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I want a computer that I own

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Re: I want a computer that I own

#651

Post by dredmorbius »

DocTomoe wrote: post #525
dredmorbius wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Postal mail and telephone were ... relatively secure, inasmuch as that bulk surveillance was expensive . Wiredtapping and postal interception, as well as metadata (pen-trace and postal covers) are possible, but scale poorly when individual lines must be listened to by individual agents, or individual letters carefully opened and resealed. Digital permits surveillance at mass scale. It seems ultimately a fundamental p…

I would argue that postal remailing exposes the remailer to legal risk, and (if done with few remailers) gives the surveillers few points of particularly interesting mail hubs. If anything, postal remailing would probably only work in a TOR-like manner, with many, distributed, non-for-profit remailers - but that opens a whole set of new problems, like who pays for the service, what prevents the remailer to just take…

There are numerous potential issues, yes, though some provisos (e.g., no detectable traces of illicit substances, limited to standard envelope-sized postage) would tend to limit much of that.

Even as an informal practice, the option could have some value. The question of whether to used a two-hop (source, mix, recepient) or three-hop (source, mix-1, mix-2, recipient, as with Tor) exists (the three hop system would triple postage, if messages were sent individually, though bulk distribution is another option, with break-bulk at the 1st or 2nd hop).

Again, what has surprised me previously is that I'd found no mention of the concept at all. Though I am finding several now, specifically emphasizing anonymity / location obscuring:

https://rapidremailer.com/

https://postmarkhere.com/

https://www.usa2me.com/

Re: I want a computer that I own

#652

Post by krmboya »

necovek wrote: post #457
krmboya wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you taken a look at Ubuntu touch? I came across it while researching for my next device. From what I recall, it gives you a full Ubuntu environment on your phone. Didn't go that route though because of the unavailability of the supported models where I'm at

Ubuntu touch is not a full Ubuntu in your phone. Canonical supported versions were based on snaps-predating app framework (click packages). There were a couple of phones released with it out of the factory (bq aquarius 4.5 and meizu mx4) and a bq tablet, but rest of the supported phones use android kernels for hw enablement. Ubutouch has forked the software when Canonical pulled out and even runs an app store, but I…

Indeed you are right, Ubuntu touch is not a full Ubuntu. I don't know how I got that impression.

First time I've heard of Mobian, looks really interesting. Will keep an eye on it

Re: I want a computer that I own

#654

Post by demosito666 »

XorNot wrote: post #624
demosito666 wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO this reduces the protection of 2FA significantly. For me 2FA is primarily not having a single device that's enough to compromise to get access to your important accounts. This means that I never have both factors (password and TOTP key in our case) on a single device. That's why > they've already got my Google Authenticator or whatever DB as well anyway. is of course good for them, but they still need to get my p…

If your device is compromised to the point that someone is reading out the content of non-online, encrypted DBs, or keylogging aggressively, then they've also got your email and can much more easily just send a password reset to 90% of everything out there. 2FA as the internet uses it has always been about dealing with accidental disclosure and public PCs.

As an owner of Xiaomi phone I consider all data on it to be available to mid- and high-profile parties at least in China. Which might eventually leak into my country as well.

That's why my phone doesn't have any bank software installed and doesn't have any password saved. It is logged into my google account though to which you probably can restore some passwords, but for all resources I care about (banking, investements, crypto, etc.) it's not possible. I also use separate email for those. If my HN or reddit account will be compromised via my phone - so be it, I don't really care. I can also tolerate compromised 2FA app as it's useless without passwords which are stored on another machine.

Re: I want a computer that I own

#655

Post by paulmd »

dirkt wrote: post #300
andagainagain wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I want these things too. But I'm also willing to pay for them. Everyone wants the best stuff for free. That's not controversial. But it is controversial to complain that the best stuff is more expensive than the cheap stuff. Of course it is. That's the type of stuff they sacrificed to make it cheap. If they want low end free btw, they do have that too. Pinebooks are super cheap.

> But it is controversial to complain that the best stuff is more expensive than the cheap stuff. Nah. Technically, and in terms of manufacturing cost, it would be even easier to make a simpler computer, without all those bells and whistles that can be turned against the user, without the Intel Management Engine, TPM, and what have you. > That's the type of stuff they sacrificed to make it cheap. No, it's economies o…

Businesses want and will pay for management-engine features. It's more profitable to have them, therefore it is more expensive (in an opportunity cost sense) not to have them, even if you personally do not want them.

You're right that it is all about economies of scale. Economies of scale say that it doesn't make sense to tape out a whole separate die just for non-business consumers. They just don't sell that many units that it's worth it. It's cheaper to make one die for everyone and then sell one die with AMT turned off, even if it involves wasting a small amount of silicon for each chip produced.

Incidentally, this is why (apart from a few noxious exceptions like ECC) consumers are generally the beneficiaries of market segmentation. Businesses will pay a lot more, locking these features behind higher-priced models lets the consumer models be cheaper. Without market segmentation, the outcome isn't that you get a Xeon at the price of a Pentium, it's that you get a Xeon at the cost of a Xeon.

Re: I want a computer that I own

#656

Post by lupire »

apatters wrote: post #639
mwcampbell wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the solution is to convince more people that we can live happy lives without access to big-budget entertainment. I've been mostly going without for about two years now, though I've wavered a few times.

I think the trick is to start viewing the problem through the lens of anti-trust/pro-competition law. Something like mandating compulsory licensing of DRM technologies so that the DRM manufacturer and Hollywood studios don't get to be kingmakers in the browser or operating systems markets. IANAL but seems to me like laws along the lines of "you can reverse engineer DRM without being arrested" and "the patent holder/w…

How can you mandate that DRM be licensed to clients that can't or won't actually enforce it? That would be mandatory support for copyright violations.

Re: I want a computer that I own

#657

Post by lupire »

coldtea wrote: post #448
worble wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would a mobile browser be different to a desktop one in this regard?

Because you usually work on a desktop, and might have all kind of handy extensions to help you. You usually view webpages in a very minimal interface, small screen, often on the go or leisurly, and with limited interaction on a mobile phone. So, aside from something like an adblocker (for which there are solutions), what would one use?

What browser extension is NOT useful on mobile?

Re: I want a computer that I own

#658

Post by lupire »

rsync wrote: post #564
p1necone wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy a usb cellphone modem for a PC, the rest of the system still belongs to you.

This isn’t the slam dunk that people think it is, unfortunately. You see, in addition to controlling the cellular radio and all of those details, the bass band processor also does real time noise cancellation and a variety of other call quality functions that you would immediately miss if they were not there. That processor is actually doing a lot of different things and is difficult to remove from a phone and mainta…

I guess, but VOIP and wifi calling works.

Re: I want a computer that I own

#659

Post by lupire »

fouuler wrote: post #394
kokx wrote: post #15

I have a similar feeling, but with modern smartphones. Owning my computer is still relatively possible. I can build a computer from parts which I can choose, and have a choice in which operating system to install on them. Laptops are slightly more closed, but even on those I can choose the OS myself. Modern smartphones however, seem like walled gardens in which I have no control at all. I cannot choose any of the par…

> Owning my computer is still relatively possible. I can build a computer from parts which I can choose, and have a choice in which operating system to install on them. Where can I find, how can I build a computer---that isn't 13 years old---with open firmware of which one doesn't reasonably suspect that the NSA put a backdoor into it?

Don't worry about NSA. If the NSA finds your computer interesting, they can remotely hack it using one of a 100 zero-days exploits, without ME. And if you are running non-ME system, it's even easier for them to hack you unless you are working with the CounterNSA.

Re: I want a computer that I own

#660

Post by lupire »

thwoeriu2334234 wrote: post #458
kokx wrote: post #15

I have a similar feeling, but with modern smartphones. Owning my computer is still relatively possible. I can build a computer from parts which I can choose, and have a choice in which operating system to install on them. Laptops are slightly more closed, but even on those I can choose the OS myself. Modern smartphones however, seem like walled gardens in which I have no control at all. I cannot choose any of the par…

> trying to ungoogle it as much as possible. From experience, no matter what you do, your phone will still continue to ping 1e100.net every few minutes. This may just be something innocuous, but there just is no way to get rid of this behavior (or to understand where it's coming from).

Your DNS server can filter that out.
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