Neil Brown10h ago
The idea that one should be forced to verify one's age or identity to use one's own computer absolutely baffles me.
Show threadHedders
@neil I do worry that we're seeing the beginning of the end of personal computing, in the sense of being able to own a machine that you control and that does your bidding.
6:31amWeb
Show threadNeil Brown10h ago

@hedders Exactly this.

Admittedly, Apple was perhaps already further down the "appliance, not computer" path with iOS than some others, but still...

Show threadZenDragoness//RES4h ago
@neil @hedders apple was always a sect
Show threadDaniel Durrans10h ago
@hedders @neil I have always considered my computers to be more like cats. They never do my bidding and will often do the exact opposite of what I want before vomiting everywhere. But at least they are independent.
Show threadHedders10h ago
@dan Hah! That made me laugh.
Show threadMarcus The Board Gamer6h ago
@hedders @neil You’ll have a dumb terminal that you pay a subscription for. All this terminal does is connect you to approved services from Google/Amazon/Microsoft. That subscription will go up in price as actual computers die out. The service will get worse over time.
Show threadGary 6h ago
@lordsplodge @hedders @neil Cory Doctorow (yeah, I know…) kind of touched on this in Little Brother. All the kids had these totally locked-down games consoles that were given away free as loss-leaders for the online game companies. But they were powerful bits of kit, and the hacker kids just jailbroke them to run their own software.
Show threadZenDragoness//RES4h ago
@hedders @neil on that were past