Belkin shows tech firms getting too comfortable with bricking customers' stuff
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Re: Belkin shows tech firms getting too comfortable with bricking customers' stuff
#2Do not buy stuff you do not own.
Re: Belkin shows tech firms getting too comfortable with bricking customers' stuff
#3I'm not against manufacturer stopping support for their Internet Of Shits devices, but there should be a law making it mandatory for them to release source code, protocol specs and whatever is needed so that a man of the craft could be able to do what is necessary to continue using the product that he bought.
Re: Belkin shows tech firms getting too comfortable with bricking customers' stuff
#4This all started with software and because we didn't stop it there it'll keep happening to software that runs hardware.
There was a popular game called "Rocket League" that Psyonix company sold and ran the infrastructure for for many years. But then Epic corporation bought Psyonix for Rocket League's playerbase to bootstrap their proprietary game delivery service. 6 months later everyone who had bought the game for Mac or Linux could no longer play. Epic just stole it from them. No recourse. Not even outrage beyond the effected. It was just accepted as a standard business practice.
Re: Belkin shows tech firms getting too comfortable with bricking customers' stuff
#5I'm not against manufacturer stopping support for their Internet Of Shits devices, but there should be a law making it mandatory for them to release source code, protocol specs and whatever is needed so that a man of the craft could be able to do what is necessary to continue using the product that he bought.
I'd rather a law mandating that all devices include an 'offline' option for any hardware features that could conceivably support one.
I don't want to create an account for my toaster, nor have my lightbulb send updates to an analytics server, nor have my washing machine cease to function when my wifi goes down.
A ban on products tying hardware features to an internet connection would fix all those problems in addition to giving them theoretically eternal life.
Re: Belkin shows tech firms getting too comfortable with bricking customers' stuff
#6This all started with software and because we didn't stop it there it'll keep happening to software that runs hardware. There was a popular game called "Rocket League" that Psyonix company sold and ran the infrastructure for for many years. But then Epic corporation bought Psyonix for Rocket League's playerbase to bootstrap their proprietary game delivery service. 6 months later everyone who had bought the game for M…
Via Wikipedia:
> The developer offered full refunds to the game for macOS and Linux owners regardless of how long they had the game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_League#Free-to-play_tra...
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/rocket-league-ending-mac-an...
Re: Belkin shows tech firms getting too comfortable with bricking customers' stuff
#7Do not buy stuff you do not own.
It is as "easy" as that. My assumption is these are mostly optional things we think we "need" so a little friction finding something that doesn't suck isn't the worst thing. Reigns in our consumerism a little bit too.
Re: Belkin shows tech firms getting too comfortable with bricking customers' stuff
#8It's almost like that in the absence of proper government regulations corporations are free to screw up consumers. And of course they do, why wouldn't they?
Re: Belkin shows tech firms getting too comfortable with bricking customers' stuff
#9This all started with software and because we didn't stop it there it'll keep happening to software that runs hardware. There was a popular game called "Rocket League" that Psyonix company sold and ran the infrastructure for for many years. But then Epic corporation bought Psyonix for Rocket League's playerbase to bootstrap their proprietary game delivery service. 6 months later everyone who had bought the game for M…
Via Wikipedia: > The developer offered full refunds to the game for macOS and Linux owners regardless of how long they had the game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_League#Free-to-play_tra... https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/rocket-league-ending-mac-an...
Its less bad that they offered refunds, but why would it that make it ok?
If you buy a car, and the company lights it on fire and then offers you a refund is that ok?
You'll still have the burnt husk if you choose not to take the refund
They broke something after they sold it