It would still be useful to have a text blurb or a transcript since Google YT has become Invidious-hostile. And in my case I don’t have the bandwidth for video.

This would be more fitting in !zerowaste@slrpnk.net.

I will be keeping an eye out for curbsides of dumped PCs. I have not bought a PC in decades because of MS forced obsolescence.

Corporations certainly would bend to consumer demand if consumers were wise enough to boycott and make demands. But the question is whether consumer wisdom would ever advance on a scale to make that happen. I think I have little hope of seeing it in my lifetime.

There are 35 million Mexican adults (38%) without a bank account. So living unbanked is at least an option, and more than ⅓ find it viable.

Nonetheless, it’s interesting to hear that all banks in Mexico are digital and that not a single one offers offline service. And that not a single digital bank offers logins w/out 2FA, or 2FA by SMS (which includes feature phones), or 2FA by using a card reader. If all that is true, consider posting about it in !smartphone_required@lemmy.sdf.org.

This is extremely reductive and oblivious to the actual realities of banking in various countries.

I think you will be hard-pressed to find a country that does not have a single bank that can serve those w/out smartphones. If you find such a country, plz post about it in !smartphone_required@lemmy.sdf.org and send me the link. Then we may be able to make a case for ppl in that specific country not being boot-lickers, if at the same time being unbanked is illegal.

If you think it’s easy to be “unbanked” then I would suggest that you try it yourself first.

I have been simulating an unbanked life for years now. 5 creditors are threatening lawsuits for non-payment after refusing my cash. One took me to court and it was an easy win for me. I just appeared without a lawyer and pointed to the law.

It’s also worth noting that unbanked is more extreme that simply choosing a bank that does not require a smartphone.

It’s banking:

https://slrpnk.net/post/28294479

The army of corporate boot lickers in the mobile phone context is largely composed of people who think banking on a smartphone is wise, despite the attack surface and despite the bank being empowered to monitor their customers more closely. Banking apps are the most significant culprit for gluing people to Android.

We may never see the day when more than 5% of the population realises the importance of FOSS enough to shake free of their addiction to convenience.

Sounds like Paypal, who is “not a bank”, but who operates on the basis that you must link a bank or interact with a bank to do transactions. But you say unbanked people can use it? How do you get cash loaded onto it?

I suppose it’s still far from being something I could find useable because apps that reject rooted phones would be closed-source (read: untrustworthy; misplaced control).

Wow, wtf! I would not expect that degree of mass surveillance to be economically viable. And so overtly stark in the face of the GDPR. In principle, we should be able to make a GDPR access request to the central bank to ask them where we shop with cash and which ATMs we used.

I don’t get why “QR” is described as a “payment option”. It’s still a bank account transaction in the end which is exclusively for banked people. And worse, it excludes people without recent smartphones and the Google Playstore account needed to get the closed-source app that violates our software freedom.

I have a hard time giving a shit about the novelty of not carrying a plastic card in the big scheme of things, when forced-banking is being oppressively shoved in our faces and privacy is toast, while also being vulnerable to systemic denial of service in the event of cyberattacks as acts of war. While violating our human rights (banks treat different people differently based on where they come from).

Europeans are fucked as far as privacy goes. The GDPR is unenforced. But even if were enforced, the GDPR’s data minimisation (article 5) rule only obligates data controllers to consider options that are available.

We know from all the cashless bars in Amsterdam how naive and flippant consumers are about privacy. Creating a digital footprint of alcohol consumption is one of the most foolish things consumers can do, particularly in light of that Scandinavian guy who was denied a mortgage on the basis of his drinking habits, which were known to the bank by his purchase history.

Privacy aside, there is a human rights issue because banks treat different demographics of people differently. It’s disturbing how the human rights problem is so overlooked.

In any case, Albania cannot join the EU while being cashless unless Albania keeps their own currency.

You raise a good point nonetheless. Though it’s really the consequences of version nannying that concretely exposes the problem, as the masses are still brainwashed to think “the latest and the greatest”.

So ideally I would need to also convey exactly what shenanigans Transcend intends with version mandates for the point to reach people. And I don’t have that answer. I can only conjecture that they will most likely stop hosting all versions of the tools as a way to sabotage repair/recovery of old devices.

You’re missing one massive issue here, which is that - irrespective of the version you think you downloaded - they can use this tactic to force the latest version to be installed instead.

What do you mean: missing? Denying people control over their software and versions is of course an obvious and inherent facet to the problem.

Need an older version, because they broke a feature, changed the license terms, made something that was previous free paid-for, or otherwise? Too bad. That installer is only ever going to do one thing, and it’s the newest version (if, as you say, it continues to work at all).

Or worse, no version at all. Or a broken version (all software has bugs and that includes updates).

The HP shit-show

HP controls what inks you use to the extent of sabotaging your printer “for your protection” in an automated firmware update.

The TomTom shit-show

If you install the PC desktop tool for managing your TomTom from the CD that comes with your TomTom, it forces a check to ensure that you’re installing the latest (Internet required, despite this not being mentioned on the packaging). When you allow it to connect to the WAN, it discovers that there is a later version and it blocks you from installing the original version. When you run the latest version (your only choice), it then says “your device is no longer supported”, and refuses to load any maps (even original maps) onto old TomToms. My local flee market is trying to sell a huge box of old TomToms, two for a dollar, because of this shit.

🞜

I will not buy Amazon, HP, or TomTom products for these reasons (among many other reasons). Now I have added Transcend to the list.

deleted by creator

I got lucky on this recently. Saw someone threw away a working washing machine. I will never buy one because it supports companies who block repair (all of them have contempt for repairers). So the only way for me to get one is to pull one from a dump. I saw on one on a curb saying it just needed to be cleaned or something. I went straight to a shop that has cargo bikes and was able to rent one on the spot. They take reservations but I got lucky. Went straight to the washing machine and it was still there. I was surprised the bike could take the weight and was surprised how well it handled.

but fuck apps

The problem with most shared bikes is they impose a closed-source app exclusively from Google. I got lucky that a local shop has a website for reservations and you can just walk in and pick it up at the shop – which means a human has to collect a cash deposit. But no shitty app.

Mulo seems pricey as well. I would not pay more than $/€ 25/day (not electric). Maybe Mulo is electric.

Locomotion is donation based… interesting that that works.

I agree. But you have to start somewhere. The guideline has been converted into legislation in Belgium since last week.

Do you have more detail on what was implemented? I could only find this repairability index, which I suspect won’t be much more useful than energy indexes and nutrition indexes.

This is why I said at the local level. City council cannot change federal laws.

The EU has been grappling with right to repair laws for over 10 years now. It’s a complete shit show.

At the moment, a washing machine maker in the EU is only required to release repair documentation to professional repairers who are insured, not consumers. And they only have to do it in the 1st 10 years, not in the time period that things actually break. At the 10 year mark, they automatically lose the docs and stop making parts.

The law you reference is not yet in force AFAIK. But when it comes into force and each member state eventually legislates, look at what we are getting-- from your reference:

A European information form can be offered to consumers to help them assess and compare repair services (detailing the nature of the defect, price and duration of the repair). To make the repair process easier, a European online platform with national sections will be set up to help consumers easily find local repair shops, sellers of refurbished goods, buyers of defective items or community-led repair initiatives, such as repair cafes.

That’s crap. It’s fuck all. Consumers are not getting service manuals. They are just being told where they can go to get someone else to do the work. We can of course already find repair cafes because they publish their own location. But repairers at repair cafes are just winging it. You cannot bring them a large appliance like a washer. They don’t even have water and drain hookups. And even if one repair cafe made an exception for large appliances, their repairers are not insured and thus cannot legally get access to service manuals.

Everything at the state/fed/intl levels is a total shitshow. This is why I asked in the OP what can be done at the local level.

I should have linked the parent thread. Federal laws are a shit show. In the US, most states have paltry R2R protections typically only covering cars, wheel chairs, and farm equipment.

This is why I am collecting ideas for what we might petition LOCAL govs to do, like city councils.

I don’t think that is true. I never heard of a creativity test or measurement as a precondition to copyright protection. As I understand it, anything you write (regardless of artistic creativity) is automatically protected under an all rights reserved copyright unless you explicitly state otherwise.

This is click baity. Have a look at some of the laws:

https://pirg.org/media-center/release-all-50-states-now-have-filed-right-to-repair-legislation-over-last-8-years/

Things like wheelchairs, farm equipment, and cars. Very narrow.

I’m not the least bit impressed and hope these examples are not used as an excuse to encumber the badly needed progress to fix things that matter apart from wheelchairs and veg. farm equipment.