I want a computer that I own • Hacker News Board

Re: I want a computer that I own

#171

Post by lmm » Tue, Mar 09, 2021, 2:37 AM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #31

> Perhaps I am looking for something like the x286 DOS computer I had in the early 1990's You can do an almost fully GPL compliant Linux desktop by building it yourself today. I can already see people thinking "but what about the closed source binary blobs? my video card? my network interfaces?" But even your 12 MHz 286 or 386SX/20 had closed source AMI or Phoenix BIOS firmware on it. The motherboard manufacturer in…

There was no management engine, no "phone home" functionality. And those drivers you mention were often handwritten assembly to the point that reading the disassembly would be as good as having the source code.

Re: I want a computer that I own

#172

Post by wott » Tue, Mar 09, 2021, 2:38 AM UTC

guntars wrote: post #167

vineyardmike wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off topic but.. > and now everything but a kitchen sink My kitchen sink has a processor in it.

That’s hilarious. What is it processing?

Like the others, I guess: streams of wata.

Re: I want a computer that I own

#173

Post by samb1729 » Tue, Mar 09, 2021, 2:40 AM UTC

meowster wrote: post #100

a5withtrrs wrote: post #43

> Our computers are increasingly designed to be little more than advertising platforms and vehicles for maximizing the cloud revenues of their true owners This applies so much to modern Windows operating systems that it's frankly disgusting. I think most phones are also solidly in this space as well. Apple is marginally better, but their efforts to ram iCloud services down your throat at every available opportunity i…

Apparently Apple will display ads for Safari on the desktop if you run Edge. https://www.zdnet.com/article/i-opened-microsoft-edge-and-ap...

The style of writing in that article[0] is utterly infuriating to read or even skim for facts.

For anyone else unlucky enough to want to know what happened here:

- Microsoft Edge on macOS is apparently a thing that exists (I was not aware of this)

- If you install and open Edge on macOS, a notification titled “Try the new Safari” appears on the top right of the display, claiming Safari is “Fast, energy efficient, and with a beautiful design”

- The linked article is basically a tweetstorm made worse by being surrounded by distractions.

[0]: https://www.zdnet.com/article/i-opened-microsoft-edge-and-ap...

Re: I want a computer that I own

#174

Post by obviouslynotme » Tue, Mar 09, 2021, 2:41 AM UTC

    Damocles was an obsequious courtier in the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse, a fourth century BC tyrant of Syracuse. Damocles exclaimed that, as a great man of power and authority, Dionysius was truly fortunate. Dionysius offered to switch places with him for a day, so he could taste that fortune first-hand. In the evening a banquet was held, where Damocles very much enjoyed being waited upon like a king. Only at the end of the meal did he look up and notice a sharpened sword hanging directly above his head, held only by a single horse-hair. Immediately, he lost all taste for the festivities and asked leave of the tyrant, saying he no longer wanted to be so fortunate. Dionysius had successfully conveyed a sense of the constant threat under which a powerful man lives.

- The Sword of Damocles, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sword_of_Damocles

The powerful are perpetually terrified. They are scared of each other. They are scared of the populace. If someone created a perfectly secure computer or phone with secure messaging capabilities, from the hardware up, that company would immediately be told to play ball or face blackballing.

Re: I want a computer that I own

#175

Post by Black101 » Tue, Mar 09, 2021, 2:42 AM UTC

BoysenberryPi wrote: post #86

This feels like it was made to get to the top of somewhere like HN but I'm actually very confused. >I want it to be, but which can also be used to communicate securely with anyone on the planet without being observed by a third party. I don't want to be spied on by Microsoft or Google.I don't want the NSA intercepting my conversations or even their metadata. I don't see what this has to do with the actual computer ho…

> You don't want Microsoft to be involved

Microsoft works closely with Intel... I wonder if they might have access to the invisible OS running on your PC... (Linux would not disable that)

Re: I want a computer that I own

#176

Post by hrishi » Tue, Mar 09, 2021, 2:44 AM UTC

Agree with most of the comments, but it's worth mentioning that you will never get those things for cheap.

The reason most of the things you buy are cheap is due to economies of scale - you want something a lot of people want.

Want a bicycle with 2 wheels? Cheap. Want one with 7 wheels? Expensive.

Unfortunately for you, almost none of the things you say you want in a laptop are things you're aligned with most of humanity in terms of priority. Sure, most people might tell you they want those things, but they're not willing to give up the benefits of centralization, or pay a few bucks to get rid of ads.

Tldr: if you want something few people will buy, expect to pay more.

Re: I want a computer that I own

#177

Post by anta40 » Tue, Mar 09, 2021, 2:46 AM UTC

m-p-3 wrote: post #99

asymptosis wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the feeling you could be tempted to say more about that. Please elaborate?

Your average desktop/laptop CPU runs a blackbox like Intel AMT or AMD PSP which is basically an always active mini-CPU that runs in the background and is OS-agnostic. If you consider your OS max privilege level as ring 0, this is ring -1. If/when someone manage to conpromise those, they can basically take over your computer, and Intel/AMD doesn't provide any sort of killswitch or physical way of disabling it.

Turn the power off. Unplug all cables.

Problem is (temporarily) solved :D

Re: I want a computer that I own

#178

Post by guidoism » Tue, Mar 09, 2021, 2:51 AM UTC

A microcontroller is probably the closest you can get these days and honestly a modern MCU is going to be powerful enough of for most use cases.

There’s a huge world of difference in complexity and understandability between an MCU and the SOCs in a phone even if the instruction set is the same.

Re: I want a computer that I own

#179

Post by NoImmatureAdHom » Tue, Mar 09, 2021, 2:52 AM UTC

a5withtrrs wrote: post #59

kokx wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the PinePhone. It is an amazing project, and I'm definitely considering buying one. However, it does not solve my main problem. For most scenarios I still need a "normal" smartphone with either iOS or Android. Apps like WhatsApp and banking apps are unfortunately needed for a large part of my daily life. At risk of either socially isolating myself or bringing major inconveniences without having them. All unava…

The (not cost effective) solution is to carry both. Shut off the 'normal' smart phone when you don't need it (for banking or what have you). Use the web version of Whatsapp ( https://web.whatsapp.com/ ) if you must use it. You could even consider having a WhatsApp specific phone if you have an older model that you've upgraded from that contains no other data. That was my solution anyway.

Check out Beeper (beeperhq.com). They have an all-in-one service that'll get you Whatsapp without hilariously dubious security promises from Facebook.

Basically what they do is build and maintain a bunch of Matrix bridges for you. Whatsapp, Imessage, Telegram, Facebook, Slack, Twitter, Skype...

Re: I want a computer that I own

#180

Post by mrverify » Tue, Mar 09, 2021, 2:52 AM UTC

A collection of ice40 FPGAs built into a computer? surface mount transistor implementation of a pdp8 with regular semiconductor memory and an FPGA MMU that handles gigabyte memory sticks? I was thinking a forth computer, but the applications are sparse: gForth spreadsheet and word processor, both text based.