The Pendulum Swings, Again
jacquesmattheij.com
The Pendulum Swings, Again
1–10 of 127 posts
Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again
#2The most interesting fact for this swing is that it's not only software that is changing...
As noted in the article: if you wanted a computer in the old days, you put it together yourself. That changed and putting together a new computer yourself is unimaginable (I'm not speaking about assembly of components, but soldering the whole thing). Recently cheap(er) 3D printing, Arduino and the Raspberry Pi put hardware on the table again and I think very interesting times are coming. Think about it, even 2 or 3 years ago 'innovation' on the internet was synonym with software, now it's changing again to hard- and software.
Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again
#3Those who lived through that period and paid attention are probably well aware of the ridiculous notion that information flows should be controlled in order to protect the children or whatever the fig-leaf of the day is. Ask the Iranian and the Chinese people how they like their firewalls.
Well played, sir.
Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again
#4The most interesting fact for this swing is that it's not only software that is changing... As noted in the article: if you wanted a computer in the old days, you put it together yourself. That changed and putting together a new computer yourself is unimaginable (I'm not speaking about assembly of components, but soldering the whole thing). Recently cheap(er) 3D printing, Arduino and the Raspberry Pi put hardware on…
Not at all. Hardware is becoming more and more obscure. 5 years ago many people could and did swap components in their PC. Now try doing that with a modern smartphone or laptop.
Don't confuse the chatterings online about RPi etc with any kind of general movement. The vast majority of computer users now use sealed hardware boxes, and that proportion is increasing.
Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again
#5Those who lived through that period and paid attention are probably well aware of the ridiculous notion that information flows should be controlled in order to protect the children or whatever the fig-leaf of the day is. Ask the Iranian and the Chinese people how they like their firewalls.
Let’s make sure it ends up on the side of freedom and democracy, and not on the side of DRM and other forms of control and digital oppression.
If my observations are correct then such a swing is about to happen, and this time we had better get it right.
The author states the concern and the desirable outcome, but how do we, individually, make sure the pendulum swings in the correct direction?
Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again
#6The most interesting fact for this swing is that it's not only software that is changing... As noted in the article: if you wanted a computer in the old days, you put it together yourself. That changed and putting together a new computer yourself is unimaginable (I'm not speaking about assembly of components, but soldering the whole thing). Recently cheap(er) 3D printing, Arduino and the Raspberry Pi put hardware on…
In fact the GPU on the rPi doesn't even have open source drivers or a public specification, you have to use the provided binary blob if you want all the goodies.
Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again
#7Those who lived through that period and paid attention are probably well aware of the ridiculous notion that information flows should be controlled in order to protect the children or whatever the fig-leaf of the day is. Ask the Iranian and the Chinese people how they like their firewalls. Let’s make sure it ends up on the side of freedom and democracy, and not on the side of DRM and other forms of control and digita…
The simplest way is through the use of your wallet. Buy "open". E.g.
- Need a new desktop? Buy one that doesn't lock down uefi by default, and runs linux compatible hardware
- New phone? Buy one with Firefox OS if you can wait that long, or at least go for one with a stock Android install
- New book? Buy one from independent publishers/authors who don't support DRM [1]
- New app? Don't use a commercial app store, get it direct from the publisher
- Music? you get the idea.
Voting with your wallet and putting money on the side of open helps keep commercial operators swinging in that direction. As far as government is concerned, I've no idea.
[1] Swift plug : http://leanpub.com for books, in particular http://leanpub.com/php ....
[edit] In response to the assorted "we're too small a minority" comments below, I would argue that historically with IT that isn't an issue. The internet & web were minority pursuits at one point, commercial walled gardens like AOL were much more common and popular, until the small minority of tech leaders (just like us) forged ahead anyway and showed with our feet how much better it can be. The people reading HN, while comparatively small in number compared to the general population, I think underestimate the power they (and others like them) have to influence the tech lives of their customers, users, friends and family. It doesn't always appear that common sense can beat big money when it comes to affecting the choices made by the general populous, but have some faith in your fellow humanity, these sways are usually only temporary.
Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again
#8The most interesting fact for this swing is that it's not only software that is changing... As noted in the article: if you wanted a computer in the old days, you put it together yourself. That changed and putting together a new computer yourself is unimaginable (I'm not speaking about assembly of components, but soldering the whole thing). Recently cheap(er) 3D printing, Arduino and the Raspberry Pi put hardware on…
I see your point with the 3d printing revolution but imho the two most important sentences in the article are:
The line between ‘computer’, ‘program’ and ‘media’ blurred to the point where consumers were successfully confused about what it was they were actually buying.
... another where it is successfully co-opted by big money and governments in a concerted effort to give us all a subscription to online Life-As-A-Service where you will be beholden to some party for the ability to gain access to knowledge, information, the right to communicate and so on and where the act of programming will be as tightly regulated as the export of cryptography was.
So if you look at it closely: This swing is not only about hardware and software anymore. It is much more about data and the services that it enables. Think of facebook, google etc.
Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again
#9Those who lived through that period and paid attention are probably well aware of the ridiculous notion that information flows should be controlled in order to protect the children or whatever the fig-leaf of the day is. Ask the Iranian and the Chinese people how they like their firewalls. Let’s make sure it ends up on the side of freedom and democracy, and not on the side of DRM and other forms of control and digita…
The simplest way is through the use of your wallet. Buy "open". E.g. - Need a new desktop? Buy one that doesn't lock down uefi by default, and runs linux compatible hardware - New phone? Buy one with Firefox OS if you can wait that long, or at least go for one with a stock Android install - New book? Buy one from independent publishers/authors who don't support DRM [1] - New app? Don't use a commercial app store, get…
This being in the context of a binary choice, it shares a basic flaw of any 2-party democracy: if there are more customers voting the wrong way (i.e., "closed"), commercial operators have no incentive to go open.
If you know your opinion is not mainstream, why limit your choices of commercial goods this way?
Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
The simplest way is through the use of your wallet. Buy "open". E.g. - Need a new desktop? Buy one that doesn't lock down uefi by default, and runs linux compatible hardware - New phone? Buy one with Firefox OS if you can wait that long, or at least go for one with a stock Android install - New book? Buy one from independent publishers/authors who don't support DRM [1] - New app? Don't use a commercial app store, get…
This being in the context of a binary choice, it shares a basic flaw of any 2-party democracy: if there are more customers voting the wrong way (i.e., "closed"), commercial operators have no incentive to go open. If you know your opinion is not mainstream, why limit your choices of commercial goods this way?
Not sure if I'm following you. Are you saying we shouldn't vote because our only 1 vote is meaningless in the crowd?