nina splendorr 🌻🏳️‍⚧️2d ago
Aral Balkan

If your stated goal is to make computing into a “utility” (aka subscription) you can only obtain from Big Tech and if your entire industry is comprised of rentiers, it makes perfect sense to also make actually owning a general computing device as expensive as possible.

As far as Big Tech is concerned, this is a feature, not a bug.

It’s capitalists acquiring capital and pricing it out of the reach of those they want to make dependent on them.

Also: fuck these people. https://social.heise.de/@heiseonlineenglish/116301661509651336 https://social.heise.de/@heiseonlineenglish/116301661509651336

Mar 27 at 7:31pmWeb
Show threadAral Balkan2d ago
(It’s because of this shit that when we launch the Small Web this year, I’m not going to be able to price the servers as low as I would have wanted to (and could have done, say, last year). It’s not because of inflation but because of this shit raising the price of virtual private servers. Because fuck the small guy trying to make something that’s owned and controlled by people instead of owning and controlling people.)
Show threadRichBartlett 2d ago
@aral is there any chance that when the AI bubble bursts there'll be data centres worth of hardware being sold cheap by liquidators? Doesn't help now but I heard someone say a good business plan for 2027 was "find a use for loads of cheap GPU servers"
Show threadAral Balkan2d ago
@RichBartlett Who knows 🤷‍♂️ Such a colossally wasteful and destructive system.
Show threadKévin ⏚2d ago
@RichBartlett @aral they’ll probably find some kind of tax loophole that makes it more profitable to torch the centre and the surrounding town or something
Show threadNiels Abildgaard2d ago
@aral I might be able to hook you up with some cheap VPSes hosted in Denmark if interested... we are working with a publicly owned data center that is trying to break into the private sector and care about digital/data soverignty. Let me know if relevant...
Show threadAral Balkan2d ago

@nielsa Thanks, Niels :) Always happy to look at alternatives. (It would need to have an API, though, and almost instant provisioning.)

Please feel free to DM details or ask for my Signal or email [email protected] – thanks again :)

Show threadNiels Abildgaard1d ago
@aral Yeahh we don't fit those criteria (yet), but could maybe build something that fits if you can share the requirements
Show threadAral Balkan1d ago
@nielsa Once I have it working with Hetzner, maybe I can demo it for you and show you the code (it’s free software, of course). Would probably be easier :)
Show threadNiels Abildgaard1d ago
@aral deal
Show threadAral Balkan1d ago
@nielsa 💕
Show threadAlbert Cardona2d ago

@aral

Seems like a business opportunity for alternative chip makers? While the cost to entry seems huge for single-nanometre chipsets, surely less modern chips (i.e., thicker) can be manufactured again for profit?

Show threadAlbert Cardona2d ago

@aral

I am thinking in particular of projects like from Andrew Huang [1] like #Novena
https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena

[1] https://bunniestudios.com/

Novena

A new open-hardware computing platform, flexible and powerful, designed for use as a desktop, laptop, or standalone board.

Crowd Supply
Show threadCadmus 🌲2d ago
@aral No doubt this will also be worsened by the helium shortage from the illegal #IranWar.
Show threadUtopiah (Fabien Benetou)2d ago

@aral well the good news is that if you are privileged enough to already have a "proper" computer (my laptop is 8 years old, intel Core i7) then honestly for most "normal" tasks... you probably don't even need a new one anyway.

I'm not saying it's OK, only trying to highlight the fact that IMHO we reached peak CPU/GPU for the normal users already.

If you're not editing 8k videos or batch processing millions of images but rather "just" browsing the Web to read, pay your bills or editing a presentation then honestly "old" hardware is probably "good enough".

Show threadDavid Culley2d ago

@utopiah @aral You're right that most people absolutely don't need to upgrade their computer hardware: Myself I use a M1 chip by Apple from 2020 and a 5-year-old-or-so AMD Ryzen 5 5600G, and I see zero need to upgrade/update.

Your answer also misses the point though, I'm afraid.

When capitalists pull off shit like this, the answer shouldn't be, "I don't need new hardware anyway, so who cares?"

This news should instead make you angry and you should use that anger productively by channeling it into action: as a first step, convincing yourself that capitalism needs to be abolished and to read the Wikipedia page of who Karl Marx was and all that stuff about the control of the means of production, and increasingly the means of computation. The second step could be to read and watch videos about socialism and the luddites. The third step could be to realize that a strong state has potential issues and that anarchism or communism maybe is more to your liking. Your anger should be the trigger and driving force that finally moves you to unshackle and break free of the capitalist anti-social indoctrination you've lived under your entire life thus far.

Some people in the toxic productivity community might feel so much smarter than me and think that being angry is a hindrance to productivity and your side hustle on your way to becoming a millionaire, and therefore you should ignore the news, including this one. But if your anger turns you into a devout anticapitalist, it was constructive/productive. It had its purpose and fulfilled it. We need the masses to eventually overcome capitalism. Strikes work better if everyone participates. One of capitalism's biggest successes was to make everyone belief the individualism that everyone in the working class needs to fight for herself/himself.

#capitalism

Show threadAKingsbury2d ago

@davidculley @utopiah @aral

Putting aside the very real failures here to grasp even basic economics, it's deeply sad that the proposed course of action is "get mad, read wikipedia, watch some videos, think these specific things". At no point is it proposed to, oh, read an actual book. To talk to anyone. To (gasp) consider alternative viewpoints.

Show threadUtopiah (Fabien Benetou)1d ago
@davidculley @aral I'm not sure what's more anti-capitalistic and Luddite (which IMHO is a positive term) than to challenge consumerism.
Show threadDavid Culley1d ago

@utopiah Organizing in a union. 🙂

Not buying stuff you don't need is excellent behavior, but it doesn't change the power dynamic between employee and employer. It doesn't adress that the the owner class is exploiting the worker class, stealing the surplus value the workers create. By itself, consuming less doesn't suffice.

I agree with you that being a luddite is a good thing.

Edit: Something like this: Striking on May 1.
https://layer8.space/@zephyrxero/116310473053916929

ZephyrXero (@[email protected])

As an American it's illegal for me to encourage you to participate in one of these, so consider this as just an FYI. Do with this information what you will [update: looks like it's only illegal for unions to promote one, not necessarily individuals] https://www.rawstory.com/date-announced-for-national-strike-aimed-at-crippling-trump-no-work-no-school/ #strike #usPol #may1 #mayDay #laborPower #shutdown

Layer8 in Space
Show threadUtopiah (Fabien Benetou)1d ago
@davidculley just a random example but one can buy their electronics as open hardware from literal individuals (not even COOPs) via e.g. CrowdSupply.
Show threadDidthat16h ago

@davidculley @utopiah

But exploti

Show threadDidthat16h ago

@davidculley

But exploitation is the American way the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. All it takes is to con a million people for one dollar then your rich. That is what America is all about.

Show threadCounterVariable2d ago

@aral good. Having read the amd64 manual. I can decisively say that it's a good thing that they're leaving the consumer industry. x86 has decades of legacy bloat that makes it chug energy. This will give newer more efficient CPU architectures a chance in the spotlight.

Any computer brand that thinks that consumers are not worth selling to have sealed their own coffin.

Show thread(^^)2d ago
@aral We don't need these fucks.
Show threadKen Milmore2d ago
@aral I wondered when CPUs would become scarce too. Can we just call it a semiconductor crisis now?
Show threadQuasit2d ago
@aral
They'd make owning a computer illegal if they could.
Show threadAral Balkan2d ago
@Quasit Yep
Show threadPhilip2d ago
@Quasit @aral Given age verification at the OS level, they sure seem to be trying.
Show threadMegan Lynch (she/her)2d ago
@aral They've also made landlines rare, endangered publicly-owned postal services in many countries, and attacked and defunded libraries. Those of us who know how to use older tech will still have trouble relying on it.
Show threadKévin ⏚2d ago

@meganL @aral the landline thing I’ll never get over, it places the responsibility of maintaining backup power or options in the hands of the end user. It also prevents getting around internet blockages by running a phone line elsewhere to allow people to dial in.

If you don’t have the means to stay connected in an emergency or a blackout then capitalism is totes cool with you just dying for their cause

Show threadMegan Lynch (she/her)2d ago

@kc @aral Yup. I speak about this and people act as if I'm a crank who is simply too slow to get with the times.

I mean, in the US the phone company is a corporation, but at least the laws & regulations were passed back when legislators had more backbone. So there were certain givens. They were responsible for the equipment so - surprise - they built it to last.

Show threadKévin ⏚1d ago

@meganL @aral I like to give a good example if it helps your cause, particularly in my area, because the now private but former state monopoly owns all the infrastructure, their current game with fibre connections is to disconnect old customers (of any provider including their own) to install their new ones.

We have this non stop stupidity of high fibre coverage figures on paper but everybody is being ripped out of the wall in a circular fashion.

I have a backup xDSL line, that network will be terminated in 2030 nationally. If you don't have good/any mobile coverage (I don't) your options are basically send a letter.

This is the unfortunate reality when it comes down to it, they'll never improve the infrastructure but instead see its cheaper to just keep on sending technicians to manage capacity problems, then maybe do it again in a month when the circle comes back

Show threadMegan Lynch (she/her)1d ago

@kc In the US, ATT didn't like the CA Public Utilities Commission forcing them to keep copper landlines working so they decided to just keep elevating the prices to make people voluntarily leave. This included downstream customers like ISPs who had DSL packages.

Then when they can, they'll rip up the copper lines and no one will be able to have a landline anymore. They'll be free of public-minded regulations and have the later, worse regulations on cell carriers.