4 ms·

Oh wow... The idea of losing general purpose computing is a terrifying thought I've never considered before.

bo1024 11mo ago
"The Coming War on General Computation", Cory Doctorow (2011). Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUEvRyemKSg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUEvRyemKSg Transcript: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Coming_War_on_General_Computation https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Coming_War_on_General_Com... (Of course, Stallman warned of this type of thing much earlier as well.)
- chipsrafferty 11mo ago
  [flagged]
  - ekjhgkejhgk 11mo ago
    He didn't assault anyone. He said a bunch of things. They've all been collected here: https://stallman-report.org/ https://stallman-report.org/ What I love about that report is that the author created it with the intention of making Stallman look bad. And if you look at the author's summaries, he looks bad. However, the author also made us the favour of collecting all the statements in one single place. And if you look at the things that Stallman actually said (as opposed to the author's summaries) he doesn't look bad, he looks strictly correct.
    - fsflover 11mo ago
      And there's a reply to that: https://geoff.greer.fm/2019/09/30/in-defense-of-richard-stallman/ https://geoff.greer.fm/2019/09/30/in-defense-of-richard-stal... via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21113414 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21113414
      - ekjhgkejhgk 11mo ago
        Yeah yeah but the reason why I link to that, is that if someone is interested they can with minimal effort find by themselves all the information to understand it was just a smear job. Like, someone says "C assaulted B". And Stallman says "If A forces B to offer herself to C, C didn't assault B". Which is obivously correct. It could only be incorrect if you were redefining words to serve your purposes.
        fsflover 11mo ago
        I got what you're trying to say, and I agree. I just added my link for completeness.
        dminik 11mo ago
        Ok, I'm confused here. I had a look at what Stallman said and what Minsky allegedly did. Apparently, Minsky had sex with one of Epstein's girls, who later said she was forced into it. Now, his wife denies the allegation, as she was apparently with him at all times on Epstein's island. Now, I can believe that he went once, and maybe had sex with someone he didn't know was not doing so willingly. But, what about his wife? Was he cheating on her? Was she a part of it? And why did he return a second time? And after Epstein's conviction in 2011??? And here comes Stallman, and he's not even denying that he's slept with someone, potentially cheating on his wife? His issue is with the wording? Nobody in this situation looks good.
        ekjhgkejhgk 11mo ago
        His issue is that saying "assault" to mean "sex with someone" is dishonest, even if that person is 17. Which is obviously is. Any sane person hears "assault" and thinks that means "assault" instead it means something else. What is happening is that the meaning of words are being changed for the purpose of using pre-existing laws. Example, you think that Bla is very bad and isn't punished enough by the law. There's law that severaly punishes Fleem. So, whenever you see Bla you call it Fleem and argue that the anti-Fleem law applies. That way you can effectively re-purpose a law. Specific example: "catcalling" is now "sexual assault" in the UK. It's easier to do it this way, than to argue that people should be punished for catcalling.
- ekjhgkejhgk 11mo ago
  Stallman is always right eventually. It's actually quite incredible.
dghlsakjg 11mo ago
It’s already happening. Many big institutions lean heavily on mobile apps and other gated computing. I live in BC Canada and by far the easiest way to authenticate a login to provincial sources involves using the BC ID App as a second factor, even when logging in via desktop. Many banks now also use their app as a second factor, rather than a generic OTP option that can run on any hardware. There were also issues like running Netflix DRM in browser on Linux for a while. General purpose computers won’t go away, but they will continue to be gated from more and more services until you are more or less required to have a phone or locked down ecosystem device.
- donmcronald 11mo ago
  > Many banks now also use their app as a second factor, rather than a generic OTP option that can run on any hardware. This is one I’m willing to tolerate, as long as it’s optional. Something I don’t understand though is banking app setup. When I got a new phone this year, the RBC app made me submit some kind of live selfie. The thing is, I know they can scan your debit card with NFC and authenticate the PIN. I’ve used it for a password reset in the past. Why is a selfie better than that when they presumably have nothing to compare it to?
  - fragmede 11mo ago
    do you not use the banks ATM or go into a branch ever? why would they not have anything to compare it to?
    - dghlsakjg 11mo ago
      Canada has strong privacy protections and norms. It would be quite a scandal, legally and socially, if it was discovered that a bank was creating a database of images of their customers without consent.
      - fragmede 11mo ago
        That's quite interesting! So in Canada, it seems PIPEDA means the banks can't use atm video footage to build client profiles. Cannot say the same for the US, unfortunately. According to ChatGPT: Only Illinois, Texas, and Washington really constrain that, and Illinois is the only one with real teeth.

bo1024 11mo ago

"The Coming War on General Computation", Cory Doctorow (2011). Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUEvRyemKSg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUEvRyemKSg Transcript: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Coming_War_on_General_Computation https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Coming_War_on_General_Com... (Of course, Stallman warned of this type of thing much earlier as well.)

chipsrafferty 11mo ago
[flagged]
- ekjhgkejhgk 11mo ago
  He didn't assault anyone. He said a bunch of things. They've all been collected here: https://stallman-report.org/ https://stallman-report.org/ What I love about that report is that the author created it with the intention of making Stallman look bad. And if you look at the author's summaries, he looks bad. However, the author also made us the favour of collecting all the statements in one single place. And if you look at the things that Stallman actually said (as opposed to the author's summaries) he doesn't look bad, he looks strictly correct.
  - fsflover 11mo ago
    And there's a reply to that: https://geoff.greer.fm/2019/09/30/in-defense-of-richard-stallman/ https://geoff.greer.fm/2019/09/30/in-defense-of-richard-stal... via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21113414 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21113414
    - ekjhgkejhgk 11mo ago
      Yeah yeah but the reason why I link to that, is that if someone is interested they can with minimal effort find by themselves all the information to understand it was just a smear job. Like, someone says "C assaulted B". And Stallman says "If A forces B to offer herself to C, C didn't assault B". Which is obivously correct. It could only be incorrect if you were redefining words to serve your purposes.
      - fsflover 11mo ago
        I got what you're trying to say, and I agree. I just added my link for completeness.
      - dminik 11mo ago
        Ok, I'm confused here. I had a look at what Stallman said and what Minsky allegedly did. Apparently, Minsky had sex with one of Epstein's girls, who later said she was forced into it. Now, his wife denies the allegation, as she was apparently with him at all times on Epstein's island. Now, I can believe that he went once, and maybe had sex with someone he didn't know was not doing so willingly. But, what about his wife? Was he cheating on her? Was she a part of it? And why did he return a second time? And after Epstein's conviction in 2011??? And here comes Stallman, and he's not even denying that he's slept with someone, potentially cheating on his wife? His issue is with the wording? Nobody in this situation looks good.
        ekjhgkejhgk 11mo ago
        His issue is that saying "assault" to mean "sex with someone" is dishonest, even if that person is 17. Which is obviously is. Any sane person hears "assault" and thinks that means "assault" instead it means something else. What is happening is that the meaning of words are being changed for the purpose of using pre-existing laws. Example, you think that Bla is very bad and isn't punished enough by the law. There's law that severaly punishes Fleem. So, whenever you see Bla you call it Fleem and argue that the anti-Fleem law applies. That way you can effectively re-purpose a law. Specific example: "catcalling" is now "sexual assault" in the UK. It's easier to do it this way, than to argue that people should be punished for catcalling.
ekjhgkejhgk 11mo ago
Stallman is always right eventually. It's actually quite incredible.

dghlsakjg 11mo ago

It’s already happening. Many big institutions lean heavily on mobile apps and other gated computing. I live in BC Canada and by far the easiest way to authenticate a login to provincial sources involves using the BC ID App as a second factor, even when logging in via desktop. Many banks now also use their app as a second factor, rather than a generic OTP option that can run on any hardware. There were also issues like running Netflix DRM in browser on Linux for a while. General purpose computers won’t go away, but they will continue to be gated from more and more services until you are more or less required to have a phone or locked down ecosystem device.

donmcronald 11mo ago
> Many banks now also use their app as a second factor, rather than a generic OTP option that can run on any hardware. This is one I’m willing to tolerate, as long as it’s optional. Something I don’t understand though is banking app setup. When I got a new phone this year, the RBC app made me submit some kind of live selfie. The thing is, I know they can scan your debit card with NFC and authenticate the PIN. I’ve used it for a password reset in the past. Why is a selfie better than that when they presumably have nothing to compare it to?
- fragmede 11mo ago
  do you not use the banks ATM or go into a branch ever? why would they not have anything to compare it to?
  - dghlsakjg 11mo ago
    Canada has strong privacy protections and norms. It would be quite a scandal, legally and socially, if it was discovered that a bank was creating a database of images of their customers without consent.
    - fragmede 11mo ago
      That's quite interesting! So in Canada, it seems PIPEDA means the banks can't use atm video footage to build client profiles. Cannot say the same for the US, unfortunately. According to ChatGPT: Only Illinois, Texas, and Washington really constrain that, and Illinois is the only one with real teeth.