Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

kimonote.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 206 posts

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#51

Post by metalliqaz »

cesarb wrote: post #29
jimmies wrote: post #7

>In 2016, when I got a new phone, the default setting changed and I would just wake up to my device stating, "Tinder has been updated. Deal with it". I turned off auto-updates on my phone. So this happened. Last year or so I traveled to SF and tried to call an Uber home after a long day of walking around. My phone had 5% battery left. I opened the app and there it was... The maps and everything showed up, but then it…

> I turned off auto-updates on my phone. Even if you turn off auto-updates, some things still auto update silently. A long time ago, I wrote a small utility which listened to the PACKAGE_ADDED and PACKAGE_REMOVED events (I don't know if it's still possible to listen to these events on recent Android versions). IIRC, there were two packages that always updated silently (wihout a notification icon) and automatically, e…

Is that a problem? I mean you're using a Google OS. At this point they are selling you a service, not a program. I have no idea what is in one version vs another, and I don't really care as long as the service keeps working.

Now, I do still care of being in control of my own hardware, but I do so on my server. I don't know of a cell phone that delivers what I want without being sold as a service rather than a standalone product. Best I can do is back up all my data to my own box and keep buying new phones when the batteries die.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#52

Post by rhizome »

aidenn0 wrote: post #21
superasn wrote: post #17

Also these updates drain the battery all the time and there is no way to tell them to please stop. At least on Android you can install "greenify app" but for that to work properly, you need to have root and for that you have to unlock the bootloader (for which you have to wait 14 days and also void your warranty). I mean wtf, it's my phone but the design is such that a shit ton of crap always needs to run in the back…

My android phone was configured out-of-the-box to only run autoupdates when plugged in and on wifi. It's easy to see because if I haven't plugged my phone in for a few days, as soon as I do it starts updating like crazy.

I do this too, and the most annoying thing is just to arrive home at the end of the day and my phone becoming unusable because something, somewhere has to update ASAP on WiFi. I don't even keep that many apps installed, but as sure as eggs, something always needs an update.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#53

Post by isostatic »

gcbw2 wrote: post #35
gnode wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can certainly imagine the dashboard becoming real estate for ads.

taxis do that to passengers for some 15years now. and that is only counting the video ads. If you count print you can go back all you want.

The adverts are why I use uber in New York rather than yellow cabs.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#54

Post by rhizome »

fallous wrote: post #9
adreamingsoul wrote: post #5

So, back to land lines with analog phones? Serious question, do any phones exist that can fully owned by the user? For a period, I was excited about the Ubuntu phone because of the fact that I could have full control over it. Sad to see that project terminated. I'm also interested in "dumbphones" that can use CDMA or GSM networks.

I've seriously contemplated a roll-your-own "dumb phone" solution not only for myself but also for my mother and in-laws (they're all in their 70s). An Adafruit Fona would provide all of the telephonic functionality I'd care about, and then it's just a matter of choice regarding microcontroller, display, etc.

Simply getting a featurephone for people in their 70s has one huge problem: T9 text input.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#55

Post by TAForObvReasons »

bhnmmhmd wrote: post #11

We were afraid that AI will take over and take away our freedom, but I think some companies have done a great job at ruining their products, and our lives as well.

We are finally facing the ramifications of short-sighted decisions years ago. In the race to the bottom where a plurality of people opted for "free" or "cheaper" options, not enough people cared about how money is made. Companies like google aren't charities, so profits would have to be extracted irrespective of the dubiousness of the approach. The current situation was predicted by many.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#56

Post by samfriedman »

gnode wrote: post #19
ohazi wrote: post #2

You know, you could have even stopped at the car analogy, because modern cars are actually doing this and it's fucking terrifying. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16374464

I can certainly imagine the dashboard becoming real estate for ads.

When your car is fully self-driving, I'm sure you will be able to get a discount on the sticker/rental price by agreeing to view some ads on the in-car screens while you ride.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#58

Post by rhizome »

maxxxxx wrote: post #15
Blinks- wrote: post #4

Increases in complexity up the barrier of entry to any advanced system, but lately it seems like things are made with the intent to make that barrier impossible to overcome within the lifetime of the hardware. The right to repair and open hardware standards are something we need to organize and push for if we want to see improvements. After all it's been demonstrated time and time again that we can't trust black box…

I think we are going more and more into the direction of renting almost everything. If you use ebooks like Kindle you don't accumulate a book collection. Same for record collections. Devices become useless once the connected cloud service shuts down. Eventually we'll probably have cars that get obsoleted quickly. I bet the same will happen for household and other robots once they get more powerful. You will have to p…

I think we are going more and more into the direction of renting almost everything.

It sure makes law enforcement's job easier if more peoples' entire phones are subject to the Third Party Doctrine, rather than just what passes over the wire.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#59

Post by cryptoz »

metalliqaz wrote: post #51
cesarb wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I turned off auto-updates on my phone. Even if you turn off auto-updates, some things still auto update silently. A long time ago, I wrote a small utility which listened to the PACKAGE_ADDED and PACKAGE_REMOVED events (I don't know if it's still possible to listen to these events on recent Android versions). IIRC, there were two packages that always updated silently (wihout a notification icon) and automatically, e…

Is that a problem? I mean you're using a Google OS. At this point they are selling you a service, not a program. I have no idea what is in one version vs another, and I don't really care as long as the service keeps working. Now, I do still care of being in control of my own hardware, but I do so on my server. I don't know of a cell phone that delivers what I want without being sold as a service rather than a standal…

This was a major major major problem for me. Those silent Android updates are buggy in huge ways. One of them turned off the barometer until phone restart, throwing my startup into a panic as our core product (live barometer data from millions of contributing phones) went slowly dark for some mysterious unknown and scary reason. The data took weeks to return and that gap is lost forever.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#60

Post by ryandrake »

radarsat1 wrote: post #36
jimmies wrote: post #7

>In 2016, when I got a new phone, the default setting changed and I would just wake up to my device stating, "Tinder has been updated. Deal with it". I turned off auto-updates on my phone. So this happened. Last year or so I traveled to SF and tried to call an Uber home after a long day of walking around. My phone had 5% battery left. I opened the app and there it was... The maps and everything showed up, but then it…

I agree with you. But.. > "Tinder has been updated. Deal with it". is an interesting choice of example. The anger at updates only really makes sense for apps that are entirely local to your hardware. As soon as you have an app where part of it runs on a server that you don't control, that logic goes out the window. They can stop your non-updated app from working with no effort, just by making the server API incompati…

The anger is still valid because at the end of the day, the software (that used to work) no longer works due to a choice made by the company that makes the software. To the end user there is no difference between "making a breaking API change on the server" and "pushing a native update that disables the app".

This may be the current sucky reality of SaaS, but it could be fixed if the market demanded it.

Post reply on HN