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Your Computer Isn't Yours

sneak.berlin

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Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#431

Post by BLKNSLVR »

TrispusAttucks wrote: post #356
ThePhysicist wrote: post #143

What we poor souls didn't understand all these years is that we're effectively helping other companies to steal from Apple by running software that isn't distributed via their app store [1]. I think now that Apple has learned from iOS how profitable a walled garden business model is they are trying to bring that model to the PC world as well. Shipping hardware with their own processors is an important step in that di…

Like all subcultures when the hacker ethos went mainstream it's spirt died and all that was left was fashion. No one cares anymore if their consumer choices are a threat to freedom as long as they look cool. Outward appearances are now more important than principles. Prickly principles require sacrifice and why have character when you can have a disposable "personality".

The hacker ethos didn't go mainstream. People who don't deserve the moniker started self applying it.

I'm not a hacker, I'm a corporate shill because I work for my own profit within a system that's set up to ensure its own continuity. I'd like to be a hacker, but I have a family to support and am too weak or addicted to lifestyle or scared or realistically-minded to actually commit to what's required to earn the title of hacker. Same with anyone working towards advertising, marketing, consumer data collection. Doesn't matter how intelligently you solve a problem in those fields, ain't no starry eyed kids ever wanted to grow up to make the world a better place by more accurately identifying and individuals preferences on the internet.

Fuck fake hackers. The best thing I've done with my life is being a good husband to a teacher.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#432

Post by ubercow13 »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #348
Un1corn wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you really used a desktop Linux desktop recently? Sure it might have some problems but Fedora for example is in no way "a distant third in usability". I haven't used MacOS for a couple of years but I can say for certain that Linux is not that far behind Windows and sometimes even ahead. I think the main problem is lack of application support but specifically for developers most applications are already there.

> Have you really used a desktop Linux desktop recently? Someone has to say this literally any time someone mentions problems with Linux Desktop, along with "it works for me", "my grandma uses it!", "you just have to buy the right hardware", and "you're using the wrong distro". It is incredibly tiring.

It's a reply to the tiring cognitive dissonance of posts like GP that basically broadcast that 'oh, I would simply love to support open software and general-purpose computing instead of locked-down proprietary platforms, but alas, Linux is simply unusable you see, so I have no choice!'

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#433

Post by ben_w »

Nullabillity wrote: post #388
GuB-42 wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gen Z can get real general-purpose computers with a development environment for cheap. The new Raspberry Pi 400 is a modern take on home computers like the C64, but 15 times cheaper. Pi 400 full kit: $100, C64: $595 (1982) / $1576 (inflation adjusted for 2019). The computers are not just getting cheaper, educative material is easier than ever to find. Because modern computers are much more complex and do much more th…

$100 isn't cheap for a curious kid with no income, especially if they're not already sold on it as an interest. There's a big difference between buying a computer explicitly for the purpose (even if it's cheaper), vs being able to play around with the hardware that you already have, for no new monetary investment at all.

If a kid with a phone but no money wants to know if programming is something they might like to study, and somehow the school also can’t afford a Pi, I’d point the kid at something like https://js.do/

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#434

Post by swiley »

jmull wrote: post #396

There’s a rather strong counter to this is: I, and the vast majority of computer users, don’t want to manage every nitty-gritty detail of the security and privacy of my computer. I have better things to do. In fact, doing it fully competently is more than a full time job. So farming this out to a third-party is a necessity, for me and many, many others. Of course, it’s not perfect. How much can I trust the third part…

>don’t want to manage every nitty-gritty detail of the security and privacy of my computer.

Good Linux distros have sane defaults managed by volunteers for you, so on OSes that respect your freedom you still don't have to do this.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#435

Post by lkslkdjal12 »

jmull wrote: post #396

There’s a rather strong counter to this is: I, and the vast majority of computer users, don’t want to manage every nitty-gritty detail of the security and privacy of my computer. I have better things to do. In fact, doing it fully competently is more than a full time job. So farming this out to a third-party is a necessity, for me and many, many others. Of course, it’s not perfect. How much can I trust the third part…

Oh c'mon, that is the oldest argument in the tool-box of Apple/MS "sheeple", as you put it. Most Linux distros don't require you to "manage every nitty-gritty detail" of anything. In fact, some of them make it easier for you to choose your privacy settings once and only during installation.

> I have better things to do.

Oh, mr. I'm-so-important, if ignoring your privacy and the rights to use your own machine is low on your priority list, you gotta respect those people who see it as something important, as well as their demand for something better. If you are fine with Apple/MS, great, use it. But don't try to take away the rights of others to look for something that better addresses their needs, and, especially, their right to try to tell others that it could work for them too.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#436

Post by aydwi »

jmull wrote: post #396

There’s a rather strong counter to this is: I, and the vast majority of computer users, don’t want to manage every nitty-gritty detail of the security and privacy of my computer. I have better things to do. In fact, doing it fully competently is more than a full time job. So farming this out to a third-party is a necessity, for me and many, many others. Of course, it’s not perfect. How much can I trust the third part…

I own a company which manufactures and sells showerheads. Since the "vast majority" of people are prone to a fall while taking a shower, and since it is difficult to come up with a fool-proof solution against slipping and falling (who wants to get into the nitty-gritty of that?), my company also mandatorily installs a camera alongside, so that we can monitor for accidents.

Of course, it's not perfect. Some customers have raised concerns about their privacy, but this is for the greater good. My company is very ethical in its practices, and really values each customer's privacy (pinky promise). This is the best solution for everyone.

The footage of you and your loved ones showering is completely safe with us, although you can choose not to be recorded while showering by not purchasing our products.

Oh by the way, our showerheads are sleeker and more convenient than anything else in the market.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#437

Post by lkslkdjal12 »

nojito wrote: post #413
jmull wrote: post #396

There’s a rather strong counter to this is: I, and the vast majority of computer users, don’t want to manage every nitty-gritty detail of the security and privacy of my computer. I have better things to do. In fact, doing it fully competently is more than a full time job. So farming this out to a third-party is a necessity, for me and many, many others. Of course, it’s not perfect. How much can I trust the third part…

Computers are tools to do work. Evangelists do nothing but attach a higher value to computers in an effort to convince others that they are not doing "work" and that their way is the right way. You would be hard pressed to find a better tool to do your work than a Mac/iPad/iPhone in 2020.

Haha, hard pressed to find something better than an apple product in 2020? C'mon, go to any computer/phone store and you'll have plenty of options, for a cheaper price and with better privacy.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#438

Post by jtbayly »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #415
jtbayly wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just pop in the live installation media So... way harder than Mac OS. In fact, that’s literally impossible on my computer.

USB thumb drive is still "live installation media"

Now don’t I feel sheepish!

But seriously, I guess it is possible to use a USB thumb drive on my Mac with only Thunderbolt ports, but I never have and it’s never occurred to me. I suppose I still have one somewhere and maybe a dongle that would let me do it.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#439

Post by lkslkdjal12 »

bambax wrote: post #41

> These machines are the first general purpose computers ever where you have to make an exclusive choice: you can have a fast and efficient machine, or you can have a private one. Most of the components inside my PC are over 10 years old. I do video editing. I do music production with many VSTs open and running. And of course web browsing with a million tabs opened at once. For any of those tasks I can't see what wou…

Not even gaming, since a 2015 windows machine runs games better than the newest Mac available.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#440

Post by modo_mario »

jb1991 wrote: post #221
forest_dweller wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same sort of logic that some people have that people shouldn't be allowed to make choices in life because they "might get it wrong". People should be allowed to make their own choices in what they believe to be their best interests and they should be allowed to get things wrong. > For most people, if there computer was ‘theirs’, it would be that way for about 10 minutes until it was pwned by a bad actor.…

> This is the same sort of logic that some people have that people shouldn't be allowed to make choices in life because they "might get it wrong". No, it's not at all the same sort of logic. We are talking about technology here, not overall life experience. Everyone starts out life on the same footing, with zero experience, and has the innate potential to learn how to live it. But computers are a very specific, highl…

> You could claim that no one should own technology if they don't understand it intimately, but that is a different kind of logic and argument. It's silly to conflate the two.

Can you point out where he made such a claim? Because I don't see it.

>But computers are a very specific, highly specialized machinery that the vast parts of the population will never be able to directly understand or fix.

Computers are all that only in the vaguest of sense. They're actually not specialised at all. They're actually extremely general purpose. But whether that's the case at all there's a lot items, equipment and tools that are very specialised that most people don't understand but if they were made in act in any way similar to this because someone somehow managed to use them in a retarded way it would surely raise some eyebrows.

Company incentives are trash and I trust them A LOT lot less to not make stuff designed to fail, to lock in customers, to snoop data, etc, etc than I trust myself to not do stupid shit when i want an exception to some safety feature or the like.

>I can drive a car but I don't know the first thing about fixing it.

And would you buy a car with the hood welded shut? With the tires needing some kind of manufacturers signature to not be locked? One that locks up if you try to use some 3rd party seatcovers? No.

And yeah there's some type of modifications to them and actions that we generally try to prevent...but that's because we're talking about a highspeed deathmobile to surrounding drivers/pedestrians if you start putting spikes on it or fuck up your breaks. That however is not the case for a pc, phone, printer or what have you.

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