Anthropunk (Dr. SA Applin)Aug 24, 2024
J. Williams

  • If a product requires a subscription to work, you don't own it and it could stop working at any time.

  • If a product needs to connect to a server to work, you don't own it and it could stop working at any time.

  • If a product needs an app to work, you don't own it and it could stop working at any time.

-- pe1, in a comment on Ars Technica
(Emphasis added)

Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

Smart display will soon default to showing ads after three hours.

Ars Technica
Aug 23, 2024 at 7:23pmWeb
Show threadJ. WilliamsAug 23, 2024
I believe this 100%, and have seen it happen time and time again. If we ever want to get to a more sustainable future, we've got to get away from these single use products.
Show threadPeter HAug 24, 2024
@jaywilliams It's 100% true. What you buy isn't the device, it's the limited (!) license to use it.
Show threadLyksoAug 25, 2024
@jaywilliams I suspect this involves doing away with capitalism.
Show threadJ. WilliamsAug 28, 2024

@lykso I'm of the opinion any unconstrained economic system does more harm than good, regardless of it's ideology.

Rater than doing away with capitalism entirely, I think a better solution would be to pass laws and regulations which would incentivize business to build more reusable and recyclable products, and they'll naturally follow the route maximize their profits.

Obviously for something like that to work in the real world, you'd have to have to have some means of validating that the products are actually reusable/recyclable and not just green-washed. Not exactly and easy feat to pull off, but there's enough smart people out there (I hope!) that could figure it out.

Show threadJ. WilliamsAug 28, 2024
@lykso On that same front, I see the whole "right to repair" movement as a good step in that direction.
Show threadLyksoAug 28, 2024
@jaywilliams I likewise tend to think that quests for ideological purity are wrong-headed. Idealism ignores material conditions and the necessary awkwardness of transitional states and the ambiguity inherent in necessarily always being somewhat wrong. But I tend to think that any system which does not consistently subordinate the profit motive to democratic control (i.e., any system that is not some version of socialism) will eventually find itself captured by rent-seeking profit-maximizers. 1/
Show threadLyksoAug 28, 2024
@jaywilliams My tendency is to consider capitalism as protective of the autocracy of traditional corporations. Fundamentally, it's State-enforced rentierism. Ergo, I consider democratic control of our workplaces and of the output of those workplaces (e.g., "right to repair") to be socialist ends, and in opposition to that sort of profit-maximizing rentier autocracy. 2/2
Show threadKevin RussellAug 25, 2024

@jaywilliams

There are two kinds of plastics, plastics that can be recycled to use again, and plastics that cannot be recycled.

Make non-recycleable plastics a crime. Tax wealth to clean up old plastic.

Running away from the costs of your enterprise is a moral and ethical crime, and must become a legal crime.

Show threadGian M SAug 24, 2024
@jaywilliams ma perché se l'acqua non c'è la papera non galleggia perché ?
Show threadMoose Jolly HolcombAug 24, 2024
@jaywilliams the bleakness of the idea that you needed a subscription in the first place to prevent ads interrupting pictures of your family is a pretty stark starting point, removing the ability to even pay for that subscription is even bleaker.
Show threadAlex FürstenauAug 24, 2024
@jaywilliams @cammerman I would argue that you don‘t need to own most of your stuff. Quite the contrary, the less you own the better. On the other hand, the mentioned case is the worst of two worlds. You own the physical hardware but it‘s useless due to the software/service which you can‘t rent anymore.
Show threadJasper 🍉Aug 24, 2024

@jaywilliams really you should be able to mess and determine with what's installed on there. Ideally it's mainline linux.

It could share a Syncthing folder, and just show that. Could even have a settings file on there.

Show threadJ. WilliamsAug 24, 2024
@jasper that’s not a bad idea at all, and would require zero subscriptions or fees. I use syncthing for my files, why not use them for a slideshow?
Show threadGiles GoatAug 24, 2024
@jaywilliams Where the world will go (end ?) when the connections to the "AI servers" for one reason or another will get ( temporary ?) broken ??
Show threadWvOostveenAug 24, 2024
@jaywilliams
In wich catechory falls BMW that wants you to subscribe a monthly fee to use the seat heater in the car that you bought?
Show threadJ. WilliamsAug 24, 2024
@WvOostveen I’d argue you don’t own the seat heater at all, even though you “bought” it and pay for the gas to power it.
Show threadEric VerdeilAug 24, 2024
@jaywilliams also thé case of Remarkable note taking devise...