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Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]

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Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]

#91
post #59

I was a young person during the tube era. My dad was one of those guys with a bag full of tubes. The reason he was carrying them around was that NOTHING WORKED. The 'right to repair' was actually, a horrible 'burden of repair'. It's great that it helped Woz made Apple but it was also an era of buggy whips whose passing I do not lament. I would not support anything that added a microgram to my iPhone or MacBook or giv…

> The reason he was carrying them around was that NOTHING WORKED.

You are confusing the advancement of technology with the legal right to modify the things that you own. Completely false equivalence.

Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]

#92

Apple would be half the size it is if people could easily repair their devices. What’s good for the environment is not good for profits.

So what?

Apple profits are not good for society as a whole. I don't see why we should optimize for Apple's profits.

Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]

#93
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a few bureaucrats deciding how they believe things should be Classic. > What has been created by this half century of massive corporate propaganda is what's called "anti-politics". So that anything that goes wrong, you blame the government. Well okay, there's plenty to blame the government about, but the government is the one institution that people can change... the one institution that you can affect without inst…

These quotes are good food for thought. I've never read anything from Chomsky. Any books in particular that you would recommend?

To be honest, I haven't read that many of his books (yet), other than smaller ones plus "Manufacturing Consent" and "Hegemony or Survival". These quotes I transcribed from interviews, and his talks and interviews I can absolutely recommend. They vary in (audio) quality because there's a gazillion of them, but seek and you shall find for sure. Here's one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7bjZTmk0uU

Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]

#94
post #87

Looking at the responses against Mr Wozniak, if they are primarily from Americans, makes me raise an eyebrow. The impression of the country that I get from abroad is one of an insistence on "freedom" and "liberty". In this issue though, owning devices that limit your freedom and liberty in regards to repair is actually fought for. Is the issue being framed incorrectly by the "right to repair" movement? Or are "freedo…

Freedom and Liberty are also valid in the Markets. Companies are free to create devices the way they believe is best, and customers are free to buy from the companies they choose.

Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]

#95
post #87

Looking at the responses against Mr Wozniak, if they are primarily from Americans, makes me raise an eyebrow. The impression of the country that I get from abroad is one of an insistence on "freedom" and "liberty". In this issue though, owning devices that limit your freedom and liberty in regards to repair is actually fought for. Is the issue being framed incorrectly by the "right to repair" movement? Or are "freedo…

I think many Americans are against more government intervention, which is what you would need for most "right to repair" efforts. To be able to repair different devices more easily, we would need legislation forcing these manufacturers to provide more support and follow more open standards. Which may be a good thing, but doesn't really fit with the goal of limited government and personal freedom and responsibility. Some people think companies should be free to build devices however they wish too, and people can make their own decisions on whether to buy them.

Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]

#96
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is most customers simply don't care. So they "choose" whatever the manufacturers give them. One by one, remove the replaceable battery, remove the 3.5mm, remove the microSD card slot (and neuter it software side so it's near useless), some will complain, but the majority will just adapt to it, buying new phones more often, wireless earbuds, more expensive phones with more storage. Just as the companies wa…

Is removing ports really equivalent to tyranny? Is it damning that modern computers don’t have floppy disk drives anymore, or 56k modems, or VGA ports? At what point in a technology lifecycle does discontinuing support for that technology stop becoming “tyranny”?

if you're replacing VGA with DVI or 56k modems with ethernet that's one thing. If you're removing the headphone jack and replacing with a proprietary wireless audio API that no one else can access so they're stuck with inferior protocols, that's something else.

Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]

#97
post #82

No mention of Louis Rossmann to who Wozniak is replying to? https://youtu.be/8hVjvKQ5CXY

The video starts with "Hi Louis" (I missed it first time when I played it, so I tried again), not the full name, but it is clear that the video was recorded in support of Louis Rossmann initiative.

Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My anecdote: I bought Dell Latitude and there are instructions how to disassemble the entire laptop on the Dell website. I did not see circuit schematics, though I'm not skilled enough to make any use of it, but it's something at least. I easily upgraded RAM and installed SSD. That was one of the factors of choosing this specific laptop for me, I wonder how many people consider it. I had terrible experience with Appl…

But then you have to have a laptop that looks and feels and works like a Dell Latitude. That fixability has a cost in ugliness and weight and usability. No thanks.

That's not really true. Using screws instead of glue and adding 1mm and 50g to the laptop isn't the same as becoming a Dell Latitude.

Dell Latitudes look like what they look like mostly for cost and durability reasons, not repairability.

Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]

#100
We know what Wozniak would say, as he's a tinkerer from a time when computers were "human-sized" and able to be tinkered with.

I think realistically the only thing we can demand is user-replaceable battery. Everything else is doomed to end up on a single chip integrated. And that chip either works, or doesn't. It's not about profit, it's about integration and miniaturization.

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