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Maybe it's time for the legal requirement that every computing device or microchip more powerful than 1 MIPS and having writable storage, must support reprogram
by codedokode 1y ago
Maybe it's time for the legal requirement that every computing device or microchip more powerful than 1 MIPS and having writable storage, must support reprogramming, to prevent creating digital waste.
- mathiaspoint 1y agoAlso not publishing source for drivers should be illegal. There isn't a single legitimate reason not to do that.
- codedokode 1y agoThey may say that if they publish the code, other countries will copy it for free.
- wizzwizz4 1y agoLet them! Drivers are virtually useless without the associated hardware, and if you're making the hardware, you know how to write a driver for it.
- rekrsiv 1y agoAt the end of the day, rationales like this are moot when the final deciding factor will be an envelope full of cash to some politicians.
- 93po 1y agosecurity through obscurity maybe?
- gruez 1y ago>to prevent creating digital waste. Approximately nobody is going to be reprogramming their 8 year old iPhones to "prevent creating digital waste", especially when the CPU is unbearably slow and the batteries are well worn out. Say reprogramming is important for user freedom or whatever, but claiming it's going to make a meaningful difference in reducing e-waste is always going to be a spurious justification.
- codedokode 1y agoI also meant microcontrollers. I am sure someone would remove chips from old devices and resell if they were reprogrammable. Also you could use them for your hobby for free.
- BenjiWiebe 1y agoThe chips in phones would be horrible to work with - they're too small. Plus, the SoC is much more complicated to deal with than a microcontroller intended to be stand-alone.
- gruez 1y agoWhy would anyone go through all that hassle when you can get a ESP8266 from aliexpress for less than $2? The skilled labor cost alone needed to desolder the chips is going to wipe out any savings, not to mention the hassle of fabbing custom PCBs to work with your hodgepodge collection of microcontrollers.
- codedokode 1y agoThere are countries where people would sit all day desoldering phones if they were paid $2 for each. Also even in my country minimum wage is less than $2/hr (although that is rare).
- gruez 1y agoNote $2 on aliexpress gets you a fully assembled module. If you're trying to repurpose chips after desoldering you still need to sort, test, and resolder them.
- mathiaspoint 1y ago8 year old phones are fine if you run a decent OS on them.
- rpastuszak 1y agoMy 8 yo iPhone is perfectly usable, the battery wasn’t expensive or difficult to replace.
- anonandwhistle 1y agoDo you have lobbying power to pass that? Because $trillions are on opposite side so make sure you can pay for it. Reality.
- bapak 1y agoThis probably falls into the "right to repair" and "green" initiatives, so I think it's going to happen in this decade.
- rekrsiv 1y agoBoth of those have trillions of dollars more in counter-initiatives, and that was before the global democratic backsliding started snowballing. I don't think it's going to happen this century.
- jondwillis 1y agoIt seems that GP was being sarcastic.
- fsflover 1y agoYes, if you support https://eff.org https://eff.org
- JimDabell 1y agoThis doesn’t make sense. The most locked down mainstream option on the market – the iPhone – is also the one with the longest market life, with iPhones holding their market value far longer than alternatives. So there seems to be a negative correlation between being locked down and e-waste. I know you have “let’s reprogram old phones” in mind, but approximately nobody does this even when it’s an option. If you don’t like phones being locked down, then argue that on its own merits; e-waste is not a good argument.
- notrealyme123 1y ago7 years lifetime is nothing. All iPhones have to rotate in that timeframe. That's incredible amounts of waste. Every shitty iPhone could still be a MP3 player, home control or something else. But no, its Garbage because your only way to install is by going online and hoping that your critical apps are still in a useful version in the app store.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- dvdkon 1y agoI'd say that's a spurious correlation, if it exists at all. Just look at all the Android phone makers who don't allow bootloader unlocks and those who do. Personally I'd say Google Pixel or Sony Xperia phones last longer than Huawei ones, though I wouldn't dare say reprogrammability has anything to do with it. Besides, when the options on the market range from "impossible" to "damn hard to reprogram", can you blame the market for not taking advantage of that? I'm certain a law that would allow waste recycling companies to unlock any phone, even without password or receipt, would lead to phones or phone motherboards being reused in a variety of lower-volume products.
- codedokode 1y agoI wanted to add a correction, I think that the user should be able to give up this right if it helps prevent theft for example. Today, if forums can be trusted, many Android phones protected with Google Account (FRP - Factory Reset Protection) can be unlocked in different ways, sometimes as easy as opening a keyboard (or invoking a voice input), going to settings and disabling the protection, or deleting a partition with FRP data. And for other phones there are no publicly available information, but there is software that you can rent. So (if the information on the forums is true) it seems that Google's anti-theft protection was made just for a bullet point in marketing materials and not for really preventing theft.
- numpad0 1y agoYou have to shock European politicians with credible model of threats showing that not implementing such a regulation could very well lead to their daughters getting home address shared open to the world and harassed 24/7, e.g. so much widely known that it would be trending in Central Asian language while completely walled off from their eyes in languages used around their residence. Not that I endorse that kind of things or that I think faking one will do, of course. But that kinds of threats must be theoretically established and acknowledged - which I think is ultimately inevitable but could be delayed or hastened by human actions. The point is, you could be seen as throwing pointless tantrum about your toys until it happens.