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All power to the users. And I do mean ALL. Complete control over cellular modems for one. Control over every little bit of hardware in the consumers hands.
That includes warranty promises, that includes schematics, source code for firmware, everything. For all current, past and future devices.
Fuck locked bootloaders.
You know something is wrong when Google is one of the most consumer friendly companies.
Yes, even if you try to use the controls we have left, you will discover that they always clip out one little obscure but critical detail that means you can’t actually use your device your way.
Example, starting ADB at boot in tcpip 5555 mode when your bootloader is locked
But that’s terrorism!
I am aware of this narrative. I don’t agree.
So you’re saying you side with the terrrists!
“I’m on my side.”
The users already have a lot of control; many just don’t use it.
Can any of you live without Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for one calendar month? 25 years ago, millions of Americans did, and their lives were hardly the poorer for it. 25 years before that it was over 150 million Americans, including the 12 who walked the Moon.
I’ve been living without the first two for years now. I could live without youtube if I really needed to, though I do watch a lot of stuff about farming that is really helpful. Most of my youtube watching is educational with a slight smattering of games and entertainment and a tiny bit of news.
I respect the sentiment, but most users neither know nor care about that. They want to take their new device out of it’s box, power it on, log in to whatever accounts they have, and carry on with their day.
The number of people who actually care about that is very small.
It doesn’t matter if they care about this. They are too dumb to do anything about it anyway. They still can get to take advantage of this. Most notable would be that stuff like “bank apps only through play/apple store” would be much harder to pull of.
You’re not wrong, but users should then be held accountable if they fuck up their device. For example, if you decide to force companies to allow unlocking of bootloaders, and the user decides to flash something that they shouldn’t, and the device bricks, whose fault is it?
Then they can just get it repaired, at a shop that has the flasher to re-flash the device. Cuz it’s open source
And pay a shop to do it? Do you realistically think the average person is gonna be willing to do that? I think it’s more likely they’ll complain to the phone company about their bricked phone.
I also don’t know enough, but is a bricked phone “fixable”? If it is, the person could do it themselves. But that’s just one example. Other examples include installing unsafe OSes because social media said so. I don’t think the average person is tech savvy enough to give them this kind of freedom.
This may be symptomatic of the issue being addressed. Would we be more willing to get the phone repaired if we felt more ownership of it? My hands are tied if the device was designed without repeatability in mind and the manufacturer has no intention of volunteering assistance - so I must complain. In our current system, we don’t have many options to choose from. I look forward to your thoughts.
Also I believe ‘bricked’ is a result of it becoming inoperable. Our devices aren’t easily repaired so they will become ‘bricked’ SOONER than if designed to run unlocked boot systems and OS’s. Feeling more ownership of your device may lead you to be more careful with it and only entrust it with reputable technicians.
Anti-capitalist regulations, I imagine.
Anti monopoly and regulations against anti competitive practices are cornerstones of capitalism ensuring free and fair competition.
So no, what we need is a return back to when these practices weren’t allowed, away from allowing these things more than ever as we do now.
It’s easy to see Russia has become an oligarchy, why can’t we see it’s happening to us too?
But we can’t dismantle capitalism altogether, without creating an even bigger monopoly problem, the monopoly being corrupt governments like the soviet union and their 5 year plan economy, that very obviously wasn’t a very good concept.Maybe that’s what you meant, I’d just not call it anti-capitalism, when regulations are for the purpose of making capitalism work better.
So just “regulation” is better.Regulations only exist because Capitalism would consume itself without guardrails.
I wonder if it’s consuming itself a bit right now.
Late stage capiyalims, Baybee!
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No unregulated capitalism is super capitalism.
Regulated capitalism is capitalism we actually try to get to work as intended or “normal” capitalism.
Social democracy is “Caring” capitalism. Where free markets and capitalism still exist, but is regulated to prevent exploitation of ordinary people.Normal capitalism has a drive to become super capitalism. You can try to stop it, maybe you’ll succeed, but it will always strive to turn itself into super capitalism.
Let me tell you about the Nordic model
Repubtard: HEY THAT’S SOCIALISM!!!
Except Scandinavians have more freedom, and better free market than USA.
Repubtard: BUT IT’S SOCIALISM!!!
Ehrm, they also have better freedom of speech.
Repubtard: WHAT? ARE YOU A FUCKING COMMIE?
Actually they also rank way higher on democracy.
Repubtard: WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA?
I don’t, but wouldn’t it be nice if everybody had healthcare, free education and social security so you didn’t have to fear to starve if you got ill and lost yopur job?
Repubtard: HEY THAT’S SOCIALISM!!!
…
Ugh, my elderly neighbor was going on about how Harris was going to take away this and that, most of which I’d never heard her say or even read about her plans doing, and I said, “where did you hear that? It was Fox News wasn’t it?” He replied with, “well, what news do you watch?” I said, “it sure isn’t Fox where they lie constantly. Harris hasn’t said any of that crap … you need to get your news from multiple sources.”
We’d be a heck of a lot better off if the news agencies were held accountable for telling lies and making up stories. Yeah, I know it’s a fine line but it’s one I’m willing to walk at this point.
We’d be a heck of a lot better off if the news agencies were held accountable for telling lies
Yes, other countries have that, it’s called responsible journalism.
You can’t just parrot some source, and claim it’s reporting. You need to check your sources.
When they help spread lies, they are part of the problem.
Get rid of the billionaire tech-lords. The ones that create the only new tech we’re allowed to have: fees, ads, and enshittification.
I ditched my smartphone spring of 2023. Still use it on WiFi at home, but every time I leave the house, I only carry a fliphone.
Every time a stranger asks me about it, they say something like “I wish I could ditch my smartphone.” Like I get it. It’s not easy. I can’t even go to a baseball game unless my wife has our tickets on her phone. Paying for parking sometimes requires an app.
Yet apparently everyone hates this thing that they are now required to carry around.
How did we get here?
Once capitalism is dead.
Technology is great, it’s just naturally being used to exploit.
That’s for too long a wait—if such ever happens.
DIY. Be your own boss. Not all economic relationships in this world are capitalist.
Yeah but what if I don’t want to starve :-( ?
Why would you starve?
If we work together and do our part, we can shorten the wait by more than you might think
Starting out with small groups shouldn’t be too difficult.
The use of open, decentralized platforms such as the fediverse is one small step in the right direction at least.
FOSS / fediverse is really the only tech stuff that isn’t massively disappointing as of late.
And yet this community seems more techno-pessimistic than even /r/technology, which is a challenge.
Well, only techno-pessimistic about mainstream technologies that are used by most people, which is warranted I guess. Most people don’t use the fediverse after all.
Taking patent, trademark, and copyright laws to what they were in, say, 1790, might be a good start.
Regard today’s billionaires with the same contempt that one does of criminals.
Wait at least 5 years before buying a new computer.
Don’t pay by credit card.
Don’t pay by credit card.
This is bad advice for anyone with good credit and spending habits. A credit card with rewards is just free money if you’re responsible with it. I haven’t paid interest in over a decade and have made thousands from rewards.
Yep, the rich are rich because they borrow other peoples money. 0% free interest lines are about the best discount you can get on anything. I get to make the interest while you hold the loan? Sign me up! Siri, remind me in 11 months to pay off the X loan.
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There are no free money. These are loans. And making them attractive with cashbacks and rewards is done to trap unresponsible spenders. 95% of the time you don’t need to borrow money from the bank, unless you are in emergency or you are to invest these to achieve some payback (e.g. a loan to open your business).
These are loans. And making them attractive with cashbacks and rewards is done to trap unresponsible spenders
I am aware, which is why I specifically said
This is bad advice for anyone with good credit and spending habits.
For people who aren’t irresponsible spenders, it’s a bad financial decision not to take the short term bank loan. Sure, I don’t need to spend the banks money because I have enough in my checking account to cover it. But by not doing so, I lose money on any transactions that don’t charge me a fee to run my card.
If you’re not responsible enough to use a credit card and not destroy your finances, absolutely do not use them. But for those of us who are, it’s a dumb idea to eschew it just because you have the money on hand. Like I said, I haven’t paid interest in a decade and have made thousands from my normal spending habits.
If I followed your advice, I would be objectively worse off, because I’d be losing money from my rewards for no benefit whatsoever. And I can guarantee I’d be materially worse off, since my credit card is the reason my credit is as good as it is, and that bullshit has a pervasive and perverse effect on your life. It’s not only loans that are impacted, but insurance, housing and employment can be as well. So maybe I should have left good credit off, since responsible spending will build your credit up even if it is bad currently.
TL;DR - responsible credit card use is a good thing, and foregoing it just because you have money on hand is a bad financial decision. Pay that shit off immediately and there’s no material downside and you still get all the benefits.
Irresponsible vs responsible is how the credit card companies frame it, but I think most of the time it’s about luck. The kind of luck where the primary income gets hit by a car or someone in the family gets cancer.
I haven’t paid interest in over a decade and have made thousands from rewards.
I’m not too familiar with credit cards, do you mean this in a literal money sense or something more complex, i.e. the value of rewards & money?
We pay for EVERYTHING on our credit card, shared account with my partner. 2% money back. Pay it off in full every month. Zero interest paid, thousands of monies back.
One of the better credit card rewards is a small percentage cash back, so literally free money. Money is fungible though, so any discounts on things you were going to buy anyway are effectively the same thing.
Fair enough, but they know what you bought.
Yes, but you can also do a chargeback if the company you purchased from sold you a lousy product and isn’t being reasonable about returning it. If you had paid with cash, that cash is GONE.
Each method has its pros and cons.
If you had paid with cash, that cash is GONE.
not if I have a receipt.
You pay with your data lol
The reason why corpos been able to price gouge the peasants is particulaly to tp them having access to data this granular. Same reason why they want dynamic pricing schemes.
Opensource (specifically Libre)
Worker and community cooperatives.
Right to repair.
Public money, public goods.
Privacy by default.
Decentralization > Federation > Disconnected > Centralized
Treating addiction as a disease and people intentionally seeking to exploit it at a mass scale should be charged for harm.
Organizations should be held liable for user data exposed to malicious actors both intentionally and through neglect of security.
We stop the acquisitions. We work out ways to foster innovation and protect patents only in the short term.
We need more than a couple phone manufacturers, we need more than a couple of food producers. All of these monolith mega corporations keep smaller upstarts from coming up and competing.
And more than a couple operating systems. We get a lot of horrifyingly bad compatibility issues from Apple, and to a lesser degree, Google.
Unfortunately some things will IMO always remain a natural monopoly. For example good luck trying to convince developers to write their apps for all those different operating systems.
Doesn’t have to be that way
“AI will make all of your work obsolete, there’s nothing we can do about it. Shame…”
I’m fine with losing my job, it’s tedious anyway. I’m not with losing my income though. Let automation and programs do the work and share the fruit of their labor to the people. Get rid of CEOs.
Then we can talk about optimism.
AI-CEOs should be a thing to work towards.
Who decides their programming? Are they bound to ethics or shareholder wealth? Better get rid of shareholders as well.
Ah yes, like a CEO but for the workers.
I can live with that
Decomodify software. Refuse to respect copyright laws for software, or mandate that all software must be GPL or an equivalent restrictive license.
Make it so that all government software must be GPL, that would remove an enormous install base from corporate entities. Certain EU countries are already doing this.
If you are a public institution of any kind, you should not be using corporate, proprietary software, no exceptions.
Closed source software and hardware is largely what allowed massive corpos to take over the software and hardware scene, and it’s what creates the incentive for silicon valley tech bros to create new technology solely in the hopes of being acquired for hundreds of millions, or even billions of dollars by some massive megacorp.
Corpos and private equity scumbags wouldn’t be interested in acquiring these companies if they knew all the code and technology was under a GPL-like license, and anybody could take that tech, modify it, redistribute it, fork it, rebrand it, etc.
Make it so that all government software must be GPL, that would remove an enormous install base from corporate entities. Certain EU countries are already doing this.
Schools included.
Many students today don’t touch a personal computer a lot outside of school and then workplace.
My conspiracy theory:
I suspect that’s the desired effect of “smartphones”, and also the reason “smartphones” without keyboards are such an industry consensus. Not them being cheaper. Not them looking nicer. First, keyboards can be very sexy (think ZX Spectrum, or Blackberry for PDAs), second, however they look, touchscreen UIs are PITA, third, they are not that more expensive.
The strategy thus is that entertainment personal computing should be pressed out to devices hardly usable for work. So that “normal” people would gain their experience with that, and thus not gain the experience accompanying normal personal computing. As in - tinkering, customization, creation.
Because I remember how in my childhood any kid with a PC at home would do some tinkering and exploration. Today’s kids scroll, and scroll, and scroll.
Mind-boggling actually, my sister (now kinda helpless with computers) was making websites and RPGs with RPGMaker2000, my younger cousin who is a designer was - I actually don’t remember what she was doing, but something connected to editing amateur films they were making with my older cousin, who’s a software engineer now.
Getting back to various pressures, this reduces the space for personal computing free from corporate and governmental policies. And this also reduces the unwanted effects from more creative entertainment - people who do something as a hobby are a direct competition to corporate gaslighting. The contrast is like between an 18yo girl on a rock festival and a Soviet propaganda poster. The latter never wins. And such a situation sadly negatively affects the chances of people getting the kinds of hobbies corps wouldn’t want them to have.
Producing products that the users wants, and that solves tje users real problems. And not trying to make products as addictive as possible, to harvest as much user data as possible to sell.
I’m a developer posting on Lemmy so maybe take this with a huge grain of salt but I think we need to focus less on STEM/finance and more on humanities education. Definitely in the United States but probably most of the world considering India and China focus on tech too.
When I was learning to code (in the 90’s and 2000’s unless you count a 9 year old making BASIC do loops), my mentors basically all had majored in something besides computer science because there wasn’t necessarily even a computer science major available if your college didn’t have “Tech” in the name. It was a lot of hippies who spent their weekends making pottery and got into IT or software development almost by accident; it was a job to fund their non-lucrative hobby or passion.
Basically, we lost something when being a programmer became a goal and not a way to reach some other goal. I’m not sure we can return to a time when it was tinkerers and hobbyists coming to the field with different backgrounds but more creatives should learn to code and more coders should be forced to make art.
Steve Jobs said taking a calligraphy class was the reason that having a wide variety of attractive fonts was important to him when designing the Mac.
Open source.
I, for one, have become a lot more optimist about Tech ever since I’ve replaced the closed solutions that deny me control from corporations looking to squeeze every last cent of value from me - from smartphone OSes to TV Boxes - with open source solutions were it’s me who holds the keys.
What TV box would you recommend?
Personally I replaced my TV Box with a Intel N100 Mini-PC (specifically a GMTek G3) running Lubuntu and Kodi, though it’s used for a lot more than just being my TV box. I also got one of these remotes so I control it just like I would a dedicate TV Box (even though it has a mini-keyboard on the back and airmouse functionality, I almost never use it).
I use IPTV with it to watch just the free TV Channels, though there are providers out there who carry over 1000 channels for 5 bucks a month.
If you want something to just use as TV Box, start by checking Libreelec which is a Linux distro with Kodi configured to just work as a TV Box. It has builds for a whole lot of single board computers, which generally are cheaper than Mini-PCs (for example you can get a Banana Pi M5 - one of the supported SBCs - plus box, powersource and even the SD card for about half the price of the Mini-PC I got). The same remote I use should work fine with Libreelect on any platform which has at least one USB connector (not tested it myself but it makes sense since it uses the same kind of protocol and dongle as a wireless keyboard + mouse with pressing the “normal” remote buttons just generating keypresses according to some kind of standard of shortcut keys for media players)
Had I’ve been aiming for just a TV Box replacement I would’ve probably gone via checking which hardware Libreelec is compatible with and then chosen one of those and used the Libreelec since it’s a Linux distro already preconfigures for acting as a proper TV Box (whilst with Lubuntu with Kodi on top I had to go around figuring out and changing the configuration for auto-login, auto-starting Kodi on startup and so on)
