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To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

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Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#71

Post by fxtentacle »

huytersd wrote: post #60
fxtentacle wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda. You need access to a decryption key. The ones known to be leaked will be revoked, so you need one that cannot be revoked, because the financial fallout would be too painful. That's why WEB-DL rips are typically made using the DRM keys extracted out of very popular consumer TV models.

So the WEB-DL rips are saved using homemade capture cards with the decryption module from popular consumer TVs since those can’t be revoked as they would brick those TVs? Alternatively you plug into the output of the decryption module in the monitor before it hits the screen?

Roughly yes.

I believe you can also in some instances skip the hardware capture card and instead capture the data stream out of the host's RAM.

Inside the monitor, the decryption module and the main SoC controlling the hardware are usually the same physical chip, so grabbing data there will be close to impossible.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#72

Post by weikju »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #5
PeterHolzwarth wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A subset of users and mods attempted a bit of a revolution on Reddit recently, you'll recall.

Yes... and to be honest, it appears to have failed miserably. And that was with Reddit. Try inciting a full scale revolution against Google and Amazon, for what they are right now. It's not happening. I've honestly come to the conclusion that 98%+ of people... don't give a darn about "computational freedom." And, to be honest, why should they? They have so many other demands on their lives than an argument about what…

I appreciate these thoughts being written down and these points definitely need to be addressed.

I think one of the big problems is not that phones etc are appliances but that everything company is trying to turn their offerings into an appliance (and alternatives becoming more and more niche), and at the same time alternatives are just not allowed to be on the same footing.

In some places you need either an Android (Google Android that is) or an iPhone to partake in some services (commercial or otherwise). Very often it feels penalizing to refuse to use either of those, or you lose out in quality of life or available services as a result. This isn’t good.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#73

Post by mrbadguy »

yreew wrote: post #68
Apocryphon wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's telling that every time an alternative, FOSS, socially-conscious tech product gets popular - CyanogenMod being a big example - they often end up doing unpopular shady things to monetize, and sometimes then fall apart. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27951250 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27069913

Communism/Soviet in a nutshell.

Could you please elaborate on this? Your reply is witty but it seems to me that those companies only start doing shady things once they become more capitalist (ie try to “monetize”) so I’m curious to hear more.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#74

Post by clnq »

hotnfresh wrote: post #25
clnq wrote: post #13

I am always unconvinced by the argument that one can’t leave social media because their friends are on some site. No one I know does not check their SMS and email, and doesn’t pick up phone calls. I’ve not been on social media for about 5 years now, and I have not fallen out of touch with a single friend because of that. For other reasons like moving away physically or not gaming as much anymore, but not for this. Ev…

Not being contactable the same place all group stuff is organized or info distributed is either asking others to do work for you (to send you info everyone else got automatically) or means you’re opting to exclude yourself from those activities and discussions. Less relevant if your friend/family circle doesn’t organize group activities or chat as a group often, I guess.

Yes, you would ask a friend to send you a meeting time and place. This is a non-problem to my mind.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#75

Post by barrysteve »

Ugh the snake oil.

We cannot sieze the means until you can afford a couple billion for a semi conductor fab and to run it at a loss for a very long time.

The cpu instruction sets are becoming black boxes, the programming languages are controlled by committee, the internet is run by certification and big tech companies that will choke you out if they don't like you.

The hardware is getting locked down with tpm chips.

I could write the next revolutionary piece of software and the pre-existing big tech gatekeepers have power over its profitability and the hardware and OS guys determine if my program can be run at all.

So tired of wasting decades on snake oil. Never has freedom been so controlled.

The ONLY way to generate an agreement with your own purposes, top to bottom, is to make and sell your own hardware and software, on your own network.

The existing platforms are permanently compromised by interest groups.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#76

Post by barrysteve »

nologic01 wrote: post #23
api wrote: post #9

We have plenty of computation. A decent laptop today is a supercomputer. Terabytes of storage can be had for under $200. Locked hardware isn’t much of an issue either. Most of that either can be unlocked or there are equivalently powerful unlocked alternatives to be had. What people must seize is the network, and the network effect. Most of today’s tech empires are built on owning the hub around which everyone commun…

The sad part is that nobody really prevents us from seizing the network. It is intrinsically decentralized by design. It takes hard work to subvert this. Yet we don't do it. A sort of digital rigor mortis has descended upon the land. A comatose capitulation, complete lack of vital signs, let alone the lust for life that characterized the early period of the Web when everything seemed possible. The "network effect" is…

The 'network effect' of facebook started at prestigious universities.

When the educated are not pulling in your direction... it becomes much more expensive to get traction.

We already have experienced facebook, why would we re-experience facebook 1.0??

We need geniunely new concepts. We cannot share geniunely new concepts because the internet has locked itself down and any leaks of new concepts are stolen or blocked (at some point).

Big tech feels entitled to own the internet, and it has got exactly what it wants. The daytime TV of networks. First link clicked sells some product, high quality evidence and knowledge hard to find and moral culpability hidden behind complex laws.

It appears dark, because the light is trapped. Work on your new-ness in private, it is the only way.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#78

Post by antifa »

clnq wrote: post #13

I am always unconvinced by the argument that one can’t leave social media because their friends are on some site. No one I know does not check their SMS and email, and doesn’t pick up phone calls. I’ve not been on social media for about 5 years now, and I have not fallen out of touch with a single friend because of that. For other reasons like moving away physically or not gaming as much anymore, but not for this. Ev…

> email

facebook/nextdoor/discord send me vague "you missed a message/notification" email spam all the time, and it's never been worth my time to actually visit the app/website to see what they're notifying me. Slack and github, on the other hand, send me the actual message so I don't have to open a huge app and navigate tons of BS just to see it's somebody saying "LOL!", and 99% of the time it's something I'm actually involved in or interested or subscribed to.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#79

Post by antifa »

mrbadguy wrote: post #73
yreew wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Communism/Soviet in a nutshell.

Could you please elaborate on this? Your reply is witty but it seems to me that those companies only start doing shady things once they become more capitalist (ie try to “monetize”) so I’m curious to hear more.

Nothing to elaborate, a brave HN user just needed to finally take a stance and let everyone on the English speaking internet know they agree with one of the most popular opinions on the English speaking internet.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#80

Post by antifa »

gruez wrote: post #59
misterbishop wrote: post #26

The headline borrows from Marx for radical cred, but all of Doctorow's ideas are from the anarcho-liberal school of permanent impotence. He spends the first 2000 words talking about how industry bribed the government to set unjust, inhumane policies on copyright, reverse-engineering, antitrust. Then in the 2nd half, all his tech proposals have to do with alternative tech solutions: federation, mastodon, driver coop a…

>We have to fight the political power of Musk and Zuckerberg by cutting off their ability to make profit. This happens through organizing in the workplace, and with a WORKERS PARTY opposed to the capitalist duopoly. China has a "WORKERS PARTY". How's that working for them? Or is that not a true "WORKERS PARTY"?

> you can't do anything nice for workers, otherwise you transform into an exact clone of China

wow never thought of it like that

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