20190416-evil_trends.txt
So, I was watching a Youtube [0]video about Apple Geniuses^TM scamming
customers and telling them simple repairs would cost about as much as
a brand new machine. While sometimes this is true (touchscreens are
evidently very, very pricey), in this investigative report, the
Macbook in question had a bent video pin. The Genius^TM recommended a
complete screen change and removing liquid (some sensors were on).
The reporter confirmed that it was $1200 for a stupid screen
repair/replacement and went to the uploader (a cool guy called Louis
Rossman who has a small business repairing hardware) to see the real
damage. Rossman quickly identified a backlight connection problem and
spent a couple minutes explaining and bending the contact back into
place (I'd argue that a contact shouldn't be able to be bent like
that, but I'm no Genius^TM). Rossman and iFixIt in interviews talked
about the Right To Repair movement and all that good stuff. Those are
important in their own right, but not what this entry is about.
All of that brings me to the title: evil trends. It's been disturbing
to me just how commercialized the tech sector has become and how
disrespectful tech companies are being to consumers. This is not some
Sony rootkit stopping you from playing pirated games. This is much
worse: this is monetizing all your actions online. This is the CEO
Dark Ages for Apple and Microsoft. Tim Cook and Satya Nadella are
businessmen who run tech companies who ran tech companies. Steve Jobs
and Bill Gates were visionary tech pioneers. Jobs and Gates respected
their customers (well, Jobs did in comparison to what's going on now:
still overcharged and made things incompatible). Windows 10 forcing
updates. Windows 10 "metrics" reporting. Search engines storing your
search history (DuckDuckGo for the privacy win). Planned obsolescence.
Leasing software instead of owning it. DRM.
Greed and businessmen/business majors who couldn't fix a dusty CD are
running huge tech companies and finding innovative ways to suck money
out of their victim customers. In a way I blame Steve Jobs because he
made a business model of screwing over sychophants successful. In
another way I blame people with too much money and too little gray
matter for making these anti-consumer policies successful. In yet
another way I blame the founders who sold their great products to
others to pervert and twist them (remember when Google was just a
search engine and nothing else?).
It feels like the 20 00s and the 1990s weren't this bad. Maybe I was
just a dumb kid/teenager. The computer world was an electronic
paradise filled with crappy Web pages, slower loading times, porn,
facts, and conspiracy theories. It was a text communication medium.
Now it's a multilens filter through which billions perceive the world.
And it's being run mostly by business majors.
[0]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2_SZ4tfLns
