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One man’s fight for the right to repair broken MacBooks

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Re: One man’s fight for the right to repair broken MacBooks

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> By the way, I sent my Macbook to Louis for repair last year. His team did a great job! Easy to communicate with too. I got it back in the mail really fast once the repair was complete. Doesn’t this defeat the purpose of what you’re claiming to want? Or is the guy you’re talking about more interested in this for his own reasons: wanting the repair money, not wanting to have to actually get certified to do authorised…

Right to Repair is not just about repairing things yourself, it’s about the freedom to choose who you would like to repair something for you. I can’t repair my own MacBook but I don’t think I should be forced to pay outlandish prices to Apple for the privilege if I don’t want to.

I don't understand. Is Apple holding a gun to your head if you take it to an unauthorised repairer?

Re: One man’s fight for the right to repair broken MacBooks

#182
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get your point, but even your car mechanic would be able to tell if a component they worked with previously has changed only to make it more difficult to replace. You might argue "how do you know that was the only reason" - well, Rossman has a video on a USB-C charging controller embedded into the macbooks, previously if that burnt out(and they do burn out) he could just buy the chip itself online for a dollar. But…

Do you have a link to that video? What I've noticed from "right of repair" types of complaints is that they're often missing any search for ulterior motives regarding those decisions beyond "well obviously the only reason they did this was because they wanted to make it hard to repair". I need to reserve judgment until I see what Rossman has to say about the specific instance you mention - but is it possible the chip…

This. He always assumes Apple is evil, Apple is screwing repair because they like screwing repair. Most companies aren't like that - companies are made of engineers, and do they like fighting repair for the sake of fighting repair? He never addresses what ulterior motives there may be.

This might actually be why he complains he's been in many legislatures, testified, and they haven't gone further. The lack of willingness to give some perspective from Apple's side hurts his credibility.

Re: One man’s fight for the right to repair broken MacBooks

#183
post #35
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find Rossman insufferable due to his hyperbolic approach to shaming Apple and having a bone to pick with just about everyone- he's the definition of a narcissist. I agree in principle to "right to repair", but Rossman's motives are purely financial and self promoting. I've watched over 100 hours of his content and realized that his audience is primarily made up of anti-apple PC Master Race fanatics that just want t…

I think he just understood how YouTube and social media works. New content is more rant and less repair. Anyone can enjoy a good rant troubleshooting motherboards and soldering components is less accessible. Makes me think of Thunderf00t. This guy is a massive troll with, from time to time, great scientific content. He has a lot of followers just here to enjoy the trolling, as evidenced by the fact he is never questi…

I do not understand how or why people prefer spending time listening or watching people talk to each other. Is it not much quicker to read transcripts? And why would I want all the noise that happens in the conversation? Reading a summary of the meat and pickles is far more efficient.

“YouTube culture” puzzles me. I love it for instructional videos though.

Re: One man’s fight for the right to repair broken MacBooks

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no hidden design reason here - it was clearly changed to stop people like him from repairing macbooks, because their specific chip revision is not available on the open market. This is an assumption. It's an assumption based on the assumption that designers would put time and effort into making a simple replacement operation somewhat more difficult. I can make an assumption too: that the designers wanted a…

It's an assumption based on the assumption that designers would put time and effort into making a simple replacement operation somewhat more difficult. And it's a very genuine and valid assumption supported by an industry practice called Planned obsolescence - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

However, if you take a look, Apple does perhaps the least planned obsolescence of any tech company, period. iOS updates are now going, like, 6+ years back on phones while Android flagships were lucky to get 2 years or any at all, for example.

Re: One man’s fight for the right to repair broken MacBooks

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right to Repair is not just about repairing things yourself, it’s about the freedom to choose who you would like to repair something for you. I can’t repair my own MacBook but I don’t think I should be forced to pay outlandish prices to Apple for the privilege if I don’t want to.

I don't understand. Is Apple holding a gun to your head if you take it to an unauthorised repairer?

They are doing their damndest to make it almost impossible to find someone that can. They want my only options to be a) pay their ridiculous repair fees because there is no other option that can do it for less, or b) just outright buy another macbook because they want to sell more computers.

Re: One man’s fight for the right to repair broken MacBooks

#186
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a shame to see this downvoted because even if it’s against what many people believe (we all have “hero’s” and “villains” I suppose, and our hero’s do no wrong) it’s something I also see. I used to watch a lot of Rossman and glossed over his Apple hate because ultimately Apple are putting him and people like him out of a job, so it’s fair to be salty. But a large portion of his content (a few years ago at least)…

It's funny to see this analysis, because in my mind Rossman is simply being a New Yorker and doing things exactly as I'd expect a New Yorker to do them. The mentality that city forces on people to survive produces a narrow personality outcome and Rossman's personality is one of those.

[deleted]

Re: One man’s fight for the right to repair broken MacBooks

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I referred to the operating system commentary as having nothing to do with his wheelhouse. The other videos just give a context to his...theme. Further, blaming YouTube for someone's pandering to the basest audience seems dubious.

Apple tracking what apps you launch, when you launch them and using a plain text protocol is fucking disgusting, anyone has the right to feel this disgust and share it , many non technical people will nit have the chance to hear the truth about Apple (how many iOS users know about the malware issue , about the CPU down-clocking behind your back or other true facts about Apple)...

"or other true facts about Apple)"

Except everything you just listed is mostly _not_ true or unique to Apple.

The apps that you launch? That was the developer certificate, not the app, over the same protocol for verifying certificates that is used in Windows SmartScreen and other systems.

The malware issue? Every statistic shows iOS has less malware than Android, so why exactly is that a complaint?

CPU down clocking? iOS warns you your battery is old, warns you this may cause slowness, a battery repair is like $50 or so, and it does that so that the thing doesn't crash and restart randomly just as Android phones will also do if their batteries are old.

Re: One man’s fight for the right to repair broken MacBooks

#188
post #76

I genuinely do not want repairability anywhere near the top of the list of performance and design trade offs. Ruggedness, longevity, sure. Avoiding need to repair, definitely. Repairability? Other concerns, things that change the day-to-day use of the device, should weigh more. Spent too many years as a full service PC network support small business to ever again want to deal with parts that aren’t actually attached…

Right to repair isn't "obligation to repair devices yourself", or "force manufacturers to redesign hardware so repair shops jobs are easier". It's about preventing certain business practices that hinder the repair industry. Like when Apple forces their suppliers to not sell components to anyone but them. "Component level repair" is a thing that's done today. It involves replacing individual components on a motherboar…

I don’t think your first sentence is accurate - there is no single standard definition for right to repair, and I have absolutely seen people saying that right to repair includes an obligation for manufacturers to redesign hardware so repairs are easier. I’ve also seen people say it’s only about allowing schematic access and nothing else. I’ve seen people say it includes unlocking bootloaders. IMO this is one of the biggest problems with the right to repair movement: the goals are fairly poorly defined.

Re: One man’s fight for the right to repair broken MacBooks

#189

Sadly, you and I watch a different YouTube than probably 95% of people. Almost nobody I've talked to has heard of Lex or Louis, or Bret Weinstein, or Sean Carroll, and so forth. Just open youtube.com in a private window and you'll understand. Even if the average person watched some of Louis Rossmann's videos on the right to repair, I just don't think the importance of the issue would compute with them. Almost nobody…

The problem is that discovery is broken. This random post on HN led me to more subscribe worthy channels than months of looking at Youtube recommendations has.

I think discovery is more of a solved problem than monetization.

The discovery engine is focused on specific content because it’s profitable (monetized).

The broken system is that most of the content some people (that don’t like mainstream drivel) isn’t monetized (enough?).

Re: One man’s fight for the right to repair broken MacBooks

#190
post #24

Rossmann is seriously a national treasure. Along with Lex Fridman the two Youtube personalities irrefutably prove fair mindedness, humility & sincerity is valued. My fears that content online would eventually consist of nothing but selfies, food pics & competitive victimhood are somewhat reduced. I'd like to see Rossmann on Fridman's podcast.

I find Rossman insufferable due to his hyperbolic approach to shaming Apple and having a bone to pick with just about everyone- he's the definition of a narcissist. I agree in principle to "right to repair", but Rossman's motives are purely financial and self promoting. I've watched over 100 hours of his content and realized that his audience is primarily made up of anti-apple PC Master Race fanatics that just want t…

It's not paranoia if you are right.
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