3 ms·

Ah, there it is. As a long-time Pi lore aficionado (is there such a thing? or am I just obsessed with a company that the CEO amusingly describes as "the other f

Ah, there it is. As a long-time Pi lore aficionado (is there such a thing? or am I just obsessed with a company that the CEO amusingly describes as "the other fruit computer company"?) in any thread that gets traction there's inevitably a screed posted along these lines: * "I'm mad because there's not an open source hardware/software/gpu/schematics/BOM" so I can't hypothetically make a clone of it * If (1) above is not the motivation, then it's because there's some specific use-case that doesn't work that the rage-post precipitates, and crucially - includes zero links to bug reports or a log of efforts that the OP has attempted * "All the designers are idiots because minor fault X is indicative of systemic failure Y" - with no supporting evidence * General assertions that all these faults are catastrophic and should bankrupt the company (often conflated with the Foundation, which is a completely separate legal entity) There's been about 80 million units sold so far. They must be doing something right. Disclaimer: I own RPI.L stock. It's one of the few tech stocks on the LSE that have actually performed OK and not tanked since IPO.

K0balt 1y ago
When you make something that will be mass produced 80 million times, you have a fundamental duty as an engineer to absolutely minimize the amount of negative externalities that will be experienced by people that come into contact with the surface that you have inflicted upon the world. “Real” engineers understand this and that is why they are often seemingly irrational about their selective attention to detail. Hacks and noobs are just unintentionally dumping plane loads of gum wrappers over our cities, nominally increasing human misery by tiny amounts without even realizing it… but in a population of billions, and more transistors than grains of sand on the planet, the overall effect is cumulative and significant. That’s why people that understand their civic responsibility to do their job to the best of their ability look upon hacks and noobs with concern or sometimes active hostility.

K0balt 1y ago

When you make something that will be mass produced 80 million times, you have a fundamental duty as an engineer to absolutely minimize the amount of negative externalities that will be experienced by people that come into contact with the surface that you have inflicted upon the world. “Real” engineers understand this and that is why they are often seemingly irrational about their selective attention to detail. Hacks and noobs are just unintentionally dumping plane loads of gum wrappers over our cities, nominally increasing human misery by tiny amounts without even realizing it… but in a population of billions, and more transistors than grains of sand on the planet, the overall effect is cumulative and significant. That’s why people that understand their civic responsibility to do their job to the best of their ability look upon hacks and noobs with concern or sometimes active hostility.