I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#1

Post by mildbyte » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
kimonote.com

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#2

Post by ohazi » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:30 PM UTC

You know, you could have even stopped at the car analogy, because modern cars are actually doing this and it's fucking terrifying.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16374464

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#3

Post by kevin_b_er » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:31 PM UTC

And the DMCA prevents you from repairing the problem. Ostensibly to protect copyright, but instead used to deny you ownership.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#4

Post by Blinks- » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:31 PM UTC

Increases in complexity up the barrier of entry to any advanced system, but lately it seems like things are made with the intent to make that barrier impossible to overcome within the lifetime of the hardware. The right to repair and open hardware standards are something we need to organize and push for if we want to see improvements. After all it's been demonstrated time and time again that we can't trust black box hardware.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#5

Post by adreamingsoul » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:32 PM UTC

So, back to land lines with analog phones?

Serious question, do any phones exist that can fully owned by the user? For a period, I was excited about the Ubuntu phone because of the fact that I could have full control over it. Sad to see that project terminated.

I'm also interested in "dumbphones" that can use CDMA or GSM networks.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#6

Post by baseethrowaway » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:33 PM UTC

adreamingsoul wrote: post #5

So, back to land lines with analog phones? Serious question, do any phones exist that can fully owned by the user? For a period, I was excited about the Ubuntu phone because of the fact that I could have full control over it. Sad to see that project terminated. I'm also interested in "dumbphones" that can use CDMA or GSM networks.

Look up Librem 5. Doesn't exist yet, but might soon.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#7

Post by jimmies » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:34 PM UTC

>In 2016, when I got a new phone, the default setting changed and I would just wake up to my device stating, "Tinder has been updated. Deal with it".

I turned off auto-updates on my phone.

So this happened. Last year or so I traveled to SF and tried to call an Uber home after a long day of walking around. My phone had 5% battery left. I opened the app and there it was... The maps and everything showed up, but then it blocked the UI with the message: "You haven't updated the app in a month. Uber won't work if you don't update it right now." It really rustled my jimmies. In the next 15 minutes, 3 of us (2 are foreigners with no cell connection) had to stand in the freezing rain when the damn thing was updating with my 2.5G connection. When the Uber arrived, I had 1% left and not long after I got in the car, my phone shut down. I was so worried the phone would die before the car arrived.

The other day I talked about how backward-compatible Google Maps is and unfortunately it made the news on Slashdot. Some people were like, oh yeah, Windows is backward compatible with 30 years old apps. Are you a millennial/a shill for praising them for supporting their API for 10 years? Yeah, keep talking about Windows, until you fucking use some of the apps nowadays that wouldn't work when you haven't updated them in a month.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#8

Post by tpaschalis » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:39 PM UTC

I understand that powers have shifted, and the majority of the people prefer "free" email/chat/spreadsheets/storage, when "free" means "welcome to our own special walled corner of the internet, give us your personal data and watch these ads".

But why should in 2018 be so hard for one to be able to simply pay once for hardware or software, that puts the user first? Is it impossible for such a company to succeed at scale?

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#9

Post by fallous » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:41 PM UTC

adreamingsoul wrote: post #5

So, back to land lines with analog phones? Serious question, do any phones exist that can fully owned by the user? For a period, I was excited about the Ubuntu phone because of the fact that I could have full control over it. Sad to see that project terminated. I'm also interested in "dumbphones" that can use CDMA or GSM networks.

I've seriously contemplated a roll-your-own "dumb phone" solution not only for myself but also for my mother and in-laws (they're all in their 70s). An Adafruit Fona would provide all of the telephonic functionality I'd care about, and then it's just a matter of choice regarding microcontroller, display, etc.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#10

Post by 089723645897236 » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:41 PM UTC

Blinks- wrote: post #4

Increases in complexity up the barrier of entry to any advanced system, but lately it seems like things are made with the intent to make that barrier impossible to overcome within the lifetime of the hardware. The right to repair and open hardware standards are something we need to organize and push for if we want to see improvements. After all it's been demonstrated time and time again that we can't trust black box…

My entire goal in life is to be able to use a full stack open device. Maybe we'll see it with Purism and the like.