I haven’t checked this week (yay, might already be too late) but my understanding is that amazon only disabled the web interface to download ebooks to a computer.

Using the (Windows) Kindle for PC App at a sufficiently old version was still working last week even after people had claimed the web interface was disabled.

It is only a matter of time but it is also something that the vast majority of people are too computer illiterate to do so it is probably going to be a decent amount of time. Cost amazon more to disable it than to let people do it.

To my knowledge, Sanderson has not spoken out against Kindle*. His kickstarter was mostly to advertise Dragonsteel which is likely going to become his own publishing house at some point.

And while… fuck amazon, Kindle is a ridiculously author friendly platform to publish on and is the only reason we have so many amazing self published authors these days. And while KU is not great per book, it is an excellent way to get people interested in an author and buy their latest books. I strongly encourage actually reading what authors say instead of what users and armchair financial analysts do.

*: I would be incredibly shocked if he did. I think he is definitely becoming more “woke” than “mormon” these days based off his writing and character details but he is still very much a business person

I strongly encourage POLITELY reaching out to your favorite authors on social media to talk to them about this.

One of my favorite guilty pleasure reads is very open that this is why his ebooks are only on kindle. But he is also looking into alternatives (especially since he is now big enough to have at least a small publisher) because the readers he is trying to help with KU are the ones asking him to get away from it.

Not going to tear down my de-drm setup any time soon. But optimistic I might be able to before amazon does it for me.

Yeah. I think it was hilarious to “hack” government displays to show this in protest.

I am REALLY uncomfortable with sharing it on a wider basis. Because, at the risk of sounding like DNC leadership, it is opening a huge can of worms. Imagine if instead this was musk posting a deepfake of him and AOC similar to how he offered to rape taylor swift a while back?

I’ll just explain why that is a horrible idea with three simple letters:

A. O. C.

What exactly can you upgrade iteratively?

From the laptop perspective (because the desktop is totally all about that side panel life):

1. Memory: Ultrabooks are hell, no arguments there. But many brands have increasingly allowed at least one SODIMM to be swapped out and many still no longer solder the other one. And I’ll say, from personal experience, that buying and swapping out RAM in a relatively new-ish laptop often comes out closer to the price of just paying for the upgraded SKU to begin with. So there is the logic of “I’ll add another 16 GB in two years” but… yeah.
2. Storage: Again, same. Except that they tend to not even solder down the nvmes. There are some particularly asshole vendors but they are few and far between. And this totally is worth doing since they tend to be fairly standard nvme drives or the small SSD that I always forget the format of. Rather than RAM that is only used by laptops and NUCs and costs an arm and a leg…
3. Ports: Framework laptops just use USB C dongles for everything. They have a semi-proprietary format for those but it is still, fundamentally, a usb c dongle. And, from talking to a mutual on a discord who has one, it has the same fundamental problem that USB C dongles/hubs do when installing the more finicky OSes (hi Proxmox and OpnSense) where you can’t actually access the hub capabilities until AFTER the OS is installed (the more live CD based distros avoid this). So no difference in terms of upgrades and modularity outside of having fewer vendors to buy a dongle from if you care about form factor that much.
4. CPU: Only if you swap out the motherboard which is the vast majority of the price of the laptop anyway.
5. Keyboard, display, etc: These are less “upgrades” so much as replacements. Which are good arguments for repairability but also… go actually look at ifixit’s website and see how many laptops are repairable. It is mostly just apple who suck horrifically

And just because it always amuses me and never fails, let’s price out upgrading/replacing a framework (uplacing?). I’ll assume no parts failed to keep prices simple and “You can replace your keyboard every time it fails over a five year period” is not the flex people think it is. I’ll use the intel core ultra series 1 because that is in stock and not a preorder. We are dealing with last year’s model (I think. I haven’t followed Intel laptop processors too much) so there is inherently wiggle room there, but it is theoretically fair as it is last year’s model for both of them since I had to dig deep into the framework site to find an Intel since fuck Best Buy’s website if you are trying to compare AMDs (also fuck AMD for their naming insanity).

• FW13 with Intel Core Ultra Series 1 at 13 inches is estimated to be 999 USD https://frame.work/products/laptop13-intel-ultra-1/configuration/new. 8 Gigs of RAM, Ultra 5 125H, 256 GB Storage
• Core Ultra 5 Series 1 at 13 inches. Ultra 5 125U so techincally different but arguably much better for an actual laptop. 256 GB storage, 8 GB RAM. … Eothas wept at this URL https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-probook-460-g11-16-ips-1920-x-1200-wuxga-laptop-intel-core-ultra-5-with-8gb-memory-256-gb-ssd-pike-silver-aluminum-gray/6601496.p?skuId=6601496. Estimated to be 879.99 USD

So we are already looking at the framework being about 120 USD more expensive without looking at any configurations or upgrades.

So let’s get into that hyperbolic time chamber and totally not have gay sex with the glistening man hunk known as Vegeta. Five years later, let’s consider an upgrade… to the same SKU.

On the Framework marketplace, another 125H mobo costs 399 USD right now.

• Framework: 999 + 399 = 1398 for two generations of a laptop
• Best Buy: 879 + 879 = 1758
• For a total savings of 1758-1398 = 360 USD over 5 years of getting soaked by that galick gun

Which is nothing to balk at. But that assumes that your display and keyboard held up and didn’t need replacing, you liked all the default dongles Framework gave you (which is apparently just four USB C ports… to plug into the four USB C ports on the laptop), and, most importantly, that Framework didn’t change their form factor (I am not sure if they did for the 16 inch laptops to support the “modular” keyboards). Every spare dongle or repaired/upgraded part costs money. Versus being guaranteed a “pristine” new laptop… full of massive amounts of bloatware that you immediately format the shit out of to put Linux on that.

And, obvious grain of salt, the past few times I have done this exercise it was closer to 100 USD. Framework just happen to be dumping large amounts of old stock right now for their new models so the prices are better and the comparisons are more tedious.

Again, conceptually I like Framework. And, for as much as I mock them, I actually do like the form factor for their dongles a lot. Give me a computer with a shit ton of USB C ports but also let me leep it usable at work without needing to carry around my sketchy anker dongle/dock. And I don’t really fault them too much for not letting you actually swap CPUs since that was basically something only the sickest of sickos did until the AM4 socket lasted like 40 years somehow.

But their key strength is marketing and that has only gotten stronger since they got the full power of linus media group behind them because that company needs to protect their shareholders’ investment.

And, like I said before, I do worry that this just encourages people to hoard parts. Like… anyone who has built a desktop or two has that big plastic bin full of old ram and mobos and even graphics cards that they might use someday but never will (PSU is totally worth saving though).

If black people had joined the air force in very large numbers and abused other ethnic and socioeconomic groups as a way to ingratiate themselves to the crackers and we decided to call them “smackers”? I would have zero problems and would whole heartedly say that.

And if someone suddenly decided that “black helicopter” is more a reference to African American pilots? I would do some research, figure out that is instead referring to night flight painting, and probably still avoid using the phrase while not caring all that much.

Speaking of: What are your thoughts on the term “cracker”? Because you clearly don’t understand the difference between a slur that is meant to degrade a human being and one that is meant to refer to an oppressor.

But seriously, unless there’s some reason to stream live, old tricks are sometimes still the best tricks.

Cops who know they are being recorded MIGHT behave slightly better. It is why they are so hellbent on never wearing bodycams ever again.

An SD card on the person of someone being thrown in the back of a van to have an “accident” on the way to booking? Not so useful.

Again. IF we decide that “paddy wagon” is a slur toward the Irish, it is specifically a slur toward Irish cops. And fuck the police.

Simple as that.

Like I said, I’ll try to avoid it in the future because even though there is very little evidence that it is even a slur toward Irish cops, it sounds enough like one that I would rather avoid it. But I am not gonna lose ANY sleep over oppressors getting their fee fees hurt because people don’t like them.

Yes, the Irish were (and kind of still are) looked down upon by “Whites”.

They historically chose to address that by becoming cops. Oppressors. The idea being that if they were useful they would at least be better than the brown and yellow people. And irish cops have caused untold horrors amongst labor and minorities.

So while I disagree that “paddy wagon” is an Irish slur so much as MAYBE it is a cop slur, it is close enough that I’ll refrain from using it. But it is still the same issue as with “cracker” where… you are gonna have to try a whole hell of a lot harder for me to care if people’s feelings are hurt that folk don’t appreciate how many skulls they cracked in the name of impressing the crackers.

Every sourcing I have seen comes more from the UK as a way to shorten patrol and the argument that it is an ethnic slur against predominantly Irish police forces is similar to “cracker” in that… can you REALLY be that racist against the oppressors?

But tweaked anyway. Thanks.

Its a balancing act. You shouldn’t be recording tiktoks and doing the carlton.

But there is a lot of value in organizers being able to communicate. If you see a fat white kid with an assault rifle, you let people know. Same with when the patrol wagons roll in.

And there is a LOT of value in being able to make it clear to the cops that you are recording before they decide to “teach some people a lesson”.

I chat about this with my activist buddies a lot. And one thing we are increasingly realizing is that there is a LOT of value in convincing even a mid-tier IRL streamer to come out. Yeah, they are fucking obnoxious when they are trying to yell to chat. But it is someone who is high enough profile that they won’t immediately have their gear destroyed AND privileged enough that they won’t even realize that is an option until it is too late. At which point the decision as to how to handle the escalation is already happening.

There is a massive push right now for energy efficient alternatives to nvidia GPUs for AI/ML. PLENTY of companies are dumping massive amounts of money on macs and rapidly learning the lesson the rest of us learned decades ago in terms of power and performance.

The reality is that this is going to be marketed for AI because it has an APU which, keeping it simple, is a CPU+GPU. And plenty of companies are going to rush to buy them for that and a very limited subset will have a good experience because they don’t have time sensitive operations.

But yeah, this is very much geared for light-moderate gaming, video rendering, and HTPCs. That is what APUs are actually good for. They make amazing workstations. I could also see this potentially being very useful for a small business/household local LLM for stuff like code generation and the like but… those small scale models don’t need anywhere near these resources.

As for framework being involved: Someone has kindly explained to me that even though you have to replace the entire mobo to increase the amount of memory, you can still customize your side panels at any moment so I guess that is fitting the mission statement.

And your phone isn’t repairable because it needs to be water proof. Your earbuds because of power efficiency. Etc.

Also, I suggest watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3zB9EFntmA.

But, to be clear: I am actually not as opposed to the idea of soldered ram when you have “an excuse”. Same with phones. But framework is a brand that tries to build itself on minimizing e-waste and maximizing repairability and… hey, at least we can still swap out the side panel on their prebuilt!

Oh. Okay. As long as I can replace the side panel.

Everything except the APU/RAM/Mobo combo is upgradable, and you don’t have to replace the whole machine if the board fails.

So… storage, case, and USB C dongles?

So… now Framework Corp is selling non-upgradable hardware?

I dunno. Conceptually I want to like Framework. But their pricing means it is basically never worth buying and upgrading versus just buying a new laptop (seriously, run the numbers. You basically save 10 bucks over two generations of shopping at Best Buy). But they also have a system that heavily encourages people to horde spare parts rather than just take it to an e-waste disposal facility/bin.

One is the ownership of a digital copy on the same terms as a physical copy. That allows you to resell your copy, lend it to a friend, move it to a different device, retain the use of it even if the seller no longer exists . . . stuff that falls under the first-sale doctrine and other actions that are generally accepted as “okay” and reasonable. That’s what’s being called out here as not existing for most digital copies.

And you still aren’t authorized to do that with a “DRM Free” copy (which gets into a mess since those aren’t actually DRM Free but…). In large part because there is no mechanism to transfer authorization for updates and so forth. GoG made a cheeky “take that” to Valve when they said they would allow you to transfer a dead relative’s account… but even that is a huge mess and had a LOT of fine print at the end. Again, there are exceptions but they are few and far between.

Same with buying Ghostbusters on VHS. There is no DRM to speak of involved. But any teacher who threw it on because they were hungover was technically in violation of the terms of purchase and there were a few medium profile cases where people learned about public performance rights when they were showing “their” copy of a movie or album.

You can make as many arguments as you want. Until those go to a court of law they mean nothing.

However, that isn’t what most people expect to get when they’re purchasing a copy of a media work, regardless of whether it’s digital or physical.

We are specifically talking about expectations versus reality. Which gets back to the reality that even when you bought that CD you were engaging in what was a hell of a lot closer to a “lease” than not.

How IP in general and copyright in particular is handled does really need an overhaul, but that isn’t a problem specific to the digital world—it’s equally applicable to print books, oil paintings, and vinyl records.

Which gets back to the original point that most of those purchases were always “leases” because of how the legal system is set up…

I buy the correct way and it’s been working okay so far. The moment something is taken away, I’ll get it back another way.

Have you ever heard of “lost media”? Countless books and movies and songs were never actually backed up for one reason or another. And this is especially concerning as Amazon are pioneering the way to increasingly lock down kindle ebooks when they already have a history of editing books on their servers with no notice to the customer. It basically results in the GoG problem where even if you CAN back up everything yourself, you never will because of the updates and won’t know if it is important to keep 1.01567 of a game because that was the last version where they were able to distribute a specific version of an art file.

Speaking of video games: There are hundreds of games over the years that just never got cracked. It was usually a case where the DRM model was such that only one or two groups knew how to handle it and they were busy the week that game came out. And since there is no “prestige” in going back to crack a five month old game… they didn’t. Starforce was particularly notorious for this and my understanding is that denuvo is even worse. Let alone all the indie releases and patreon games where people just don’t bother at all.

Because… people also need a reason to bother backing stuff up. For example, I recently got it in my head that I should re-read the 100% free and available online webcomic Chimneyspeak. Color me surprised when it sounds like nobody bothered to back it up when it was still available, the author took it down because it cost too much money (hard to run ads on porny sites), the author has been “missing” from the internet since before covid, and the wayback machine was missing large swathes of it. There wasn’t even any DRM or licensing to worry about. People just didn’t think to back it up and by the time they did, it was too late.

No. Outside of VERY rare occurrences, you are still licensing that media. If you owned it you would be able to distribute it yourself and so forth.

And if you actually checked through the fine print for the old big box games you would see very similar verbiage. Presumably the same with music

I do think it would be good to make people more aware of what they are actually paying for. But once EVERYTHING says “lease” it will just kill the meaning of the word.