Me, 2020: "Hey kids, don't forget to update your devices!"
(Kids ignore me, go back to playing Minecraft.)
Me, 2025: "Hey kids, downgrade your operating systems, run the de-bloat script to kill AI and telemetry, and forge a signature to enable extended security updates!"
(Kids ignore me, go back to playing ROMs and Steam games under Bazzite on scavenged hardware.)
Re: The last part of the above quote, i.e. "Too often in this industry hardware is used to solve software problems."
This one will be quickly coming home to roost in the coming year(s)... Regardless of other Moore's Law aspects losing validity (or past tense already), the "law" also never considered the kind of extreme capital accumulations which would enable a few companies buying up major parts of the entire RAM/GPU market supply (without actually being able to or even wanting to use it[1]), just to transform (or terminate) the landscape/era of personal computing as we know it and so cement their monopolies...
Maybe similar to how #OpenSource culture provided tens of millions of years of free R&D and product development & maintenance labor for Big Tech™, the 50-60 year long era of personal computing provided more generally valuable insights into the types and behaviors people would use computing for. These insights came with the "costs" and maybe unintended side-effects of enabling more individual (and social/political) agency, authority, self-realization, self-organization, creativity and creation of alternatives to capital & state-controlled infrastructure/monopolies, especially since networks were added to the mix. Shouldn't have too much of that!
There might still be a separation of church and state (in some places), but capital and state have always been chums and are becoming ever more entangled everywhere. With the amount of AI & datacenter investments already done (incl. by govts), ROI is becoming increasingly questionable _UNLESS_ AI was just the shiny opportunity to entice sufficient amounts of people to partake and invest these exorbitant sums in this gigantic infrastructure build-up, but the goal was something much larger: Phasing out personal computing and supplanting it with increasingly "thin client"[1] hardware in combination with ad-supported subscription models (mobile phone hardware & software is more than halfway there already). Centralized compute infrastructure to mediate, surveil & censor not just all media/communication (of course unencrypted), but also to provide computation itself as limited resource only, executed centrally/remotely via subscription/quotas and monitored to ensure it cannot be used in unintended ways (or by unintended people/orgs). Very much like the recent wave of debanking hitting left-wing entities in Germany, only applied to computation itself...
Nothing of these developments are in any form in the interest of democratic societies!
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnlgwyVahCY
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client
Wow, I so love your essay, and what a tour de force it is: personal memoir, reflections on programming, reflections on education, a manifesto for creative programming ... simply wonderful.
Steve Jobs: The Icon of Simplicity and Innovation
https://www.bitchute.com/video/eCBtqe0IiZh1
#instatech #newera #personalcomputing #mobiledevices #mobiledevice #apple #macintosh #facechallenges
https://www.bitchute.com/video/eCBtqe0IiZh1
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc., was a transformative figure in technology. Born in 1955 and raised in San Francisco, he dropped out of college to pursue his passion. After founding Apple in 1976 and launching the revolutionary Macintosh in 1984, he faced challenges, including being ousted in 1985. His return in 1997 marked a new era for Apple, leading to groundbreaking products like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, reshaping personal computing and mobile devices.
Why I Moved to Linux: My Journey to Privacy, Freedom, and Control
After years of frustration with Windows and macOS, I finally switched to Linux. This is the story of how I took back control of my computer, from privacy and performance to freedom and trust, and why Ubuntu turned out to be the perfect choice for everyday use.https://beitmenotyou.online/why-i-moved-to-linux-my-journey-to-privacy-freedom-and-control/
Memoirs of the CP/M creator released:
“Our father, Gary Kildall, was one of the founders of the personal computer industry, but you probably don’t know his name. Those who have heard of him may recall the myth that he ‘missed’ the opportunity to become Bill Gates by going flying instead of meeting with IBM. Unfortunately, this tall tale paints Gary as a ‘could-have-been,’ ignores his deep contributions, and overshadows his role as an inventor of key technologies that define how computer platforms run today.
Gary viewed computers as learning tools rather than profit engines. His career choices reflect a different definition of success, where innovation means sharing ideas, letting passion drive your work and making source code available for others to build upon. His work ethic during the 1970s resembles that of the open-source community today."
https://computerhistory.org/blog/in-his-own-words-gary-kildall/
Gary Kildall was a pioneer of personal computer software. He wrote programming language tools, including assemblers (Intel 4004), interpreters (BASIC), and compilers (PL/M). He created a widely-used disk operating system (CP/M). He and his wife, Dorothy McEwen, started a successful company called Digital Research to develop and market CP/M, which for years was the dominant operating system for personal microcomputers. Thousands of programs were written to run under it, and a million or more people might have used it.
"#MySpace pages, Media player skins, the eye searingly gaudy hot dog stand theme. These all were vectors for #selfexpression. But to offer these #freedoms, you have to trust the person operating your system, honour their agency, and respect them as a serious intellectual partner instead of a gibbering idiot to be manipulated for your own ends.
…personal computing needs to make a firm return to normative #design practises.
#TheUser is dead. Long live #PersonalComputing!"
@netizenparty Welcome. I think today we're expected to live in an Internet culture, but the level of education about how the Internet works is virtually nonexistent for non-technical audiences.
Imagine a city of netizens who can't read street signs, and who allow themselves to be (mis)directed by any colorful display or printed map that floats by. The people who are maintaining this city have arrived at the idea that they installed the street signs (of course) for their own use; instructing netizens to check them is frowned upon. If you require the security of verifying who/which address you're actually traveling to, you're given the advice to "avoid all web links and use apps from the app store instead".
Consider this... Some banks now require a verified app to access their services. That means you cannot use a PC or a libre mobile OS to access them. In other cases, users assume this must be the situation because they cannot imagine non-app access to a bank anymore, despite their bank offering web access (sometimes I check this). IMO, this is a major threat to the viability of the Internet. As cultures go, it appears to be one that has passed its heyday and is now in steep decline. The richest and arguably most powerful man in the world claims that in the near future his single app 'X' will be the preferred way to access all types of online services.
#collapse #internet #www #dns #https #phishing #apps #walledgarden #personalcomputing
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