[HN Gopher] How the Consumer Computer Is Consuming Computing
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How the Consumer Computer Is Consuming Computing
Author : rcarmo
Score : 37 points
Date : 2022-08-29 09:03 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (schmud.de)
(TXT) w3m dump (schmud.de)
| mikewarot wrote:
| My pet theory of breakdown causality goes like this
|
| We have operating systems that trust everything by default.
|
| This means that going tot he wrong web site can bork your
| machine.
|
| This means you don't stray from familiar sites, leading to walled
| gardens
|
| Which is why we have FAANG
| tenebrisalietum wrote:
| Capability-based instead of user-account-based operating
| systems and interfaces would go a long way of breaking this
| pattern.
| oblak wrote:
| General purpose hardware that's been artificially castrated
| by software? Is that really a good way to fight walled
| gardens?
| rektide wrote:
| Web specs go through Technical Architecture Group (tag) and Web
| Application Security Group. Operating systems are free to
| contribute & do help keep things in check, but this
| regulation/securing of the web has nothing to do with what
| operating systems are doing.
|
| > _This means that going to the wrong web site can bork your
| machine_
|
| Examples wanted. What are you talking about? This
| disinformation FUD is something web browsers & web security
| work absurdly hard to prevent. You're right that many native
| applications have no such guards, but you switch from talking
| about OSes to making fantastic claims against websites. Please
| provide some evidence of these extrodinary Fears Uncertainys
| and Doubts (FUDs) that you are spreading.
| upbeat_general wrote:
| I really don't think people use google/facebook/etc. because
| they're concerned about web security.
| always2slow wrote:
| Maybe you should survey more regular people? So many people
| say "I just use X because I don't want Y" where X is
| apple/google/facebook/etc and Y is something bad they're
| heard about or experienced from going to random webpages or
| something their kids did.
| oblak wrote:
| I am not disputing your claims, however I do wonder about
| the source of the surveys you talk about
| sydbarrett74 wrote:
| diydsp wrote:
| arg! this is so true. You still have the same personal power you
| did with your own computer... but if you want to traverse through
| Real-Life, you get charged and surveilled. the home computer had
| no security, but running network lines through reality opens us
| up to all kinds of threats. the more isolated we were from the
| world, the safer.
| amelius wrote:
| The main problem is that our devices are tethered by the vendor.
|
| We should have regulation that fundamentally breaks this
| relationship.
| rektide wrote:
| Each application is still largely a siloed experience.
| AppleScript/KDE's old DCOP/AutoHotKey (see [1])/others have
| tried to make tge application surface itself machine ysable,
| something that can be integrared & worked upon, but these old
| frontiers fade, & the application is more or less king of it's
| own kingdom, the sole arbitrator of function once more.
|
| Mostly I think we just lack good upstanding examples of
| positive, extropic, "create more value than you capture"
| systems. Technocapitalism hasnt seen thr profit motive, and
| frelling "linux on the desktop" has sucked most of the oxygen
| out of the computing room- competing for obsolete pre-connected
| crowns.
|
| Recent "How consumer computer is consuming computing"[2]
| carries many of these tendrils. There's just fee strong
| positive innovations to push things the other way. Some efforts
| like Node-RED try to offer some resistance, something, I though
| XOPC has a lot going for it (Dbus Telepathy for multiparty apps
| kicked ass), but there's little awareness & counter-prrdsure
| against the caging in, except from ever more dispirate edges.
|
| [1] "In Praise of AutoHotKey"
| https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/ahk/
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32655951 (21min ago)
|
| [2] https://schmud.de/posts/2022-08-23-the-consumer-
| computer.htm... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32636101
| (34 points, 4 hours, 14 comments)
| [deleted]
| Theodores wrote:
| I do not consider any Ubuntu to be a 'consumer operating system'.
| I am not a Raspberry Pi person, however, the projects that people
| are doing on that are definitely in the spirit of the BBC Micro
| (Model B obviously) and there is a lot of it going on.
|
| Recently I saw a model railway controlled by a Raspberry Pi with
| a phone app. This was not a 'computing project' but a model
| railway hobby. You are not going to see projects such as this
| unless you are into model railways.
|
| What I find funny is that the people that used messaging boards
| in the last century were sneered at as losers. Cool kids went
| partying, they did not sit in front of a glowing screen
| exchanging messages with friends they could meet in person.
|
| This crowd were not so keen on the social media applications
| because of tracking, the three letter agencies and tin foil hat
| availability. Therefore, in 2022, the OG online messaging crew
| are not doom scrolling on hand rectangles. There is some
| generalisation here, but social media is not for this crowd -
| they don't take selfies.
|
| The situation is now turned on its head, with the normal people
| totally absorbed by social media to be tracked everywhere they go
| without a care.
|
| That may be the majority, however, not everyone is 'normal' and I
| am glad to see so many Raspberry Pi projects going on.
| m463 wrote:
| Ubuntu phones home a lot and the privacy policy has a lot to be
| desired.
|
| that said, aside from proprietary drivers, people can usually
| examine what's going on and disable or rewrite the offensive
| parts.
| kmeisthax wrote:
| >But our everyday reality using the computer does not feel
| empowering. You want to use the internet without being tracked?
| Almost impossible. Want to message a friend? I hope you have read
| and agree to the WhatsApp Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
| Want to install some software on your Apple device? It better be
| in the App Store. Perhaps you want to lend an Amazon eBook to
| your sister? Well you don't actually own it, so you'll have to
| ask Amazon.
|
| >What happened? I thought computers were supposed to be
| empowering? In all the techno-euphoria of the 1980s, Brand and
| others did not consider the manufacturer's intent: our everyday
| computers, tablets, and phones are consumer machines built for
| consumption. The personal computer was replaced by the consumer
| computer just as soon as it arrived.
|
| No. This isn't one thing. _Three_ things happened concurrently:
|
| 1. Networked services
|
| 2. Malware
|
| 3. Copyright maximalism
|
| The first trend is close to the "consumer computer" concept,
| since it's basically the old mainframe business model warmed
| over. However, the other two trends greatly accelerated the
| handcuffing of users.
|
| Copyright maximalists feared the scourge of casual piracy and
| wanted to ban consumers from having access to copying technology.
| They failed, but Congress let them have protections for DRM that
| effectively amounted to being able to _opt-out_ of being copied.
| They also sued and lobbied for intermediary liability on network
| services, requiring that they effectively do on-demand content
| removal.
|
| Malware _did_ exist in the mainframe era but it was mainly prank
| programs. Personal computing dramatically extended its reach.
| Proprietary software vendors were able to condition users to
| execute programs they could not inspect or modify. They also
| attempted to prevent copying with DRM, but an active cracking &
| piracy scene stymied that. So people were now blindly executing
| modified applications, often times with obfuscation to prevent
| removal of cracktros[0]. Pranksters used and abused this to
| distribute malicious code along with their software.
|
| Network services made malware worse, too. The point of entry for
| malware in the Don't Copy That Floppy era was infected disks; and
| the solution was to write programs to detect and erase them. But
| with the Internet, everyone can connect to your machine, and it
| turns out that not only creates an entirely new class of software
| vulnerability to spread malware with, but a new motive for doing
| so - exfiltrating information and reselling it.
|
| So you have three cycles running together that has made actually
| exercising anything resembling "freedom" into a scary ordeal.
| Computers just "get sick" with "viruses" and start stealing your
| information, so people rush to centralized services, upon which
| copyright maximalists have demanded control over and largely
| gotten it. "Consumer computers" are not (entirely) conspiracy of
| big tech to control our lives, but an act of convergent evolution
| under particular pressures.
|
| [0] Object analysis complete. Target is a Space Pirate Crate.
| Space Pirates, strangely, dislike theft. The only way into their
| crates is through use of force.
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