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posted by martyb on Monday July 06 2020, @06:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the Use-it-up.-Wear-it-out.-Make-do.-Do-without. dept.

Fixers Know What 'Repairable' Means—Now There's A Standard For It - Ifixit:

[Earlier this year], three years of arguing with industry finally paid off, as the European standard EN45554 was published. This official document with an unexciting name details "general methods for the assessment of the ability to repair, reuse and upgrade energy-related products." In plain English, it's a standard for measuring how easy it is to repair stuff. It's also a huge milestone for the fight for fair repair.

We want to repair the stuff we own, so we can use it for longer. This is not only important because we want our money's worth out of the things we paid for, but because manufacturing new products is a huge and underestimated driver of climate change. So if we want to avoid cooking our planet, we need to stop churning out disposable electronics and start repairing more. Like, right now.

The problem is, industry won't do this by itself. Managers get ahead by showing quarterly sales growth, not increased product lifespans. Hence we need the government to step in, banning unrepairable products and helping consumers—that's you!—to identify the most durable products out there, so as to empower them to make better purchasing decisions. And in the EU, our political leaders are getting ready to do so.

But here's the rub: those leaders don't know what a repairable product is. If you ask manufacturers, they will all tell you their products are repairable. If you ask us, some devices clearly are more repairable than others, and some are frankly just not repairable at all.


Original Submission

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Why Repair Techs are Hacking Ventilators with DIY Dongles from Poland 84 comments

Hacking Ventilators With DIY Dongles From Poland:

As COVID-19 surges, hospitals and independent biomedical technicians have turned to a global grey-market for hardware and software to circumvent manufacturer repair locks and keep life-saving ventilators running.

The dongle is handmade, little more than a circuit board encased in plastic with two connectors. One side goes to a ventilator’s patient monitor, another goes to the breath delivery unit. A third cable connects to a computer.

This little dongle—shipped to him by a hacker in Poland—has helped William repair at least 70 broken Puritan Bennett 840 ventilators that he’s bought on eBay and from other secondhand websites. He has sold these refurbished ventilators to hospitals and governments throughout the United States, to help them handle an influx of COVID-19 patients. Motherboard agreed to speak to William anonymously because he was not authorized by his company to talk to the media, but Motherboard verified the specifics of his story with photos and other biomedical technicians.

William is essentially Frankensteining together two broken machines to make one functioning machine. Some of the most common repairs he does on the PB840, made by a company called Medtronic, is replacing broken monitors with new ones. The issue is that, like so many other electronics, medical equipment, including ventilators, increasingly has software that prevents “unauthorized” people from repairing or refurbishing broken devices, and Medtronic will not help him fix them.

[...] Delays in getting equipment running put patients at risk. In the meantime, biomedical technicians will continue to try to make-do with what they can. “If someone has a ventilator and the technology to [update the software], more power to them,” Mackeil said. “Some might say you’re violating copyright, but if you own the machine, who’s to say they couldn’t or they shouldn’t?”

I understand that there is an ongoing debate on the "right to repair". However, many manufacturers increasingly find ways to ensure that "unauthorised" people cannot repair their devices. Where do you stand on this issue? During the ongoing pandemic, do medical device manufacturers have the right to prevent repair by third parties?

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  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday July 06 2020, @08:49AM (7 children)

    by krishnoid (1156) on Monday July 06 2020, @08:49AM (#1016887)

    Finally, we step up again to fight for standardization [arstechnica.com] to reduce electronic waste, as we fought for privacy rights [zdnet.com], leading the way for the rest of the world. USA! USA! USA!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @10:32AM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @10:32AM (#1016924)

      Right to privacy and right to free speech are directly contradictory without the mental gymnastics that label some speech as effectively being not speech because someone didn't like it.

      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Monday July 06 2020, @11:38AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday July 06 2020, @11:38AM (#1016954) Journal
        This would be the first time ever that rights were in conflict with each other.
      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Monday July 06 2020, @01:21PM (4 children)

        by Immerman (3985) on Monday July 06 2020, @01:21PM (#1017003)

        Not necessarily - you can be free to say what you like (so long as it's true), while also NOT being free to violate my privacy by spying on me.

        If you're not spying on me, you have no information that would violate my privacy by speaking about.

        Historically (in the US at least), it's generally been the case that spying is allowed on public figures (politicians, companies, etc) whose privacy is often leveraged to screw over the population, but NOT on private individuals who lack the power to screw over thousands or millions of people at a time (unless you have a legal warrant - which often also holds you to a higher standard of privacy).

        Meanwhile specific sectors that inherently collect sensitive private information are held to a higher standard - medical and legal systems for example are expected to keep the sensitive information they handle private - and individuals often take an oath to that effect before being given the job.

        • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday July 06 2020, @02:07PM (1 child)

          by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Monday July 06 2020, @02:07PM (#1017032) Journal

          I believe you're painting an idealized image of the historical setting, but that's the theory anyway. Unfortunately it involved things like the theory that police obey the law, etc. Note, for example, that holding "health care providers to a higher standard" means things like "they all must use the specified version of MSWindows, because that's what the feds certified". It doesn't mean they must not connect those EoLed systems to the internet.

          --
          Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @05:22AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @05:22AM (#1017516)

            Police are by their nature expected to reveal arbitrary information they collect about you.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:18PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:18PM (#1017037)

          GDPR is way more than that though; "right to be forgotten" is a direct infringement on speech. Is logging downloads of a 1x1 pixel or a button logo an infringement of your privacy? How far can you go down that path while preventing others from being unjustly silenced?

          • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday July 06 2020, @04:56PM

            by Immerman (3985) on Monday July 06 2020, @04:56PM (#1017145)

            It certainly is, with one of the biggest flaws being that it applies to public figures, whose "secret" activities are very likely to be of ongoing public interest.

            In general, I would say that if you care about privacy then logging *any* information about private citizens (without a warrant) should be presumed to be illegal, unless absolutely necessary to provide the service they are there for (e.g. medical records are okay, keeping track of who visited what on your web site is not) Maybe you have some way to be able to waive that right so, e.g., Netflix and Amazon can recommend things they think you'll like. Maybe. But *sharing* that information with any third party should be forbidden, as it makes it far to easy to construct massive surveillance databases ripe for abuse.

            I would even go so far as to say allowing outside access to that data should be a criminal offense, regardless of whether it was intentional, accidental, or stolen due to insufficient security. Even if you get permission to collect the data, it's still 100% your unwaivable responsibility to keep it secret. If you can't be bothered to keep it secret, expect to spend time in prison and/or pay massive fines far exceeding the value that data had to your business.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by ledow on Monday July 06 2020, @09:16AM (24 children)

    by ledow (5567) on Monday July 06 2020, @09:16AM (#1016894) Homepage

    Imagine how much human effort, energy and resources have been wasted over the centuries producing the same things over and over and over again with only slight variations, making them useless when the manufacturer is no longer around to supply parts, etc.

    It's utopian to suggest that people would actually just go "But if we made this a standard part, everyone could share it or repair it", but can you imagine the nightmare of finding a "compatible" electrical device without such things? 220v? 110v? 2-pin? 3-pin? Which pin is live? What mains frequency? Hell, even AC vs DC was an actual international argument for many years.

    I don't care about "repair" (in the sense of actually fixing a broken component) as such - I can't repair a smartphone, hell I couldn't repair an SMD device with any consistency. I do care about standardisation and modularity - I shouldn't need to "repair" if I can just get hold of a standard module from anyone and replace things that are broken. Even our spaceships have differing standards that have to be catered for with adaptors between countries and different hardware.

    If there is some space-faring civilisation out there, I bet that it actually got there by stopping all this kind of nonsense. "This phone takes a standard user-replaceable Type 2 GSM module, up to 5G speed". Or "All spacecraft must use industry-standard propulsion modules fitted into a Size X frame."

    Everything else is just a waste of an already precious resource.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday July 06 2020, @09:31AM (8 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday July 06 2020, @09:31AM (#1016897) Journal

      I don't care about "repair" (in the sense of actually fixing a broken component) as such - I can't repair a smartphone, hell I couldn't repair an SMD device with any consistency.

      You? Probably not. But a fixer could. To the benefit of everybody except the manufacturer.

      One can hope to see a reduced prevalence of planned obsolescence.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by ledow on Monday July 06 2020, @10:17AM (5 children)

        by ledow (5567) on Monday July 06 2020, @10:17AM (#1016916) Homepage

        There's a point of practicality here - I just want to swap the module for a working one. What a repairer does in a back-room to then turn a "broken" module into a "non-broken" module that they can sell on is not my concern. With modern electronics, those kinds of SMD/solder reflow jobs aren't particularly cost effective even with the best equipment in the world.

        But there's nothing stopping making things modular for the consumer so they can "repair" things themselves. If my washing machine breaks, I'm not tearing the thing down to break out the soldering iron. I'm looking for a working replaceable module - available from someone who can supply one. If they can even turn the old "broken" one into a working one is far beyond certain.

        Far more important is modularity, the availability of alternative compatible modules if necessary, and the standardisation of interfaces to allow that.

        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by anubi on Monday July 06 2020, @10:46AM (1 child)

          by anubi (2828) on Monday July 06 2020, @10:46AM (#1016931) Journal

          There is a market for rebuilt car parts. In order to get a freshly rebuilt part, you need to give back your broken one. Else, you pay an additional "core charge".

          Very common on parts with custom castings...alternators, starters, and things like computer modules.

          --
          "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
          • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday July 07 2020, @12:50AM

            by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday July 07 2020, @12:50AM (#1017438)

            Yes, definitely. I work on cars a fair amount for someone who doesn't do it as a job. Anyway, more and more the aforementioned parts are NOT being offered as rebuilt- sold as new only, coming from China of course. They're so inexpensive that it's not worth rebuilding them. Many recent examples: water pumps, alternators, starters, etc. It's great that they're so inexpensive and you're getting new parts, but I question the quality and I'd rather have rebuilt older ones. More and more I've taken to buying the parts- like bearings and seals and brushes and rebuilding the things myself. One alternator I took apart- I could not find anything wrong with it, so I blew out the dust (air nozzle) and reassembled it and it's been working perfectly for 2 years. I reason there must have been a loose connection that I unknowingly fixed by disassembling and reassembling.

        • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Dr Spin on Monday July 06 2020, @12:21PM (2 children)

          by Dr Spin (5239) on Monday July 06 2020, @12:21PM (#1016973)

          Take your straw man, set it on fire, and then jump into the fire: Not all repairs involve soldering hardware.

          I have several phones which work, but the OS is obsolete, and the information does not exist to replace it because the datasheets for the parts
          and the boot loader API are not publicly available.

          The manufacturer should be required to put these in escrow before being permitted to sell the device, so that the FOSS community can
          replace the bloatware with a usable alternative if it performs better than his shitstorm or he forces an upgrade on me with a UI that is worse
          than shit.

          Failing that, he should be treated as a serial fly-tipper, and fined several thousand for each phone he sells, on pain of lengthy terms in prison
          for each and every director if the company turns out to have supplied duff information, or defaults on payments.

          --
          Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
          • (Score: 2) by ledow on Monday July 06 2020, @05:14PM (1 child)

            by ledow (5567) on Monday July 06 2020, @05:14PM (#1017156) Homepage

            You're now introducing software specifications.

            Almost every phone is nothing but an ARM chip, the bootloader isn't necessary to boot an alternative OS (proven by LineageOS).

            What you're suggesting is completely open hardware - admirable but more unlikely that someone just making a "CPU board" that can be replaced by any other that connects to a "GSM board", a "screen module" and so on. Often datasheets

            While ideally you'd be right, it has nothing to do with repairing the device (and you accuse me of strawman?). Datasheets for things like the x86 chips are just sitting out there for everyone - doesn't help you crack the XBox, etc.

            But if you could just swap out the CPU module for an OS-version one, you'd be laughing, and could even get better, more suited chips/BIOS for the things you want to do. Then "the OS" just becomes a pluggable module, in effect.

            And with security heading towards secure-booting everywhere, you can have all the details in the world - if you don't have the bootloader key, you can never load the OS (without invalidating the warranty by permanently flipping a bit, like how phones work now) even if you know every other detail of how it works. And Samsung aren't going to sign your bootloader or provide an opportunity to bypass it without it being extremely obvious (as they already do).

            You're two steps ahead. But my suggested step would not only make your possible, but would probably negate the need for it anyway. Buy a new phone, buy an "open" CPU module... done.

            • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Dr Spin on Monday July 06 2020, @06:38PM

              by Dr Spin (5239) on Monday July 06 2020, @06:38PM (#1017229)

              Prior to Bill Gates, almost all hardware had published datasheets which the manufacturer would happily send you free of charge.
              The 8008 datasheet explained exactly how the instructions were executed, to the gate level (I have a first edition).
              I headed a team that wrote an OS for the 8080 quite similar to CPM (could read CPM, Intel ISIS and RSX/11 files).
              DEC would supply you with free manuals explaining the internals of all the parts to the level required to write Unix.

              In the 1970's no procurement team would buy chips (or any other component) for which there was no second source.
              Hence Intel and AMD cross licensed a load of chips, All was happy.

              Then came manufacturers of video chips which were "proprietary" - primarily because they were so bug infested that
              anyone who read the datasheet risked their head exploding (I wrote OS/2 drivers for S3 chips).

              But my suggested step would not only make your possible, but would probably negate the need for it anyway. Buy a new phone, buy an "open" CPU module... done.

              No, its not about my phone - it is about Mr and Mrs Twit and their kids buying stuff that manufacturers are free to brick and send to landfill. There should be no "freedom to
              make money by trashing the planet" any more than you are free to enter my house and enter your trash can on the carpet.

              --
              Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by SpockLogic on Monday July 06 2020, @11:40AM (1 child)

        by SpockLogic (2762) on Monday July 06 2020, @11:40AM (#1016956)

        Managers get ahead by showing quarterly sales growth, not increased product lifespans.

        The curse of the MBA strikes again. Short term gains over long sustainability every time.

        --
        Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @08:24PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @08:24PM (#1017292)

          It is a bit funny as our company was just looking at extending our warranty from something like 10 years to 15 or 20.

          Then again, we don't sell consumer grade stuff. This is seriously industrial stuff, and we sell at a mark up for our quality.

          Companies are willing to pay a bit more when they know they wont have to touch it for the next 25 or so years.

    • (Score: 2) by inertnet on Monday July 06 2020, @10:16AM (2 children)

      by inertnet (4071) on Monday July 06 2020, @10:16AM (#1016915) Journal

      Someone already designed a modular smartphone [wikipedia.org] in 2013. Motorola and Google ran with it, but it never really took off.

      • (Score: 2) by ledow on Monday July 06 2020, @10:22AM

        by ledow (5567) on Monday July 06 2020, @10:22AM (#1016918) Homepage

        "There is no plan to actually produce the Phonebloks design as a commercial product."

        It's not that it didn't take off. It literally never got to market.

        If consumer had the choice on a shelf between the two, which would they choose?

      • (Score: 1) by petecox on Monday July 06 2020, @11:13AM

        by petecox (3228) on Monday July 06 2020, @11:13AM (#1016942)

        Europe has the Fairphone.

        But I don't know if there's a market to upgrade modules to more powerful parts, while FP3 modules are incompatible with FP2. :(

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday July 06 2020, @01:20PM (10 children)

      by Thexalon (636) on Monday July 06 2020, @01:20PM (#1017002)

      I care quite a lot about how easy it is to repair stuff, regardless of whether I personally can do the repair. And that's because it affects the cost and difficulty of having somebody else do the repair for me.

      As an example of how things work right now: I was having some brake trouble on my sedan, so I take it to a local garage that I have good reason to believe is fairly honest, and they and I agree that brakes on this car are pretty standard and they should be able to handle it no trouble at a reasonable cost. So far so good. But after the parts are all in and installed correctly, they need to bleed the brakes, and it turns out that to bleed the brakes on this car specifically is a special process, even though the brakes aren't all that unusual. And the manufacturer only sells the equipment to do that special process to its dealers, which means our only option ends up being to tow it from the local garage to the nearest dealership and have them bleed the brakes, and a task which would cost at my local garage something like $100 cost instead about $500 because the dealer knows about the things only they can do (which eliminates competitive pressure) and charge accordingly. And one aspect of that whole experience was that if I was the sort of guy who did all my own auto repair work, I still couldn't do this repair, no matter how well I knew my car.

      And contrast that experience to when I encountered a problem with my electric stove, and was able to figure out with no previous training but a bit of help from Google how to isolate the busted part, remove it, and replace it with a reasonably equivalent part that set me back something like $15.

      So whether or not I could repair a thing, it matters whether a reasonably skilled technician in the field could repair the thing.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:10PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:10PM (#1017033)

        What car requires this custom brake bleeding tool-set?

        I've been bleeding brakes since about 1970 and, while slow, the same two-person method always seems to work (one pushes on brakes, the other opens&closes bleed screws). Really curious how some company managed to screw this up!

        • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday July 06 2020, @04:16PM (1 child)

          by Thexalon (636) on Monday July 06 2020, @04:16PM (#1017114)

          A Toyota Prius, which has some fancy stuff on its brakes because it's capturing some of the kinetic energy to charge the electric engine battery.

          But that doesn't explain why nobody can get the equipment to handle it correctly if they're not a dealer, or why a 1-hour procedure costs $500.

          --
          The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @04:13AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @04:13AM (#1017508)

            Ah, should have known. Some quick searching suggests that the Prius brakes are (at least partly?) brake-by-wire, so pushing on the pedal may not displace any brake fluid. Didn't bother to dig deeper, but good to know that there are systems out there which are truly different from standard hydraulics--thanks!

            I've read that totally electric brakes (no hydraulics at all) are being prototyped by some of the major brake suppliers. They'd better have darn good water protection for all the electrics and connectors because the salt bath here in the winter is very rough. Not sure I'd want one of those cars after ~10 years of winter salt.

        • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday July 06 2020, @07:01PM

          by RS3 (6367) on Monday July 06 2020, @07:01PM (#1017242)

          ABS systems require some kind of external controller to cause them to open internal valves so you can purge the air out of them. There's no standard for that fun job- it all depends on car year, make, model. It could be through OBD2 / CAN interface, or proprietary ABS system interface.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Immerman on Monday July 06 2020, @02:35PM (5 children)

        by Immerman (3985) on Monday July 06 2020, @02:35PM (#1017046)

        Indeed. I think a lot of people have gotten so used to the "no user serviceable parts inside" mindset that they don't even realize that this is an incredibly new thing. Thirty years ago even my small home town had a machine shop, a couple appliance repair shops, an electronics (TV, etc) repair shop, and several others. I think now they've all closed except for a single appliance repair shop. Some of that is that products have gotten cheap enough that repairs aren't the cost any more - but even that is in large part because products are no longer made to be repairable, which makes them a little cheaper to make, and a lot more expensive to fix.

        Computer repair is probably the one exception, partly because most of the problems are software failures that can be fixed with a reinstall if nothing else. And partially because most are still designed to be at least somewhat modular - desktops are usually highly modular so that failed modules can be easily replaced, while laptops have historically made at least had the memory and hard drive relatively easy to replace. Though that's been changing, and for whatever evil reason they usually make it an arduous ordeal to reach the single most common point of failure (and only component that benefits from regular maintenance) - the fan.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by RS3 on Monday July 06 2020, @07:04PM (4 children)

          by RS3 (6367) on Monday July 06 2020, @07:04PM (#1017244)

          More and more laptop RAM and SSD are soldered onto the motherboard. I hate that maybe slightly more than I hate soldered and glued-in cell phone batteries.

          • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday July 07 2020, @03:10PM (3 children)

            by Immerman (3985) on Tuesday July 07 2020, @03:10PM (#1017685)

            Exactly what I was referencing. And I agree completely - I absolutely refuse to buy any laptop with a soldered on consumable components. RAM I might tolerate if there's enough of it - RAM generally lasts a long time, and demands have pretty much plateaued. SSD and battery though - you're almost guaranteed to have those fail at least one or twice before the rest of the hardware is obsolete.

            What *really* pisses me off are the low end laptops with 4GB of RAM and some tiny SSD soldered on. You *know* that's going to be barely adequate to begin with, and rapidly become completely intolerable. Tiny SSDs in particular are going to wear out incredibly fast. And yet they make a product explicitly targeting poor people that is a complete technological dead-end, rather than raising the price an extra $2 to make the most-inadequate components cheap and easy to upgrade when they can afford it.

            I would love to at least see mandatory consumer-information tags on computers that specify how difficult major components (including the fan) are to replace - perhaps on a multi-tier scale ranging from "unscrew a cover and plug in a new module" through "spend an hour dismantling things" all the way to "buy a new motherboard".

            • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday July 07 2020, @04:03PM (2 children)

              by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday July 07 2020, @04:03PM (#1017727)

              Yay! Like-minded! Lets get our pitchforks and torches and, oh wait, nevermind. That's being done and we'd be lost in the fray. :)

              I guess we need to write letters to congress. That and help them set up better constituent polling systems that can't be poisoned by hired influencers.

              RAM has gotten better, but I've replaced quite a few bad RAM modules in fairly recent years, more so in laptops.

              My gripe about SSDs, which includes all of your thoughts, is that if an HD gets infected, do NOT boot it, but must REMOVE it and scan it as a secondary drive in a (hopefully) known clean machine. I spoze you could boot from a USB FLASH drive and accomplish the same thing, but it would take more work and time to keep the USB drive updated.

              I'm also thinking of phones, where I really wish I could remove the SSD. I have at least 1 phone (I have several) that has no microSD slot.

              But otherwise you can use SD / USB FLASH drives to expand the otherwise too small internal SSD.

              I spose I'll be changing SSD FLASH chips on someone's laptop MB someday... And really there's probably no point, unless it's otherwise a great machine that the person loves. Kind of like an older car- if the engine dies, and you like the car and it's otherwise great and there's no close replacement, get a good used engine or rebuilt. Unless it's a newer John Deere tractor- then you just decorate it and use it as a plant stand and visual adornment.

              • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday July 07 2020, @05:52PM (1 child)

                by Immerman (3985) on Tuesday July 07 2020, @05:52PM (#1017784)

                Heh, yeah, I tend to think that the primary purpose of protests is to give protestors something to do together to blow off steam. Unless the protests pose a threat greater than the lost profits/power from meeting their demands, nothing is likely to happen. (Violent protests seem to have a somewhat better track record, but demand that protestors be willing to risk their lives in the retaliatory strikes. The Civil Rights Act finally being passed in the face of the post-MLK-assassination riots springs to mind)

                For infected drives, I've always found the USB stick option to be much more convenient than transferring internal components between machines, even if I have to start by downloading a disk image (it's rare I deal with the situation often enough that updating an old USB stick is even worth considering). It also completely eliminates the risk of a particularly pernicious infection spreading to another machine - internal drives are generally treated by the OS with far less caution than external ones, not to mention you have to make sure your BIOS is set up properly to avoid the risk of booting off the infected drive. Not exactly rocket science, but an added nuisance nonetheless, and enough of an issue that I'd never suggest drive-swapping to someone who isn't already intimately familiar with adjusting the BIOS

                I certainly agree on phones - I can understand the hard-wired RAM, since that's generally incorporated into the SoC architecture. SoC storage on the other hand is typically minimal to nonexistent and gets soldered on separately. And while there are some good arguments against having primary storage easily removable (as anyone who ever ran even an ancient primitive OS off a floppy disk can attest), not having any sort of replaceable storage just seems like a raw cash grab to me. Especially in the face of the fact that such phones are often available with two or three different capacities of storage, with the upgrades being sold at several times the value of the larger storage chip being used.

                Phones though - really they're a whole new level of planned-obsolesce evil. It's been terribly dismaying to see their strategy being adopted by tablet and even laptop makers.

                As for USB storage expansion on soldered-in laptops... I've done it, and with the ultra-compact "dongle drives" available it can work considerably better than a relatively slow SD card - but far too often such laptops also have only one or two USB ports to begin with, and personally I like using a mouse, and use external storage often enough that even a "generous" two ports means giving up the mouse during file transfers, while a single port is just a huge PitA under virtually all circumstances.

                • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday July 07 2020, @07:27PM

                  by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday July 07 2020, @07:27PM (#1017832)

                  Like minded we are. Gotta have a mouse, and to be sure that happens, I have some small USB multi-port expanders. Keep one in your wallet. :-}

                  Re: secondary drive, I meant I use an IDE / SATA to USB adapter.

                  Besides my many reasons for hating planned obsolescence, my bigger concern is that newer phones contain more built-in tracking / spying software.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:23PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:23PM (#1017040)

      [...] If there is some space-faring civilisation out there, I bet that it actually got there by stopping all this kind of nonsense. [...]

      Yep. They stopped the nonsense by relocating all the females to a separate planet, in a different galaxy.

  • (Score: 1) by MIRV888 on Monday July 06 2020, @10:15AM (3 children)

    by MIRV888 (11376) on Monday July 06 2020, @10:15AM (#1016912)

    We (Americans) are way to short sighted to do as the article suggests in the long term.
    America is mid-collapse so it will never happen here. Sh1t, we can't even adopt the metric system.
    As a career tech and father, seeing standards like this makes me happy.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @12:24PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @12:24PM (#1016974)

      You cant even spell standardise.

      You are doomed, I tell ye, doomed!

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @12:36PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @12:36PM (#1016984)

        We standardized on Z, and calling it a zee.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Monday July 06 2020, @07:52PM

        by RS3 (6367) on Monday July 06 2020, @07:52PM (#1017268)

        I'll sell you an apostrophe, cheap, refurbished.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 06 2020, @11:35AM (24 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday July 06 2020, @11:35AM (#1016953) Journal
    No problem demonstrated. No solution demonstrated. But we need the government to step in.

    Here, if you want stuff that you can repair, then buy stuff that you can repair. Having people, who "don't know what a repairable product is" decide what a standard for a repairable product should be, is an exercise in futility.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @12:17PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @12:17PM (#1016971)

      No problem? Your anti-government glasses need cleaning.

      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @01:09PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @01:09PM (#1016995)

        His glasses are of a special type that resists cleaning. It's much more cost-effective for the manufacturer if he just bought new ones.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 07 2020, @12:20PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 07 2020, @12:20PM (#1017574) Journal
        Well, what was there in the story? The author wants to repair stuff. That's not a problem. That's a want.

        And the author exaggerates the importance of stuff that's not repairable to "climate change".

        Finally, somehow a bureaucracy churning out a completely undiscussed standard of repairableness delivers us from that? Has the author even taken a look at this standard? I haven't been able to. Nor has anyone come up with regulations yet that use this standard, even if we were to suppose that it's a good idea to do so.

        No problem and no solution. But the author is in ecstasy that something is being done. Let's consider an analogy.

        I want a vast rollback of censorship on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, etc. Trump passes some executive order that orders in some nebulous way that bureaucracies of the US look at ways to impose free speech on these platforms. It may eventually have teeth or not. So something is being done. That's good, right? We're solving the problem, right? We needed the government to step in and well, here they are.
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday July 06 2020, @01:26PM (20 children)

      by Thexalon (636) on Monday July 06 2020, @01:26PM (#1017007)

      No problem demonstrated.

      The problem is that manufacturers are anti-competitively preventing people from fixing things they in theory own. In some cases, they're using government regulations like copyright law to make it illegal for you to tinker with your own thing, and fixing that is something I'd think you'd be able to get behind as a libertarian sort.

      And your argument of "buy stuff that you can repair" doesn't work when every seller in the market in question is employing these tactics, and your options are "buy something you can't repair, or do without the thing in question, and doing without the thing in question isn't really a viable option".

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:17PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:17PM (#1017035)

        Right, I've managed to live without an un-fixable cell phone (except for a couple of weeks--that one didn't work right and I returned it...to Radio Shack if you even remember that chain store).

        Quite a few other things I don't really need either, so I do without and avoid the hassle/hustle.

      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:09AM (10 children)

        by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:09AM (#1017441)

        And your argument of "buy stuff that you can repair" doesn't work when every seller in the market in question is employing these tactics,

        Absolutely agree. "Economic theory" wants us to believe someone will fill the market need for repairable things. Reality is:

        Microsoft: You no longer own Microsoft Office; you now make ongoing payments to lease the use of the software.

        John Deere, keeping up with the Joneses: You no longer own that tractor that you think you bought because it contains our software that it needs to run, so you're paying us to lease the use of the software and therefore the use of the tractor.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 07 2020, @12:22PM (9 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 07 2020, @12:22PM (#1017575) Journal
          Nobody is forced to buy Office or John Deere. And these sort of games mean that a lot of people don't.
          • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday July 07 2020, @02:55PM (8 children)

            by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday July 07 2020, @02:55PM (#1017670)

            Nobody is forced to buy Office or John Deere.

            I never said they were.

            And these sort of games mean that a lot of people don't.

            And yet, lots and lots of people still do.

            IMHO, if economics worked as advertised (cough cough), companies like MS and Deere would have gone out of business years ago. There are too many other factors at work and simple economic theory is almost useless, certainly useless on its own in the real world.

            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 07 2020, @11:25PM (7 children)

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 07 2020, @11:25PM (#1017916) Journal

              IMHO, if economics worked as advertised (cough cough), companies like MS and Deere would have gone out of business years ago. There are too many other factors at work and simple economic theory is almost useless, certainly useless on its own in the real world.

              Why would those companies go out of business? I'm not seeing what's supposed to support your argument.

              And yet, lots and lots of people still do.

              I'm pretty sure that, under simple economic theory, lots and lots of people buying a product is a typical reason for a business to stay in business.

              • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday July 08 2020, @01:45AM (6 children)

                by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday July 08 2020, @01:45AM (#1017982)

                Sorry, perhaps you hadn't heard the backstory. You have to understand farmers and the John Deere situation. Farmers are usually extremely resourceful. They'll fix anything anytime. Youtube is full of great videos of farmers fixing all kinds of stuff. Well. If they're in the middle of a huge harvest, they must harvest within a narrow time window.

                Scenario: So they're running their $400,000 Deere harvester, it breaks, and they're not allowed to fix it. If they do, its computer will brick it. They have to somehow tow it, sometimes literally hundreds of miles to a dealer, or somehow get a dealer authorized mechanic to come out and fix it at huge cost when the farmer could have done it him or herself. Oh, and the grain is trash by the time it gets fixed.

                If the farmers knew this problem was coming, they would never have bought a John Deere in the first place. If nobody buys Deere's crap, Deere goes out of business.

                What's not to understand now?

                • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 08 2020, @02:14AM (5 children)

                  by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 08 2020, @02:14AM (#1017998) Journal

                  If the farmers knew this problem was coming, they would never have bought a John Deere in the first place. If nobody buys Deere's crap, Deere goes out of business.

                  What's not to understand now?

                  The part where you ignore that this is a one-time thing. Now that farmers have had this happen to them, they no longer belong to the class of people who didn't know this was coming.

                  • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday July 08 2020, @02:30AM (4 children)

                    by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday July 08 2020, @02:30AM (#1018007)

                    But time? This wastes people's time. Are you a Time Lord? Us mortals have only so many years. And did you forget the costs I mentioned?

                    Ever hear of "bait and switch"?? Ever hear of "undisclosed costs"?? I guarantee that no salesperson told the farmer what was coming. Would you want to go through that?

                    Methinks you just like being argumentative, when everyone else gets the thing. Sad you can't put all that crap negativity toward something helpful and constructive.

                    I have no ill-will toward you at all, but I'm weary of trying to explain it to you. I have to wonder who you really are, or what your motivations are. Maybe you're a wealthy stock-holder and think the plebs are there to prop you up? Have some heart for the average folks.

                    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 08 2020, @03:49AM (3 children)

                      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 08 2020, @03:49AM (#1018044) Journal

                      But time? This wastes people's time.

                      So what? You already noted actions that are legally actionable - that is, can be sued in court. So why are we to go through a greater waste of time and resources to fight lesser wastes of time and resources?

                      I have no ill-will toward you at all, but I'm weary of trying to explain it to you.

                      Well, why don't you try for starters? First, we have an European body defining to a ridiculous degree of detail some idea of repairability. Then we're going to pass laws that mandate some sort of repairability from this dubious foundation. Assuming generously that this doesn't lead to dysfunctions like suitcase sized cell phones or a protectionism exercise like the usual standards generation from that part of the world, we still have that the scheme forces vast numbers of people to buy and make stuff a certain way just because you want something.

                      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday July 08 2020, @06:06AM (2 children)

                        by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday July 08 2020, @06:06AM (#1018078)

                        I have no ill-will toward you at all, but I'm weary of trying to explain it to you.

                        Well, why don't you try for starters?

                        Sorry, but I truly have and am worn out. I had started a lengthy and growing reply, but I'm struggling to understand your position. Your points have merit, but are all negations and stop-actions.

                        I'm trying to be proactive, and I'm just glad to see someone doing something about a problem that I feel fairly strongly about. I'm about action. But also an ongoing process of learning and correcting laws, much like agile software development, and lawmakers fall on their faces in that department.

                        Why don't you just come out and state what the heck you think should happen, instead of this constant stupid game of cat and mouse? Seriously, I'm genuinely curious what you would do.

                        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 08 2020, @11:26AM (1 child)

                          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 08 2020, @11:26AM (#1018143) Journal

                          Sorry, but I truly have and am worn out.

                          Needless to say, I don't agree that you have so tried.

                          Why don't you just come out and state what the heck you think should happen

                          At the government level? Nothing.

                          The demand that government fix this problem is of the same nature as what's causing these problems in the first place. People don't wish to expend their own time and energy to get better, more repairable products with better customer service. So they go for the magic solution, and use the power of government get those things. Well, the government with these increased powers is also managed by voters, leaders, and bureaucracies with the same attitude. It's just making the basic problem worse - a society that is a poor fit for us. There is a horrible futility to this whole exercise.

                          As a final remark, one of the more unrecognized powers of a democracy is that you have considerable power to solve your own problems. I grant it's not enough to solve every problem. But I certainly would be more conducive to supporting (or at least not opposing as strongly) things like repairability, if people were actually trying to get more repairable products. My take is that if you don't want to expend your own time and effort to get better quality of things, then you don't really want that better quality in the first place. And I won't support using government power to deliver things you don't want.

                          • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday July 08 2020, @03:41PM

                            by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday July 08 2020, @03:41PM (#1018228)

                            I'm in a rush and will write a real response later but I want to thank you for what you've written and all you contribute here. I think you're (obviously) brilliant and want to inspire people, for many reasons, but in general to make the world a better place. I'm inspired, and as such have to pursue some job openings, and get to a place where I do gig work. Thanks!!

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 07 2020, @04:09AM (7 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 07 2020, @04:09AM (#1017505) Journal

        The problem is that manufacturers are anti-competitively preventing people from fixing things they in theory own.

        You only perceive it as a problem because it is something you want. It wouldn't have come to this if a lot of people agreed with you. But like a lot of rights, you can voluntarily waive them and most of the world chose to do so. I see nothing that needs fixing.

        And I certainly don't see anything that needs the gentle steel gauntlet of government force to regulate and control. Much less some dumbass effort to define repairability of products eventually for the purpose of said control.

        I see it a lot like censorship in privately owned public forums. The owners have a great deal of control over what they allow. Rather than trying to use government to force them to allow what you think they should allow, it's better to look at existing tools. Forum owners and manufacturers still aren't allowed to commit fraud or make promises that they don't deliver on, for an important example. They also can be manipulated via boycotts, bad press, etc.

        • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday July 08 2020, @06:16AM (6 children)

          by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday July 08 2020, @06:16AM (#1018086)

          It wouldn't have come to this if a lot of people agreed with you.

          Again with time. You don't seem to see trends. You seem to look at everything as a freeze-frame. I coined the term "snapshot thinking". Not sure your background but in engineering and science we have to learn a lot about analyzing things that change over time, so maybe I'm more keen to it.

          The point is: there's a growing number of people who do agree that the situation has gotten out of hand. Governments (which are largely supposed to work for the people) have allowed manufacturers a lot of latitude in this whole topic, and corporations have done exactly what I would have predicted: pushed and pushed and pushed because greed. Study economic history. Study the industrial revolution, robber barons, carpet baggers, monopolies, how Carnegie treated his workers, etc.

          Again, point is: corporations went too far, pissed too many people off, and govt. finally took notice and action.

          (for the record, I advocate for a much finer-grained corrective system, rather than waiting waiting waiting then "steel gauntlet" boom.)

          Again, you're very oppositional / contrarian. Maybe state what you think should be done.

          • (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday July 08 2020, @11:42AM (5 children)

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 08 2020, @11:42AM (#1018146) Journal

            pushed and pushed and pushed because greed

            Well, why aren't you pushing back?

            Study economic history. Study the industrial revolution, robber barons, carpet baggers, monopolies, how Carnegie treated his workers, etc.

            Again, point is: corporations went too far, pissed too many people off, and govt. finally took notice and action.

            And yet, here we are with a vastly different world despite that government action. Those interests above weren't and still aren't the only ones in the world. What's missing from your analysis is that power shifted to labor during that period. It's that power, not government action, that resulted in the trends during this period. Similarly, when developed world labor had to compete with developing world labor, there was a modest shift back towards the employer - often despite consider shifts in government policy to favor labor! One doesn't need to invoke greed cooties to explain this, but rather basic economics.

            One reason I'm not too concerned about all this is that it's temporary. We've already seen a half century trend towards greater demand for labor world-wide. The shift in power is moving back towards labor because the world isn't that big a place. We're already running low on dirt cheap labor. My take is that in a few decades, those trends will have shifted substantially towards labor again, and government's feeble actions will no doubt be blamed for it, if only to excuse future abuses of power.

            Maybe state what you think should be done.

            Here. [soylentnews.org]

            • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday July 09 2020, @04:05PM (4 children)

              by RS3 (6367) on Thursday July 09 2020, @04:05PM (#1018694)

              Hey, I'm not forgetting nor ignoring you. You're someone I'd love to meet and talk in person. You've got great insight. Right now I'm in scramble mode- too much to explain but I just literally don't have time nor spare brain cells to enter into deep discussion. I see your points, well, but the older I get, the more I see and learn, the more complex and deep I realize life and society are. One of the problems I have with philosophical discussions is that most people's assertions / points are based on a limited and contrived set of circumstances- unlike real life. I see too many people being hurt, suffering needless loss, getting caught up in situations they could not foresee. I have a huge heart for the innocent, vulnerable, etc.

              I would love to live in a libertarian society where everyone "did the right thing" but reality is: people don't, and some people are really really horribly bad. That's when people collaborate, form a govt., set rules, punishments, etc., as has been done throughout history. So far obvious and I know you agree. We just don't agree on where to draw the line for those rules. I literally have no more time. Take care and I'll check back, sometime...

              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 11 2020, @04:28PM (3 children)

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 11 2020, @04:28PM (#1019582) Journal

                I would love to live in a libertarian society where everyone "did the right thing" but reality is: people don't, and some people are really really horribly bad.

                It's not the really horribly bad people that are a problem in the hypothetical libertarian society. They'd run afoul of other people in a libertarian society (because one can't be really horribly bad in isolation) and eventually some posse would deal with them. It's their extremely non-libertarianfollowers. It's the widespread human tendency to follow leaders no matter how really horribly bad they are that is the real obstacle to a libertarian society.

                When we revisit this conversation, there are a few things I'd like for you to consider. First, why did wages and related statistics (like union membership) decline over the past century despite the greatest degree of protection of labor in US law in history? Are we in a position where we have to worry about where to draw the line at rules and such, when we presently are adding rules faster than anyone can read them? And are those rules which are being created now protect us from the really horribly bad, or the other way around?

                • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday July 11 2020, @05:38PM (2 children)

                  by RS3 (6367) on Saturday July 11 2020, @05:38PM (#1019608)

                  Agreed, but I'll continue to say that you're more of a philosopher than realist. I so wish things could be more like you pose, but reality is different.

                  You ask good questions, and believe it or not I'm quite intelligent, so much so that I realize there is SO much I don't know and probably can NEVER know.

                  Again, I fully agree and I think you're overly pushing your points. What bugs me the most about people and life: most people know this stuff is going on, and far far more, and we're powerless. It's simple psychology- take people's power away and they become passive, often to the point of unintended subconscious denial. It's a defense mechanism we all have. Well, there are a few who don't.

                  I'm a descendant of the American Revolution, so I know a little bit about saying enough is enough. But 244 years ago they could do something about it. We now have a huge huge machine that includes military power that we the people can't overpower. These marches and riots show that some people are really fed up. But the big machine is just going to appease them, and the political fighting and the news media just keeps parts of the machine going.

                  Why union wages have gone down? I don't agree with your premise- some union workers make huge $/hour. But many don't, and many jobs are "outsourced" which breaks up the labor market- kind of lets them know they have no power in the long run.

                  Listen, I comprehend everything you're saying but again, 1) there's so much that we don't know, and 2) people are overwhelmed by the machine and have given up.

                  The most power we the people have is voting, which happens very seldom compared to the rate of societal change. Politicians don't usually do what they promised before the election, and don't do the will of the people no matter what.

                  20+ years ago (literally) I was where you're at. We the people have no power anymore, at all.

                  If you have ideas of how to fix it, please stop ranting about the obvious and suggest something we can all do.

                  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday July 12 2020, @04:30AM (1 child)

                    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday July 12 2020, @04:30AM (#1019726) Journal

                    We now have a huge huge machine that includes military power that we the people can't overpower.

                    The people of that time had their own huge, huge machine to contend with. The UK empire had tremendous resources as well. It got overpowered just the same.

                    Why union wages have gone down? I don't agree with your premise- some union workers make huge $/hour. But many don't, and many jobs are "outsourced" which breaks up the labor market- kind of lets them know they have no power in the long run.

                    You just described that competition with developing world labor that I spoke of. In the long run, it won't matter what message is supposedly being sent now. Labor will become more in demand globally (I think mirroring how US labor power grew over the late 19th and early 20th centuries) and the pendulum will swing back. It doesn't mean the US will return to former prosperity because there are plenty of opportunities for mistakes and bad decisions in that.

                    The most power we the people have is voting

                    Not at all, we act in many other ways. For example, merely acting on our own is an exercise of power. Economically, this becomes the choices we make there. Recall, that the story was about businesses compromising their products. The obvious way to resist that remains by our choices.

                    If you have ideas of how to fix it,

                    As I already noted here [soylentnews.org], the government shouldn't be so deeply involved in voluntary transactions. It seems to me that if you're complaining about a huge, huge machine, making it even huger isn't positive change.

                    Agreed, but I'll continue to say that you're more of a philosopher than realist.

                    Well, am I realist enough? I guess we'll see.

                    • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:36AM

                      by RS3 (6367) on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:36AM (#1019801)

                      You just love being argumentative, no matter how much I try to agree with you!

                      When I try to buy a quality product from my local store, oh wait, my local store is GONE because WALMART. I went out of my way (literally) to AVOID Walmarts for the past 25 years. But 99% of the herd goes to Walmart, and the other stores are OUT OF BUSINESS. Gone. Not there anymore. I've tried to fight the crowds and tides. At at some point, brother, you are "preaching to the choir." Stop wasting your time writing to me here. Put your efforts into something and someone where you might have a chance to make a difference. Write to your congressman/woman. I already hear your response "who says I don't". Nobody! Just stop badgering me. I'm on your side, I just see the deeper reality. You keep writing about the obvious- look deeper!

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by hendrikboom on Monday July 06 2020, @12:16PM (1 child)

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Monday July 06 2020, @12:16PM (#1016970) Homepage Journal

    Now that governments can use the new standard to assess repairability, I still can't. To get the document I need a password, and there's no obvious way of getting it.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by RS3 on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:12AM

      by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:12AM (#1017443)

      Sounds like you got yourself a broken document!

      Now if you could read the document, you'd know if you have the right to repair the broken document.

      It's the "shrink-wrap license" https://definitions.uslegal.com/s/shrink-wrap-license/ [uslegal.com] all over again!

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by wisnoskij on Monday July 06 2020, @02:05PM (2 children)

    by wisnoskij (5149) <reversethis-{moc ... ksonsiwnohtanoj}> on Monday July 06 2020, @02:05PM (#1017031)

    In many cases it is the exact opposite. If we wanted durable electronics circuit boards would be coated with an electronically inert, heat conductive coating making all repairs 10 times are harder. The creation of the microchip was the biggest advancement in computing probably ever, and all it did was replace repairable, module parts with enclosed unrepairable mystery boxes.

    Also, we have simply gotten so efficient at automating the creation of things, repair practically never makes sense. For the cost of a new tablet or computer I could hire Rossman for somewhere in between 5 minutes to maybe an hour. To make repair useful; things need to get at least 10 times more expensive. Even if all a repair took was hot swapping a module part, if the entire tablet is $40, that will never be "repairable"

    Also building things to be universally compatible is horribly inefficient and results in bad performance and high costs. Sure our laptops could be 10 times the weight, 10% of the speed, and cost 10 times more, and last 50 years with easy repairability and expansion, but no one would buy that.

    • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday July 06 2020, @03:45PM

      by mhajicek (51) on Monday July 06 2020, @03:45PM (#1017086)

      So replace the board.

      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    • (Score: 2) by toddestan on Monday July 06 2020, @11:26PM

      by toddestan (4982) on Monday July 06 2020, @11:26PM (#1017389)

      For things like laptops, the circuit boards themselves are rarely the problem. The problem is that parts like the battery and fan - which are parts that will wear out and need servicing, are sealed in and are difficult to access when those parts inevitably wear out. Or in some cases essentially impossible to get to in any manner that allows for the laptop to be reassembled ever again. This means the device is designed to be disposable with the planned obsolescence built right in. Truly universal compatibility may be a pipe dream, but building a laptop that can be disassembled and reassembled with no special tools, with replaceable RAM, CPU, storage, battery, keyboard, etc. is very possible because laptops like these were being commonly built until just a few years ago. That's why the 2007 Dell laptop I'm typing this on is not in a landfill, but I highly doubt that if I bought a new laptop today to replace it that the replacement would still be usable in 2033.

      And while obviously hiring Rossman to do repair on a $40 tablet isn't feasible, but the problem is that I would have to hire Rossman in the first place. I don't hire Rossman to replace the bag in my $40 vacuum because the thing is designed so that I can do that myself. Same with the tablet. A small portable battery operated device built 25 years would probably use something like AA batteries, and be designed so that anyone can change the batteries themselves. Obviously you're not going to run today's tablet off of AA's (at least not very long), but what's wrong with some standardized LiOn battery sizes, with standard connectors, and a $40 tablet that I can pop the back off of and replace the standard battery in a minute or two?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:14PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:14PM (#1017034)

    Due to the psychopathic nosiness of the anti-male establishment, 'repairability' ain't happening. Blackbox designs, manufacturing methods, and devices are vastly preferable for covert surveillance.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @07:32PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @07:32PM (#1017256)

      the anti-male establishment

      Wait, isn't the "the establishment" all the old white guys in charge, collectively known as "the man"? When did "the man" become anti male?

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:18PM (#1017036)

    It's quite easy to make repairable phones if you want to.

    https://www.fairphone.com/en/ [fairphone.com]

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @03:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @03:48PM (#1017089)

    'tis probably a good thing to have this mentioned in them lawZ "somewhere".
    so much other crap has a law.
    now to be honest, what really is not repairable? i suppose we need to first define "working/not broken" and "broken".
    now we can go all the way dooooowwwnnn the rabbit hole and we would end up with a dilemma?
    we mostly define "working" stuff as stuff that didn't require something to break first, but did we?
    it seems stuff we buy is stuff we cannot make ourself or are to lazy to and it required somebody else to "break" something to get the "working stuff" we buy.
    maybe you can see where i am going: it required a energy input and material input/refining to get something "working". my guess is, that whatever "broke" to get your working product cannnot be repaired.
    ofc i yest and laws prefer a pi value of a solid 3 and not, you know printing a algo when defining pi.
    so anyways, mentioning the intent that stuff should be repairable, even if it's in the "pi equals 3" class, is a good thing.
    note: in a perfect world the consumer would DICTATE strongly if repairable or "non repairable devices are succesfull?

    on a more egoistical note: yeah, burn them manufacturers of phones that don't want to reveal "the secret" of the open source kernel based device after their randomly and arbitrarly set shut off date for updates. shhhiiit. it translates to: thanks for your free code; now we're adding stuff so you can help increase the landfill volume or have all your dirty secrets and bank accounts plundered (but not by our own most imformed sub devision of hackers punishing you for not slaving enough to buy a new device from us) in three years.
    also, devices that only function with a requirment of a connection to a mothership (controller) are required to reveal "the secret sauce" or face the requirement of having to eat each and every morsel dished up at the "starved to death pet" banquet IF they discard their right to carry responsibilty (they demanded in the first place).

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