Trustworthy Computing in 2021 • Hacker News Board

Re: Trustworthy Computing in 2021

#21

Post by jonchang » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 7:08 PM UTC

nimbius wrote: post #20

conspicuously, infuriatingly absent: https://www.pine64.org/ https://puri.sm/

This article appears to be focused on laptops, desktops, and servers, and the author uses the term "system" to collectively refer to these. If this really is "infurating" (and you're not just using the term to be hyperbolic) then I think recognizing that sometimes blog authors write about topics that are more specific or have a different focus than you'd prefer would help calm you down a bit.

Re: Trustworthy Computing in 2021

#22

Post by joe_the_user » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 7:26 PM UTC

What would be a trustworthy motherboard to use to build a solid machine learning system, with a budget of say $5-10K?

Re: Trustworthy Computing in 2021

#23

Post by mepian » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 7:52 PM UTC

jonchang wrote: post #21

nimbius wrote: post #20

conspicuously, infuriatingly absent: https://www.pine64.org/ https://puri.sm/

This article appears to be focused on laptops, desktops, and servers, and the author uses the term "system" to collectively refer to these. If this really is "infurating" (and you're not just using the term to be hyperbolic) then I think recognizing that sometimes blog authors write about topics that are more specific or have a different focus than you'd prefer would help calm you down a bit.

The pine64 page has laptops, e.g. https://www.pine64.org/pinebook/

Re: Trustworthy Computing in 2021

#24

Post by nine_k » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 8:50 PM UTC

joe_the_user wrote: post #22

What would be a trustworthy motherboard to use to build a solid machine learning system, with a budget of say $5-10K?

A Talos workstation?

But the question is moot because GPUs have proprietary firmware, and NVidia drivers that give you CUDA are also closed-source.

Maybe air-gapping your sensitive machines is a more viable approach for ML.

Re: Trustworthy Computing in 2021

#25

Post by kragen » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 9:55 PM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #18

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Only way to be sure is to physically destroy the device. Or ... never write unencrypted data to the device.

Yeah, that was my solution as well. It's much easier to destroy a small secret key than terabytes of data.

Especially with N-of-M secret sharing.

Re: Trustworthy Computing in 2021

#26

Post by ariadneconill » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 10:49 PM UTC

ece wrote: post #16

How would the HiFive Unmatched stack up here? Seems like it would do rather well: https://starfivetech.com/uploads/hifive-unmatched-sw-referen... https://sifive.cdn.prismic.io/sifive/28560457-c5a4-4f88-866c...

It would, but I don’t have an Unmatched board so I didn’t evaluate it.

Same reason why I did not mention the Pine64 stuff: I don’t own any of it.

Re: Trustworthy Computing in 2021

#27

Post by ariadneconill » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 10:50 PM UTC

rangerdan wrote: post #9

Stopped reading at "Macbook is ... as trustworthy as the Libreboot ThinkPad". Anyone who trusts closed source, proprietary, for-profit platforms from PRISM partners doesn't know what they're talking about.

Strictly from a hardware POV. That wasn’t intended to be praise for Apple, but rather an indictment of the industry at large that Apple designed hardware that is easier to extend trust to.

Re: Trustworthy Computing in 2021

#28

Post by ariadneconill » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 10:54 PM UTC

nimbius wrote: post #20

conspicuously, infuriatingly absent: https://www.pine64.org/ https://puri.sm/

I was only evaluating hardware I actually own. I don’t own any of the PINE64 SBCs or laptops. And while I have a PinePhone, I rarely use it, it sits in my junk drawer basically.

Re: Trustworthy Computing in 2021

#29

Post by voltaireodactyl » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 11:09 PM UTC

nimbius wrote: post #20

conspicuously, infuriatingly absent: https://www.pine64.org/ https://puri.sm/

I’d add the MNT Reform to that list. I’m a huge fan of what they’re doing and hope to get in on the next batch.

Re: Trustworthy Computing in 2021

#30

Post by grae_QED » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:27 AM UTC

hyperstar wrote: post #6

What was the thing that detracted from the corebooted Thinkpad's trustworthiness?

Libreboot has no binary blobs, Coreboot still has a couple. But modern CPU architectures require some of those blobs to function correctly. So Coreboot has broader compatibility with modern hardware than Libreboot.

Both are good, but I've always leaned towards Libreboot just cause I think ThinkPads from 2005-2008 look amazing and it's fun to know that there is no proprietary software on my computer.