John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset • Hacker News Board

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#141

Post by entangledqubit » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 6:16 PM UTC

buildbot wrote: post #34

This is tangential, but I really wish that their would be legislation, valid retroactively, to enable old unsupported devices to still be utilized. I think this goes somewhat beyond right to repair? Take for example digital backs for medium format cameras - these things are built in low numbers, with high end FPGAs and camera sensors, with JTAG interfaces ready to go and everything - but then forgotten about a few ye…

> I think this goes somewhat beyond right to repair?

Definitely goes beyond it. This should be able to get traction as an anti-electronics waste policy.

Designs and relevant documentation should be packaged up and handed over to the Library of Congress (or alternate entity) as soon as any design goes into mass production. LoC may release them when the product is no longer supported by the manufacturer or the company has gone out of business -- which could be fairly automated on the LoC side.

One side-effect of this may be that companies will be incentivized to support hardware longer, if they believe that these designs have notable design elements that they do not wish to disclose.

I'd settle for something non-retroactive. Since I don't think that'd be tenable technically at this point anyway.

One of the cruxes in this are things like GPUs and wireless chips which are pretty unfriendly in terms of getting documentation but even providing a subset of functionality would be great.

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#142

Post by pharmakom » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 6:16 PM UTC

javajosh wrote: post #127

afavour wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know why CI or a custom CMS would be the problem here, the output is still static HTML. IMO the problem compared to years ago is that the client side dependency trees are so much more complex, involving third party domains and such. But dependencies are still a problem even in Flash: it can load external JSON data for example, and it’s a lot more difficult to sniff all that out than it is with JS. Don’t get m…

Surely someone is archiving apks, just for the fun of it? I can imagine that someday we'd have a webarchive that embeds a simulation of the device where you can run that apk in your browser. Of course, if it's just an application shell dependent on a running backend, then yes it's not really an application so much as an "application shell" at this point, and you ALSO need to be able to move around the data corpus to…

This is why piracy is so important.

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#143

Post by b112 » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 6:20 PM UTC

afavour wrote: post #39

rchaud wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same is true of some of the best work being done on the web, such as the NYTimes interactive infographics. Because they are so JS-heavy, and reliant on CI/CD pipelines for deployment, on custom CMSes, there is no way to archive them in the way that static pages containing just text and images can be archived on the Wayback Machine. Heck, even Flash projects from 15 years ago still run fine when compiled on Ruffle…

I don’t know why CI or a custom CMS would be the problem here, the output is still static HTML. IMO the problem compared to years ago is that the client side dependency trees are so much more complex, involving third party domains and such. But dependencies are still a problem even in Flash: it can load external JSON data for example, and it’s a lot more difficult to sniff all that out than it is with JS. Don’t get m…

It isn't static html, it is an ever changing tapestry of js fetching this and that, on demand loaded content, and so on. To archive, one need to not only snag the page, and loaf time js, but also js triggered by user actions.

This means you need to load the whole page, then hit js triggered by page load, etc, then save output to html.

Because, some of those js libs won't work in future browsers, others won't work if they can't phone home, or 100 other things.

Archive.org is about 100 years from now too, and js content is a PITA in that respect.

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#144

Post by maximedupre » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 6:21 PM UTC

javajosh wrote: post #127

afavour wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know why CI or a custom CMS would be the problem here, the output is still static HTML. IMO the problem compared to years ago is that the client side dependency trees are so much more complex, involving third party domains and such. But dependencies are still a problem even in Flash: it can load external JSON data for example, and it’s a lot more difficult to sniff all that out than it is with JS. Don’t get m…

Surely someone is archiving apks, just for the fun of it? I can imagine that someday we'd have a webarchive that embeds a simulation of the device where you can run that apk in your browser. Of course, if it's just an application shell dependent on a running backend, then yes it's not really an application so much as an "application shell" at this point, and you ALSO need to be able to move around the data corpus to…

Haha well that just blew my mind xD

I personally don't really care about achieving anything. Why is this such a big thing? Why would we want to achieve all the APKs? There are too many of them lol History? Memories? Who cares, we're all going to die lol And with the qty of APKs, only 0.00000001% of them will ever be dug out of the archives.

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#145

Post by maximedupre » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 6:22 PM UTC

pharmakom wrote: post #140

kingcharles wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just got out of jail after 8 years. Went through my del.ici.ous bookmarks. 99% of the sites either dead or can no longer be viewed properly.

I would definitely read a blog (or just follow up comments) about a technology orientated person jumping forward almost a decade in time and what they find really different. Are you a professional developer? Has framework churn been an issue?

Yeah that would be facinating

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#146

Post by kzrdude » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 6:25 PM UTC

eatonphil wrote: post #19

ethbr0 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it means "full time, but I reserve the right to not be CTO at a time of my choosing."

Well that just sounds like most US jobs (i.e. at-will employment). And if the point is that you're clarifying with your employer that you're looking for an exit (even if it's not immediate) it probably means the employer (and maybe you are helping) is interviewing for your replacement with the goal of eventually finding it. Hence my curiosity that it's been 2 years and they haven't got a new CTO.

This is Carmack, so I'm just thinking it's a bit reversed. He's taking this job at-will and can cancel them at any time.

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#147

Post by guerrilla » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 6:27 PM UTC

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #97

horsawlarway wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could not agree more. At the bare minimum a vendor should not be allowed to sell a device that has digital locks if the user is not also given a copy of the keys. You can lock the device, but if I don't get a key at time of purchase, then I don't own the damn thing.

I'm trying to think of a situation where this is objectively bad, and I having trouble thinking of areas where this is objectively bad. The best I came up with is purchasing an elevator, which has a key for firemen. I wouldn't really want to just give everybody a copy of that key. But on the other hand, you can buy that key on Amazon for $5. It would maybe help people think about security a bit more if they bought a…

> I wouldn't really want to just give everybody a copy of that key.

Why would you give the key to everybody? Just give it to the owner... That's what I want. I shouldn't need to hack my own smartphone or have to solder a board to my Xbox to run my own code on it.

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#148

Post by t-3 » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 6:27 PM UTC

freediver wrote: post #9

Imagining that future is about people wearing VR devices on their head (even as minimal as a pair of glasses) is hard to grasp. "In their head" would be a different matter but that is not what the current technology is focusing on (apart from Neuralink). Edit: not propagating for any such vision the future! just noticing that wearing stuff on head would be clunky and impractical for true immersion.

As a person who wears glasses, I'm very excited for AR devices. A great input device* and incremental improvements in the battery tech and energy efficiency would make them ideal for on-the-go computing, reading, and note taking.

* https://wefunder.com/tapwithus looks promising, and facebook bought up companies doing similar things. A ring with a touch slider, gyroscope, and a button would be interesting.

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#149

Post by eatonphil » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 6:32 PM UTC

kzrdude wrote: post #146

eatonphil wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that just sounds like most US jobs (i.e. at-will employment). And if the point is that you're clarifying with your employer that you're looking for an exit (even if it's not immediate) it probably means the employer (and maybe you are helping) is interviewing for your replacement with the goal of eventually finding it. Hence my curiosity that it's been 2 years and they haven't got a new CTO.

This is Carmack, so I'm just thinking it's a bit reversed. He's taking this job at-will and can cancel them at any time.

Well at-will employment already works in both directions. :)

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#150

Post by foxfluff » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 6:35 PM UTC

rndgermandude wrote: post #137

foxfluff wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea I've been thinking about this. Open up specs, schematics, docs, and code, or actually support it "forever" (not literally, but a decently long time). It might be a bit extreme though. To provide some incentive, I'd consider the responsibility for recycling if you're unwilling to support usage. There is far too much throwaway crap.

> To provide some incentive, I'd consider the responsibility for recycling if you're unwilling to support usage. Germany put the onus on the sellers here. Since 2016 sellers of electronic appliances with a store space of >400m^2 and online sellers with a warehouse space of >400m^2 are required by law to take small electronic appliances (up to 25cm max side length) and dispose of them properly, which usually means rec…

Yea, it's the same here. Probably most of the EU.

Thing is, most of the stuff I buy is online. Local retailers taking things for recycling does nothing to encourage the maker of a product I buy online to keep supporting it or open it up for end users (or their local repair services) to support it from there on.

Of course it's good that local retailers offer recycling, it's definitely a step in the right direction, but it's far from having the impact I wish we could have on longevity / support / (semi-un)planned obsolescence.