Two simple way to reduce the likelihood of semiconductor shortages and reduce the volume of e-waste we have to deal with.
Oblige vendors to guarantee N years of useful life for electronic goods, and advertise price-per-year of life alongside purchase price. This could reduce the wastage of semiconductors in disposable electronics, and help people avoid being ripped off by the designer landfill that's misleadingly marketed as being cheaper.
Very tentative steps to #decolonize#computerscience have inevitably been met with attacks in our right wing press.
What could computing have to do with colonialism, both in its legacy and as it still exists today? Off the top of my head, here are some very material, empirical questions which I think CS undergraduates should and would be interested in finding answers to:
Where in the world do the raw materials to build computers come from? Who mines them? Who puts them together? How much do they get paid? Where do the profits go?
Who owns the #intellectualproperty in modern computers? Who decided on those IP laws, and how are they enforced globally, to whose benefit and whose detriment?
Why do we produce so many computers? Who benefits when we throw old ones away, and who deals with all the #ewaste? Which countries and populations bear the environmental costs?
Also related is that genz is getting older than 25, their parents insurance won’t cover them anymore and the minimum wage is still not livable. But sure, spin it however you want.
@codekoan Also people demand #Repairable devices not only because they like #repairability and hate avoidable #eWaste but most people in the #USA can't even afford a surprise $400 expense.
So it makes total sense to choose something cheaper that if it breaks can be repaired cost-effectively - like a @Fairphone ...
Here is a cool little gadget I'd never heard of before. It's a temperature datalogger. It lasts 60 days. Sadly I think it may be disposable (but I'd imagine rechargeable versions exist. )
Suppose you are shipping fruit across the country and you've paid extra to have the trucks chilled down to 65F. How do you know they didn't ship them at 75F and only lower the temp fully just before arrival?
Hide this bad boy in your shipment, then check the USB for data on arrival.
Before the current epidemic of disposable vape pens, Poundland used to sell these disposable phone chargers which had a 650mAh #lithiumPolymer battery connected to a DC-DC boost converter. There was no straightforward way for owners to recharge them.
I've been distracted by e-cig battery harvesting, but finally got around to adding a TC4056A module with over-discharge protection to the few I bought back then
Donc déjà t'achètes des grosses tablettes à ce prix la sur lesquelles tu ne peux rien upgrader ou réparer, mais en plus de ça, tu peux même plus remplacer les blocs écrans (sans parler des nombre de vis hallucinant?) ça me rend DINGUE.
I like how I specifically said in the video that the current charging infrastructure landscape is weird and that we shouldn't look to it as setting a norm, and yet I am still getting bombarded by Tesla apologists who think all automakers need to put the charge port where Tesla does to be compatible with their weird chargers with dinky cables.
@TechConnectify And as sadly as the @EU_Commission won't adopt #IEC60906 connectors due to #eWaste I think they should make #IEC60309 mandatory for ekectric stoves and other electronics that require more than 230V @ 16A single-phase and ain't installed into the wall like some pass-through boiler/heater...
En 2022, j'ai été interviewé par HOP afin de répondre à des questions et donner mon point de vue en tant que réparateur et surtout personne luttant contre les déchets, sur les segments Smartphones, tablettes et ordinateurs. Content de retrouver quelques points qui me parle et vivement 2024 que l'indice de durabilité rentre en vigueur, qui sera bien plus représentatif que l'indice de réparabilité.
I want an ngrok that instead of sending something local accessible over the internet it makes an Olympic swimming pool accessible through my bathroom door.
I successfully fried the logic board of the 2014 Mac mini. The assumption from the Apple tech was that the NVME adapter caused it to overheat or caused a weird board flex and damaged some internal connections. Either which way it is DOA. #DeadMac#ComputerFail#ewaste
If you're not making an effort to ensure #maintainability, #repairability, #reusability and #durability of new things when we're ramming steadily into the "find out" of the "fuck around & find out" situation with environmental and ecological abuse, you're either irresponsible or malicious.
It is inexcusable to make #EWaste (and most other waste) now. It never was excusable, but the reasons why hadn't yet made themselves blatantly obvious to all observers. Now they have.
I was about to get a used Switch in trade for some other electronics I'm selling, so I quickly did some homework to see what the pitfalls might be and ran across this. It also made me decide not to buy that, or any, used Switch unless for a purpose where online access is completely irrelevant.
Call me cynical or naive, but trillion dollar companies like #Apple and #microsoft should absolutely lead by example on the subject of climate change. Instead they pump out products that turn into #ewaste rapidly AS A PROFIT MODEL. They rely on apologists to argue around the issue with topics seemingly at odds with this goal, like aesthetics. C'mon, they can design with these factors in mind. They choose not to. Regulate everything across the board.
"With a software death date baked into each model, older versions of these inexpensive computers are set to expire three to six years after their release. Despite having fully functioning hardware, an expired Chromebook will no longer receive the software updates it needs, blocking basic websites and applications from use…
[Pictured] A pile of Chromebooks with expired software sit in a classroom at Montera Middle School in Oakland, Calif"
I can understand when manufacturers want to #EoL a #device (tho espechally on #ChromeOS / #Chromebooks the excuse of "too old hardware" rarely flies), the fact that these are literally turned into #eWaste due to not being unlockable and thus refurbishable (just like any other laptop) is basically an asshole move against both owners (that would otherwise get some $ from refurbishers) and the envoirment!
Want to help people directly in your area? Have too much stuff in your closets, attic, garage? Register for a freecycle account and give that stuff AWAY. There are ppl on here asking for everything. It won't cost you a dime:
Ich hätte lieber wartbare Hardware die dafür was #THICC'er sein darf...
Und wenn dabei ein #Chonker von der größe eines #Iridium-Telefons oder nen #NUCbook rauskommt ist das IMHO besser als #Wegwerf-Geräte die effektiv #eWaste per Design sind...
@Aglaia89@njudah WTF!?
So people can't even sell their used ink??
Okay, that's it! #Inkjet printers are now 100% #Scam at best if not #ReducedLifecycle-based, intentional #eWaste and every retailer selling that shit in lieu of #Toner is complicit in the grift!!!
Just gave away a whole stack of old halfbroken laptops and boards and tablets to a random guy who came to pick up one asus eeepc board for his nephew that likes computer stuff
@anthropy That's awesome! Did they tell you what they or their nephew thought about doing with all that kit? Love stories of what would be old #ewaste finding a second life.
I'm not going to lie. Resoldering a tiny capicitator I knocked of this mac air powerboard, trying to replace a MagSafe connector, is not as easy as those YouTubers will lead you believe.
I need that sticky flux!