uses some protocol to communicate.
Since it’s from a vape, it has to be widely available. I would find the model number (even look for similar LCDs on ali or ebay), then find the specs/datasheet/documentation - it should specify which pin is which and what voltages and signals they expect.
Just to add:
Various cheap LCD panels can be repurposed using a $10-20 driver from Ali or eBay.
Red LED 8-segment displays from old alarm clocks - fun to use for any other purpose using a microcontroller.
I think it was an old toaster I got a nice slide variable resistor from.
Precise (but weak) stepper assembly from old CD/DVD drives.
Standard cords from any appliance. Nice high-current switches.
Some old keyboards (especially programmable ones) have a DIP chip, if you are into building keyboards.
Free People’s Village by Sim Kern is on my shelf, haven’t read it yet. The premise is that history went differently in 1990s and US is now a solarpunk utopia… For the rich.
FWIW: I had a Samsung washer that would throw “unbalanced load” error during the spin cycle. It was a top-load, with the motor+drum suspended on 4 springed/dampened rods. The only two solutions that worked were either: 1. Arrange clothes to one side to compensate the unbalanced drum (lots of trial and error there). Or 2. Put a foam mat around the suspended drum (had to take off the top part of the washer to do that). Somehow that dampens the shaking/imbalance just enough to not trip the sensor.
Don’t buy Samsung appliances.
That looks more like a mud dauber, which are solitary and do not eat wood.
(Then again, I am only familiar with some NE US insects, and poster is probably not in the US)
I ran an XMPP chat server from an old laptop for about a year (switched to a VPS for reliability though).
My friend buys and restores old ThinkPads and sends them to the Ukrainian military (Army SOS program)
But I still have several laptops and smartphones laying around. A long time ago, I had an idea of running a pseudo-datacenter with low-spec devices like that, but I think that would be more of a responsibility and money sink. My coworker suggested using those devices for additional calculation power (for lambdas?) on cloud services during spikes. But I haven’t really looked into that.
For makerspaces, old laptops and smartphones can run octoprint for remotely controlling 3D printers.
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.