5 ms·

It's an active attack on the Hobbyist space. Qualcomm buying Arduino solidified this idea in my head. They literally want us to own nothing.

jmclnx 5mo ago
Tin foil hat :) But in a way I do agree with you, I doubt it is as organized as you imply. Yes, companies and governments do not way anyone on a General Computing Device at all. They want to see exactly what content you are viewing and responding to. Microsoft and Apple have been slowly adding various forms of spyware and locking down what applications you can use. And Cell Phones ? Those are the Holy Grail of what Microsoft and Apple want to move your Laptop/PC to. Right now Linux and BSD are the only games in town for non-spyware systems. But the new Age Verification Laws seems to be a first attempt to lock-down even Linux :( Since the Linux Foundation is owned by large corporations, I feel that will succeed. For the BSDs ? Right now seems they are flying under the radar.
- ButyTh0 5mo ago
  Why do you doubt this when the rich also have Signal? They meet and talk out of view? The insider trading coming out of Washington? Why when emails from discovery in labor disputes between google and apple in the 2010s revealed they engage in exactly the sort of manipulation you disbelieve?
ButyTh0 5mo ago
Because they own nothing but make believe stocks and life works great for them. The mega-rich are 100% decoupled from physical reality. May as well treat them more like tribal shaman, priests, preachers, and rabbis. Just parroting memes the likewise idiot politicians believe are the magic chants that keep gravity itself pulling together the Earth. "Omg he said the thing! Cut his taxes! Give him welfare!" Our generation of leaders were raised in a pre-science and information as world. They rely entirely in cult of personality as their meat suit never sees itself engage in the labor it relies on to live. It's well aware intuitively how fucked it is. Must continue to stand in the pulpit!
- GolfPopper 5mo ago
  >May as well treat them more like tribal shaman, priests, preachers, and rabbis. Why associate them with roles that have a degree of positive association and human connection? Treating them as faeries, vampires, or demons seems more accurate.
  - fzeroracer 5mo ago
    I think treating them as the fae, vampire or demons is sort of insulting. Those creatures are at least bound by supernatural laws and can be negotiated with in some way.
  - ButyTh0 5mo ago
    [flagged]
- vkou 5mo ago
  Nah. The first two thirds of the 20th century was the science and information world. Man gained mastery of the skies, the depths of the sea, the void of space, the atom. We were taming diseases and found a way to end hunger. We started building thinking machines. We were playing with the fire of the gods. Science was working miracles on the daily. It still is, but nobody gives a shit anymore, we are in the financialization and rent-seeker world now. Now we are just playing with fire.
  - ButyTh0 5mo ago
    [dead]
  - andrekandre 5mo ago
    > we are in the financialization and rent-seeker world now sometimes i wonder if this is what happens when organic growth stops/slows; when (for lack of a better word) desperate people just start looking for any alternative to keep the growth train running...
    - vkou 5mo ago
armchairhacker 5mo ago
Hobbyist equipment is still relatively cheap. You can get previous-gen hardware for formerly current-gen prices, you can run lots of “hobbyist” software on low RAM and no GPU. It’s bad, but it’s not “literally own nothing”.
- jauntywundrkind 5mo ago
  The second hand market is going to have much much more lag. But it's very unclear that this is going to sustain indefinitely.
- MostlyStable 5mo ago
  Yeah, I'm not sure that fewer people will own computers, I do think people will shift to much longer upgrade cycles.
  - serf 5mo ago
    it just depends on how you define computer. people will own an increasing number of dumb terminals connected to rented services. does that reduce the number of computers? well, no.. so, imo : the trick isn't to reduce physical ownership of devices, the trick is to make it so that you need Big Iron in order to do anything. One way that might be achieved is by forming social and cultural dependence on models so large that no one individual could possibly run them...
  - laughing_man 5mo ago
    Or live with lower specs. You can still get a Chromebook for $200 and install Xubuntu on it. I did that, and it's perfect for video conferencing and web surfing. You certainly can't play CoD on it, but even if you're looking to play games there are some older games that run on it just fine.
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
asdfasgasdgasdg 5mo ago
Who cares if Qualcomm owns Arduino. It has never been cheaper to get into embedded computing. You can buy Arduino-compatible STM32 Nucleo boards straight from STMicroelectronics for $15-20, and that's first party. If you're willing to buy third party clones there are boards on AliExpress for $10 or less.
- Tepix 5mo ago
  Most things were cheaper last year. But you can still get RP2049 Zero for less than a buck each and run FUZIX. Neat.
varispeed 5mo ago
[dead]

jmclnx 5mo ago

Tin foil hat :) But in a way I do agree with you, I doubt it is as organized as you imply. Yes, companies and governments do not way anyone on a General Computing Device at all. They want to see exactly what content you are viewing and responding to. Microsoft and Apple have been slowly adding various forms of spyware and locking down what applications you can use. And Cell Phones ? Those are the Holy Grail of what Microsoft and Apple want to move your Laptop/PC to. Right now Linux and BSD are the only games in town for non-spyware systems. But the new Age Verification Laws seems to be a first attempt to lock-down even Linux :( Since the Linux Foundation is owned by large corporations, I feel that will succeed. For the BSDs ? Right now seems they are flying under the radar.

ButyTh0 5mo ago
Why do you doubt this when the rich also have Signal? They meet and talk out of view? The insider trading coming out of Washington? Why when emails from discovery in labor disputes between google and apple in the 2010s revealed they engage in exactly the sort of manipulation you disbelieve?

ButyTh0 5mo ago

Because they own nothing but make believe stocks and life works great for them. The mega-rich are 100% decoupled from physical reality. May as well treat them more like tribal shaman, priests, preachers, and rabbis. Just parroting memes the likewise idiot politicians believe are the magic chants that keep gravity itself pulling together the Earth. "Omg he said the thing! Cut his taxes! Give him welfare!" Our generation of leaders were raised in a pre-science and information as world. They rely entirely in cult of personality as their meat suit never sees itself engage in the labor it relies on to live. It's well aware intuitively how fucked it is. Must continue to stand in the pulpit!

GolfPopper 5mo ago
>May as well treat them more like tribal shaman, priests, preachers, and rabbis. Why associate them with roles that have a degree of positive association and human connection? Treating them as faeries, vampires, or demons seems more accurate.
- fzeroracer 5mo ago
  I think treating them as the fae, vampire or demons is sort of insulting. Those creatures are at least bound by supernatural laws and can be negotiated with in some way.
- ButyTh0 5mo ago
  [flagged]
vkou 5mo ago
Nah. The first two thirds of the 20th century was the science and information world. Man gained mastery of the skies, the depths of the sea, the void of space, the atom. We were taming diseases and found a way to end hunger. We started building thinking machines. We were playing with the fire of the gods. Science was working miracles on the daily. It still is, but nobody gives a shit anymore, we are in the financialization and rent-seeker world now. Now we are just playing with fire.
- ButyTh0 5mo ago
  [dead]
- andrekandre 5mo ago
  > we are in the financialization and rent-seeker world now sometimes i wonder if this is what happens when organic growth stops/slows; when (for lack of a better word) desperate people just start looking for any alternative to keep the growth train running...
  - vkou 5mo ago

armchairhacker 5mo ago

Hobbyist equipment is still relatively cheap. You can get previous-gen hardware for formerly current-gen prices, you can run lots of “hobbyist” software on low RAM and no GPU. It’s bad, but it’s not “literally own nothing”.

jauntywundrkind 5mo ago
The second hand market is going to have much much more lag. But it's very unclear that this is going to sustain indefinitely.
MostlyStable 5mo ago
Yeah, I'm not sure that fewer people will own computers, I do think people will shift to much longer upgrade cycles.
- serf 5mo ago
  it just depends on how you define computer. people will own an increasing number of dumb terminals connected to rented services. does that reduce the number of computers? well, no.. so, imo : the trick isn't to reduce physical ownership of devices, the trick is to make it so that you need Big Iron in order to do anything. One way that might be achieved is by forming social and cultural dependence on models so large that no one individual could possibly run them...
- laughing_man 5mo ago
  Or live with lower specs. You can still get a Chromebook for $200 and install Xubuntu on it. I did that, and it's perfect for video conferencing and web surfing. You certainly can't play CoD on it, but even if you're looking to play games there are some older games that run on it just fine.

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

asdfasgasdgasdg 5mo ago

Who cares if Qualcomm owns Arduino. It has never been cheaper to get into embedded computing. You can buy Arduino-compatible STM32 Nucleo boards straight from STMicroelectronics for $15-20, and that's first party. If you're willing to buy third party clones there are boards on AliExpress for $10 or less.

Tepix 5mo ago
Most things were cheaper last year. But you can still get RP2049 Zero for less than a buck each and run FUZIX. Neat.

varispeed 5mo ago

[dead]