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Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

arstechnica.com

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Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#131

Post by mariusor »

cqqxo4zV46cp wrote: post #56
hoherd wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotify almost certainly developed Car Thing using license encumbered software, and this illustrates how encumbered licenses are anti-freedom and are causes of unnecessary e-waste. Thankfully folks have started organizing to reverse engineer the device: - https://github.com/err4o4/spotify-car-thing-reverse-engineer... - https://hackaday.com/2024/05/30/old-spotify-car-thing-hacks-...

[flagged]

The possibility to root the device would give non-nerd owners the possibility to sell their devices to some nerds that want to play with it instead of binning it directly.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#132

Post by xp84 »

jmull wrote: post #89

The title seems a little misleading… the article is largely about how unclear the refund process is to customers. Clearly Spotify sees Car Thing as a mistake. That’s ok, mistakes happen. But they should really be working to make sure customers aren’t paying the price for their mistake (as much as is feasible, anyway). It sure doesn’t sound like they are doing that. BTW, there could be code in there they don’t have th…

[edited to add] it seems to me from other posts seen here that (A) the firmware is floating around already and (B) at 500MB of RAM, underpowered CPU, and considering the other serious limitations of the device, I don't even know if it is likely to be worth somebody's time to put in the work to make a CFW. Personally it seems much more fun to use an off-the-shelf SBC to build a cool project than to try to shoehorn something into this awful little computer. But maybe that's just me.

-- Following is my original comment written before I knew much --

It seems to me like the bare minimum would be enough to take the heat off: Publish a quick and dirty flashing tool, and leave the binary of the firmware available. If people want to disassemble the firmware they have plausible deniability to the patent holders involved, and if nerds want to devote time to reverse engineer it and make a custom firmware image, they can figure it out themselves. After all, part of the fun of such a project is the challenge.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#133

Post by autoexec »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #27
bravetraveler wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conversely, stop voting for people that need coerced to their job. I know this is reductive - save your fingers. Write, but do the not-vote-thing if they don't listen. The desire to not be hoodwinked has already been expressed. Just not this specific way. Or, expressed more positively I guess, vote for those who don't need goaded to do the obviously good thing.

Why not go even farther than that? Admit political knowledge is virtually impossible, and just stop engaging in the political process at all. Save your time and energy for something easier, like cutting edge theoretical physics or becoming a billionaire. Such is the point argued by Dr. Mike Huemer in his essay In Praise of Passivity [1], and to this date I've never found a clearer piece of writing on the matter. [1]:…

If I wanted to cede control to unelected CEOs and unaccountable corporations I'd go around telling people not to exercise the power they have to influence politics too, because I'd know damn well that powerful corporations and industry groups aren't going to "stop engaging in the political process". They'll stay very busy spending huge amounts of time and money bribing politicians, writing legislation for them, and manipulating the public's perception to further their own interests and profits at the expense of everyone else. How frustrating it must be when the serfs interfere by exercising their rights to self-govern when they should just let their corporate masters run the show instead of insisting on a government that is "of the people, by the people, and for the people"

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#134

Post by [deleted] »

crazygringo wrote: post #62
goodluckchuck wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don’t need more laws. We need to repeal the arbitration act, and let things like this get resolved in court, where we can establish a precedent against this kind of stuff.

No, courts don't just make up precedent out of thin air. Courts follow laws as written, and make decisions and establish precedent whenever laws are vague, in edge cases, or when laws conflict. But for stuff like this new laws are absolutely required. Why would you prefer unelected judges to be making stuff up, instead of democratically elected lawmakers whose literal job it is to decide these kinds of policies with…

[deleted]

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#137

Post by flerchin »

crazygringo wrote: post #122
keraf wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of care for e-waste produced makes me sick. Spotify should at least open the hardware or sponsor a contest for a smart re-use / open source firmware for the device, would probably cost them less at the end and make them look better.

This is going to be a hot take here, but honestly I'm not that concerned about e-waste, in the grand scheme of things. What about cars, air conditioners, dishwashers, fridges, furniture, clothing? What about when we throw all of those out? The amount of e-waste I've gotten rid of over my life is miniscule both in terms of weight and volume in comparison to the things I've listed. I think we confuse environmental impa…

Over the past 10 years I've recycled all of my large appliances. My (texas) city comes and picks them up at no charge, and I don't feel that's an unusual situation.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#138

Post by cududa »

throwaway48476 wrote: post #32

If every customer is entitled to a refund then why isn't it automatic and automated? There needs to be a term for this kind of malicious refund policy that does everything possible to prevent you from claiming it.

Small anecdote:

I've had Spotify premium for 12 years now. Back in 2020 I got a rather large prepaid debit card. I put a couple low dollar subscriptions on there. Spotify being one of them. Card ran out of money.

So Spotify instantly shifts me down to the free plan, after 1 failed payment, and deletes all the songs I synced to my phone until I update my card on file. Which was supremely obnoxious on mobile (but that's because I signed up for Spotify with Facebook, and 8 years after breaking FB SSO OTP code generation on mobile they still haven't fixed it)

No grace period, no warning that my payment failed and I was being downgraded. Just a big old full screen pop-up warning me that if I continue into the free version, it would immediately delete all my playlists.

Paying customer for 12+ years, with 12+ years of playlists. Had I not read the small print and just clicked "continue" it would've deleted ALL of that. Even after updating my payment method, and not having pressed "continue" (to the free plan) I had to re-sync all the songs I'd already downloaded.

They're a very user hostile company, and I've never had the slightest bit of sympathy in their fight with Apple, and this is a pretty good reinforcement.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#139

Post by 2f0ja »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #5

I wonder if there's licensing issues with them doing so? Like I assume they didn't make all the hardware and firmware involved. Kind of a shame when companies do this. I also wonder how long till the hacker community starts hacking these things any way? Seems like a worthy device to hack, though I can't imagine there's millions of these out there. I'd love to buy a 2nd hand one and install custom software on it if so…

fairly certain they used this: https://w.dspconcepts.com/, they used to have Spotify listed a a client. I'm guessing they cannot open source for this reason (it's not their code to open source)

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#140

Post by thefaux »

Retric wrote: post #37
hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not go even farther than that? Admit political knowledge is virtually impossible, and just stop engaging in the political process at all. Save your time and energy for something easier, like cutting edge theoretical physics or becoming a billionaire. Such is the point argued by Dr. Mike Huemer in his essay In Praise of Passivity [1], and to this date I've never found a clearer piece of writing on the matter. [1]:…

What passivity ignores is non voters get screwed over by politicians. In California in 2022 voting by age breaks down: 29% or 900,000 18-24 year olds 43% or 1,970,000 25-34 year olds 51% or 2,132,000 35-44 year olds 56% or 4,343,000 45-54 year olds 66% or 3,699,000 65+ year olds So it’s obvious what kinds of things to focus on. Other states get even more extreme only 14% of 18-24 year olds voted in WV. https://www.kf…

This is very interesting data. I believe that it is generally considered common knowledge that it's very difficult to increase youth turnout so most campaigns don't even really try. But given how entrenched polarization is, increasing youth turnout in a few key states could be enough to sway the election. Of course decreasing retiree turnout is another (not mutually exclusive) approach. The nice thing about trying to increase turnout though is that it is a positive and inclusive approach rather than a negative and exclusive approach (though the implementation could still be negative: come out and vote for our guy to get rid of that other guy we don't like).
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